we
have just described, they found all right at the cave, except that a
letter to Leather had been sent up from Bull's ranch which had caused
him much grief and anxiety.

"I have been eagerly awaiting your return, Ben," said Charlie Brooke,
when he and the scout went outside the cave to talk the matter over,
"for the news in this letter has thrown poor Leather back considerably,
and, as he will continue to fret about it and get worse, something must
be done."

He paused for a few moments, and the scout gravely waited for him to
resume.

"The fact is," continued Charlie, "that poor Leather's father has been
given far too much to the bottle during a great part of his life, and
the letter just received tells us that he has suddenly left home and
gone no one knows where. Now, my friend Leather and his father were
always very fond of each other, and the son cannot forgive himself for
having at various times rather encouraged his father in drinking, so
that his conscience is reproaching him terribly, as you may well
believe, and he insists on it that he is now quite able to undertake the
voyage home. You and I know, Ben, that in his present state it would be
madness for him to attempt it; yet to lie and fret here would be almost
as bad. Now, what is your advice?"

For some moments the scout stood silent with his eyes on the ground and
his right hand grasping his chin--his usual attitude when engaged in
meditation.

"Is there enough o' dollars," he asked, "to let you do as ye like?"

"No lack of dollars, I dare say, when needed," replied Charlie.

"Then my advice," returned the scout promptly, "is to take Leather
straight off to-morrow mornin' to Bull's ranch; make him comfortable
there, call him Mister Shank,--so as nobody'll think he's been the man
called Leather, who's bin so long ill along wi' poor Buck Tom's gang,--
and then you go off to old England to follow his father's trail till you
find him. Leather has great belief in you, sir, and the feelin' that
you are away doin' your best for him will do more to relieve his mind
and strengthen his body than tons o' doctor's stuff. Dick Darvall could
remain to take care of him if he has no objection."

"I rather think he would be well pleased to do so," replied Charlie,
with a laugh of significance, which the scout quietly subjected to
analysis in what he styled his brain-pan, and made a note of the result
in his mental memorandum book!

"But I doubt if Leathe