enry.

"Oh, blissful ignorance! Why was I not spared the task of enlightening
it?" answered the courier. "Conditions are stumbling-blocks placed in
the way of successful trackmen, football players, and rowing men by
non-appreciative and envious professors."

"'Joseph Gould Hudson, University of Yalvard,'" read Frank from the
fly-leaf of the _Memorabilia_. "Is that your name, Mr. Hudson?"

"I'm so borne on the Yalvard catalogue."

"Please explain, Mr. Hudson," I said, "how a college boy happens to be
in Arizona running the gantlet of this mail-route and making up
conditions in Greek?"

"I was stroke in the crew that won the championship for Yalvard at New
London one year ago, and got behind in these. I was conditioned, and
being ashamed to face an angry father, struck out for myself on the
Pacific coast. I drifted about from mining-camp to cattle-range until
I was dead broke; this place offered, and I took it because I could
find nothing else. I've had lots of opportunities for reflection on
the Xuacaxella. I'm the repentant prodigal going home to his father."

"Oh, you are no prodigal, Mr. Hudson," observed Henry. "We've heard
all about you; you are too brave."

"Thank you, Sergeant Henry. No, I've not wasted my substance in
riotous living, nor have I eaten husks, but I've been prodigal in
wasting opportunities."

"Lost a whole college year, haven't you?" I asked.

"I hope not. There is a German university man at La Paz who has been
coaching me. He thinks if I keep at work until after Christmas I can
go on with my old class. This is my last trip, and if I escape the
Apaches once more I'm going to lay off and work hard for a few months,
and then return to New Havbridge for examination. There's something in
that letter that concerns me."

Opening the letter, I learned that Captain Bayard knew Mr. Hudson's
story. He said this was to be the last trip of the courier, but that
after his return to La Paz he would come out to meet me at Tyson's
Wells and report whether the horse-thieves were in town. He also
suggested that in establishing a transshipment storehouse at the
steamboat-landing I place Hudson in charge. The pay would be of use to
him while "making up."

The courier wished us a pleasant journey, and rode away at a
scrambling canter up the pass. He had been gone but a few moments when
I heard a shout, and, looking up, saw him standing on a pinnacle by
the way-side, on the summit of the ascent. He was loo