d Hector, with animation "Am I to go alone?"

"Yes, alone."

CHAPTER XXXII. A WAYWARD YOUTH.

It is needless to say that Hector was very much surprised, not to say
startled, at this sudden proposal. What could Mr. Newman possibly want
him to go to California for? If on business, how did it happen that he
trusted a mere boy with so responsible a mission?

The explanation came soon.

"No doubt, you are surprised," said the merchant, "at the proposal I
have made you. I am not prepared myself to say that I am acting with
good judgment. In making it, I have obeyed a sudden impulse, which
is not always prudent. Yet, in more than one instance, I have found
advantage in obeying such an impulse. But to my explanation. By the way,
let me first ask you two or three questions. Have you any taste for any
kind of liquor?"

"No, sir," answered Hector, promptly.

"Even if you had, do you think you would have self-control enough to
avoid entering saloons and gratifying your tastes?"

"Yes, sir."

"That is well. Do you play pool?"

"No, sir," answered Hector, wondering whither all these questions
tended.

"I ask because playing pool in public rooms paves the way for
intemperance, as bars are generally connected with such establishments."

"I don't even know how to play pool, sir," said Hector.

"Do you ever bet or gamble?" continued the merchant.

"No, sir."

"You will understand why I ask all these questions when I tell you that
I have a nephew now nineteen years of age, who does all these things. He
is not only my nephew, but my ward. I have a moderate sum of money in my
charge which belongs to him--enough, if he were a young man of correct
habits, to buy him an interest in a respectable business. That use I
had proposed to make of it when he reached twenty-one, or rather, to
recommend to him, but for his yielding to temptation in more than one
form, and, finally, running away from my protection."

"Where is he now, sir?"

"In California. Three months since he disappeared, and it was some
weeks before I learned where he had gone. As I do not intend to conceal
anything from you, I must tell you that he carried with him five hundred
dollars purloined from my desk. This grieved me most of all. I wrote out
to a mercantile friend in San Francisco, who knows the boy by sight, to
hunt him up, and see if he could do anything for him. He writes
me--this is the letter I hold in my hand--that he has seen Gregory, a