“What is it you are about to propose?”

“I can send you home with five thousand dollars and I will still have money enough to carry on our purpose.  You can clear off the farm and go to school; you are ambitious, and in less than a year you will be prepared to stand an examination for college, and you can go with a cheerful heart, for if my life is spared I will win a fortune for you.  I have no use for a fortune myself; I am working for you and Amy.”

“But suppose something should happen to you?  Do you remember you have not made your revelation?”

“I propose to provide for that; I will confide to you a document.  It is not to be opened until you are assured of my death, so living or dead you shall in good time learn the great secret that I have held all these years.”

“I must think this matter over,” said Desmond.

“There must be no thinking.  I have decided as to what you must do.”

“And you do not want me to go back at all?”

“No, I want you to go home to the State of New York; I want you to go to clear off the farm and go to school, and I will attend to your affairs out here.”

“I will decide in the morning.”

That night Desmond thought over the whole matter.  He had become fascinated with the life in the mountains, but when he revolved the whole matter in his mind he saw that it was indeed wiser for him to return to his home; and under what joyful circumstances he would return!  He could clear the farm and have money in the bank; he could go to school and go to college, and devote his whole attention to study without any worry or fear, and in the morning he greeted Brooks with the announcement: 

“I have decided to obey you.”

CHAPTER VII.

A sad parting—­prophetic words—­on the train—­A
senator’s son—­leading up to A trick—­genuine
fun ahead.

There came a sad look to the face of Brooks, and he said: 

“I shall miss you, Desmond, but I feel it is for the best.  You are a youth of great promise.  I do not mean to flatter you, I am speaking the truth, and it is in your interest that I so warmly advocate your return to the East.  I desire that you become an educated man, a graduate of college; I wish you to secure your degree.  And let me tell you now there was fate in our meeting, and very remarkable consequences may follow our acquaintance begun and maintained under such strange circumstances.”

Desmond had never beheld his strange friend, the wizard tramp, under a similar mood.  There appeared to be a prophetic spell prompting the words of the strange man.

“I hope you do not wish to get rid of me.”