“Do you know anything of French or German, Mr. Melville?” inquired our hero, when they made their first examination of the library.

“Yes, Herbert, I am a tolerable scholar in each.”

“I wish I were.”

“Would you like to study them?”

“Yes, very much.”

“Then I will make you a proposal.  You are likely to have considerable time at your disposal.  If you will study either, or both, I will be your teacher.”

“I should like nothing better,” said Herbert, eagerly.

“Moreover, if you wish to study philosophy, I will aid you, though we are not in a position to illustrate the subject by experiments.”

Herbert was a sensible boy.  Moreover, he was fond of study, and he saw at once how advantageous this proposal was.  He secured a private tutor for nothing, and, as he soon found, an excellent one.  Though Mr. Melville had never been a teacher, he had an unusual aptitude for teaching, and it is hard to decide whether he or Herbert enjoyed more the hours which they now regularly passed in the relation of teacher and pupil.

It must be said, also, that while George Melville evinced an aptitude for teaching, Herbert showed an equal aptitude for learning.  The tasks which he voluntarily undertook most boys would have found irksome, but he only found them a source of pleasure, and had the satisfaction, after a very short time, to find himself able to read ordinary French and German prose with comparative ease.

“I never had a better pupil,” said George Melville.

“I believe I am the first you ever had,” said Herbert, laughing.

“That is true.  I spoke as if I were a veteran teacher.”

“Then I won’t be too much elated by the compliment.”

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Two old acquaintances reappear.

In the rude hotel kept by the outlaw, whom we have introduced under the name of Brown, there sat two men, to neither of whom will my readers need an introduction.  They have already appeared in our story.

One was Brown himself, the other Col.  Warner, or, as we may as well confess, Jerry Lane, known throughout the West as an unscrupulous robber and chief of a band of road agents, whose depredations had been characterized by audacity and success.

Brown was ostensibly an innkeeper, but this business, honest enough in itself, only veiled the man’s real trade, in which he defied alike the laws of honesty and of his country.  The other was by turns a gentleman of property, a merchant, a cattle owner, or a speculator, in all of which characters he acted excellently, and succeeded in making the acquaintance of men whom he designed to rob.

The two men wore a sober look.  In their business, as in those more legitimate, there are good times and dull times, and of late they had not succeeded.

“I want some money, captain,” said Brown, sullenly, laying down a black pipe, which he had been smoking.