d."

From amid the bandages a soft voice answered:

"They tell me I shall get well, Senor Merriwell, but I shall be horribly
scarred during all the rest of the life which I may live. It is good to
live, but it is terrible to be hideous."

"I am sorry for you, Felipe," declared Merry, in a tone that told of the
utmost sincerity.

For a single moment it seemed that the boy on the cot doubted.

"Why should you for me be sorry?" he asked. "It was I who swore to kill
you."

"Because you thought yourself injured and your passionate nature longed
for revenge. To you it seemed that I refused to give you justice. You
thought me powerful, and arrogant, and selfish, and you were aroused
against me until your heart was filled with fire."

"It is true my heart within my bosom burned," admitted the boy. "Since
the fire from which you dragged me I have thought much. You knew I hated
you, you knew I claimed your mine, you knew I meant to make you trouble,
you knew I might kill you--yet you beat out the flames, smothered them,
lifted me, carried me from the burning building, saved my life. Why
didn't you leave me to die and get me out of your way? I do not
understand."

Merry sat down beside the cot.

"I will try to make you understand. I sought to look at the whole matter
from your standpoint, and I fancied I knew how you felt about it. To you
I was a villain and a wretch. Instead of hating you because you hated
me, I longed to justify myself in your eyes. I longed for the
opportunity to show you that I was not the scoundrel you thought me."

"To me it seemed you did not care. I thought at me you laughed and
sneered."

"You see now that you were wrong, Felipe. It was not you I scorned; it
was your companion and adviser, Bantry Hagan, a scheming rascal, every
inch of him. Hagan is a fighter, and he does not acknowledge defeat.
When the plot of Porfias del Norte failed and Del Norte was buried by
the landslide in the Adirondacks, it seemed to Hagan that he had been
defeated, and the taste was bitter to him. When chance led you across
his path, he saw an opportunity to renew the battle against me, and he
used you to do so. Behind you I saw Hagan all the while."

"But you--is it now true that you deny the justice of my claim, Senor
Merriwell. It was to defy Senor Hagan that you denied it? Ah! I
understand at last."

"I am afraid you do not quite understand," said Merry, shaking his head.
"You have in your possession a docu