ps for me it would
have been best to die!"

There was deepest pathos and despair in the final words.

"Oh, no, Felipe!" exclaimed Frank.

"For what shall I live now?"

"For your father and mother."

"I have neither."

"For your friends."

"I have none."

"Then let me be your friend," argued Merry. "I'll try to find something
that shall make life worth living for you."

"Enough trouble I have been to you already. You save my life! You send
me here! I am not in the free ward; I am where it costs. I ask who pay.
They tell me Senor Merriwell pay for everything. Then I think and think
a long time. First I think you do it because you know you have wronged
me much, and it is your conscience that compels you. Now I know it is
not that. Now I know it is your good heart. Still, I do not quite
understand. What more for me would you do? The debt I cannot now pay."

"Don't look at it in that light. I need a trusty fellow in Mexico--one
who speaks Spanish and the patois of the half-blood laborers. Maybe you
will help me. You might become invaluable to me. I will pay you----"

The Mexican lad quickly lifted one of his bandaged hands.

"Pay me!" he exclaimed. "How is it that by working all my life I can pay
you? For me do not speak of pay."

"All right," laughed Merry cheerfully. "We'll fix that after you get on
your feet again."

Felipe fumbled beneath the pillow, as if searching for something.

"It is here," he murmured.

"What do you want?"

"This."

He drew forth a creased, yellowed, tattered, time-eaten paper.

"It is the land grant to Sebastian Jalisco," he said. "Please for me
tear it up now. I have kept it here all the time. Please destroy it,
Senor Frank."

Frank took the paper.

Instead of doing as he was urged, after glancing at it, Merry carefully
refolded it and placed it in a leather pocketbook.

"I'll not destroy it, Felipe--at least, not now."

"Why not?"

"Some day you may change your mind."

"No, no!"

"Some day you may wish for it again."

"No, no!"

"You can't be sure, my boy. I will take care of this paper, and you may
have it on demand at any time. Were I in haste to destroy it, your
doubts might creep back upon you and give you regret and pain. I will
place it in a private vault with my own valuable papers, where it will
remain safe and undestroyed."

"It is trouble too much for a worthless old paper," said Felipe.

His estimation of its value had undergone a most profoun