must come and
talk it over with my governor."

"Oh, no, indeed, Ruthven! I am getting on very well here, and am very
contented with my lot, and I could not think of troubling your father in
the matter."

"Well, you will trouble him a great deal," Ruthven said, "if you don't
come, for you will trouble him to come all the way down here. He was
quite worried when he first heard of your disappearance, and has been
almost as excited as I have over the search for you.

"You are really a foolish fellow, Frank," he went on more seriously; "I
really didn't think it of you. Here you save the lives of four or five
fellows and put all their friends under a tremendous obligation, and
then you run away and hide yourself as if you were ashamed. I tell you
you can't do it. A fellow has no more right to get rid of obligations
than he has to run away without paying his debts. It would be a burden
on your mind if you had a heavy debt you couldn't pay, and you would
have a right to be angry if, when you were perfectly able to pay, your
creditor refused to take the money. That's just the position in which
you've placed my father. Well, anyhow, you've got to come and see him,
or he's got to come and see you. I know he has something in his mind's
eye which will just suit you, though he did not tell me what it was. For
the last day or two he has been particularly anxious about finding you.
Only yesterday when I came back and reported that I had been to half a
dozen places without success, he said, 'Confound the young rascal, where
can he be hiding? Here are the days slipping by and it will be too late.
If you don't find him in a day or two, Dick, I will set the police after
him--say he has committed a murder or broken into a bank and offer a
reward for his apprehension.' So you must either come home with me this
afternoon, or you will be having my father down here tonight."

"Of course, Ruthven," Frank said, "I would not put your father to such
trouble. He is very kind to have taken so much interest in me, only I
hate--"

"Oh, nonsense! I hate to see such beastly stuck up pride, putting your
own dignity above the affection of your friends; for that's really what
it comes to, old boy, if you look it fairly in the face."

Frank flushed a little and was silent for a minute or two.

"I suppose you are right, Ruthven; but it is a little hard for a
fellow--"

"Oh, no, it isn't," Ruthven said. "If you'd got into a scrape from some
fault of