A joyful grin spread over the battered features of the gladiator as
he grasped the Seer's outstretched hand. "Well, dang me but ut's
glad I am to see ye, Sorr, in this divil's own land. I had me
natural doubts, av course, whin I woke up in the wagon, but ut's all
right. 'Tis proud I am to be abducted by ye, Sorr."

"Abducted!" The engineer's laugh awoke the echoes in the canyon. "It
was a rescue, man!"

"Well, well, let ut go at that! But tell me, Sorr"--he lowered his
voice to a confidential rumble--"fwhat's this I hear that ye have
yer bhoy wid ye? Sure I niver knew that ye was a man av family." He
looked toward the slender lad who, with the readiness of a grown
man, was helping the driver of the buckboard to unhitch his team of
four broncos. "'Tis a good lad he is, or I'm a Dutchman."

"You're right, Pat, Abe is a good boy," the Seer answered gravely.
"I picked him up in a mining camp on the edge of the Mojave Desert
when I was running a line of preliminary surveys through that
country for the S. and C. last year. He was born in the camp and his
mother died when he was a baby. God knows how he pulled through! You
know what those mining places are. His father, Frank Lee, was killed
in a drunken row while I was there, and Abe showed so much cool
nerve and downright manliness that I offered him a place with my
party. He has been with me ever since."

Pat's voice was husky as he said: "I ax yer pardon, Sorr, for me
blunderin' impedence about yer bein' a man av family. I'm a danged
old rough-neck, wid no education but me two fists, an' no manners at
all."