He would have come to me this way, if he had lived." The sheep had begun working toward the lower ground.

The shepherd rose to his feet.

"Take them home, Brave.

Come on, boys, you must eat with me at the ranch, to-night." Then the three friends, the giant mountaineer, the strangely afflicted youth, and the old scholar went down the mountain side together.
As they disappeared in the timber on the lower level, the bushes, near which they had been sitting, parted silently, and a man's head and shoulders appeared from behind a big rook.

The man watched the strange companions out of sight.