"She was a big vessel bound for China and her captain was a brute. On our arrival in the Far East he bound me out as a sort of apprentice to a rich Chinaman living in the interior. I was with him for ten years before I escaped. I worked my way to the coast, got another ship and headed for California.
"On the way across there was a mutiny and I saved the life of a wealthy passenger, who turned out to be a mining man and who, when he died two years later, left me most of his property. That gave me my start in life, and now I'm a millionaire. But I'd give it all if I could get some news of poor brother Peter and find out if he is dead or alive."
"Maybe we can help you," cried Peggy, her eyes shining and her white hands clasped excitedly.
While the rugged Westerner had been talking the story of the old hermit came back to her.
"What do you mean?" asked the other; "do you know where my brother is?"
"I'm not certain," cried Peggy, "but the old hermit, Peter Bell, is he almost beyond a doubt."
"My brother a hermit!" cried the wealthy mining man.
"If it is your brother," put in Roy, "I hope for your sake it is. But his story tallies absolutely with yours. He told us that after he had missed you in the water he thought that you were drowned. Returning home he was shunned on every side, for the villagers accused him of having deserted you to save his own life."
"Miserable and made morose by the contempt he met with on every side he became a hermit and now lives in a hut near the town of Acatonick."
"How long does it take to get there? I must lose no time in finding out," exclaimed Jim Bell.
"You can get there in two or three hours from here if you can catch a train," said Roy. "If you like I'll phone for you and find out."
"Say, boy, that would be mighty white of you. I tell you it hurts to think of poor Peter living all alone like that in poverty while I've been rich all these years. But it wasn't for lack of trying to locate him, for I've advertised and had detectives searching every likely place."
Roy found that there would be a train to Acatonick in about half an hour, and their new found friend hastened off, after warm farewells, to catch it. He promised to be back within a few days and let them know of his success, and also inform them of any further arrangements he might be prepared to make about his offer.