Among those mountains grouped about San Gorgonio, the real value of the inheritance he had received from his mother was to be tested.

On the pine-fringed ridge of the Galenas, among those granite cliffs and jagged peaks, the mettle of his manhood was to be tried under a strain such as few men in this commonplace work-a-day old world are-subjected to.

But the young man did not know this.
On the long journey across the continent, he had paid little heed to the sights that so interested his fellow passengers.

To his fellow passengers, themselves, he had been as indifferent.

To those who had approached him casually, as the sometimes tedious hours passed, he had been quietly and courteously unresponsive.