sight or hearing of him; but something gained the garden, and I was unaware in infinitely more potent than inclination what direction they had gone. Assuredly, bound me to my seat. then, it was no mere chance that led me to the terrace. By-and-by the soft, tuneless whistle, with which Septimus frequently accompanies reflection, began. Then I beheld him stroll over the grass, and take my favorite seat by the sun-dial, pulling out a pipe. He turned his head then and scanned the windows of the house; but the recess was too deep for him to distinguish me, especially as the sun was lighting up the glass with dazzling gold. For, far down the field was a dark moving blot that must be Septimus, for it was carrying something. I saw no second figure, but George might be close to the hedge, and so shrouded in the dense white mist that hung over the ditch. The whole field was lightly covered with mist, which had the appearance of a strange, ghostly sheet of water. I ran down the bank, risking the chance of one of the two turning round, although I would fain have re held the same pace, until it seemed that the hedge slid by me, and not that my hurrying feet devoured the way. The grass was rank and heavy with dew. I heard the frogs jumping about the ditch, and the shouting of men calling to each other on the road at the bottom of the fields; but in my ears the dominant sound the sound in which the rest was deadened and obscured was that of my heart beating painfully with heavy thumps. How quietly Lizzie was lying! I wished she would wake or he would go away, to break the spell. Neither, however, hap-mained undiscovered. pened; he sat on and the girl still slept. Septimus was moving rapidly, and I The sun sank. The twilight increased, growing grey and misty as the clouds faded, the man's figure on the lawn became less distinct. I watched him, but he seemed quite motionless, and my eyes had begun to strain themselves to see him clearly through the growing dusk, when at last he rose quickly and moved away. Not towards the house, but through the fruit garden, where he vanished amidst the bushes. With a sense of relief I was preparing to quit the window, when a squareshouldered figure advanced rapidly from the opposite direction. I had an impulse to knock on the pane and wave my hand, but I forebore, as Septimus reappeared, carrying what I took to be a tool-basket. The brothers met on the lawn. George half paused, but the other, apparently with some remark, made a curve to avoid him, and steadily proceeded; George also resumed his course, but after going a few yards, he halted suddenly and looked round. He remained stationary until Septimus must have been almost out of sight; and when he began to walk again it was not towards the house, but to follow quickly in his brother's wake. If I had seen him preparing heedlessly to descend a steep mountain slope, whose incline I knew to be of treacherous slip periness, and tending to a plumbless gulf below, the pang of dread I was inspired with could not have been surpassed. I should have cried out to him to stay if I could have made my voice reach him. There was no plan in my head, I had no idea what I purposed, therefore I was wholly driven by a spirit of vague dread to act as I then did. I caught up a hat and wrap of Lizzie's which were lying on a chair and sped swiftly from the room and down the stairs. Both men were beyond view when I The fields are traversed. I climb the last stile, and am out on the country highway. Before I reach it, I see two forms in succession get over and disappear. The moon has risen; but it is not high enough yet to lighten the lonely road, bordered by tall trees and wooden fences. There is a turning some way ahead, and when I have passed the stile the leading figure has rounded it. That must be Septimus, for the one still visible is not carrying anything. So far all is well. I pass the turn, but still do not see Septimus. Perhaps George does, for he holds steadily on. We have progressed, crossing from one lane and road to another, for about a quarter of an hour, when he abruptly stops, seems to slip into the hedge beside him, and appears no more. I quicken my steps to a run that soon brings me to the spot, and find a tall gate whose aspect is familiar; it is secured with cruel carefulness, and stands between thick overbranching trees. The top is encumbered with brushwood. Alas! to a dweller amongst pavements and chimney-pots, as I have always been, this was a formidable obstacle. But there was a break in the barricade where the men had passed over, and unless I meant to be baffled from further following, I must climb likewise. It is well that I am supple and lithe-limbed, or the feat would have been beyond me. The gate was very steep and the brushwood caught desperately to my skirts, so that when I jumped down on the inner side I seemed to be alone. But had a clue now; I did not need to keep the two in sight. There, where the moon was sending shimmering shafts upon stirring boughs and thick leafage, I knew I should find them. They are still apart, I fancy, as I penetrate the trees at a place where the undergrowth is so close and thick that I have to part it as I go, for I can distinguish no talking. My feet make such a crackling as they tread dry leaves and prostrate twigs that I expect each step I give must send forth a note of warning of my approach. I try to be noiseless, for unless strong necessity compels me, I wish to keep my presence secret; and as I push further into the plantation, I become aware that, at all events, I am nearing one of the brothers. After scouting for some little time in two or three directions, I strike into a path that brings me closer to the goal. But the trees and shrubs belt it jealously round, and I yet see nobody. Doubtless, I may not until I am within arm's reach. I divined that the man I heard must be Septimus. Was he still ignorant that George had dogged him? Spite of every precaution, spite of my utmost pains to discover the place from which I could peep out most safely, I was hazardously near, and, in fact, only a few yards from Septimus's bent head, when I cautiously drew back a staggering bough and looked through. He was stooping over a long, narrow cavity in the ground that uncomfortably suggested a grave. The earth which he had dug up in making it was lying, not in lumps, but in a loose mass about, and also some layers of rough turf that seemed to have been first cut away. He had desisted from his work, and was tugging with vig orous hauls at something apparently a few feet below the surface of the hole. I caught the short, quick breathing which accompanied each pull; but I could not see the object of his exertions, it lay too deep. By-and-by, however, the moon, which lit up the rest of the clearing in which Septimus stood, would throw the searching gleam of her lamp immediately upon it. It was the precise place inseparably linked in my memory with Mr. Hazlit and Lizzie. I recognized it in an instant. There was the old elm, there unmistakably rose the little mound where I had seen the dead man sit, whereon, even at that moment, the apparition of the bent sinewy figure I remembered would scarcely have surprised me. Septimus had flung his basket there; I could almost have touched it. The open field was, therefore, opposite to me, and except on that side the nook was entirely screened amongst the foliage. I was gazing intently at Septimus, when our ears became simultaneously aware of a hasty trampling that did not seek to conceal itself, but crunched heavily forward. He threw up his head, listened, then with a furious oath awaited the advent of the intruder. Alarmingly close to my hiding-place, the branches of the trees were tossed apart, and, forestalling his appearance, came the voice of George. 66 Stop — stop, man! What brings you here alone? I've followed you all the way; if you'd turned once you must have seen me. But I lost you in the bushes." The elder brother straightened himself, leaning his back against a tree. In the moonlight the two faces confronted each other. "It's a new departure for you to take up the family hobby for playing detective. My brains brought me here. They generally lead me where my interest lies." 66 You think so. Maybe to irreparable mistakes. I feared something from your look as you passed me in the garden something which made me come after and keep you in sight at least until a few minutes since. What on earth are you doing digging a grave?" 66 No," was the deliberate reply, "I'm playing resurrectionist, and disinterring. Look here here here!" One by one as he spoke he drew from the hole various different-sized packages, carefully wrapped, and scattered them on the ground. "Or here!" concluding in a triumphant tone, he hurled back the lid of what he had so painfully raised, which I now saw was a strong iron box such as is used to contain important papers or valuables. A ray of moonlight seized the revealed contents, and flashed them into a radiance of quivering silver light. With a wondering exclamation George drew nearer and bent over the box. - "Yes, facts do make it rather cheap. But, anyway,. I mean in any circumstances I should do the same." "Ah! You're very well, George. You've been well enough, for a bachelor, with a pretty talent for philanthropy, too, for his years. Now, you have the ambition to change your estate, the pretty widow's compact little income will support the extra expense easily." "This is the miser's hole! The magpie's nest! where Thomas Hazlit, gone mad as a March hare, as his father went before him, removed all he could carry. His own house didn't please him sons knew where his treasures were kept there, so he buried them in this precious hole in the earth, which he could sit by and brood over like a hen upon its eggs. This was where he came day after day; and when he could come no more, he sent his wife! With more plunder filched from its proper place and carted away here!" This outburst, which gained in furious emphasis as it proceeded, was not stopped by George. He seemed still lost in astonishment. "How extraordinary! He was so acute to the last in some things. I can't understand it! Well, these things can't lie here. We'd better take as much back with us now as we can carry. Put the rest securely where they were, and in the morning send for them and let them be stowed safely until we know whose they are." "I've settled that point already." A smile, evil and mirthless, played over the fair, fleshy face, accentuating in a peculiar manner the calm power of the smooth, heavy jaw. "I've made sure of that. If Madam Waylen, or Hazlit, was to have any interest in them, I should leave the lot to the mercies of the tramps or crows. But for another individual's sake, I agree with your proposal exactly, George." 66 "I expect her interests are entrusted to safe hands. The whole matter affects me very little. For years I've guessed pretty shrewdly how I shall stand. If I'm mistaken, it won't make any difference. Nothing would induce me to touch a penny." "You carry magnanimity to folly, my good fellow! To absurd folly; though perhaps it's a trifle cheap. If you say, supposing you get the chance, you'll give up that"--he indicated the box where the jewels still played lambently — " or those"-touching some of the packages "or your that lay about with his foot share in this," he lifted a heavy bag from the ground and shook it as he spoke—"or anything represented by worm-eaten documents, here or elsewhere, still it's not business, though it may be high-minded. Men don't live by magnanimity or sentiment in these days, unless they're professional philanthropists. Your generosity is unbusinesslike, as well as what I called it-cheap." For the world, as I listened to these words, I would not have betrayed my My fears had subsided. The presence. men, though miles estranged from any sympathy of feeling, were not engaged in strife or recrimination. My position had grown uncomfortable, and I sought a chance to slip away. Although he thought me housed at the Owlery, and could not imagine I was watching, some feeling made me move my eyes away from George as he replied, 66 Keep Mrs. Markenfield out of the discussion entirely, if you please. She has no more to do with my resolution than if she had never been born." An ejaculation of contemptuous incredulity escaped Septimus's lips before he answered blandly, though with underlying provocation, "I'm surprised! Sceptic as I am, I Pardon me! You must be doubtful. know you may be deceiving yourself as to your purity of motive. It's a complex point. But why mayn't I have the privi lege of uttering a name associated with something so charming that I grudge it even to you? We've both good taste, it Still, if I'd been the single man, seems. I should have staked my fate before now. I'm quicker in action than you." "Hold on. Stop!" "Nay, her dainty little haughty nose, her don't-care' blue eyes, not to mention a brown which only Nature that hair can dye, and she only does for one woman in a thousand- would have whipped me to the point headlong. And I should have won, too." I shuddered at the air of cool conviction with which he assumed a supposititious triumph. But my thoughts were to be The rough, startled into another course. hot-flowing Hazlit blood, held in check by Septimus through habitual dissimulation, in George by civilized manners, was rising. Passion stood forth in the bronzed features of the younger man, lighting up his eyes with such a look of determined anger as only light eyes can assume. an instant George lifted his arm, and the oncoming rush seemed to be delayed but For 66 for a breathing-time, while Septimus fell Why? Don't be quixotic. It isn't an involuntary pace back. But just as my strictly honorable, I allow; but we have vivid alarm foreboded another illustration the place to ourselves. What's integrity of the many fratricidal struggles begun to an opportunity? and it's a moral cerwith the first brotherhood ages ago, the tainty that only one person can swear the fury passed. A deep paleness spread over thing was here. Ease your conscience, George's face, the uplifted arm dropped, take a walk round while I dispose of dropped quietly against a bush. The an- these." gry, passionate regard wandered from Septimus, to fix itself in troubled vacancy upon the empty air. Septimus was relieved. He drew breath, and in a changed manner, one devoid of either sarcasm or irritation, proceeded hastily, "This isn't a time to waste in idle talking, with all these things lying loose about. Help me, if you will, and I'll tell you what I mean about securing another person's interests." He quickly restored bundle after bundle to the hole. A few small parcels and one or two papers he stuffed into his pockets or the basket of tools upon the mound. Then I attempted to go. But my first movements were so audible, evoking loud rustles from leaves and boughs, that both looked sharply round, and I dared not repeat them. "Now, look here," said Septimus at length, suspending his occupation and stopping George. "This" he pulled two folded papers one after another from an inside pocket-"is the last will and testament of our late respected father, dated later than the one we know of. Garthorpe hasn't drawn it up, but as far as I've just scanned it, by the light of the moon and a box of matches, it reads sane and regular. It was the first thing I rooted up, and as I saw what it was I gave it longer attention than anything else. It appears to 'pot' everybody but his wife. This other thing is a certified copy of the registry of marriage · marriage performed before the registrar in some little town at the other end of the county all quite legal. I give in that Senex Cophetua Hazlit married his beggar-maid with sufficient rites. The entry can be found in the book if it's wanted, of course, so it don't much matter whether the certificate's left here or not; but as a saving of trouble, and because I'm partial to the sound of tearing paper the will's on paper, observe here goes!" He held the papers together. His hands clasped them firmly, ready to rend them into undecipherable bits. I heard George speak, "No. Give them to me. Garthorpe must have them by to-morrow." "To-morrow, Garthorpe is coming over to see me. He's got the document the old man drew up when he loved us - or one of us rather more than he has done lately. Don't be thin-skinned, it was done after your row with him, so I don't fancy he leaves you much." "Those papers, Septimus! Put the idea of destroying them, along with the power, out of your hands. Let me have them." "I won't!" The voice, subdued thus far, rose with opposition into smouldering rage. "Fool! What's the crime in taking my own? I've earned it well. Do you think I've worked and schemed and managed to be a beggar at last?" "Not a beggar. Through Isabella you're as rich as I am, if you cared to spend your money; it's a sham for you to cry poverty. Then the business must still be yours-yours wholly. Your brains and energies are better capital than all you lose by that paper. Besides He ceased abruptly. I was watching them intently. They were standing very close together. Septimus's profile was set into icy immovability. His hands held the papers in a grip of iron. Again George's face seemed to be gazing into vacancy. He had stopped as if the words choked him. "Besides what? Out with it! Don't look as if you were staring at a ghost!" "I do see one. It has come before tonight. It will not be laid. I judge your feelings by mine, and that was what drove me after you, to hinder what I feared might be your purpose, self-destruction. You force me to speak I have avoided it. Be thankful, man, if that paper saves you, at any rate, from taking the price of blood." "What do you mean?" The whispered reply was hushed as if it must be hidden even from the quiet sky or sheltering trees. "Your father was a dying man, and you pushed him, helpless and unconscious, to a headlong fall. He might have lingered long, but you pulled his last foothold of hurried him to his "You mustn't do that. I won't have it. life from under him It's out of the question." grave! Swift as an arrow George had suddenly grasped the papers. Each now held them - strained so firmly that I wondered they did not tear in the tension. Both had spoken low and hurriedly, with a reservation of care for the faint possibility of being overheard. As the "No!" was uttered the struggle began. It could only end by one becoming secure possessor of the object they were equally resolved to have. It terrified me to see the two strong, angry men, matched in inflexible determination, as they swayed to and fro, their features firmly set, their muscles bent to the uttermost, their hands touching, as they held the packet crumpled and twisted between them. They were near a height, and both well-set; but Septimus, fleshier and less active than George, would, probably, in a prolonged effort be worsted. His breath was drawn in short, quick gasps, he did not keep the reserve force of a practised wrestler. Once let George get the prize, he would surely remain its master. Neither appeared to think of defeating his opponent by an unexpected blow. It was as yet a wrestle only, not a fight. that the moon, catching its edge, worn bright with usage, made it describe an arc of silver. Heavy as the weapon was, it was raised as if it had been a feather; then with a dreadful momentum, and a direct and fatal aim that must have ended far more than the conflict, I saw it descending -descending Whence or how came the harsh, discordant sound, half-words, half-shriek, but piercing and shrill enough to have startled the sleeping birds, I could not have told. I was not conscious of producing it; it seemed, without any effort of my own, to fill the stillness with a sudden note of warning and alarm. But more fervently, with more strength of aspiration than 1 have ever felt, I hope that so long as I live such an impulse of terror will never again force from me a like utterance. AT Loralai, in the afternoon of the 17th November, there was a full-dress parade of the regiment of cavalry, the regiment of native infantry, and the mountain battery of artillery; our Afghans and Baluchis being present this time on foot, as they had tired out all their horses. The Their feet trampled backwards and for- cavalry and artillery were splendid fightwards, over the things that still lay on ing representatives of the modern Indian the ground, and occasionally stumbled as army. But the infantry regiment was they shifted. Again and again I trem- from Bombay, and, though admirable in bled for fear some chance movement its old-fashioned British drill, did not give should throw them against the branches one the impression of having much dash at the place where I was lurking, and re-about it. The guns went past to the veal me. In the struggle Septimus's shoulder struck sharply in contact with the knotted boll of the old elm, and for an instant he shifted his eyes to look at it. In that brief moment's distraction, by the moonlight which shone full on his face, I saw a baleful expression arise in it, the reflex of a vivid inspiration. He released one hand from the papers, and George, pursuing the advantage thus given him, bent his head low in a supreme effort. He was bareheaded, and so was Septimus. Both had lost their hats in the scuffle. I saw the elder brother's fingers stealthily close upon the handle of the spade, which rested against the tree, then it was lifted so swiftly through the air, sound of the Highland pipes, which are spreading in the frontier force, although I myself prefer their playing upon their own Baluchi pipes. The full dress" did not extend to the generals, who, as we had been "marching light," had no full dress with them, and, indeed, little dress of any kind. Splendid as was the full dress of the calvary regiment-one of those in which the British officers wear the native dress, turban and all — while the Royal Artillery officers and the Bombay Indian officers were wearing the British red with white helmets, their natives wearing turbans, — I hardly see the need for putting officers at such a place as Loralai to the cost of so many uniforms as they have to provide. The mountain bat |