hen the
pen dropped from the convulsed fingers, and with a cry of intolerable
anguish the Major fell back.

For some minutes there was a painful struggle; presently we caught a
word or two between the groans of the dying man.

"Too late!" he gasped, "too late!" And then a dreadful vision of horrors
seemed to rise before him, and with a terror that I can never forget
he turned to his son and clutched fast hold of his hands: "Derrick!" he
shrieked.

Derrick could not speak, but he bent low over the bed as though to
screen the dying eyes from those horrible visions, and with an odd sort
of thrill I saw him embrace his father.

When he raised his head the terror had died out of the Major's face; all
was over.

Chapter IX.

"To duty firm, to conscience true,
However tried and pressed,
In God's clear sight high work we do,
If we but do out best."

Lawrence came down to the funeral, and I took good care that he should
hear all about his father's last hours, and I made the solicitor show
him the unsigned will. He made hardly any comment on it till we three
were alone together. Then with a sort of kindly patronage he turned to
his brother--Derrick, it must be remembered, was the elder twin--and
said pityingly, "Poor old fellow! it was rather rough on you that the
governor couldn't sign this; but never mind, you'll soon, no doubt, be
earning a fortune by your books; and besides, what does a bachelor want
with more than you've already inherited from our mother? Whereas, an
officer just going to be married, and with this confounded reputation of
hero to keep up, why, I can tell you it needs every penny of it!"

Derrick looked at his brother searchingly. I honestly believe that he
didn't very much care about the money, but it cut him to the heart that
Lawrence should treat him so shabbily. The soul of generosity himself,
he could not understand how anyone could frame a speech so infernally
mean.

"Of course," I broke in, "if Derrick liked to go to law he could no
doubt get his rights, there are three witnesses who can prove what was
the Major's real wish."

"I shall not go to law," said Derrick, with a dignity of which I had
hardly imagined him capable. "You spoke of your marriage, Lawrence; is
it to be soon?"

"This autumn, I hope," said Lawrence; "at least, if I can overcome Sir
Richard's ridiculous notion that a girl ought not to marry till she's
twenty-one. He's a most crotchety ol