out to make."

He puffed at his cigarette and looked rather foolish, as though
regretting his outburst.

"We've got away," he said, after a pause, "from what I was meaning to
tell you. And I want to tell you because I mayn't have another chance."
He turned to the window-seat and picked up his life-preserver. "I'm out
for two things. One is to kill Germans--" He patted the covered
knob--and there flashed across my mind a boyhood's memory of
Martin--wasn't it Martin?--in "Hereward the Wake," who had a
deliciously blood-curdling habit of patting his revengeful axe.--"I've
done in eighty-five with this and my revolver. That, I consider, is my
duty to my country. The other is to get the V.C. That's for payment to
my creditor self."

"In full, or on account?" said I.

"There's only one payment in full," he answered grimly, "and that I've
been offering for the past twelve months. And it's a thousand chances
to one it will be accepted before the end of this year. And that, after
all this palaver, is what I've just made up my mind to talk to you
about."

"You mean your death?"

"Just that," said he. "A man pot-hunting for Victoria Crosses takes a
thousand to one chance." He paused abruptly and shot an eager and
curiously wavering glance at me. "Am I boring you with all this?"

"Good Heavens, no." And then as the insistence of his great figure
towering over me had begun to fret my nerves--"Sit down, man," said I,
with an impatient gesture, "and put that sickening toy away and come to
the point."

He tossed the cane on the window-seat and sat near me on a
straight-backed chair.

"All right," he said. "I'll come to the point. I shan't see you again.
I'm going out in command. Thank God we're in the thick of it. Round
about Loos. It's a thousand to one I'll be killed. Life doesn't matter
much to me, in spite of what you may think. There are only two people
on God's earth I care for. One, of course, is my old mother. The other
is Betty Fairfax--I mean Betty Connor. I spoke to you once about
her--after I had met her here--and I gave you to understand that I had
broken off our engagement from conscientious motives. It was an awkward
position and I had to say something. As a matter of fact I acted
abominably. But I couldn't help it." The corners of his lips suddenly
worked in the odd little twitch. "Sometimes circumstances, especially
if a man's own damn foolishness has contrived them, tie him hand and
foot. Sometimes physic