tter go to him, at once."

With a sinking heart, Lisle went upstairs. The colonel was lying on
his bed.

"I am glad you have come in time, my dear boy," he said faintly, as
Lisle entered. "I am afraid that I am done for, and it is a
consolation for me to know that I have no near relatives who will
regret my loss. I have had a good time of it, altogether; and would
rather that, as I was not to die on the battlefield, death should
come as it has. It is far better than if it came gradually.

"Sit by me, lad, till the end comes. I am sure it will not be long.
I am suffering terribly, and the sooner it comes, the better."

The ashy gray of the colonel's face sufficed to tell Lisle that the
end was, indeed, near at hand. The colonel only spoke two or three
times and, at ten o'clock at night, passed away painlessly.

Upon Lisle devolved the sad work of arranging his funeral. He wrote
to the colonel's lawyer, asking him to come down. Hallett had left
the house at once, though Lisle earnestly begged him to stay till
the funeral was over. The lawyer arrived on the morning of the
funeral.

"I have taken upon myself, sir," Lisle said, "to make all the
arrangements for the funeral, seeing that there was no one else to
do it."

"You were the most proper person to do so," the lawyer said,
gravely, "as you will see when the will is read, on our return from
the grave."

When all was over, Lisle asked two or three of the colonel's most
intimate friends to be present at the reading of the will. It was a
very short one. The colonel made bequests to several military
charities; and then appointed his adopted son, Lisle Bullen,
Lieutenant in His Majesty's Rutlandshire regiment, the sole heir to
all his property.

This came almost as a surprise to Lisle. The colonel had indeed
told him that he had adopted him, and he was prepared to learn that
he had left him a legacy; but he had no idea that he would be left
sole heir.

"I congratulate you, sir," the lawyer said, when he folded up the
paper. "Colonel Houghton stated to me, fully, his reasons for
making such a disposition of his property and, as he had no near
relations, I was able to approve of it heartily. I may say that he
has left nearly sixteen thousand pounds. The other small legacies
will take about a thousand, and you will therefore have some
fifteen thousand pounds, which is all invested in first-rate
securities."

"I feel my good fortune, sir," Lisle said quietly, "b