y the eagerness with which his visitor received his
announcement.

"'Sawyer, Mr. Sawyer!' he exclaimed. 'You cannot imagine how glad I am
to see you again. I don't mean--I am terribly sorry to see you like
this--but I have so often wished to find you, and I could never succeed
in doing so.'

"He turned as he spoke to Captain Montagu.

"'I'll stay with him for an hour or two--as long as I can,' he said.
'I think,----' he added, glancing at the extempore sick-nurse, and
hesitating a little. Captain Montagu understood the glance.

"'Come, Watson,' he said to the young soldier, 'Mr. Berkeley will sit
with--with Mr.----'

"'Sawyer,' said Jack.

--"'With Mr. Sawyer for a while. Shall he return in an hour, Berkeley?'

"'Thank you, yes,' said Jack, and then he found himself alone with his
old master.

"'You said you tried to trace me after I left Ryeburn,' said Sawyer.
'Will you tell me why? There was no special reason for it, was there? I
know I was disliked, but the sort of enmity I incurred must soon have
died out. I was too insignificant for it to last. And the one great
endeavour I made was to injure no one. That was why I left
hurriedly--before I should be forced to make any complaints.'

"He stopped--exhausted already by what he had said. 'And I have so much
to say to him,' he whispered regretfully to himself.

"'I know,' said Jack sadly. 'I understood it all before you had left many
months.'

"Mr. Sawyer looked pleased but surprised.

"'It is very kind of you to speak so,' he said. 'I remember that dear
little brother of yours when he came to see me off that last morning--I
remember his saying, 'I'm sure Jack would have come if he had thought of
it.' You don't know what a comfort the remembrance of that boy has been
to me sometimes. You must tell him so. Dear me--he must be nearly grown
up. Is he too in the army?'

"'No, oh no,' said Jack. 'He--he died the year after you knew him.'

"Sawyer's eyes looked up wistfully in Jack's face. 'Dead?' he said. 'That
dear boy?'

"'Yes,' Jack went on. 'It was of scarlet fever. It was very bad at
Ryeburn that half. We both had it, but I was soon well again. It was not
till Carlo was ill that he told me of having run over to wish you
good-bye that morning--he had been afraid I would laugh at him for being
soft-hearted--what a young brute I was--forgive my speaking so, Sawyer,
but I can't look back to that time without shame. What a life we led you,
and how you bore