hen the landlady issued therefrom;
and the landlady was in tears.

"I have kep' these apartments respectable and comf'table, and not a
week unlet, these seventeen year, come Michaelmas," she sobbed. "And
never have I had a death in 'em before."

Dan recoiled before the word. "Death?" he said.

And she repeated the word. "Poor Mr Gunton, he have had one of his
throats, and he was took worse yesterday morning. He kep' askin' for
you, sir, and no one could say where you was; and now he have sent me
to fetch you, whatever happen, and to say as he's a-dyin'!"

"It's one of his jokes," Dan said; but he had grown grey about the
lips, and his mouth fell open.

He pushed open the bedroom door, half expecting to be greeted by a
smothered laugh from Gunton, and a whispered account of the last trick
he'd played the old woman.

But Gunton, poor fellow, who had laughed and played his foolish jests,
and got into mischief industriously all through his short life, had
laid his mirth aside to-day. He had done but indifferently well the few
tasks allotted him, shirking them when he could; the business he had
now on hand was a very serious one, and there was no slipping out of
it. He had to die.

He told his friend so in so many words. "What's o'clock now?" he asked.
"Eleven? By two I shall be dead."

Dan tried not to believe. "I'll go for the doctor--I'll fetch a nurse!"
he said.

The other stayed him with his difficult speech. "Don't waste time. It's
no good," he said. "I've seen men die like this. I know. Owen was here
till ten minutes ago. I told him last night it was all up. You know
what an old ass it is--he wouldn't listen. He listens now. He's wired
for ----" (naming a man locally celebrated in the profession). "He's
driven, himself, to Fakenham for a nurse. I shall be dead before they
get here. I told him so--the old ass! He's wired for my mother--she'll
be too late. You can say I sent my love, Dan----"

All this in a hoarse, broken voice, interrupted by loud and painful
breathing, and now and again by a short, rough cough.

"I didn't know you were seedy, old man! I'd have come at once," Dan
said. "I've been on the spree again, for a day or so. It's the end. I'm
not going to play the fool that fashion any more!"

"The end of my sprees!" poor Gunton said. "We've had one or two
together, Dan. Don't look at me. I ain't pleasant to watch. Sorry. It
won't be for long. Dan--my watch and studs, and a chain I never
wore--t