re unmasked at last--and by a woman! Denzil, the papers!"

"See, I have them!" I replied.

"Then read them--quick!"

"But what does it mean? Explain, Flora!"

"The papers--they will tell all!"

"Wait!" interrupted Captain Rudstone. "Permit me, gentlemen, to end this
little comedy with a word. It is very simple. I have played my game, and
I have lost--a woman was too sharp for me. I yield to necessity, and
throw up my cards. Mr. Carew, I congratulate you. My lord, you are the
rightful Earl of Heathermere!"

What foolish words were these? I could only stare, dazed and
speechless, at those around me--at the mocking face of Captain Rudstone.
And he had called me Earl of Heathermere!

"It is true!" cried Flora, breaking the spell of silence. "I knew it."

"It is madness!" shouted Christopher Burley, whose countenance had
turned the color of Parchmont.

"Look at the papers, Carew," suggested Macdonald.

I examined them with shaking fingers, having first let go of Flora. One
was the certificate of marriage of Bertram Carew with the daughter of
the factor of Fort Beaver; another was the proof of a birth--my birth. I
glanced at the third and largest, and I caught my breath as I saw the
first few words. I read on--read to the very end--like a man in a dream.
Then I handed the document to the factor.

"I can hardly realize it," I said, "but it is all there--written
plainly. Read it aloud!"

Macdonald did so, and those in the room, Captain Rudstone not excepted,
listened with rapt attention. I need not give the contents of the paper
word for word, but it meant that my father, Bertram Carew, had been
Osmund Maiden--that I was Osmund Maiden's son and heir. It was all
revealed in the letter, which was addressed to me, and was written by my
father. In it he told of the family quarrel in England years before, of
his voyage to the Canadas in quest of adventure and fortune, of his
meeting and subsequent friendship with a young man named Myles Rudstone,
of the dispute in the Montreal gambling den, and the shooting of the
Frenchman Henri Salvat.

Then followed an account of the flight and journeying of the two--Osmund
Maiden and Myles Rudstone--how they traveled in haste from Montreal to
Fort Garry, from the fort to the northern wilderness, where they were
attacked by a party of treacherous Indians. My father was struck down
and left for dead, and was found by the factor of Fort Beaver, who
nursed him until he was recovered.