; I mean to hunt him down, if it takes me
a year. I have nothing special to do, and cannot employ my time more
usefully."

When the ladies went up to bed the Squire said:

"Come into the library, Mark, and we will smoke a pipe, and have a talk
over this business." He touched the bell. "Have you got a good fire in
the library, Ramoo?"

"Yes, sahib, very good."

"Then take a bottle of number one bin of port there--and a couple of
glasses."

When they were quietly seated, glasses filled, and the long pipes
alight, the Squire said: "I want to have a serious talk with you, Mark.
What I am going to say will surprise you a good deal. I had not intended
to tell you for another four years--that is to say, not until Millicent
came of age--but after that affair tonight, I feel that my life is
so uncertain that I ought not to delay letting you know the truth.
I suppose you agree with me that it was Bastow who shot at me this
evening?"

"I have not the least doubt about that, father."

"I will not say that he shot at me," the Squire said, "for he may have
shot at his father; the villain is quite capable of that. It was his
father who brought me upon him, and though I effected his capture eight
years ago I don't suppose he cares which of us he killed. However, the
point is not what he aimed at, but whether it was he, and that I take
there is no doubt about. He missed me this time, but his next shot may
be more successful, At any rate, I think that it is high time that I
told you the story."

And, beginning with the arrival of Colonel Thorndyke at his place, he
repeated the conversation that he had had with him. Several times in
the early portion of his narrative he was interrupted by exclamations of
surprise from his son.

"Then Millicent is really my uncle's heiress!" exclaimed Mark, when he
heard the request the Colonel had made of the Squire.

"That is so, Mark. She does not know it herself, and it was my brother's
urgent wish that she should not know it until she came of age or until
she married. I fought against it to the utmost, but it was his dying
prayer, and I could not refuse it. My solicitor knows the facts of the
matter, and so does Mrs. Cunningham, who brought Millicent over from
India when she was only about a year old. I may say that I especially
urged that it would not be fair to you to be brought up to consider
yourself to be heir to the property, but he said:

"'Putting aside the estate, I have a cons