aid again. "Guess you won't be afraid now you have got
your own way. But just one thing more. You'll be wanting all your
strength for yourself for the next few weeks. Will you--for my sake if
you like--put all this by till you are winning out on the other side? She
would say the same, if she knew."

Lucas opened his eyes again, opened them wide, and fixed them steadily,
searchingly, upon his brother's face.

"You'll play the straight game with me, Boney?" he questioned. "You won't
try to back out?" Then, in a different tone, "No, don't, answer! Forgive
me for asking! I know you."

"I guess you do," Nap said, with the ghost of a smile, "better even than
I know myself. You know just how little I am to be trusted."

"I trust you, Boney, absolutely, implicitly, from the bottom of my soul."

The words left Lucas Errol's lips with something of the solemnity of an
oath. He held out a quiet hand.

"Now let me sleep," he said.

Nap rose. He stood for a moment in silence, holding the friendly hand, as
if he wished to speak, but could not. Then suddenly he bent.

"Good-night, dear chap!" he said in a whisper, and with the words he
stooped and kissed the lined forehead of the man who trusted him....

Half an hour later the door of the adjoining room opened noiselessly and
Tawny Hudson peered in.

One brother was sleeping, the quiet, refreshing sleep of a mind at rest.
The other sat watching by his side with fixed inscrutable eyes.

The latter did not stir, though in some indefinable way he made Tawny
Hudson know that he was aware of his presence, and did not desire his
closer proximity. Obedient to the unspoken command, the man did not come
beyond the threshold; but he stood there for many seconds, glowering with
the eyes of a monstrous, malignant baboon.

When at length he retired he left the door ajar, and a very curious smile
flickered across Nap's face.

But still he did not turn his head.

CHAPTER XIV

AT THE GATE OF DEATH

The second time that Tawny Hudson was driven from his master's side was
on a day of splendid spring--English April at its best.

Till the very last moment he lingered, and it was Lucas himself with his
final "Go, Tawny!" who sent him from the room. They would not even let
him wait, as Nap was waiting, till the anaesthetic had done its work.
Black hatred gripped the man's heart as he crept away. What was Nap
anyway that he should be thus honoured? The cloud that had attended his