than ever I dreamed a man could be. I----"

He ceased to speak. The light on his face grew brighter, then slowly
faded as a peaceful summer day fades. He settled a little lower in his
chair and lay back there, very still. The gnarled hand that held the
meerschaum relaxed.

The pipe fell clattering to the floor. Frederik stooped to pick it up.
Kathrien, her eyes chancing to fall on Grimm's face, cried aloud in
horror.

Frederik followed the direction of her gaze. He sprang toward his uncle,
laid a hand over the old man's heart, and bent down toward the still,
grey face that was upturned to his.

"Good God, Kitty!" he gasped. "He's _dead_!"

The girl had already flown toward the front door. Jerking it open she
ran out on the steps. As she did so, she caught sight of McPherson
coming away from a professional call at a house across the street.

"Doctor!" screamed Kathrien frantically. "_Doctor!_"

McPherson, next moment, had pushed past her into the living-room.
Kneeling beside Grimm's body he made a swift examination.

As he rose to face the others, Willem burst into the house.

"Oom Peter! Oom Peter!" shrilled the child happily. "I got them!"

"Hush!" exclaimed McPherson.

The boy halted in the doorway, looking in puzzled dismay at the huddled
form in the chair.

"What--what is----?" he began.

"He is dead," replied Frederik shortly.

Willem stood aghast for a second, while the curt announcement sank into
his senses. Then in a burst of angry, rebellious wonder, the child
cried:

"Dead? He can't be. He _can't_! Why, I've got our circus tickets!"

CHAPTER VIII

AFTERWARD

Grimm Manor was in mourning. And, far more to the dead man's honour,
Grimm Manor _was_ mourning.

The last of the ancient line was dead. The Grimms had been the ruling
spirits in the drowsy little up-State town for more than two centuries.
From father to son, the hierarchy had been handed down.

In days when the district was a wilderness and when the Grimms fought
wild animal and Indian, and in the days when it was a prosperous suburb
and the Grimms fought "scale" and locust, it had been the same:--ever a
Grimm had swayed the little community.

Quiet in spite of his eccentric ways and dress, Peter Grimm had been
known chiefly as a kindly neighbour and a shrewd business man. But now,
after his death, all sorts and conditions of people came forward with
queer stories of his private dealings.

There was a crotchety old Ci