ore than his own brain would let him know.

'It's all I had and I've lost it,' he said, as soon as the misery
permitted clear thinking. 'And Torp will think that he has been so
infernally clever that I shan't have the heart to tell him. I must think
this out quietly.'

'Hullo!' said Torpenhow, entering the studio after Dick had enjoyed two
hours of thought. 'I'm back. Are you feeling any better?'

'Torp, I don't know what to say. Come here.' Dick coughed huskily,
wondering, indeed, what he should say, and how to say it temperately.

'What's the need for saying anything? Get up and tramp.' Torpenhow was
perfectly satisfied.

They walked up and down as of custom, Torpenhow's hand on Dick's
shoulder, and Dick buried in his own thoughts.

'How in the world did you find it all out?' said Dick, at last.

'You shouldn't go off your head if you want to keep secrets, Dickie. It
was absolutely impertinent on my part; but if you'd seen me rocketing
about on a half-trained French troop-horse under a blazing sun you'd
have laughed. There will be a charivari in my rooms to-night. Seven
other devils----'

'I know--the row in the Southern Soudan. I surprised their councils the
other day, and it made me unhappy. Have you fixed your flint to go? Who
d'you work for?'

'Haven't signed any contracts yet. I wanted to see how your business
would turn out.'

'Would you have stayed with me, then, if--things had gone wrong?' He put
his question cautiously.

'Don't ask me too much. I'm only a man.'

'You've tried to be an angel very successfully.'

'Oh ye--es!... Well, do you attend the function to-night? We shall
be half screwed before the morning. All the men believe the war's a
certainty.'

'I don't think I will, old man, if it's all the same to you. I'll stay
quiet here.'

'And meditate? I don't blame you. You observe a good time if ever a man
did.'

That night there was a tumult on the stairs. The correspondents poured
in from theatre, dinner, and music-hall to Torpenhow's room that they
might discuss their plan of campaign in the event of military operations
becoming a certainty. Torpenhow, the Keneu, and the Nilghai had bidden
all the men they had worked with to the orgy; and Mr. Beeton, the
housekeeper, declared that never before in his checkered experience had
he seen quite such a fancy lot of gentlemen. They waked the chambers
with shoutings and song; and the elder men were quite as bad as the
younger. For the chan