ing touch, on Stafford's arm.

"I've come to tell you, Staff," he said. "I know that you ought to
know--but it's hard work--that cablegram contained news that the Zulus
had risen _en masse_, and that for a time, perhaps for years, the
railway scheme was blocked, if not utterly ruined. It was the one weak
link in the chain, and your father was aware of it and had taken what
measures he could to guard against the danger; but Fate, circumstances,
were too much for him. A silly squabble, so silly as to be almost
childish, between some squatters on the border and the discontented
natives, upset all his carefully laid plans, and turned a gigantic
success, at its very zenith, into a tragic failure."

Stafford leant his head upon his hand and looked steadily at Howard.

"It was that that killed him?" he said. "It meant ruin, I suppose, ruin
for him and others?"

Howard nodded.

"Yes; he had staked all upon this last throw, and the sudden reverse
came at a moment when his nerves were strained to the utmost, when he
was excited with the honour and glory he had achieved. The blow was too
sudden, the revulsion of feeling from exultation to despair too swift,
too great. It is one of the most awful things of which I have ever
heard or read. Men are speaking about it with bated breath. There is
nothing but pity for him, nothing but regret at the stroke of
misfortune which cut him down in the moment of his triumph."

"And others?" repeated Stafford. "It has brought ruin upon others.
What, can I do? Is there anything I can do? I am so ignorant, I do not
even know whether I sit here absolutely penniless, or whether there is
anything left that I can give them."

"Mr. Falconer and Murray and the lawyer are in the library," said
Howard. "They have been going into affairs. They would have liked to
have had you with them; but I begged you off. I knew you would be of no
use to them."

Stafford looked his thanks.

"No, I could not have helped them," he said. "No one knew less of my
poor father's affairs than I, no one is less capable of dealing with
them than I. Mr. Falconer will know what to do. It is very good of him
to come to my assistance. I have scarcely seen him; I have not seen
anyone but you."

"And Maude?" said Howard, interrogatively.

"No," said Stafford, his brows drawn together. "I have not seen her.
She has been ill--"

"Yes," said Howard, in a low voice. "She is prostrated by the shock,
poor girl! You will go to