elf to be. Derrick was beginning to apply to Carlyon the
most odious of all epithets--that of coward.

He had set his heart upon a reconciliation with Averil, and earnestly he
hoped she would see the matter with his eyes.

III

DERRICK'S PARADISE

"So it was the Secret Service man who saved your life," said Averil,
with flushed cheeks. "Really, Dick, how splendid of him!"

"Finest chap I ever saw!" declared Derrick. "He looked about eight feet
high in native dress. I shall have to find that man some day, and tell
him what I think of him."

"Yes, indeed!" agreed Averil. "I expect, you know, it was really Colonel
Carlyon who sent him."

"Being too great a--strategist to advance himself," said Derrick.

"But he didn't know you were at the head of the Goorkhas," Averil
reminded him.

"Perhaps not," said Derrick. "But he knew I was there. And, putting me
out of the question altogether, what can you think of an officer who
will coolly leave a party of his men to be slaughtered like sheep in a
butcher's yard because the poor beggars happen to have got into a tight
place?"

Derrick spoke with strong indignation, and Averil was silent awhile.
Presently, however, she spoke again, slowly.

"I can't help thinking, Dick," she said, "that there is an explanation
somewhere. We ought not--it would not be fair--to say Colonel Carlyon
acted unworthily before he has had a chance of justifying himself."

There was justice in this remark. Derrick, who was lying at the girl's
feet on the hearthrug in the Rectory drawing-room, reached up a bony
hand and took possession of one of hers. For Averil had received him
with a warmer welcome than he had deemed possible in his most sanguine
moments, and he was very happy in consequence.

"All right," he said equably. "We'll shunt Carlyon for a bit, and talk
about ourselves. Shall we?"

Averil drew the bony hand on to her lap and looked at it critically.

"Poor old boy!" she said. "It is thin."

Derrick drew himself up to a sitting position. There was an air of
mastery about him as he raised a determined face to hers.

"Averil," he said suddenly, "you aren't going to send me to the
right-about again, are you?"

"Oh, don't let us squabble on your first night!'" said Averil hastily.

"Squabble!" the boy exclaimed, springing to his feet vigorously. "Do you
call--that--squabbling?"

Averil stood up, too, tall and straight, and slightly defiant.

"I don't want you to go aw