"They used to come to him, those sad creatures,--and he never turned
them away. I have seen and heard them bless him as they knelt beside
him. He helped them so wisely because--oh! because he was--one of them,
and they never knew! Then the disease came--the cancer. I think he
welcomed it--it was so sure to open the door for him--and I think he
even loved the suffering as a kind of expiation.

"Never once did a murmur escape him of impatience or regret. It was he
who cheered us. It was he who stood by my father's death-bed and
comforted him, and strengthened me. Always cheerful, always helpful
until--just before he went. When he knew the days were few--when the
coward in him--his last enemy--died, he told me everything.

"He said--" a sob choked the words--"that I must find--John. I must lay
waste the beautiful memory of him. Show the _coward_ who had not been
able to stand before men! I must redeem the past as best I could. I must
begin with you--the friend he most loved--for you must help me
find--John."

Ralph Drew rose weakly to his feet. Something had gone out of him.
Something that he groped after, but could not grasp. He felt as if he
and the stricken woman before him were lost upon a black and dangerous
road. Their only salvation was to cling together spiritually and bodily.
He caught the back of her chair for support, and bent over her.

"Is there no one, who kept in touch with--the brother? Was he utterly
forsaken? God help him!"

"They said it was his desire. But there was one--I never knew who it
was; that was part of the mystery--but some one claimed and claimed
money for him, for John. I knew sums of money were paid regularly, I
used to think it was another of Philip's charities--but I know now that
there was a constant lash laid upon him. Oh! if they had only known all.

"Ralph, Philip left nearly all his fortune to his brother. There is only
my portion reserved for me. So you see I must find him. I was left sole
executor."

"I will help you, Ruth."

"I was sure you would. Philip spoke your name last; he said you could
see the man he tried to be, even in the man he was."

"Yes! yes, a thousand times more than he ever hoped. What was the poor
crumbling shell compared to the splendid soul that he builded through
those horrible years? Years when he could not quite free himself from
the craven thing that was his curse--the fear! fear! fear!"

The two were silent for a moment while the red glow show