ecked by
public opinion. Then comes a medical verdict, a provisional one, marred
by reservations, about the work that knife has done. A nasty cut, but no
danger. Probably stunned by the fall. Bring her indoors. Ragstroar's
house is chosen, because of the children.

Uncle Mo never took his eyes off M'riar till after a stretcher had come
suddenly from Heaven knows where, and borne his late opponent away, with
a crowd following, to some appointed place. He thought he heard an
inquiry answered in the words:--"Doctor says he can do nothing for
_him_," and may have drawn his inferences. Probably it was the
frightened voices and crying of the children that made him move away
slowly towards his own house. For he had asked the boy Micky "Had anyone
gone to see to them?" and been answered that Mrs. Burr was with them. It
was then that Micky noticed that his voice had fallen to little more
than a whisper, and that his face was grey. What Micky said was that his
chops looked awful blue, and you couldn't ketch not a word he said.

But he was able to walk slowly into the house, very slowly up the
stairs. Dave, in the room above, hearing the well-known stair-creak
under his heavy tread, rushed down to find him lying on the bed in his
clothes. Mo drew the child's face to his own as he lay, saying:--"Here's
a kiss for you, old man, and one to take to Dolly."

"Am oy to toyk it up to her now this very minute?" said Dave.

"Now this very minute!" said Uncle Mo. And Dave rushed off to fulfil his
mission.

When Susan Burr, a little later, tapped at his door, doubting if all was
well with him, no answer came. Looking in and seeing him motionless, she
advanced to the bed, and touched his hand. It never moved, and she
listened for a breath, but in vain. Heart-failure, after intense
excitement, had ended this life for Uncle Mo.

THE END

A BELATED PENDRIFT

"I can tell you exactly when it was, stupid!" said a middle-aged lady at
the Zoological Gardens to a contented elderly husband, some eighteen
years after the foregoing story ended. "It was before we were married."

"That does not convey the precise date, my dear, but no doubt it is
true," said the gentleman unpoetically. At least, we may suppose so, as
the lady said:--"Don't be prosy, Percy."

A little Macacao monkey in the cage they were inspecting withdrew his
left hand from a search for something on his person to accept a nut
sadly from the lady, but said nothing. Th