onsciousness of the dead body so close at
hand. The dead body--and with it the dead years and the long
probation--belonged to the past; he with his youth, his strength,
his hope, was bound for the limitless future.

Without a moment's hesitation he crossed to his uncle's bureau, which
stood as he had left it three days before when his last illness had
seized upon him. The papers were all in order; the ink was as yet
scarcely rusted on the pens; the key protruded from the lock of the
private drawer. With a tremor of excitement John extended his hand,
turned it and opened the drawer; then he caught his breath. There lay a
square white envelope addressed to himself in his uncle's fantastic,
crooked handwriting.

As he drew it out and held it for a moment in his hand, his thoughts
centred unerringly round one object. In a moment, the seven years of
waiting--the strange death scene just enacted--even Andrew Henderson and
his mystical creed--were blotted from his mind by a wonderful
rose-colored mist of hope, from which one face looked out--the patient,
tender, pathetic face of the mother he adored. The emotions, so long
suppressed, welled up as they had been wont to do years ago in the
sordid London home.

With a throb of confidence and anticipation he inserted his finger under
the flap of the envelope and tore it open. With lightning speed his eyes
skimmed the oddly written lines. Then a short, inarticulate sound
escaped him, and the blood suddenly receded from his face.

"MY DEAR NEPHEW," he read.--"In acknowledgment of your services
during the past seven years--and also because I have no wish to
pass into the Unseen with the stain of vindictiveness on my
Soul--I have obliterated from my mind the remembrance of my
brother's ingratitude to our father, and have placed the sum of
L500 to your credit in the Cleef branch of the Consolidated Bank. I
trust it may assist you to commence an industrious career. For the
rest, it may interest you to know that my capital, which I realized
upon your grandfather's death, is already placed in the treasury of
the sect to which I belong--where it will remain until claimed by
the One in whose ultimate advent I most solemnly believe.

"I make you cognizant of these facts that all disputes and
unnecessary differences may be avoided after my death. The papers
by which my property was made over to the Mystics some five ye