s
country; and as this may be our last conversation, I should like very
much to tell you all."

Thus this confidence of Brooke's led to a similar act on the part of
Talbot, who now related to him her own history. As this has been
already set forth from the lips of Harry Rivers, it need not be
repeated here. Brooke listened to it in silence. At the close he
merely remarked:

"Well, Talbot, we've now made our final confessions. This is our last
interview. And I feel sad, not, my lad, at the thought of death, but
at the thought of leaving you among these villains. My only thought
is, what will become of you."

"It's strange," said Talbot, in a musing tone, "very strange. All
this that I have been telling you seems now removed back away to a
far, far distant past. It is as though it all happened in a previous
state of existence."

"I dare say," said Brooke. "Oh yes; you see you've been having a
precious hard time of it."

"Yes," mused Talbot. "Fear, hope, suspense, shame, grief, despair;
then fear, suspense, and despair; then hope and joy, followed again
by despair. So it has been, and all in a few days. Brooke, I tell you
I am another person altogether from that girl who left her home so
short a time ago. Miss Talbot--where is she? I am the lad
Talbot--comrade of a brave man--fighting with him for my life, and
now along with him resting in the Valley of the Shadow of Death."

"Bosh!" said Brooke, in a husky, choking voice. He muttered a few
unintelligible words, and then ceased.

"Death is near, Brooke--very near; I feel it."

"Talbot," said Brooke, with something like a groan, "talk of
something else."

"It's near to you."

"Well, what if it is?"

"And it's near to me."

"It's not; I tell you it's not," cried Brooke, excitedly.

"It was the old fashion of chivalry, upheld by all the Talbots, that
the page or the squire should never survive the chief. I'm a Talbot.
Do you understand me, Brooke?"

"If they did so," cried Brooke, in stronger excitement, "they were a
pack of cursed fools.

"'He that fights and runs away
May live to fight another day.'

That's my motto."

"Do you think I'll survive you?" asked Talbot, taking no notice of
Brooke's words.

Brooke gave a wild laugh.

"You'll have to, my boy--you'll have to."

"I'm your page, your vassal," said she. "I'm a Talbot. We've
exchanged arms. I've flung away the girl life. I'm a boy--the lad
Talbot. We're brothers in arms, for goo