I can imagine there must be. And how about Strachan?"

"Well, if he has not got a good bit in hand, I am not in it, that's all.
He could give me a hundred marks and a beating. However, I fancy that
he must be safe. But there is the Fall-in; I must be off."

As Kavanagh left the tent Strachan came into it.

"Well, old fellow, and how did you sleep?" he asked.

"Not badly," said Forsyth. "I fancy? Should have been still at it but
for that big drum of yours."

"Hush! It is lucky the Colonel is not here. Never speak of the big
drum in that irreverent tone to him, I pray. It would well-nigh give
him a fit. The big drum is his fetish, though he nearly smashed it
himself last year."

"How was that?"

"We were out on the Queen's Birthday, and had to fire a _feu de joie_.
Rattle up the front rank, rattle down the rear rank, three times, you
know. The horses hate it, and the chief had a young one who did not
like ordinary firing very well, though he had got him in hand for that.
But the roll was too much for the gee's nerves; he went wild with
terror, bolted slap through the band, and finally reared up till he
rolled over. It looked as if the Colonel was under him, and those who
went to help thought him smashed. But he got up, and said, with a face
of intense anxiety--

"`Is the big drum safe?' But, I say, how jolly it is to meet you again,
old fellow. Don't you remember that last evening at Harton, we said we
were sure to meet, we three; and here we are, you see. But, I say, this
is a bad story for Kavanagh about this will being missing, is it not?
Bad for you, too, though. Your mother was in it, was she not?"

"Yes; but as the testator's sister she will come in for something,
probably, anyhow. True, it is mostly land, and I believe an uncle
abroad will inherit that. But I don't know the legal rights of the
matter yet quite. Anyhow, she has something of her own, and I have
learned how to get work and earn my bread by it. So all round it is
worse for Kavanagh. What is his chance of passing?"

"Not very good, I fear," said Strachan. "I don't feel safe, and I have
read more than he has. And he is such a good fellow! He was awfully
sorry about Mr Burke's death, but made no trouble whatever of the
missing will. That is, of course, he thought the prospect of being
penniless a great bore, but he never got into low spirits, or worried
others about it. And with his tastes and ideas, too!"

"Yes," sa