ever bad things are; but I'll go to the 'den' first, and smoke a pipe."
"And I'll go and see that your room is comfortable and ready for you," said the lady. As she left the room, her mouth was shut tight and her hands clenched.
Francis, having sought his room early, was joined at midnight by his half-brother, who went, as he told his mother, to ask for help in the future.
The man-servant Roberts, who took whisky and soda up to the room, noticed that the two young men were excited, and he heard high words between them as he left.
About four o'clock that same morning, the servant, who was sitting up waiting for possible contingencies, was summoned by the nurse to go and fetch the lieutenant as his father had just died suddenly, and at the same time another man was called up to go and wake the doctor, who was sleeping in the house, and other members of the family.
Scarcely a few moments had passed before the man Roberts came rushing back, his eyes almost starting out of his head, his knees shaking under him, his mouth twitching.
"Mr. Francis" he gasped out jerkily, almost in a whisper, "dead—dead in his bed,
