go into the kitchen to scare the maids. I could see they looked at
him as if he had been his infernal majesty, as he came in. He can
do it anywhere; all he wants is an iron pot with some holes in it,
and some charcoal. He can squat out there on the veranda, or, if
it is bad weather, any shed will do for him.

"Well, it is nice to be home again, John," he went on, after he had
eaten a few mouthfuls of chicken and drunk a tumbler of Burgundy
and water. "I am glad to be back, now I am here, though I dare say
I should not have come home for another ten years if it had not
been for this rascally bullet. Where is your boy?"

"He is away at school."

"Well, I think I will go up to bed at once, if you don't mind,
John. I shall be fitter to talk in the morning."

The next day, indeed, Colonel Thorndyke was materially better. His
voice was stronger and more cheery, and when he came down after
breakfast he took his seat in an easy chair instead of on the sofa.

"Now, brother," he said, "we will have a cozy chat. There are several
things I want done, but the chief of these is that when I am gone
you should go down to Reigate, as I wanted you to do ten years
ago. I want you to seem to be its master, as well as be its master,
until Millicent comes of age, if not longer. Her name is Millicent
Conyers Thorndyke. I wish her to be called Millicent Conyers, and
to appear as your ward, and not as your niece and heiress of the
property. If there is one thing in the world I have a greater horror
of than another, it is of a girl being married for her money. I