The Four Feathers

southern slope of the Surrey hills, was glowing from a dark forest depth of pines with the warmth of a rare jewel. Lieutenant Sutch limped across the hall, where the portraits of the Fevershams

ry man, and, in spite of his white hairs, alert. But the alertness was of the body. A bony fac

e the ground fell steeply to a wide level plain of brown earth and emerald fields and dark clumps of trees. From this plain voices rose through the sunshine, small but very

should find you

in a quite emotionless voice. "She would sit here by the

had imagination. Her tho

he asked no questions. What he did not understand he habitually let slip from

leaf out of our

it is. The obituary column is just the last formality which gazettes us out of the service altogether," and Sutch stretched o

to take your opinion. This day is more to me than the anniversary of our attack

ember," interrupted Sutch, with a d

object, he might join us to-night. He happens to be at home. He will, of course, enter the se

its to General Feversham were limited to the occasion of the

o unlike to her in character. Personal courage and an indomitable self-confidence were the chief, indeed the only, qualities which sprang to light in General Feversham. Lieutenant Sutch went back in thought over twenty years, as he sat on his garden-chair, to a time before he had taken part, as an officer of the Naval Brigade, in that unsuccessful onslaught on the Redan.

tory was always in the telling before its predecessor was ended. They were stories of death, of hazardous exploits, of the pinch of famine, and the chill of snow. But they were told in clipped words and with a matter-of

as spoken. He listened fascinated and enthralled. And so vividly did the changes of expression shoot and quiver across his face, that it seemed to Sutch the lad must actually hear the drone of bullets in the air, actually resist the stunning shock of a charge, actually ride down in the thick of

ing glance backwards; and Lieutenant Sutch was startled, and indeed more

rom the line in the eagerness of his attack, and then stopping suddenly as though he suddenly understood that he was alone, and had to meet alone the charge of a mounted Cossack. Sutch remembered very clearly the fatal wavering glance which the big soldier had thrown backward toward his c

w a breath of relief and turned to Harry. But the boy was sitting with his elbows on the cloth and his head propped between his hands, lost to the glare of the room and its glitter of silver, constructing again out of the swift succession of anecdotes a world of cries and wounds, and maddened riderless

"Though the heat is dripping down the

himself from

s renew the

u listening t

eral Feversham's voice broke shar

ook at th

angles. It was close upon midnight; and from eight, without so much as a word or a que

d in a chorus. The conversation was clear gain to the lad, a firs

plain. You wouldn't find a youngster of fourteen sit all these hours without a kick of the f

relaxed the iron discipline

e an hour's furlough from his bed. A s

is face with a curious steady gaze. It seemed to Sutch that they uttered a

you b

he was not entertained; rather he was enthralled; he sat quiet under the compulsion of a spell. His face became unnaturally white, his eyes unnaturally large, whil

en General Feversham, himself jogged by the unlucky ment

might set himself right. There were three hundred yards of bullet-swept flat ground, and a message to be carried across them. Had Wilmington toppled off his horse on the way, why, there were the whispers silenced for ever. Had he ridden through alive he earned distinction besides. But he didn't dare; he refused! Imagine it if you can! He sat shaking on his horse and declined. You should have seen the general. His face turned the colour of that Burgundy. 'No doubt you have a previous engagement,' he said, in the politest voice you ever heard-just that, not a word of

one. Harry Feversham had still a quarter of an hour's furlough, and that quarter of an hour was o

ally in any particular danger. The affair happened during a hill campaign in India. We were encamped in a valley, and a few Pathans used to lie out on the hillside at night and take long shots into the

claimed t

strument-case in the dark, taken out a lancet, and severed his fem

tlessly in their chairs with a sort of physical discomfort, because a man had sunk so far below humanity. Here an officer gulped his wine, there a second shook his shoulders as though to sha

ocity. He had the look of a dangerous animal in the trap. His body was gathered, his muscles taut. Sutch had a fear that the lad meant to leap across the table and strike with all h

. You can only say they are the truth and pray God you may

lay his hand upon

yes turned swiftly toward Sutch, and rested upon his face, not, however, with any betrayal of guilt, but quie

eneral, with a snort of indignation

ntrue. A mere look at the father and the son proved it so. Harry Feversham wore his father's name, but he had his mother's dark and haunted eyes, his mother's breadth of forehead, his mother's del

the clock

n out. Harry rose from his

" he said, and wa

h of night. For a second or two the boy hesitated upon the threshold, and seemed almost to shrink back int

tenant, although he prided himself upon his impartial and disinterested study of human nature, was the kindliest of men. He had more kindliness than observation by a great deal. Moreover, there were special reasons which caused him to take an interest in Ha

, glittering there upon a corselet of steel. For there was not one man's portrait upon the walls which did not glisten with the colours of a uniform, and there were the portraits of many men. Father and son, the Fevershams had been soldiers from the very birth of the family. Father and son, in lace collars and bucket boots, in Ramillies wigs and steel breastplates, in velvet coats, with powder on their hair, in shakos and swallow-tails, in high stocks and frogged coats, they looked down upon this last Feversham, summoning him to the like service. They wer

in their cold unchanging eyes. Lieutenant Sutch understood more clearly why the flame of the candle flickered. There was no draught in the hall, but the boy's hand shook. And finally, as though he heard

his eyes quietly rest upon Sutch and waited.

not a boy, but a comrade equal in years, "we meet for the first time to-night. But I knew your mother a long time ago

g," sai

g sometimes ligh

of you. Ther

uld not but be, set apart as he was, no less unmistakably in mind as in feature, from his father and his fathe

ome day you will give me a few days of your company

ent the boy's steady inscrutable face. I

y monotonously repeate

er a difficult question with an

y's sensitiveness should think he laughed. Harry took the

, he was very sure. There were words which he should have spoken to the boy, but he had not known how to set about the task. He ret

t is also Harry Feversham's birthday. For us, our work is done. I ask you to drink the health of one of the youngsters who are ousting us. His work lies befo

hat company w

Fever

eversham," the cry was repeated and repeated, while old General Feversham sat in his chair with a face aflush

a jolly g

a jolly g

a jolly g

say all

slinking at night in the shadows of the London streets. He pushed back the flap of a tent and stooped over a man lying stone-dead in his blood, with an open lancet