The Lost Heir

his niece, who was buttoning her glove, when a servant entered

e you his name or say

im before. He merely asked

had better se

t him keep you, for you know that when I have put you down at your club I have an engag

t he will be five mi

th some interest at the stranger, for such it seemed to him his visitor was. He was a tall man, well dressed,

e, General?" he said,

"Your face does not seem unfamiliar to me, th

am not surprised that you do not remember it or me, for

o I was in command of the Benares district. Simcoe!" he broke off excitedly. "Of course I k

h as that, but at least I saved

sea within a month after you had saved my life I should have known you at once, though, of course, twenty years have changed you a good deal. My dea

washed overboard just as the wreck of the mainmast had been cut away. A wave carried me close to it; I climbed upon it and lashed myself to leeward of the top, which sheltered me a good deal. Five days later I was picked up insensible and was carried to Singapore. I was in hospital there for some weeks. When I quite recovered, being penniless, without references or friends, I shipped on board a vessel that was going on

ave you bee

on reaching London was to rig myself out in a presentable sort of way, and I may say that at present I feel very uncomfortable in these garments after being twenty years without putting on a

vant entered the roo

am taking the carriage, and have told them to put the other

er, and Simcoe, on leaving, accepted a cordial invit

r hour. "You said you would not be five minutes, and I waited for a quarter of an hour and then lost pat

had saved my lif

you never heard o

r the simple reason that I believed that he died twenty years ago. He had sailed in a vessel that w

gnize him at

and of course he has changed greatly. However, even before he told me who he was I was able to re

e was in the

end of mine in Calcutta. A few days after he arrived I was on the point of going up with a party to do some tiger-shooting in the Terai, and I invited him to come with us. He was a pleasant fellow and soon made himself popula

hours in beating the jungle, but without success, and had agreed that the brute could not have been hit as hard as we had believed, but must have made off altogether. We were within fifty yards of the edge of the jungle, when there was a sudden roar, and before I could use my rifle the tiger sprang. I was not i

was unable to move hand or foot, for he was lying on me, and his weight was pressing the life out of me. I know that I vaguely hoped I should die before he took a bite at my shoulder. I suppose that the whole thing did not last a minute, t

easy work pushing his way through the jungle, but in a minute he came upon us. Clubbing his gun, he brought it down on the left side of the tiger's head before the brute, who was hampered by his broken shoulder, and weak from his previous wound, could spring. Had it not been that it was the right shoulder that was broken, the blow, heavy as it was, would have had little effect upon the brute; as it

was terrible, but with his last remaining strength he drove the knife to the full length of its blade twice into the tiger's body. The animal rolled over for a moment, but there was still life in it, and it again sprang to its feet

e been. But the wound on the leg was more serious; its claws had struck just above the knee-cap and had completely torn it off. We were both insensible when we were lifted up and carried down to the camp. In a fortnight Simcoe was about; but it was some months before I could walk again, and, as you know, my right leg is still stiff. I had a very narrow escape of my life; fever set in, and

after I came here, when I happened to ask you how it was that you walked s

ief some way up near the borders of Burmah, Siam, and China, and somehow got possession of a large number of rubies and other precious stones, which he has turned into money, and now intends to t

he like

ch more presentable than you would expect under the circumstances. Indeed, had I not known that he had never served, I should unhesitatingly have put him down as having been in the

h, saying that he had been unexpectedly called out of town, and you said that you would ask somebody

ome, and as I came home I blamed myself for not havin

ened when the news came that his preserver had been drowned, and that the opportunity of doing so was forever lost. He now spared no pains to further his wishes. He constantly invited him to lunch or dinner at his club, introduced him to all his friends in terms

would hardly have thought would be known to one who had made but a short stay there. One of them said as much, but Simcoe said, laughing, "You forget that I was laid up for a month. Everyone was very good to me, and I had generally one or two men sitting with me, and

called his features. His instant recognition of them, his acquaintance with persons and scenes at and around Benares was such that they never for a moment doubted his identity, and as their remembrance of the General's visitor returned they even wondered that their recognition of him had not been as inst

leasure with which she greeted those who were her favorites. On his part the visitor spared no pains to make himself agreeable to her; he would at once volunteer to execute any commission for he

near relations. It was very kind of you to think of it, but I would really rather that you did not do it again. Uncle gives me carte blanche in the way of flowers, but I do not avail myself of it very largel

u some flowers. Out in the Pacific Islands, especially at Samoa and Tahiti, and, indeed, more or less

cost so much there as th

a dollar one can get enough to ren

at his present, Hilda," the General said. "I particul

qual to it in the room; it must

t you quite like h

ts I do not know that I do like him particularly. He is very pleasa

that you don't

mean to what he really is. I know more of his adventures and his life than I did, but I

t he is brave," the Gener

od qualities. He did behave like a hero in your case, and I need not say that I feel deeply grateful to him

tation. "What do you know about nine-tenths of the me

; he has become one of our inner circle; you are naturally deeply interested in him, and I am, therefore, interested in him also, and want to know more of him than I have got to know. He is

shrugged h

ing a man who has married their daughter, sister, or cousin. But as to bachelors, as a rule one has to take them at their own valuation. Of course, I know no more than you do as to whether Simcoe is in all respects an honorable gentleman. It is quite suffi

ent by the letter she wrote when her uncle had

ss I understand him. He talks fluently and quickly, and yet somehow I feel that there is a hesitation in his speech, and that his lips are repeating what they have learned, and not speaking spontaneously. You know that we have noticed the same thing among those who have learned to speak by the s

h a queer history. He knew no one; he had money and wanted to get into society. Through my uncle he has done so; he has been elected to two clubs, has made a great number of acquaintances, goes to the Row, the Royal Academy, the theaters, and so on, and is, at any rate, on nodding terms with a very large number of people. All this he owes to my uncle, and I fail to see

will not bother you more about it now; I will keep him out of my letters as much as I can. I wish I could keep him out of my mind also. As I tell myself over and over again, he is nothing to me, and whether he possesses all the virtues or none of them is, or at any rate sh