Harding's luck

by E. Nesbit

  CHAPTER XI

  LORD ARDEN

  THERE was a lot of talk and a lot of letter-writing before any oneseemed to be able to be sure who was Lord Arden. If the father of Edredand Elfrida had wanted to dispute about it no doubt there would havebeen enough work to keep the lawyers busy for years, and seas of inkwould have been spilled and thunders of eloquence spent on the question.But as the present Lord Arden was an honest man and only too anxiousthat Dickie should have everything that belonged to him, even thelawyers had to cut their work short.

  When Edred saw how his father tried his best to find out the truth aboutDickie's birth, and how willing he was to give up what he had thoughtwas his own, if it should prove to be _not_ his, do you think he was notglad to know that he had done his duty, and rescued his cousin, and hadnot, by any meanness or any indecision, brought dishonor on the name ofArden? As for Elfrida, when she knew the whole story of that night ofrescue, she admired her brother so much that it made him almostuncomfortable. However, she now looked up to him in all things andconsulted him about everything, and, after all, this is very pleasantfrom your sister, especially when every one has been rather in the habitof suggesting that she is better than you are, as well as cleverer.

  To Dickie Lord Arden said, "Of course, if anything _should_ happen toshow that I am really Lord Arden, you won't desert us, Dickie. You shallgo to school with Edred and be brought up like my very own son."

  And, like Lord Arden's very own son, Dickie lived at the house in ArdenCastle, and grew to love it more and more. He no longer wanted to getaway from these present times to those old days when James the First wasKing. The times you are born in are always more home-like than any othertimes can be. When Dickie lived miserably at Deptford he always longedto go to those old times, as a man who is unhappy at home may wish totravel to other countries. But a man who is happy in his home does notwant to leave it. And at Arden Dickie was happy. The training he had hadin the old-world life enabled him to take his place and to beunembarrassed with the Ardens and their friends as he was with theBeales and theirs. "A little shy," the Ardens' friends told each other,"but what fine manners! And to think he was only a tramp! Lord Arden hascertainly done wonders with him!"

  So Lord Arden got the credit of all that Dickie had learned from histutors in James the First's time.

  It is not in the nature of any child to brood continually on the past orthe future. The child lives in the present. And Dickie lived at Ardenand loved it, and enjoyed himself; and Lord Arden bought him a pony, sothat his lame foot was hardly any drag at all. The other children had adonkey-cart, and the three made all sorts of interesting expeditions.

  Once they went over to Talbot Court, and saw the secret place whereEdward Talbot had hidden his confession about having stolen the Ardenbaby, three generations before. Also they saw the portrait of the LadyTalbot who had been a Miss Arden. In rose-colored brocade she was, witha green silk petticoat and her powdered hair dressed high over a greatcushion, but her eyes and her mouth were the eyes of Dickie of Deptford.

  Lady Talbot was very charming to the children, played hide-and-seek withthem, and gave them a delightful and varied tea in the yew arbor.

  "I'm glad you wouldn't let me adopt you, Richard," she said, whenElfrida and Edred had been sent to her garden to get a basket of peachesto take home with them, "because just when I had become entirelyattached to you, you would have found out your real relations, andwhere would your poor foster-mother have been then?"

  "If I could have stayed with you I would," said Dickie seriously. "I didlike you most awfully, even then. You are very like the Lady Arden whosehusband was shut up in the Tower for the Gunpowder Plot."

  "So they tell me," said Lady Talbot, "but how do you know it?"

  "I don't know," said Dickie confused, "but you _are_ like her."

  "You must have seen a portrait of her. There's one in the NationalPortrait Gallery. She was a Delamere, and my name was Delamere, too,before I was married. She was one of the same family, you see, dear."

  Dickie put his arms round her waist as she sat beside him, and laid hishead on her shoulder.

  "I wish you'd really been my mother," he said, and his thoughts wereback in the other days with the mother who wore a ruff and hoop. LadyTalbot hugged him tenderly.

  "My dear little Dickie," she said, "you don't wish it as much as I do."

  "There are all sorts of things a chap can't be sure of--things youmustn't tell any one. Secrets, you know--honorable secrets. But if itwas your own mother it would be different. But if you haven't got amother you have to decide everything for yourself."

  "Won't you let me help you?" she asked.

  Dickie, his head on her shoulder, was for one wild moment tempted totell her everything--the whole story, from beginning to end. But he knewthat she could not understand it--or even believe it. No grown-up personcould. A chap's own mother might have, perhaps--but perhaps not, too.

  "I can't tell you," he said at last, "only I don't think I want to beLord Arden. At least, I do, frightfully. It's so splendid, all thethings the Ardens did--in history, you know. But I don't want to turnpeople out--and you know Edred came and saved me from those people. Itfeels hateful when I think perhaps they'll have to turn out just becauseI happened to turn up. Sometimes I feel as if I simply couldn't bearit."

  "You dear child!" she said; "of course you feel that. But don't let yourmind dwell on it. Don't think about it. You're only a little boy. Behappy and jolly, and don't worry about grown-up things. Leave grown-upthings to the grown-ups."

  "You see," Dickie told her, "somehow I've always had to worry aboutgrown-up things. What with Beale, and one thing and another."

  "That was the man you ran away from me to go to?"

  "Yes," said Dickie gravely; "you see, I was responsible for Beale."

  "And now? Don't you feel responsible any more?"

  "No," said Dickie, in businesslike tones; "you see, I've settled Bealein life. You can't be responsible for married people. They'reresponsible for each other. So now I've got only my own affairs to thinkof. And the Ardens. I don't know what to do."

  "Do? why, there's nothing _to_ do except to enjoy yourself and learnyour lessons and be happy," she told him. "Don't worry your little head.Just enjoy yourself, and forget that you ever had any responsibilities."

  "I'll try," he told her, and then the others came back with theirpeaches, and there was nothing more to be said but "Thank you very much"and good-bye.

  * * * * *

  Exploring the old smugglers' caves was exciting and delightful, asexploring caves always is. It turned out that more than one old man inthe village had heard from his father about the caves and the smugglingthat had gone on in those parts in old ancient days. But they had notthought it their place to talk about such things, and I suspect that intheir hearts they did not more than half believe them. Old Beale said--

  "Why didn't you ask me? I could a-told you where they was. Only Ishouldn't a done fear you'd break your precious necks."

  Of course the children were desperately anxious to open up the brickworkand let the stream come out into the light of day; only their fatherthought it would be too expensive. But Edred and Elfrida worried andbothered in a perfectly gentle and polite way till at last a very jollygentleman in spectacles, who came down to spend a couple of days, tooktheir part. From the moment he owned himself an engineer Edred andElfrida gave him no peace, and he seemed quite pleased to be taken tosee the caves. He pointed out that the removal of the simple dam wouldsend the water back into the old channel. It would be perfectly simpleto have the brickwork knocked out, and to let the stream find its wayback, if it could, to its old channel, and thence down the arched waywhich Edred and Elfrida told him they were certain was under a moundbelow the Castle.

  "You know a lot about it, don't you?" he said good-humoredly.

  "Yes," said Edred simply.

  Then they all went down to the mound, and the engineer then poked andp
rodded it and said he should not wonder if they were not so far out.And then Beale and another man came with spades, and presently there wasthe arch, as good as ever, and they exclaimed and admired and went backto the caves.

  It was a grand moment when the bricks had been taken out and daylightpoured into the cave, and nothing remained but to break down the dam andlet the water run out of the darkness into the sunshine. You can imaginewith what mixed feelings the children wondered whether they would ratherstay in the cave and see the dam demolished, or stay outside and see thestream rush out. In the end the boys stayed within, and it was onlyElfrida and her father who saw the stream emerge. They sat on a hillockamong the thin harebells and wild thyme and sweet lavender-colored gipsyroses, with their eyes fixed on the opening in the hillside, and waitedand waited and waited for a very long time.

  "Won't you mind frightfully, daddy," Elfrida asked during this longwaiting, "if it turns out that you're not Lord Arden?"

  He paused a moment before he decided to answer her without reserve.

  "Yes," he said, "I shall mind, frightfully. And that's just why we mustdo everything we possibly can to prove that Dickie is the rightful heir,so that whether he has the title or I have it you and I may never haveto reproach ourselves for having left a single stone unturned to givehim his rights--whatever they are."

  "And you, yours, daddy."

  "And me, mine. Anyhow, if he is Lord Arden I shall probably be appointedhis guardian, and we shall all live together here just the same. Only Ishall go back to being plain Arden."

  "I believe Dickie _is_ Lord Arden," Elfrida began, and I am not at allsure that she would not have gone on to give her reasons, including thewhole story which the Mouldiestwarp had told to Dickie; but at thatmoment there was a roaring, rushing sound from inside the cave, and aflash of shiny silver gleamed across that dark gap in the hillside.There was a burst of imprisoned splendor. The stream leaped out andflowed right and left over the dry grass, till it lapped in tiny wavesagainst their hillock--"like sand castles," as Elfrida observed. Itspread out in a lake, wider and wider; but presently gathered itselftogether and began to creep down the hill, winding in and out among thehillocks in an ever-deepening stream.

  "Come on, childie, let's make for the moat. We shall get there first, ifwe run our hardest," Elfrida's father said. And he ran, with his littledaughter's hand in his.

  They got there first. The stream, knowing its own mind better andbetter as it recognized its old road, reached the Castle, and bydinner-time all the grass round the Castle was under water. By tea-timethe water in the moat was a foot or more deep, and when they got up nextmorning the Castle was surrounded by a splendid moat fifty feet wide,and a stream ran from it, in a zigzag way it is true, but still it ran,to the lower arch under the mound, and disappeared there, to rununderground into the sea. They enjoyed the moat for one whole day, andthen the stream was dammed again and condemned to run underground tillnext spring, by which time the walls of the Castle would have beenexamined and concrete laid to their base, lest the water should creepthrough and sap the foundations.

  "It's going to be a very costly business, it seems," Elfrida heard herfather say to the engineer, "and I don't know that I ought to do it. ButI can't resist the temptation. I shall have to economize in otherdirections, that's all."

  When Elfrida had heard this she went to Dickie and Edred, who werefishing in the cave, and told them what she had heard.

  "And we _must_ have another try for the treasure," she said. "Whoeverhas the Castle will want to restore it; they've got those pictures of itas it used to be. And then there are all the cottages to rebuild. DearDickie, you're so clever, do think of some way to find the treasure."

  So Dickie thought.

  And presently he said--

  "You once saw the treasure being carried to the secret room--in apicture, didn't you?"

  They told him yes.

  "Then why didn't you go back to that time and see it really?"

  "We hadn't the clothes. Everything in our magic depended on clothes."

  "Mine doesn't. Shall we go?"

  "There were lots of soldiers in the picture," said Edred, "andfighting."

  "I'm not afraid of soldiers," said Elfrida very quickly, "and you're notafraid of _anything_, Edred--you know you aren't."

  "You can't be or you couldn't have come after me right into the cave inthe middle of the night. Come on. Stand close together and I'll spreadout the moon-seeds."

  So Dickie said, and they stood, and he spread the moon-seeds out, and hewished to be with the party of men who were hiding the treasure. Butbefore he spread out the seeds he took certain other things in his lefthand and held them closely. And instantly they were.

  They were standing very close together, all three of them, in a niche ina narrow, dark passage, and men went by them carrying heavy chests, andgreat sacks of leather, and bundles tied up in straw and inhandkerchiefs. The men had long hair and the kind of clothes you knowwere worn when Charles the First was King. And the children wore thedresses of that time and the boys had little swords at their sides. Whenthe last bundle had been carried, the last chest set down with a dump onthe stone floor of some room beyond, the children heard a door shut anda key turned, and then the men came back all together along the passage,and the children followed them. Presently torchlight gave way todaylight as they came out into the open air. But they had to come onhands and knees, for the path sloped steeply up and the opening was verylow. The chests must have been pushed or pulled through. They couldnever have been carried.

  The children turned and looked at the opening. It was in the courtyardwall, the courtyard that was now a smooth grass lawn and not the rough,daisied grass plot dotted with heaps of broken stone and masonry thatthey were used to see. And as they looked two men picked up a greatstone and staggered forward with it and laid it on the stone floor ofthe secret passage just where it ended at the edge of the grass. Thenanother stone and another. The stones fitted into their places like bitsof a Chinese puzzle. There was mortar or cement at their edges, andwhen the last stone was replaced no one could tell those stones from theother stones that formed the wall. Only the grass in front of them wastrampled and broken.

  "Fetch food and break it about," said the man who seemed to be incommand, "that it may look as though the men had eaten here. And tramplethe grass at other places. I give the Roundhead dogs another hour tobreak down our last defense. Children, go to your mother. This is noplace for you."

  They knew the way. They had seen it in the picture. Edred and Elfridaturned to go. But Dickie whispered, "Don't wait for me. I've somethingyet to do."

  And when the soldiers had gone to get food and strew it about, as theyhad been told to do, Dickie crept up to the stones that had beenremoved, from which he had never taken his eyes, knelt down andscratched on one of the stones with one of the big nails he had broughtin his hand. It blunted over and he took another, hiding in the chapeldoorway when the men came back with the food.

  "Every man to his post and God save us all!" cried the captain when thefood was spread. They clattered off--they were in their armor now--andDickie knelt down again and went on scratching with the nail.

  The air was full of shouting, and the sound of guns, and the clash ofarmor, and a shattering sound like a giant mallet striking a giantdrum--a sound that came and came again at five-minute intervals--and theshrieks of wounded men. Dickie pressed up the grass to cover the markshe had made on the stone, so low as to be almost underground and quitehidden by the grass roots.

  Then he brushed the stone dust from his hands and stood up.

  The treasure was found and its hiding-place marked. Now he would findEdred and Elfrida, and they would go back. Whether he was Lord of Ardenor no, it was he and no other who had restored the fallen fortunes ofthat noble house.

  He turned to go the way his cousins had gone. He could see themen-at-arms crowding in the archway of the great gate tower. From awindow to his right a lady leaned, pale with terror, an
d with her wereEdred and Elfrida--he could just see their white faces. He made for thedoor below that window. But it was too late. That dull, thudding soundcame again, and this time it was followed by a great crash and a greatshouting. The blue sky showed through the archway where the tall gateshad been and under the arch was a mass of men shouting, screaming,struggling, and the gleam of steel and the scarlet of brave blood.

  Dickie forgot all about the door below the window, forgot all about hiscousins, forgot that he had found the treasure and that it was now hisbusiness to get himself and the others safely back to their own times.He only saw the house he loved broken into by men he hated; he saw themen he loved spending their blood like water to defend that house.

  He drew the little sword that hung at his side and shouting "An Arden!an Arden!" he rushed towards the swaying, staggering _melee_. He reachedit just as the leader of the attacking party had hewn his way throughthe Arden men and taken his first step on the flagged path of thecourtyard. The first step was his last. He stopped, a big, burly fellowin a leathern coat and steel round cap, and looked, bewildered, at thelittle figure coming at him with all the fire and courage of the Ardensburning in his blue eyes. The big man laughed, and as he laughed Dickielunged with his sword--the way his tutor had taught him--and the littlesword--no tailor's ornament to a Court dress, but a piece of truesteel--went straight and true up into the heart of that big rebel. Theman fell, wrenching the blade from Dickie's hand.

  A shout of fury went up from the enemy. A shout of pride and triumphfrom the Arden men. Men struggled and fought all about him. Next momentDickie's hands were tied with a handkerchief, and he stood therebreathless and trembling with pride.

  "'I HAVE KILLED A MAN,' HE SAID"

  _Page 290_]

  "I have killed a man," he said; "I have killed a man for the King andfor Arden."

  They shut him up in the fuel shed and locked the door. Pride and angerfilled him. He could think of nothing but that one good thrust for thegood cause. But presently he remembered.

  He had brought his cousins here--he must get them back safely. But how?On a quiet evening on the road Beale had taught him how to untie handstied behind the back. He remembered the lesson now and set to work--butit was slow work. And all the time he was thinking, thinking. How couldhe get out? He knew the fuel shed well enough. The door was strong,there was a beech bar outside. But it was not roofed with tile or lead,as the rest of the Castle was. And Dickie knew something about thatch.Not for nothing had he watched the men thatching the oast-house by theMedway. When his hands were free he stood up and felt for the pins thatfasten the thatch.

  Suddenly his hands fell by his side. Even if he got out, how could hefind his cousins? He would only be found by the rebels and be lockedaway more securely. He lay down on the floor, lay quite still there. Itwas despair. This was the end of all his cleverness. He had broughtEdred and Elfrida into danger, and he could not get them back again. Hisanger had led him to defy the Roundheads, and to gratify his hate ofthem he had sacrificed those two who trusted him. He lay there a longtime, and if he cried a little it was very dark in the fuel house, andthere was no one to see him.

  He was not crying, however, but thinking, thinking, thinking, and tryingto find some way out, when he heard a little scratch, scratching on thecorner of the shed. He sat up and listened. The scratching went on. Heheld his breath. Could it be that some one was trying to get in to helphim? Nonsense, of course it was only a rat. Next moment a voice spoke soclose to him that he started and all but cried out.

  "Bide where you be, lad, bide still; 'tis only me--old Mouldiwarp ofArden. You be a bold lad, by my faith, so you be. Never an Arden better.Never an Arden of them all."

  "Oh, Mouldiwarp, dear Mouldiwarp, do help me! I led them into this--helpme to get them back safe. Do, do, do!"

  "So I will, den--dere ain't no reason in getting all of a fluster. Itain't fitten for a lad as 'as faced death same's what you 'ave," saidthe voice. "I've made a liddle tunnel for 'e--so I 'ave--'ere in dis'ere corner--you come caten wise crose the floor and you'll feel it. Youcrawl down it, and outside you be sure enough."

  Dickie went towards the voice, and sure enough, as the voice said, therewas a hole in the ground, just big enough, it seemed, for him to crawldown on hands and knees.

  "I'll go afore," said the Mouldiwarp, "you come arter. Dere's naught tobe afeared on, Lord Arden."

  "Am I really Lord Arden?" said Dickie, pausing.

  "Sure's I'm alive you be," the mole answered; "yer uncle'll tell it youwith all de lawyer's reasons to-morrow morning as sure's sure. Comealong, den. Dere ain't no time to lose."

  So Dickie went down on his hands and knees, and crept down the moletunnel of soft, sweet-smelling earth, and then along, and then up--andthere they were in the courtyard. There, too, were Edred and Elfrida.

  The three children hugged each other, and then turned to the Mouldiwarp.

  "How can we get home?"

  "The old way," he said; and from the sky above a swan carriage suddenlyswooped. "In with you," said the Mouldiwarp; "swan carriages can takeyou from one time to another just as well as one place to another. Butwe don't often use 'em--'cause why? swans is dat contrary dey won't goinvisible not for no magic, dey won't. So everybody can see 'em. Stillwe can't pick nor choose when it's danger like dis 'ere. In with you. Beoff with you. This is the last you'll see o' me. Be off afore thesoldiers sees you."

  They squeezed into the swan carriage, all three. The white wings spreadand the whole equipage rose into the air unseen by any one but aRoundhead sentinel, who with great presence of mind gave the alarm, andwas kicked for his pains, because when the guard turned out there wasnothing to be seen.

  The swans flew far too fast for the children to see where they weregoing, and when the swans began to flap more slowly so that the childrencould have seen if there had been anything to see, there was nothing tobe seen, because it was quite dark. And the air was very cold. Butpresently a light showed ahead, and next moment there they were in thecave, and stepped out of the carriage on the exact spot where Dickie hadset out the moon-seeds and Tinkler and the white seal.

  The swan carriage went back up the cave with a swish and rustle ofwings, and the children went down the hill as quickly as theycould--which was not very quickly because of Dickie's poor lame foot.The boy who had killed a Cromwell's man with his little sword had notbeen lame.

  Arrived in the courtyard, Dickie proudly led the way and stooped toexamine the stones near the ruined arch that had been the chapel door.Alas! there was not a sign of the inscription which Dickie had scratchedon the stone when the Roundheads were battering at the gates of ArdenCastle.

  Then Edred said, "Aha!" in a tone of triumph.

  "_I_ took notice, too," he explained. "It's the fifth stone from thechapel door under the little window with the Arden arms carved over it.There's no other window with that over it. I'll get the cold chisel."

  He got it, and when he came back Dickie was on his knees by the wall,and he had dug with his hands and uncovered the stone where he hadscratched with the nails. And there was the mark--19. R.D. 08. Only thenail had slipped once or twice while he was doing the 9, so that itlooked much more like a five--15. R.D. 08.

  "There," he said, "that's what I scratched!"

  "That?" said Edred. "Why, that's always been there. We found that whenwe were digging about, trying to find the treasure. Quite at thebeginning, didn't we, Elf?"

  And Elfrida agreed that this was so.

  "Well, I scratched it, anyway," said Dickie. "Now, then, let me go aheadwith the chisel."

  Edred let him: he knew how clever Dickie was with his hands, for had henot made a work-box for Elfrida and a tool-chest for Edred, both withlids that fitted?

  Dickie got the point of the chisel between the stones and pried andpressed--here and there, and at the other end--till the stone movedforward a little at a time, and they were able to get hold of it, anddrag it out. Behind was darkness, a hollow--Dickie plunged his arm
in.

  "I can feel the door," he said; "it's all right."

  "Let's fetch father," suggested Elfrida; "he _will_ enjoy it so."

  So he was fetched. Elfrida burst into the library where her father wasbusy with many lawyers' letters and papers, and also with the lawyerhimself, a stout, jolly-looking gentleman in a tweed suit, not a bitlike the long, lean, disagreeable, black-coated lawyers you read aboutin books.

  "Please, daddy," she cried, "we've found the treasure. Come and look."

  "What treasure? and how often have I told you not to interrupt me when Iam busy?"

  "Oh, well," said Elfrida, "I only thought it would amuse you, daddy.We've found a bricked-up place, and there's a door behind, and I'malmost sure it's where they hid the treasure when Cromwell's wicked mentook the Castle."

  "There is a legend to that effect," said Elfrida's father to the lawyer,who was looking interested. "You must forgive us if our familyenthusiasms obliterate our manners. You have not said good-morning toMr. Roscoe, Elfrida."

  "Good-morning, Mr. Roscoe," said Elfrida cheerfully. "I thought it wasthe engineer's day and not the lawyer's. I beg your pardon, you wouldn'tmind me bursting in if you knew how very important the treasure is tothe fortunes of our house."

  The lawyer laughed. "I am deeply interested in buried treasure. It wouldbe a great treat to me if Lord Arden would allow me to assist in thesearch for it."

  "There's no search _now_," said Elfrida, "because it's found. We've beensearching for ages. Oh, daddy, do come--you'll be sorry afterwards ifyou don't."

  "If Mr. Roscoe doesn't mind, then," said her father indulgently. And thetwo followed Elfrida, believing that they were just going to be kind andto take part in some childish game of make-believe. Their feelings werevery different when they peeped through the hole, where Dickie andEdred had removed two more stones, and saw the dusty gray of the woodendoor beyond. Very soon all the stones were out, and the door wasdisclosed.

  The lock plate bore the arms of Arden, and the door was not to beshaken.

  "We must get a locksmith," said Lord Arden.

  "The big key with the arms on it!" cried Elfrida; "one of those in theiron box. Mightn't that----?" One flew to fetch it.

  A good deal of oil and more patience were needed before the keyconsented to turn in the lock, but it did turn--and the low passage wasdisclosed. It hardly seemed a passage at all, so thick and low hung thecurtain of dusty cobwebs. But with brooms and lanterns and much sneezingand choking, the whole party got through to the door of the treasureroom. And the other key unlocked that. And there in real fact was thetreasure just as the children had seen it--the chests and the boxes andthe leathern sacks and the bundles done up in straw and inhandkerchiefs.

  The lawyer, who had come on a bicycle, went off on it, at racing speed,to tell the Bank at Cliffville to come and fetch the treasure, and tobring police to watch over it till it should be safe in the Bank vaults.

  "And I'm child enough," he said before he went, "as well as cautiousenough, to beg you not to bring any of it out till I come back, and notto leave guarding the entrance till the police are here."

  So when the treasure at last saw the light of day it saw it under theeyes of policemen and Bank managers and all the servants and all thefamily and the Beales and True, and half the village beside, who had gotwind of the strange happenings at the Castle and had crowded in throughthe now undefended gate.

  It was a glorious treasure--gold and silver plate, jewels and beautifularmor, along with a pile of old parchments which Mr. Roscoe said wereworth more than all the rest put together, for they were the title-deedsof great estates.

  "And now," cried Beale, "let's 'ave a cheer for Lord Arden. Long may 'eenjoy 'is find, says I! 'Ip, 'ip, 'ooray!"

  The cheers went up, given with a good heart.

  "I thank you all," said the father of Edred and Elfrida. "I thank youall from my heart. And you may be sure that you shall share in this goodfortune. The old lands are in the market. They will be bought back. Andevery house on Arden land shall be made sound and weather-tight andcomfortable. The Castle will be restored--almost certainly. And thefortunes of Arden's tenantry will be the fortunes of Arden Castle."

  Another cheer went up. But the speaker raised his hand, and silencewaited his next words.

  "I have something else to tell you," he said, "and as well now as later.This gentleman, Mr. Roscoe, my solicitor, has this morning brought menews that I am not Lord Arden!"

  Loud murmurs of dissatisfaction from the crowd.

  "I have no claim to the title," he went on grimly; "my father was ayounger son--the real heir was kidnapped, and supposed to be dead, so Iinherited. It is the grandson of that kidnapped heir who is Lord Arden.I know his whole history. I know what he has done, to do honor tohimself and to help others." ("Hear, hear" from Beale.) "I know all hislife, and I am proud that he is the head of our house. He will do foryou, when he is of age, all that I would have done. And in the meantimeI am his guardian. This is Lord Arden," he said, throwing his arm roundthe shoulders of Dickie, little lame Dickie, who stood there leaning onhis crutch, pale as death. "This is Lord Arden, come to his own. Cheerfor him, men, as you never cheered before. Three cheers for Richard LordArden!"