The major nodded, and with the blade of his knife Ted soon had the bag open. The first thing he came to was a photograph of a beautiful woman, at which he looked intently for a few moments. It seemed to him that he had seen her, or some one very like her, somewhere before. Then he passed it over to the major, and reached his hand into the bag once more. Suddenly he was interrupted by a startled cry, in which there was a tone of pain and surprise, from the major. Looking up, he saw that the major was as white as a sheet, and that his hand trembled violently. "What is it?" Ted asked, striding to the major's side. But Major Caruthers was too shaken by emotion to reply at once. He continued to stare at the picture with devouring eyes, his face alternately flushing and paling. He was gasping as if he would speak, but the words would not come. "Do you know her?" asked Ted gently. The major nodded his head for reply. "What else do you find?" he managed to ask finally. Ted emptied the contents of the bag upon the bed. Among them was a package of old letters carefully tied. "Look at those letters," commanded the major hoarsely. Ted untied the string, and took one letter from the pack and opened it. It had been opened and folded so many times that it was with difficulty that Ted could open it now without having it fall to pieces. "You read it before I do," said the major, who was suffering from a great, nervous strain, and showed it in his face and trembling hand. Ted spread it on the bed and bent over it. In the upper left-hand corner was a faded crest of a tower, over which was a coronet. "My dear, wandering boy," the letter began, "I do not know where you are, or if you are well and alive, or are in trouble, for I have not heard from you for many months. I am sending this at random into that great America in the hope that it may reach you some day to tell you that your mother is constantly thinking of you. Your brother Jack is still in India with his regiment, but will soon retire and come home. Your sister Helen and her husband are I know not where. Mowbray turned out very badly, as your father believed he would, and he had to run from his creditors, and the enemies he had made through his dishonest practices. I don't know where they are, but it is my belief that they have gone to America. I wonder if you will ever run across them? If you do, tell Helen to leave the beast and come home, and both her father and I will forgive, and she can take her place here as if she had never met him. And this leads me to tell you that your father has greatly changed since you left us, and has even said that he was sorry for his harshness, and wished you had stayed with us. We are very lonely with all of our children away from us. Come back to your mother, and all will be different." There were many expressions of mother love in the letter, which was signed and dated from The Towers, Huntingdon, several years before.