Then came the reaction of depression that must inevitably attend the happiest and best-suited marriages. "Poor old colonel seems cut-up!" said Charlie, as he and Spencer and Ted lounged in the veranda some hours later gazing at the spangled velvet of the sky. "No wonder," mused Spencer. "He's left alone now, poor fellow! It's hardly a joyful occasion for him. Have a cheroot, Russell?" "No, thanks!" Ted replied. "Teddy's a good boy," Dorricot laughed. "He's quite right," said Spencer. "Nothing to be ashamed of in knowing that one is not old enough to have stopped growing." "She's a pretty girl!" Dorricot observed thoughtfully after a pause. "Hope I may do as well as Jim when my time comes." * * * * * Ted Russell's adventures as a boy were over. Readers interested in his subsequent career, if any such there be, may care to know that shortly after his return to India after serving under Sir Hope Grant in China, he obtained twelve-months' home leave. While in England the necklet, curiously enough, did again change hands, and Captain Edward Russell was by no means so greatly astounded by the circumstance as, to judge from former declarations, he ought to have been. Throughout the Second Afghan War he commanded one of the regiments of Roberts' army, and Colonel Paterson distinguished himself during the same campaign at Ahmed Khel, his regiment being with Sir Donald Stewart. The old friends met at Kabul, and Ted took part in the famous march to Kandahar, whilst Paterson proceeded with his general to the Kyber, and thence to Peshawur. A few years later Colonel Russell was in command of a brigade in one of the North-west Frontier expeditions, and he finally retired from the army with a hammered slug in his right leg, as Major-general Russell. End of Project Gutenberg's The Disputed V.C., by Frederick P. Gibbon