The pistol fell from Lavirotte's hand to the ground. He rose quickly from the couch, and, drawing himself up to his full height, stood on the other side of the table, facing Eugene. O'Donnell, too, drew himself up to his full height, and stared across the table at the other. Lavirotte raised his right hand on high, and, pointing with his finger aloft, said: "Did you hear the boy call?" Jephson, who still stood close to the foot of the ladder, whispered in a thick voice: "Don't touch him. He is only mad." Lavirotte still stood, drawn up to his full height, in his stage costume, with his right hand thrust upward, and his forefinger pointing aloft. There was a silence which no mind could measure, and then a sound that made the cold sweat break out on Jephson and O'Donnell. "Did you hear the boy call?" whispered Lavirotte. Suddenly the right arm relaxed and fell to Lavirotte's side. His eyes left O'Donnell's face, and were fixed on a corner of the tower to the left. "Did you hear the boy call?" he repeated. "I would not let you sing that song the other day, Eugene, but you have heard the boy call, and I must answer." Almost imperceptibly he began lifting his left arm towards the left corner of the tower, where his eyes were fixed, and through which the ladder passed into the floor above. "I must answer this call. I must sing. I did not murder your boy. I stole him, that I might have the first call to-night. You heard The Last Call. I must answer the last call." Then in a voice which had never been firmer or truer, he sang the first line and a half of the "Bard's Legacy:" "When in death I shall calm recline, Oh, bear my heart----" He placed his right hand upon his left breast, still keeping his left hand rigid. "I can sing no more. Look." Turning their eyes in the direction he indicated, they saw descending from the loft above the figure of a small child, in white. "The bank is broken," said Lavirotte, "but the treasure has been found here. Take him back to her, Eugene. Close my eyes. This is all I can do towards answering The Last Call." Before he fell, Eugene caught him in his arms, laid him gently on the couch, and closed the eyes. THE END. * * * * * * * * * * CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. End of Project Gutenberg's The Last Call (Vol. 3 of 3), by Richard Dowling