'You don't understand,' said the lad, smiling with closed eyes, 'or you wouldn't say that. I said before that it means a lot, when a man's down, to be able to see a little light ahead. . . . I can see that now again. . . . It doesn't matter what I've been or done--I can go out there now, and die like a gentleman. War gives us poor devils that chance. . . . You know what I mean. My life has been no damned use to any one, Selwyn, but they won't care about that in France. To die in the trenches--that's my last chance to do something . . . to do something that counts.' Selwyn leaned over and patted the lad on his shoulder. 'Dick,' he said, 'wait until the morning, and all these fancies will clear from your mind. We'll discuss everything then together.' The musing smile lingered again about the boy's lips. 'You're tired out, old man,' went on the American. 'I shouldn't have waked you. Good-night.' The other stopped him from rising by catching his arm with his hand. 'Do you mind,' said Dick, his eyes opening wide, 'just staying here until I go to sleep? . . . There are all sorts of wild things going through my head to-night . . . waves pounding, pounding, pounding. It never stops, Selwyn. . . . And I seem to hear shouts a long way off--like smugglers landing their stuff in the dark. I'm an awful idiot to talk like this, old boy, but I've lost my courage a bit.' And so for nearly half-an-hour the American remained watching by the lad as sleep hovered about and gradually settled on him. As Selwyn quietly stole from the room the City's clocks were striking three. II. It was after nine o'clock when Selwyn woke from a deep, refreshing sleep. Hurrying into the other room, he found no sign of his guests. 'When did these gentlemen leave?' he asked of his servant, who had answered his ring. 'It must have been about six o'clock, sir. I heard the door open and shut then.' 'Why didn't you call me?' 'I wasn't wanting to disturb you, sir. It's the first good sleep you've had for a long time.' It was true. The sinking of himself into the personality of another man had released the fetters of his intensive egotism. For a whole night he had forgotten, or at least neglected, his world-mission in simple solicitude for one who had fallen by the wayside.