"Do not say anything for a little," John said. "Think over everything quietly. I am not asking you to do anything dishonourable--and however much I had hated his mother I would not ask this of you if Ferdinand were my father's son. You are the next real heir--Ferdinand could not be; my father had never met the woman until a month before he married her, and the baby arrived five months afterwards, at its full time. There was no question of incubators or difficulties and special precautions to rear him, nor was there any suggestion that he was a seven months' child. It was only after years that I found out when my father first saw the woman, but even before this proof there were many and convincing evidences that Ferdinand was no Ardayre." "One has only to look at the beast!" cried Denzil. "If the mother was a Bulgarian, he's a mongrel Turk, there is not a trace of English blood in his body!" "Then surely you agree with me that it would be an infamy if he should take the place of the head of the family, should I not survive?" Denzil clenched his hands. "There is no moral question attached, remember," John went on anxiously before he could reply. "There is only the question of the law, which has been tricked and defamed by my father, for the meanest ends of revenge towards me--and now we--you and I--have the right to save the family and its honour and circumvent the perfidy and weakness of that one man. Oh!--can't you understand what this means to me, since for this trust of Ardayre that I feel I must faithfully carry on, I am willing to--Oh!--my God, I can't say it. Denzil, answer me--tell me that you look at it in the same way as I do! You are of the family. It is your blood which Ferdinand would depose--the disgrace would be yours then, since if Ferdinand reigned I would have gone." The two men were standing opposite one another, and both their faces were pale and stern, but Denzil's blue eyes were blazing with some wonderful new emotion, as they looked at John. "Very well," he said, and held out his hand. "I appreciate the tremendous faith you have placed in me, and on my word of honour as an Ardayre, I will not abuse it, nor take advantage of it afterwards. My regiment will go out at once, I suppose, the chances are as likely that I shall be killed as you--" They shook hands silently. "We must lose no time." Then John poured out two glasses of brandy, and the toast they drank was unspoken. But suddenly Denzil remembered as a strange coincidence that he was drinking it for the third time. * * * * *