"Of course I am. You know the circumstances better than I do. It's no good playing the fool with me, and I don't intend to have my daughter upset by telegrams and surreptitious communications. So, now, you know. You've done for yourself, my lad, and you'd better face it and remain dead." "But my mother--she has explained?" "Of course, she has, and it's nearly broken her heart. Think of her awful position, to have to confess that her son altered her checks--checks actually drawn in her name--and the money filched from the bank by a dirty trick! The bank's got to lose it. Your grandfather won't pay a cent." "But my mother--?" faltered Dick again, leaning forward heavily on the table, and gazing at the colonel with eyes so full of horror that the elder man wondered whether suffering had not turned Dick's brain. "Ah, you may well ask about your mother. She tried to do her best, I believe, to get your grandfather to pay up; but the shame of the thing is what I look at. That's why I came to you here, to-day. If your mother knows no more than Dora and all the rest--if they still think you're dead--well, why not remain dead? It's only charity--it's only kind. Your father and mother think that you died a hero's death, and, naturally, aren't disposed to look upon your crime quite in the same light as other people. Why, in heaven's name, when you got a chance of slipping out of life, and out of the old set, and making a fresh start, didn't you seize it?" "You mean, why didn't I get shot?" asked Dick, slowly. "Well, not exactly that. You know as well as I do that lots of chaps go to the front to get officially shot, and have their names on the list of the killed--men who really mean to turn over a new leaf, and get a fresh lease of life in another country, under another name, when the war is over. Others get put right out of the way, because they haven't the courage to do it themselves." "But my mother could have explained!" cried Dick, huskily. He was so weak that he was unable to cope with agitation. "Tut, tut, man, your mother could explain nothing. She could only tell the truth--that she gave you two checks for small amounts, and you put bigger amounts to them, and cashed them at the bank; in short, that her son was a forger." "My mother said that!" "Yes." "God help her!" gasped Dick, with a gulp. He put his hand to his throat, and fell forward on the table, senseless. The colonel jumped up in alarm. Waiters rushed forward, and they revived the sick man by further applications of brandy. He recovered quickly, and food was again set before him. He ate mechanically, and for a long time there was silence between the two men. The colonel wished himself well out of the business, and felt the brutality of using harsh words to a man in such a condition of health. Yet, he was resolute in his purpose.