"What have you been about?" exclaimed the general. "I began to fear that you had given me the slip altogether, and that I should hear of you next at Gretna Green, or find that you had had a licence in your pocket all the time, and had been laughing in your sleeve while I was bestowing my sage advice on you." "No, indeed," answered Harry, who did not like the general's joke. "To confess the truth, I have been making my will. I thought it was a matter which would occupy five or ten minutes at the utmost, but found that there were all sorts of complications, of which I had not dreamed." "Make your will, my dear boy! What could induce you to do that?" exclaimed the general. "When a man is going to run the risk of being shot or drowned, or cut down by fever, or finished in some other way, he naturally wishes to make such arrangements that his property may benefit those in whom he is most interested. I should have asked you to be a witness, but the lawyer found those who would answer as well, and I therefore did not think it necessary to trouble you." "Well, we will talk about it as we ride homewards," observed the general. "It is time that we should be in the saddle, or we may be late for dinner." The general, as they rode along, pumped Harry, curious to know how he had disposed of his property. He suspected from poor Algernon's condition that the younger brother would himself soon become heir of Texford, and would thus, should Sir Ralph die, have no inconsiderable amount of property to leave. He succeeded in satisfying himself that should Harry Castleton be killed, Miss Pemberton's protege would succeed to all the property he could leave. "I hope, my young friend, you will be able to endow her with it in a different way," he observed, "and though I do not know what some may say to your intentions, for my part I think it is a very right thing to do. Supposing Algernon were to die, and you be killed, and I heartily hope that won't happen, your sister Julia will inherit Texford, and I shall be very much mistaken if your friend Headland does not some day become its master. Mrs Appleton and I agree that the young people are admirably matched. By the way, Harry, I want you and Headland to come and pay me a visit at a little box I have got near Portsmouth, if you can manage to get away from your ships before they sail, or when you come into port. I had thought of going to take a few weeks' shooting with my friend, Sir Pierce Berrington, but I have made up my mind to go home direct, and if you will give me your company we will travel together. You will find posting pleasanter than the coach, and we shall give a good account of any highwaymen who may think fit to cry, `Halt; your money or your lives.'"