TO-MORROW
Page: 18

none too soon. But this time I've a chum waiting
for me in London, and besides . . ."

Bessie Carvil was breathing quickly.

"What if I tried a knock at the door?" he sug-
gested.

"Try," she said.

Captain Hagberd's gate squeaked, and the shad-
ow of the son moved on, then stopped with another
deep laugh in the throat, like the father's, only
soft and gentle, thrilling to the woman's heart,
awakening to her ears.

"He isn't frisky--is he? I would be afraid to
lay hold of him. The chaps are always telling me
I don't know my own strength."

"He's the most harmless creature that ever
lived," she interrupted.

"You wouldn't say so if you had seen him chas-
ing me upstairs with a hard leather strap," he said;
"I haven't forgotten it in sixteen years."

She got warm from head to foot under another
soft, subdued laugh. At the rat-tat-tat of the
knocker her heart flew into her mouth.

"Hey, dad! Let me in. I am Harry, I am.
Straight! Come back home a day too soon."

One of the windows upstairs ran up.

"A grinning, information fellow," said the voice
of old Hagberd, up in the darkness. "Don't you
have anything to do with him. It will spoil every-
thing."

She heard Harry Hagberd say, "Hallo, dad,"
then a clanging clatter. The window rumbled
down, and he stood before her again.

"It's just like old times. Nearly walloped the
life out of me to stop me going away, and now I
come back he throws a confounded shovel at my
head to keep me out. It grazed my shoulder."

She shuddered.

"I wouldn't care," he began, "only I spent my
last shillings on the railway fare and my last two-
pence on a shave--out of respect for the old man."

"Are you really Harry Hagberd?" she asked.
"Can you prove it?"

"Can I prove it? Can any one else prove it?"
he said jovially. "Prove with what? What do I
want to prove? There isn't a single corner in the
world, barring England, perhaps, where you could
not find some man, or more likely woman, that
would remember me for Harry Hagberd. I am
more like Harry Hagberd than any man alive; and
I can prove it to you in a minute, if you will let me