Page:The Unspeakable Gentleman (IA unspeakablegent00marq).pdf/238

 had mixed in a dash of spirits. There is a coat in the locker, Brutus, and you may find some splints and a piece of twine. I fear my arm is broken."

Mademoiselle had taken Brutus' knife and was cutting away his sleeve, half soaked with blood. He sighed and smiled a little sadly.

"So Sims hit me after all," he said. "It must be age. I was not so clumsy once. The bandages, Brutus."

He watched us with a mild interest, and then his mind turned to other matters, and he seemed regardless of the pain we caused him.

"My son," he said, turning to me, "you made a statement a while ago which interested me strangely. I was preoccupied, and perhaps I did not hear you aright, but it seemed you said I should know what had become of your mother's money. What am I to understand by that?"

"You are hurt, sir," I replied. "Why go go into a painful matter now? We have kept it quiet long enough. Only three people knew that it happened, and one of them is dead. Let us forget it, father. I am willing if you are."

My father raised his eyebrows, and it