of course we could not tell how his struck him personally they were nothing very or above the average he might be crippled for life and want a little nursing still the memory of his performances would away in one hot weather and the would help him to tide over the money troubles but he must have taken an plain tales from the hills � he made that pony fly a do nearly anything at a pinch we covered the thirty miles in under three hours but the poor brute was nearly dead once i said what s the blazing hurry he said quietly the boy has been by himself for � two five � fourteen hours now i tell you i don t feel easy this uneasiness spread itself to me and i helped to beat the pony when we came to the canal engineer s rest house the called for the boy s servant but there was no answer then we went up to the house calling for the boy by name but there was no answer oh he s out shooting said i just then i saw through one of the windows a little lamp burning this was at in the afternoon we both stopped dead in the holding our breath to catch every sound and we heard inside the room the � � of a multitude of flies the major said � but he took off his and we entered very softly the boy was dead on the bed in the centre o� die bare lime washed room he had shot his bead nearly to pieces with his revolver the gun cases were still so was the and on die table lay the boy s writing case with thrown away photographs he had gone away to die like a poisoned rat the major said to himself softly poor boy poor poor devil then he turned away from the bed and said i want your help in this business knowing the boy was dead by his own hand i saw exactly what that help would be so i passed over to the table took a chair lit a and began to go through the writing case the major looking over my shoulder and repeating to himself we came too late � like a rat in a hole � poor poor devil the boy must have spent half the night in writing to his people to his colonel and to a girl at home and as soon as he had finished must have shot himself for he had been dead a long time when we came in i read all that he had written and passed over each sheet to the major as i finished it we saw from his accounts how very seriously he had taken everything he wrote about disgrace which he was unable to bear � shame � criminal folly � wasted life and so on besides a lot of private things to his ther and mother much too sacred to put into print the letter to the girl at home was the most pitiful of all and i choked as i read it the major made no attempt to keep dry eyed i respected bim for that he read and rocked himself to and plain tales from the hills fro and simply cried like a woman without caring to hide it the letters were so dreary and hopeless and touching we forgot all about the boy s follies and only thought of the poor thing on the bed and the sheets in our hands it was utterly impossible to let the letters go home they would have broken his either s heart and killed his mother after killing her belief in her son at last the major dried his eyes openly and said nice sort of thing to spring on an english � what shall we do i said knowing what the major had brought me out for � � the boy died of we were with him at the time we can t commit ourselves to half measures come along then began one of the most grimly comic scenes i have ever taken part in � the of a big written lie with evidence to soothe the boy s people at home i began the rough of the letter the major throwing in hints here and there while he gathered up all the stuff that the boy had written and burnt it in the fireplace it was a hot still evening when we began and the lamp burned very badly in due course i made the to my satisfaction setting forth how the boy was the pattern of all virtues loved by his regiment with every promise of a great career before him and so on how we had thrown away helped him through the sickness � it was no time for little lies you will understand � and how he had died without pain i choked while i was putting down these things and thinking of the poor people who would read them then i laughed at the of the affair and the laughter mixed itself up with the choke � and the major said that we both wanted drinks i am afraid to say how much we drank before the letter was finished it had not the least effect on us then we took off the boy s watch and rings lastly the major said we must send a lock of hair too a woman that but there were reasons why we could not find a lock fit to send the boy was black haired and so was the major luckily i cut off a piece of the major s hair above the temple with a knife and put it into the packet we were making the laughing fit and the got hold of me again and i had to stop the major was nearly as bad and we both knew 