“He is Mignon’s father!” Bootles answered. And then he broke from Lacy’s grasp and fled.

“Impossible!” Lacy cried.

“Not at all; it is true,” the doctor answered. “He is making his will now, leaving Bootles sole guardian and trustee to the child.”

“The brute,” burst out Preston, indignantly, remembering Gilchrist’s words—not so long ago.

A race between life and death

“Hush, hush! The man is dying, and death alters everything,” the doctor cried.

“And Bootles kept his temper? Said nothing?”

“Not one word—of reproach.”