The Lost Heir   By: George Alfred Henty (1832-1902)

BY G. A. HENTY

AUTHOR OF "STURDY AND STRONG," "RUJUB, THE JUGGLER," "BY ENGLAND'S AID," ETC., ETC.

THE MERSHON COMPANY RAHWAY, N. J. NEW YORK

CONTENTS.

I. A BRAVE ACTION 1

II. IN THE SOUTH SEAS 14

III. A DEAF GIRL 27

IV. THE GYPSY 40

V. A GAMBLING DEN 52

VI. JOHN SIMCOE 65

VII. JOHN SIMCOE'S FRIEND 77

VIII. GENERAL MATHIESON'S SEIZURE 90

IX. A STRANGE ILLNESS 102

X. TWO HEAVY BLOWS 112

XI. A STARTLING WILL 124

XII. DR. LEEDS SPEAKS 137

XIII. NETTA VISITS STOWMARKET 150

XIV. AN ADVERTISEMENT 164

XV. VERY BAD NEWS 176

XVI. A FRESH CLEW 193

XVII. NETTA ACTS INDEPENDENTLY 206

XVIII. DOWN IN THE MARSHES 220

XIX. A PARTIAL SUCCESS 233

XX. A DINNER PARTY 247

XXI. A BOX AT THE OPERA 262

XXII. NEARING THE GOAL 274

XXIII. WALTER 287

XXIV. A NEW BARGE 301

XXV. A CRUSHING EXPOSURE 316

XXVI. A LETTER FROM ABROAD 329

[Illustration: SIMCOE RAN IN WITH HIS KNIFE AND ATTACKED THE TIGER. Page 4. ]

THE LOST HEIR.

CHAPTER I.

A BRAVE ACTION.

A number of soldiers were standing in the road near the bungalow of Brigadier General Mathieson, the officer in command of the force in the cantonments of Benares and the surrounding district.

"They are coming now, I think," one sergeant said to another. "It is a bad business. They say the General is terribly hurt, and it was thought better to bring him and the other fellow who was mixed up in it down in doolies. I heard Captain Harvey say in the orderly room that they have arranged relays of bearers every five miles all the way down. He is a good fellow is the General, and we should all miss him. He is not one of the sort who has everything comfortable himself and don't care a rap how the soldiers get on: he sees to the comfort of everyone and spends his money freely, too. He don't seem to care what he lays out in making the quarters of the married men comfortable, and in getting any amount of ice for the hospital, and extra punkawallahs in the barrack rooms during the hot season. He goes out and sees to everything himself. Why, on the march I have known him, when all the doolies were full, give up his own horse to a man who had fallen out. He has had bad luck too; lost his wife years ago by cholera, and he has got no one to care for but his girl. She was only a few months old when her mother died. Of course she was sent off to England, and has been there ever since. He must be a rich man, besides his pay and allowances; but it aint every rich man who spends his money as he does. There won't be a dry eye in the cantonment if he goes under."

"How was it the other man got hurt?"

"Well, I hear that the tiger sprang on to the General's elephant and seized him by the leg. They both went off together, and the brute shifted its hold to the shoulder, and carried him into the jungle; then the other fellow slipped off his elephant and ran after the tiger. He got badly mauled too; but he killed the brute and saved the General's life."

"By Jove! that was a plucky thing. Who was he?"

"Why, he was the chap who was walking backwards and forwards with the General when the band was playing yesterday evening. Several of the men remarked how like he was to you, Sanderson. I noticed it, too. There certainly was a strong likeness."