"W.A. ALDRIDGE--Major."

"And that's all," said Dudley, mournfully; "why, I can't believe Rob is
dead--we never knew he was ill."

Roy took up the letter, and read through Rob's again. Then he looked
across the blue ocean in front of him.

"Just read me that bit of the nurse's letter of the fight, Dudley. Can't
you think of him marching up to the enemy?"

Dudley read the desired bit, and then with a deep drawn breath Roy said:

"He acted out the song of the drummer boys, didn't he? He marched on to
meet his death like they did. I wonder how it felt. Could you have put
yourself in front of the sergeant, Dudley?"

"If you had been the sergeant, I could," was the prompt reply.

"But the sergeant hadn't been kind to him. Oh, Rob, Rob."

"Don't cry so, old chap, you'll make yourself ill. He's happy now.
Don't you think we'd better be going in?"

But Roy would not leave the beach till the tea bell sounded, and then he
crept in with such a white, weary face that kind Mrs. Hawthorn put him
straight to bed, and stayed with him listening to his trouble till tired
out and exhausted he fell asleep. When Dudley came to bed he found him
clutching the letters tight in one hand, and muttering in his sleep,
"God first, the Queen next, and then Master Roy!"

Once in the night he was roused by Roy's grasping hold of his
bedclothes.

"Dudley, are you asleep?"

"No," was the sleepy answer, "aren't you well?"

"Yes, but I can't sleep. Tell me, was it my fault? Did I send Rob to his
death? I wanted him to go. Did I make him go?"

"Of course you didn't," and Dudley now was wide-awake. "He wanted to go
first, and you didn't like it, don't you remember?"

"Yes, I think he liked going; but if he hadn't heard that song perhaps
he would never have gone, he would never have wanted to be a soldier."

"He did a lot of good out there. I don't think he will be sorry now."

Roy settled down to sleep again comforted; but for the next few days he
seemed quite unable to give his mind to his lessons, and after some
correspondence with Miss Bertram, it was arranged that he and Dudley
should go home from Saturday to Monday. It was a sad home-coming, and
when Roy saw Rob's Bible his grief burst out afresh. The pages showed
how much they had been studied, but no verse was more marked than the
one Roy had given him. "Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ."

On Sunday evening the boys paid a visit to old Principle. They had been
talking about Rob, when Roy said wistfully,

"Rob used his opportunity when he got it, didn't he? I expect he didn't
know what a hero he was. I wonder if I shall ever get one come to me. I
should like to do something great for God, and great for my country. I
shall never give up wishing for a great opportunity to come to me!"

Then old Principle spoke, and his tone was very solemn:

"'Tis not I that will make you proud and uplifted, laddie, but you have
been given the grandest opportunity that ever a poor mortal could be
given, and you've taken it and made use of it, thank the Lord!"

Both boys gazed up at him with open eyes and mouths.

Dudley said after a minute's thought:

"We've both had some little opportunities, and Roy has had the biggest.
He saved me from drowning, and he went into the cave to fetch you!"

"Those weren't proper opportunities," muttered Roy in scorn, "they
aren't worth remembering; not after what Rob has done."

"Yes, the opportunity I'm talking of was a grander one than them, though
old Principle can't forget he owes his life perhaps to both of you boys'
thought of him. 'Tis what the Lord Himself left His throne in heaven
for," the old man proceeded in the same solemn tones; "'tis the one
thing, the only thing we're told brings joy to the happy ones above; nay
to the Almighty Himself, and 'tis wonderful that He will let us have the
part in it we do!"

"What do you mean?" questioned Roy awed and puzzled by old Principle's
manner.

"I mean this, laddie, you had an opportunity of leading an ignorant soul
to the feet of his Saviour; of enlisting a soldier not only in the
Queen's service but in the service of the King of Kings; of being the
means of filling an empty barren soul with a flood of light and
gladness; and of sending out a missionary in the midst of ungodliness
and vice, to turn many from the error of their ways. Is it not a greater
honor to help to save a soul from destruction, than bring glory to
yourself by some feat of physical strength or skill? Thank the Lord on
your knees to-night, that He sent you the opportunity you were always
hankering after; and thank Him He gave you the grace to seize hold of
it, and make use of it for His Glory, not your own!"

Old Principle's burst of eloquence almost startled the boys, and they
received it in silence; but later on, as they were walking home in the
cool of the evening Roy linked his arm in Dudley's and said softly--

"I see it all now. My broken leg and everything. It was when I was too
weak to go out with you, that Rob and I used to talk over these things."

And Dudley replied, with an emphatic nod, "Yes, though you didn't know
it, Rob was your big opportunity."


FINIS.