intent, when he turned to the next feature of the examination. He
suddenly spoke quietly to old Ezra Melville; and the latter put a small,
cardboard box into his hands.

"I want you to see what I have here," Forest told Ben. "They were your
own possessions once--you sent them yourself to Abner Darby, your late
father--and I want you to see if you remember them."

Ben's eyes fastened on the box; and the others saw a queer drawing of
the lines of his face, a curious tightening and clasping of his fingers.
There was little doubt but that his subconsciousness had full cognizance
of the contents of that box. He was trembling slightly, too--in
excitement and expectation--and Ezra Melville, suddenly standing erect,
was trembling too. The moment was charged with the uttermost suspense.

Evidently this was the climax in the examination. Even McNamara, the
Governor, was breathless with interest in his chair; Forest had the rapt
look of a scientist in some engrossing experiment. He opened the box,
taking therefrom a roll of white cotton. This he slowly unrolled,
revealing two small, ribboned ornaments of gold or bronze.

Ben's starting eyes fastened on them. No doubt he recognized them. A
look of veritable anguish swept his brown face, and all at once small
drops of moisture appeared on his brow and through the short hairs at
his temples. The dark scar at his temple was suddenly brightly red from
the pounding blood beneath.

"The Victoria Cross, of course," he said slowly, brokenly. "I won it,
didn't I--the day--that day at Ypres--the day my men were trapped--"