MR.

PIKE'S VISIT.
Percival Elster was in truth Earl of Hartledon.

By one of those unexpected calamities, which are often inexplicable--and which most certainly was so as yet in the present instance--a promising young life had been snapped asunder, and another reigned in his place.

In one short hour Val Elster, who had scarcely cross or coin to call his own, had been going in danger of arrest from one moment to another, had become a peer of the realm and a man of wealth.
As they laid the body down in a small room opening from the hall, and his late companions and guests crowded around in awe-struck silence, there was one amidst them who could not control his grief and emotion.

It was poor Val.