Chapter XXII: Part III: I (3)

"Good-bye, Bonnie----"

"Corin! Corin!--(Hm! See if I don't have you in hand in another week or two, my boy!)--Come and say good-bye to your father."

"Good-bye, Lady Tasker----"

"All right?"

The wheels crunched; hands were waved; the rabble gave a shockingly undisciplined cheer; and young Arthur Woodgate, who had run along the terrace and stood holding the gate at the end open, saluted. Stan took out his watch again.

"Four minutes to sunset," he announced.

But there was no need to tell Billie to stand by to strike the flag that hung motionless above the gable where the old billiard-room and gun-room had been thrown together to make the schoolroom. The halyards were already in his hands.

"Here, Corin," Stan called, "you shall fire the gun to-night."

Corin gave a wild yell of joy. Well out of reach, there was an electric button on one of the rose-grown verandah posts. Stan lifted his newest recruit to it, who put a finger-tip on it and shut his eyes----

"BANG!" went the little brass carronade in the locked enclosure behind the woodshed----

And hand over hand Billie hauled the flag down.

But it would be run up again in the morning.

THE END

Transcriber's note

Extra titles were removed. The family tree on page 329 was adapted to a limited page width. Words in italics have been surrounded with _underscores_ and smalll capitals changed to all capitals. Errors in punctuation were corrected silently. Also the following changes were made, on page

72 "flash" changed to "flask" (opened the flask of Chianti)
182 "Hamlton" changed to "Hamilton" (she had suggested Mr. Hamilton
Dix instead)
210 "Cest" changed to "C'est" (C'est ça!)
252 "than" changed to "that" (spring a thing like that on you)
311 "represnt" changed to "represent" (It should represent the
Earthly Authority)
527 "I'amour" changed to "l'amour" (Comment l'amour revient aux
vieillards)
538 "excepted" changed to "accepted" (broke one of their tacitly
accepted rules)
590 "woman" changed to "women" (She looked at the women. There was
nothing to betray them).

Otherwise the original was preserved, including unusual or archaic words and expressions, and inconsistent spelling and hyphenation.