His luck had held to the last, even to
the crowning mercy of a kindly bullet through his head.
Torpenhow knelt under the lee of the camel, with Dick's body in his arms.
THE END
Volume VII THE STORY OF THE GADSBYS
Preface
To THE ADDRESS OF
CAPTAIN J. MAFFLIN,
Duke of Derry's (Pink) Hussars.
DEAR MAFFLIN,--You will remember that I wrote this story as an Awful Warning.
None the less you have seen fit to disregard it and have followed Gadsby's
example--as I betted you would. I acknowledge that you paid the money at once,
but you have prejudiced the mind of Mrs. Mafflin against myself, for though I
am almost the only respectable friend of your bachelor days, she has been
darwaza band to me throughout the season. Further, she caused you to invite me
to dinner at the Club, where you called me "a wild ass of the desert," and went
home at half-past ten, after discoursing for twenty minutes on the
responsibilities of housekeeping. You now drive a mail-phaeton and sit under a
Church of England clergyman. I am not angry, Jack. It is your kismet, as it was
Gaddy's, and his kismet who can avoid? Do not think that I am moved by a spirit
of revenge as I write, thus publicly, that you and you alone are responsible
for this book.
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