“No, my boy,” was the answer.  “Nothing now.  You have obeyed his last request of you.  It is not your fault that you are too late.”

The physician drove off, leaving the two boys standing in the road in front of the silent cottage, for the undertaker was carrying on his work noiselessly.

“Roy,” said Rex suddenly, placing a hand on each of his brother’s shoulders, and looking him squarely in the face, “what did Dr. Martin mean by what he said just now about your being the means of bringing a fortune into the family?”

“Don’t—­ don’t ask anything about it just here.  Come, let’s hurry off toward home.  I’ll tell you on the way.”

Roy slipped his arm through his brother’s and led him off down the hill.

“Now then,” said Rex impatiently when they had reached the Marley turnpike again, “you must tell me.  Did Mr. Tyler leave you any money for what you did for him yesterday?”

“No,” replied Roy, in a kind of burst, “but he left his whole fortune to mother.”

Rex did not stop and throw up his hands as Roy had half expected he would do.  He came closer to his brother and suddenly passed one arm about his neck as they walked on together and drew him close to him.

“Oh, Roy,” he said, “we owe all this to you.”

Then he walked off to the side of the road and dropped down on the grass.  Roy came over to take his place beside him.

“I didn’t want to say anything about it before,” he explained.  “It might have been years before we came into the money.  And now it may not be nearly so much as I said.  We only have old Mr. Tyler’s word for it, but both Syd and Dr. Martin seemed to think he was telling the truth.”

“Does mother know?” asked Rex in a low voice.  He seemed to be quite changed since he had heard the wonderful news.  His manner had become quiet, subdued, more like Roy’s.

“No, nobody knows but you, and Syd and Dr. Martin.”

“But you will tell mother as soon as you get back?”

“Yes, I suppose I had better.”

“I can’t realize it yet, Roy.  Half a million!  That’s five hundred thousand dollars.  And now we live on an income of about two thousand!”

Rex brought his eyes down from the sky where he had been allowing them to soar, and fixed them on his last summer’s tan shoes.  They were whole yet, but had lost their freshness.  He could have new ones now, he reflected, without waiting for these old ones to wear out.

“How did he come to do it, Roy?” he went on, “Hasn’t he any relatives, or anybody of his own?”

“I don’t know.  Syd can tell you more about it than I can.  Come, we had better be getting home.”

The boys rose and resumed their walk.  Presently Rex remarked: 

“When shall we get hold of the money, do you suppose, Roy?”

“I don’t know.  Don’t talk about it in that way.  It seems awful.”

“Why, Roy, one would think you wished we hadn’t got it.  What makes you act so queer about the thing?”