The Golden Bat by Fred M. White — Read

"I want you to understand," Barlington began. "That I was left a widower with two children, both of whom were quite young. My elder son has never caused me the least anxiety, and of him I say nothing. But Charles was different. I had to leave him to strangers, because, after the death of my wife, I threw myself, heart and soul, into my work, which kept me for the best years of my life abroad. So you will understand that my boys had largely to bring up themselves. Charles ought to have been all right; he was in perfect surroundings with the right sort of people, and at Eton he was a popular favourite. A good sportsman, and all that sort of thing. But I suppose there was a weakness somewhere, and at quite an early age he began to go astray. It was after one particular, disgraceful episode that I determined to have him with me out in South America. He came sullenly enough, but he did come, and for a year or two everything went well. Then, during one long leave of mine, he broke out again, and got himself into the most serious trouble with the authorities. The affair was too grave for me to interfere, and he fled up country with the girl he married. I never saw her, though I believe that she was a lady who had come out there as English governess to a wealthy Spanish-American family, but when Charles got mixed up with some sort of revolutionary business up in the hills where the Brazilian mines are, it was too late to do anything, and my unfortunate boy was shot as a spy, or betrayed into the hands of some murderous gang, and those miscreants not only shot him, but murdered his wife as well. I should never have known this, if it had not been told me a year or two later by a man who had come down country, and had been very nearly an eyewitness of the deplorable affair. He brought with him my boy's belongings in the shape of some packing cases, and when I came to open them, I found amongst them a little case that contained the Golden Bat. And, for some reason, I kept it, perhaps because it was rare, perhaps because it was extraordinarily beautiful, but I suppose mainly for sentimental reasons.

At any rate, it was very good of Keen to take all that trouble."