Show Z ca in T LM L M to millions lio alls X 1 by frederick c author or if the other cywan eti etc t tf illustrations vy by ray walters H s i wa X li in in ii i 1 i i i i i i A M copy copyright right by J B lippincott co u t SYNOPSIS t andy meleen aged and eccentric mil mh ia onalee llon alre miner is dying and orders his w attorney to dra draw w up a will leaving all his K property pio Perty to tho the son of a sister from whom tie he was separated years before and or of i who whose se name evon even he Is ignorante Ign Igno oranti andy f tens tells the th attorney that he was married in w his bla youth uth but left his wife after a i rel an fn ro which ho he struck her he learned A K afterward that she and his daughter were aj dead the scene shifts to new york i i introducing wilfrid stennis Stenn ls who to Is telling his flance fiance eunice Tre what he would do if ho he were the possessor of twenty or fifty fafty millions 4 CHAPTER ill III 1 X V the exigencies ot of the story carry us westward once more the scene is the san francisco office of carboy Pas cozine 1 tho the time six weeks subsequent to the funeral of andrew meleen there enters to the private room of our old 57 friend phineas carboy a certain roger hews who at sundry and divers ai times acted in the capacity of conal wy agent for the firm even allt a lit xia be e detective work came occasionally y in his line a quiet sleek unobtrusive sort of fellow outwardly straw baraw colored 1 as to hair and closely trimmed whis afo rift ri r ft kers soberly dressed aged about A thirty five agile as a mountain cat shifty as aa axed a red fox and a walking advertisement verti of the truth of that old adage about about stilt still waters running deeply when did you get back mr carboy with a nod last night sir air how did you find those matters in pennsylvania quite satisfactory I 1 should say j everything seems to be about as you expected la 11 concern concerning ing mrs meleen now were you able to confirm her mar ariage and subsequent decease the woman died on the oi of i october 65 and was burled buried in nanti coke township I 1 could find no record of her marriage to mr meleen these statements were perfectly true on their face and the child what of the child there was no record of either its birth or death this was a deliberate lie awkward exclaimed mr carboy meleen distinctly stated if ff that there was a child how do you account for the discrepancy i very simply it if the mother died 5 in travail and the child with her as ia I 1 inferred from your instructions there might naturally have been no yx record of the infants entrance into Q or departure from the world in all ll 11 likelihood the baby would not even be named y not altogether improbable F assented ahe the lawyer scratching his nose eliut but the point is a vital one it Is hardly likely that meleen melcon could y have been mistaken in his belief and K yet are you altogether sure of your j facts A AV A V u r perfectly was the unflinching reply which was lie number two any collateral evidence on the matter such as n neighborhood gossip or the recollections of the oldest inhabitant noth nothing ing of the sort that I 1 could discover said the unblushing hews this was lie number three no one seemed to remember andrew meleen or his wife he went on lying glibly which Is not surprising if as you led me to infer he was then only a common mineworker and if as seems to be undisputed he never revisited the place true eno enough ugh carboy admitted he had perfect confidence in roger hews who on more than one occasion had bad served the firm faithfully well the way seems to be clear for us to advertise for the missing nephew or other next of kin martha meleen in all human probability has preceded her brother across the great divide 1 I should say that was the next a top step sir rejoined roger hews in level tones as though the fact that twenty or thirty million dollars were at stake possessed for him no interest at all but that sleek exterior covered a seething volcano of a plot which had for fop its hatchment and its goal the personal and private aggrandizement of mr roger hews in his report to mr carboy he had deliberately suppressed some facts and had cheerfully lied about others that he had thus proved false to the trust reposed in him troubled his exceedingly rubber like conscience not a whit he was about to fo play the game of his life it was a daring scheme and might not pan out worth a cent as he admitted to himself but it was worth trying somewhat to the surprise of mr carboy when he next desired the ier services vices of roger hews he was informed that the gentleman had gone east lea leaving leavina vini no address CHAPTER IV A rainy november day in new york the trees of the parks and squares shrouded in mist and dripping with moisture the pavements shining with wet and the gutters running full altogether a thoroughly wretched day and a very pro proper per morning for lying late abed with ones pipe and the sunday paper so thought wilfrid stennis Stenn ls thanking the gods for the one blessed day in seven made for tired men when it was not necessary to turn out and hurry downtown it was characteristic of the desultory and fragmentary reading habits of the young man that he regularly consumed assimilated would be too strong a word the hybrid contents of the average sunday sheet news scandals fashionable and sporting intelligence foreign affairs and editorials on this particular sunday he had pursued the usual routine saving the personals to the last chuckling over their various gaudy baits for the unwary and wondering if the affectionate blonde young lady with a good disposition and a ditto figure ever succeeded in meeting or catching her elusive affinity he had lazily made his way about halfway half way down the first column when he came to the following information WANTED CON concerning CERN the whereabouts if living of martha meleen formerly of cardiff wales who emigrated to the united states about 1860 or should she have married and Is now deceased of her descendants ants it if any A liberal reward will be paid on application to carboy passavant cozine cozene temple court new york city welsh papers please copy wilfrid stennis read it idly at first and with unseeing mind then the name A A martha adartha meleen caught his attention and with bated breath pipe suspended in air he be read the thing through again taking in every detail martha meleen he ejaculated halt half aloud letting the paper fall mothers maiden name by all holy I 1 wonder up lie he jumped out of bed walked to the window and took a survey of the dreary vista of washington square and its arch all ghostly in the fog in order to clear his mental vision and confirm confair m i the impression that ho he was really wide awake then he picked up the paper and again read the notice all through hanged if I 1 know what to make of it he exclaimed hurrying into some clothes taking the paper and carefully creasing it at the proper ploce place he went across the hall and after knocking at a certain do door 0 r unceremoniously entered without being bidden A young fellow of about his bis own age wan wait occupied precisely as stennis had been a quarter of ay an hour before their ideas of comfort com forton on abet a wet sunday evidently coinciding to a hair here matt old man read this and tell us what you think of it said wilf allf the old man who happened to be stennis Stenn ls junior by three or four years took the paper handed to him and abid read the momentous advertisement through twice then handing back the sheet well what about it he said the name my mother you know exclaimed stennis Stenn ls her name was meleen before she was married she was from cardiff too now I 1 come to think of it the devil you say ejaculated stanley matthews dropping a pair of pajama clad extremities over the edge 0 of f the bed read it out loud will Y you ou wilfrid complied 4 seems as if you ware were the deac descend aud mats right enough guess youre the fellow after wilf when are you going to surrender y yourself nonsense exclaimed stennis testily what does it mean anyhow say anything about return and all will be forgiven does it inquired the incorrigible matthews Matth evs you go to the devil said the I 1 badgered wilfrid as he hung flung out of the room banging the door ill take it around and show it to eunice he said to himself It its just 0 all chuckling over their various gaudy baits for the unwary about time to catch her coming home from church shell bo be able to guess what it means which was a very sanguine estimate of the girls powers at divining the hidden significance in a purposely blind advertisement such as that which carboy passavant cozine had cautiously inserted naturally eunice was no wiser than wilt wilf at solving the temporary mystery but his excitement proved cont contagious adious and with an unwonted flush in her pretty cheeks she sha scanned the lines over and over again oh we cant tell what it signifies she at length exclaimed you will see se these people in the morning wilf lt its of no use worrying or exciting ourselves in the meantime this was such an eminently sensible view of the matter that wilfrid was fain to acquiesce yet this temporary shelving of the difficulty did not prevent them from recurring again and again to the fascinating topic all through the remaining hours of that momentous sabbath f t W under the rather skilful question ing of eunice wilfrid recalled many half forgotten fragments of his mothers history but nothing that seemed to shed any light on the possible or probable motive behind the newspaper notice bright and early on the ensuing monday morn morning ingi on his way to the store wilfrid called at temple court of course he was hours too early a sulky and stupid boy was the sole rep f of the majesty of the law in the quarters occupied by that eminent e mi trio carboy passavant cozino of new york chicago and san francisco i so there was nothing for it but to curb his impat impatience iene 0 and wait for the noon bour hour when he would be at lib erty eity for a brief spell at the second attempt he is was more fortunate and had the satisfaction of sending in his name on a slip of paper to the resident member of the firm mr horatio passavant with the statement that he had called in answer to the advertisement in the paper of t the e day before he was immediately ushered into antoan an inner office this Is a quicker nibble than we dared expect mr ah stennis Stenn ls fl the great man puffing ponderously r and waving him to a seat may I 1 inquire in what way you are inter asted 1 I am am the son of the late martha meleen said wilfrid simply ah yes very pertinent of course glad to know you mr or er stennis Stenn ls but the proofs now in such a case as this you see with ith colossal co los sal interests at stake we have to proceed with the utmost circumspection you fol low me do doubt if by proofs you mean to question that I 1 am what I 1 say began wilfrid getting hot under the collar why mr horatio passavant deprecating ly waved a fat hand liberally studded with rings in the law young sli sir every statement must be substantiated by proofs unless it be axiomatic you assert that you are the son of martha er stennis born meleen I 1 ask you tor proofs such as the y si of your mothers marriage tho the register of your own birth and parentage the official evidence of your mothers death all very simple mai matters in these days of carefully kept statistics but vital my dear sir air es sent senti lally ally vital this old fellow likes to hear him self talk was wilfrida Wilf rids irreverent f inward comment as he listened to the deliberately well measured periods delivered with due oratorical effect as though the speaker were addressing a jury but aloud he said with a smile 1 I brought them with me not knowing what might be required or indeed what was the object of your advertisement but all the things you sp speak eak of ought to be easily obtained my mi mother was married in this city I 1 was born here and here she and my father died very sensibly put could not have presented it better myself said mr passavant soothingly nodding hla his bald head like a mandarin image thereby bringing into prominence no less than three separate and distinct double chins now as to your mothers place of nativity you say she was born in new york 1 I say so wilfrid impulsively bluner out she was wao a native of cardiff in wales yes yes to be sure and your father now was he a welshman my idy father was anew a new yorker he died when I 1 was very young and I 1 can hardly remember him mother was a widow for over 20 years I 1 was waa her sole support nearly all that time exactly kind and dutiful son and all that sort of thing commented mr passavant beaming benignly but had your mother no relatives to whom she could appeal for assistance tho the question was asked in the dry legal tone as one of no special moment the questioner absently fingering somo some paper on the desk before him TO BE CONTINUED |