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Show splundirl ...ae for ti few weens, wnen De-hoM De-hoM Brown redivivus Brown alive and well promptly kicks out the heir and declines all responsibility for his debts! What a pplendid situation! Wonder how my dear nephew would like it? I'd give five thousand pounds to see him," And Sir Toby hurst into harsh, unpleasant unpleas-ant laughter, and positively rolled about in his chair with ghoulish merriment. The idea pleased him so much that he sat up a good two hours later than usual, and when at last he went to bed it was with a fira determination to carry out his scheme. Upon Sir Toby's preparations it is unnecessary un-necessary to dwell. He contrived to possess pos-sess himself without suspicion of several thousand pounds in ready money, for he had no intention of being left penniless during an absence that might be prolonged. pro-longed. He had to make up his mind as to what country he should select for the scene of his adventures, and, after much deliberation, he fixed upon America, with a view of enjoying some wild sport in the Rocky mountains and elsewhere. Now, Sir Toby was a smart, dapper man who dyed his hair black and shaved clean his face, so he argued that if he bought a red wig and beard they would effectually disguise him until his own beard and mustache had had time to grow. When this happened he would exhibit his undyed hair to the public, and with a white head, a grizzly beard and mustacho, and a pair of spectacles instead of his eyeglass, he felt Riire that he could defy recognition. The mere question of getting away was simple, the main difficulty, of course, being how to furnish Jack with proofs of his death-strong death-strong enough to enable him to take possession pos-session of his inheritance. But Sir Toby know that queer things could be done in America, and once there he thought ho could easily arrange by bribery that the body of some unknown un-known traveler should be identified as that of Sir Toby Bunskin, Bart. Mindful Mind-ful of this necessity he armed himself with a pocket book containing papers calculated to place the identity of the person carrying them beyond reasonable doubt. He also carefully destroyed every will that he had ever made, for he wished his nephew to inherit as much as possible. "The greater the rise," lie chuckled, "the greater the fall. Up like a rocket, Jack, my boy, and down like a stick!" When all these preparations were made Sir Toby quietly left his home in Fallow-land Fallow-land one day and did not return to it. His ostensible destination was the house in Grosvenor square, but he passed the night at a hotel and started the next morning for Liverpool. In his red wig and queerly cut clothes his own valet would not have recognized him. At Liverpool he took a steerago passage for New York, for he was a man who rather liked "roughing it" than otherwise, and, once on the voyage, ho began to feel that half his plan was accomplished. But the question as to how he was to prove his own death bothered him considerably. The ship had not, howover, been a day at sea before a most remarkable and fortunate fortu-nate circumstance occurred. Sir Toby was a light sleeper and was not very much at home in his uncomfortable uncomfort-able quarters, so the first night after leaving Queenhtown he paced the deck Jack, in common parlance, went the pace to the best of his ability; got himself him-self elected M. P. for one of the divisions divi-sions of Fallowland, and finally became engaged to Miss Hilda Grains, only daughter and heiress of the late Sir Joshua Grains, M. P., the well known brewer and millionaire. There was, of course, a very grand wedding, and in du time the happy pair returned to London from a prolonged honeymoon trip on the continent. When Jack had finished examining ex-amining a pile of letters and other documents, docu-ments, he inquired of the family butler whether he had any special news to communicate, com-municate, for that individual looked like a man burdened with a guilty secret. "It's my dooty to tell you, sir," said Mr. Flaggon mysteriously, "as an old gent 'as been calling here every day foi the last week, and says as he must sea you." "Is that all?" queried Jack. "No, sir he says he's your uncle." "My uncle! What d d nonsensel Why, the fellow must be a lunatic or an impostor!'1 "Just so, sir; but we can't get rid of him, and I didn't like to give the poor old idiot in charge." "Quite right; next time he comes 111 see him." Oddly enough, half an hour afterward the old gentleman returned, and Flaggon promptly ushered him in. "Well, my man," said the new baronet, "and what can I do for you?" "Jack," said the stranger, "do you mean to say that you don't know me? I'm your Uncle Toby I am, indeed, and not a blessed soul recognizes me!" Jack stared at his seedy visitor in astonishment. as-tonishment. His clothes were shabby, and ho wore a hang dog look; his face was disfigured in a most remarkable fashion, and the small remnant of hair that he possessed stuck upright in a strange tuft. He did not resemble the late Sir Toby Bunskin in the slightest; but the tone of his voice was horribly familiar. "This is driveling nonsense!" he said; "but if you are tny uncle, how the deuce do you account for the fact that you were drowned in the Atlantic?" "I Wasn't drowned; it was another passenger," and Sir Toby confessed the story of the change of coats. "But What on earth have yon been doing for more than two years?" "I went hunting bears and things in the Rocky mountains," said Uncle Toby in a sepnlchral vcice. "Wo lost our Way, wandered about for days, and were eventually even-tually captured by tho Indians. Couldn't get away or even write." "Oh, indeed! Is that why you have tattooed your face so elegantly?" asked Jack. "I didn't tattix) myself they did it for me," wailed Sir Toby. "My face is nothing to the rest of me. I've got a pine forest, a lake and a range of mountains moun-tains on my back; three rattlesnakes on each arm, my chest is covered with tomahawks, toma-hawks, arrows and pipes; and there are opossums, terrapins and all sorts of d n beastly animals on my legs!" "Dear me, uncle, what's become of your left ear?" "Well, you see, Red Blanket, the chief, you know, took n great fancy to mo; but sometimes ho used to get drunk and throw things about. He cut nearly the wholo of my ear off with a. tomahawk one day." ' AN OU VANISHED. An elderly genlleman, whose chief id-losyncrasics id-losyncrasics are a rooted aversion to death and a fervent hatred for his heir ' and successor, is not exactly a novel character either in real life or on the stage. But there is a material difference in liis behavior in the two situations, for whereas on the stage is he almost invariably invari-ably turned to repentance by the beaux yeux of tho young lady whom his heir haa married, or by the maddening prattle prat-tle of her tiresome child, and dies in the odor of sanctity distributing indiscriminate indiscrimi-nate blessings, in real life he more often than not carries his spite with him to the grave and leaves hi3 posterity good reason to execrate his memory in the lhape f -an outrageously malicious will. Sir Toby Bunskin, of Bunskin Hall, .Fallowland, and No. 250 Grosvenor square, London, was not at all like the , traditional old gentleman of the stage. His hatred for his heir, Capt. Jack Bun-bki'n, Bun-bki'n, of the Fiftieth Lancers, was not exaggerated, ex-aggerated, and did not betray him into foolish excesses, but it was sincere the more, so, perhaps, because it was abso-1 abso-1 lutely unreasonable. And Jack had long ago reconciled him-! him-! lelf to a precarious existenco on his pay, his wits and the money ho could raise by mortgaging his reversion to certain family fam-ily estates which Sir Toby had not the , power of willing away from him. Now, although Sir Toby hated Jack so heartily, it must not be imagined that be was sufficiently lost to the decencies of society as to ignore his existence, to insult him in public, or even to be pointedly point-edly rude to him in private. Jack was always asked down to Bunskin Hall for the cover shooting, lie was expected to assist at the annual rent dinner of Sir Toby's tenants, and at certain fixed seasons sea-sons he was formally invited to Grosvenor Gros-venor square. But there Sir Toby's recognition of his relative began and ended. He would not allow Jack a sixpence, six-pence, nor would he have lent him 20 to save him from the bankruptcy court, or even from suicide.' ' The baronet was not very old he was barely sixty and for bodily vigor many a man of flve-and-forty might have envied en-vied him- He rode regularly to hounds, was an experienced and successful deer stalker and could cast a salmon fly with the best fishermen in Scotland; and lie was addicted to none of the excesses which sometimes shorten the lives of men who indulge in hard exercise, for he neither ate too much nor drank too freely. In fact, he took excellent care of himself, and was on very good terms with his doctor. His friends said that he delighted in the idea of keeping Jack out of his inheritance as long as he possibly pos-sibly could. Now, all men havo their small weaknesses, weak-nesses, and one of the most pronounced . of Sir Toby's was a passion for literature and for plays of a sensational and blood curdling description. He reveled in penny pen-ny dreadfuls and in soul moving melodrama; melo-drama; he delighted in complicated plots of missing heirs, forged wills, mysterious murders and buried treasure. There was reason to suppose that many of his strong boxes, which presumably contained title (Leeds and ancient leases, were in reality tufted with rejected manuscripts and Btillborn dramas, declined with thanks. Sir Toby was firmly impressed with the idea that had his station and duties been otherwise he would have made his fortune as a detective, and nothing pleased him so much as endeavoring to discover the identity of an undetected murderer ov the motive for a mysterious disappearance. Whenever such an event occurred, which was pretty often, Sir Toby used to indict long epistles to The Times, setting forth his theories. It was ono day in early spring that a great idea occurred to Sir Toby Bunskin. He felt in a peculiarly misanthropio humor, for Jack had been staying with him, and uncle and nephew had contrived con-trived to quarrel even more seriously than usual. Moreover, there had been published certain damaging facts in connection con-nection with one or two charitable institutions insti-tutions to which Sir Toby had intended to leave the greater part of his fortune, and he began to think that even Jack might not put his money to a much worse use than a pack of overpaid, greedy officials. It was in this humor that he had taken up a newspaper and studied fs strange disappearance of Mr. Jabe. Brown, an eminent Mudford merchant and millionaire, who had vanished from mortal ken in the most unexpected manner man-ner and without the slightest apparent reason. The amateur detective was strong in Sir Toby, as usual, and he fell to musing over the fate of Mr. Brown, and to evolving all manner of theories which might account for his singular absence. He wa3 rich, eminently respectable, and universally looked up to in the commercial commer-cial world. An examination of his affairs bad proved beyond doubt that no finan cial embarrassment existed. Then he was a moral man, and there was no suspicion sus-picion that he had eloped with somebody ease's wife, or, indeed, that a lady was in any way connected with tho case. Ho was perfectly sane and in good health, and no conceivablo reason could be imagined im-agined for suicide. "He may have been murdered, of course," thought Sir Toby; but this so-lutfon so-lutfon seemed commonplace "there may be a woman in the case. Begad, I believe be-lieve he is alive, at any rate. He may have disappeared out of pure caprice-found caprice-found his responsibilities too troublesome; trouble-some; or perhaps he wanted to spite somebody." This last notion seemed to interest Sir Toby it was really original that a man should disappear for such a motive. He pondered deeply for several minutes, and then he said to himself, quite slowly: "He may have bolted to spite his heir!" And then Sir Toby chuckled. "A lovely idea!" he continued. "Old Brown must have an hemeverybody has, or nearly everybody. Brown disappears delight of heir long search after Brown body found in the Thames much decomposed de-composed but easilw identified as that of Brown by servants in pay of heir iVieir takes possession of property has a "You must have had a rollicking time." "Don't laugh, you vagabond!" cried Sir Toby, waxing wrathful. "Look at my head! That was done by Blue Blazes, another chief; he tried to scalp me, and it was all that Red Blanket could do to stop him. He got about half of it off as it was. And now, Jack, when you've done grinning perhaps you'll talk business. I meant to play a joke on you, but it. seems to me that I've got the worst of it. Howover, we'll let bygones be bygones; I'll make you a good allowance, though I hear that you've married a wife with a big fortune. fort-une. But, of course, you know now you must clear out." "Clear out of what?" "Why, out of my property and my money." "You're welcome to the baronetcy, Uncle Toby," said Jack, thoughtfully; "but I'm afraid that I can't oblige you any further." "What tho deuce do you mean, sir?" "Simply that there's nothing left tr. clear out of! I've spent it every blessed bob!" Sir Toby turned livid under his tattoo tat-too marks. "You infernal young scoundrel!" he shrieked. "Are you mad?" "Not a. bit of it, uncle! don't get excited. ex-cited. You see, nearly all the ready you left went to pay post obits; and then I took to racing and gambling a bit. Had most shocking luck! Lost every sixpence, six-pence, sold tho house in Grosvenor square, sold Bunskin Hall under the settled set-tled estates act, yon know; sold everything. every-thing. If I hadn't married Hilda 1 should have been absolutely stone broke. She bought back Bunskin Hall, by special spe-cial leave of the trustee; but all her money is strictly tied up, and I haven't a sixpence of my own in the world!" "Is this really true?" said Sir Toby, faintly. "Gospel truth, I assure you. Ask Taper and Deeds, they know all about it. Never mind, uncle, you've had your fun with the Indians, you know, and I'vo had mine. Won't you have a brandy and soda or something? You look quite green. Tell you what. If you let me keep the title, I'll pet Hilda to make you ! head gardener at Bunskin 250 a year, good house and precious little to da j Think it over, uncle." London Truth. s "-- ' " for several hours. In the course of his nocturnal ramble he kept meeting a man whom he could not help noticing from the fact that he seemed desperately anxious anx-ious to avoid his. Sir Toby's, observation. "Some thief or forger bolting," thought Sir Toby, and he kept his eyes on the man from idle curiosity, and gradually fell to dodging about the deck and watched him closely. Presently the man, when he thought himself unobserved, did a very strange thing; he took off his coat and laid it carefully on the deck. Then he glanced hurriedly round, mounted mount-ed the bulwarks, and leaped into tho sea. Ono of the ship's officers just caught sight of him as he disappeared, an alarm was quickly raised, and the engint'3 were reversed. re-versed. No one had time to notice or to think of the coat; but Sir Toby always prided himself on his presence of mind. Instantly In-stantly ho seized it, tore off his own coat, which contained the pocket book and the papers, laid it down on the deck and put on the coat left behind by the suicide. It was a master stroke, a veritable inspiration, in-spiration, and Sir Toby retired to his berth knowing that tho odds were at least a hundred to one against a rescue. At his leisure he examined the pockots of the stranger's garment; tho only thing of importance it contained was n letter, apparently addressed to the dead man's wife. "As I thought," said Sir Toby to himself, when he read it at leisure; "ordinary "or-dinary case of forgery, cannot live any longer the usual bosh! I don't think Mrs. Bowston will ever get this letter." And he burned it carefully, and a night or two later took an opportunity of throwing the coat itself overboard. "Now I am really all right," ho reflected. re-flected. There was a graat hue and cry in London Lon-don when it wan reported that Sir Toby Bunskin had actually disappeared. Half tho detectivos were employed to look for him, advertisements were inserted by the score, even placards were posted; no exertion, in fact, and no expense were spared to discover his whereabouts. But not the slightest result followed until the news arrived from America that Sir Toby had jumped from an Atlantic steamer and hart, of course, been drowned, leaving behind him a coat, in tho pocket of which was a pocketbook containing cards and private papers, obviously ob-viously belonging to the unfortunate baronet. It was a nine days' wonder; but as nobody no-body cared a straw about Sir Toby when alive, people soon grew tired of speculating speculat-ing as to the cause which had. prompted the "rash act." And as soon as certain nccersary legal formalities had been complied com-plied with, Jack Bunskin found himself Sir John Tobias Bunskin, Baronet, of Bunskin Hall and Grosvenor Square, and the possessor of a substantial rent roll and a goodly sum of ready money. Now, it was pot very likely that Jack should feel any profound grief for his uncle. The manner of tho old man's death certainly cer-tainly shocked him considerably, but the pleasures and duties of his new position tpefrdDy banished the unpleasant subject from his iniud. He had, too, plenty of things to look after. His creditors, of course, cams down upon him in a hungry htrde, and the amount of 'xt obits which 1 e had to payoff was quite alarming. Moreover, he had no intention of leading the sober and quiet life that had suited his uncle, j He bought a yacht, started a small rac- ' j ing stud and bfgnn to dabb:e in cit I ; companies, all of which things demand I j a considerable amount of time and at-! at-! tentinn, not to mention money. So a ; i couple of yearn pasted. |