The Pothunters

oroughfares of that outpost of civilization, Jersey City. He was a big young man, tall and large of limb. His shoulders especially were of the massive type expressly designed by nature f

-natured mouth, and a pair of friendly gray eyes. One felt that he liked

us. Sherlock Holmes-and possibly even Doctor Watson-wou

emed to hesitate. Then, as if he had made up his mind to face

down the passage, and pushed open a door on which

e office with his hands full of

hn Maude!"

ng man

as mad as a hornet since he found you had quit

ainst it," admitte

d you go

ng to him candid

bully morning, and remembered that the Giants were playing the Athletics, an

u've got the nerve! Didn't you

wn that pass- Oh, well, what's the use? It was just great. I

im. He was a capable rather than a lovable man, and too self-controlled to be quite human. There was no recoil in him, no reaction

like him, as he liked nearly everybody. But Mr. Westley had discouraged all advances, and, as time went by, his nephew ha

ndered keener by the fact that he was powerless to protect either her happiness or her money. Her money was her own, to use as she pleased, and the use which pleased her most was to give it to her husband, who could always find a way of spending it. As to her happiness, that was equally out of his control. It was bound up in he

ce. He gave John his sister's name, Maude, and brought him up as an American, in total ignorance of his

elaxed his bleakness of front toward him. John was not unlike his father in appearance, though built on a larger scale, and, as time went

is uncle into the scheme of things, or, rather, set him outside them as an irrecon

e might be doing. His best friends, of whom he now saw little, were all men of adventure and enterprise, who had tried their hand at many things; men like Jimmy Pitt, who had done nearly everything that could be done before coming into an une

ay whether he was not allowing life to slip by him a little too placidly. An occasional yearning for somethi

action and enterprise. For generations back, if they had varied at all, son from father, it had been in the color of hair or eyes, not in chara

the bracing nature of his education had done much to counteract the Mervo strain. He did not kno

g him now to meet his uncle with a quiet unconcern as to the outcome of the interview. The spirit of adventure was in him. It was more than possible that Mr. Westley would sink the uncle in the employer and

r of the inner office wi

estley himself, a tall, thin man, at the sight o

nt to m

y; "come in here. I w

wed him in

," said h

passed. There was a compassionate look in it. John was popular with his fellow employes. His absence had been the cause of dis

nd regarded his nephew steadily from under a pair of bushy gr

e ball-game yes

the question startled

aid, recove

out l

worth while as

plicitly on our relationship to

I m

at claim do you put forward for special consideration? Why shou

terview was being taken at too

to treat me diff

hn saw that he had taken a ch

stley. "There is no need for any discussion. I

ousand

e in trust for you by your mother. By a mira

oice, and made one last attempt to probe this mystery. As a boy he had

my father

lotted the ch

Possibly," he went on, "you may wonder why you have not received this money before. I persuaded your mother to let me use my discretion in choosing the time when it should be handed over to you. I decided to wait until, in

the receip

said Mr. West

is uncle's cold anger hurt him. It was so different from anything sudden, so essentially not of the moment. He felt instinctively that it had been smoldering for a long time, and realized with a shock that his un

turn impulsively ba

-" he

tanding overwhelmed him. Mr. Westley had begun to write. He must have seen

d to the d

by," h

ey did no