d, as the dusk fell
and she finally saw her husband coming at a laggard pace, leaning upon
his cane, his chin sunk on his breast, she frankly told Norbert that
although she had lived with that man more than fifty-seven years, she
would never be able to understand him. She repeated this with genuine
symptoms of hysteria when she discovered that the Colonel had not come
straight from the Tabor house, but had stopped two hours at Peter
Bradbury's to "talk it over."

One item of his recital, while sufficiently startling to his wife, had
a remarkable effect upon his grandson. This was the information that
Ariel Tabor's fortune no longer existed.

"What's that?" cried Norbert, starting to his feet. "What are you
talking about?"

"It's true," said the Colonel, deliberately. "She told me so herself.
Eskew had dropped off into a sort of doze--more like a stupor,
perhaps,--and we all went into Roger's old studio, except Louden and
the doctor, and while we were there, talkin', one of Pike's clerks came
with a basket full of tin boxes and packages of papers and talked to
Miss Tabor at the door and went away. Then old Peter blundered out and
asked her point-blank what it was, and she said it was her estate,
almost everything she had, except the house. Buckalew, tryin' to make
a joke, said he'd be willin' to swap HIS house and lot for the basket,
and she laughed and told him she thought he'd be sorry; that all there
was, to speak of, was a pile of distillery stock--" "What?" repeated
Norbert, incredulously.

"Yes. It was the truth," said the Colonel, solemnly. "I saw it
myself: blocks and blocks of stock in that distillery trust that went
up higher'n a kite last year. Roger had put all of Jonas's good
money--"

"Not into that!" shouted Norbert, uncontrollably excited.

"Yes, he did. I tell you I saw it!"

"I tell you he didn't. He owned Granger Gas, worth more to-day than it
ever was! Pike was Roger's attorney-in-fact and bought it for him
before the old man died. The check went through my hands. You don't
think I'd forget as big a check as that, do you, even if it was more
than a year ago? Or how it was signed and who made out to? It was
Martin Pike that got caught with distillery stock. He speculated once
too often!"

"No, you're wrong," persisted the Colonel. "I tell you I saw it
myself."

"Then you're blind," returned his grandson, disrespectfully; "you're
blind or else--or else--" He paused, open-m