are most boys of his age and
opportunities, but by no means a fool. Anyone who took him for lacking
in gray matter would make a serious mistake. His moral sense was blunted
and his environments were bad--that was all. The fundamentals were good
and when a man's fundamentals are good his case is never quite hopeless.

Always in buoyant spirits, to-day Tod felt especially jubilant. Things
certainly seemed to have changed for the better. He had been in Paris
only two weeks, and he had already secured the American agency of two of
the most important French automobile makers, and on top of this
unlooked-for success had come the surprising news from home that John
Marsh was dead at last. The event so long waited for had actually
happened. Too much good fortune is bad for anyone, and for the last few
hours Tod had been celebrating not wisely, but too well. His face was
flushed and his speech thick as he went on:

"The old gentleman must have been a decent sort to cash in just now. It
couldn't have come at a better moment. Things at home were getting
pretty queer. Jimmy will be simply tickled to death!"

His companion, a big, heavily built, coarse-looking man, considerably
his senior in years, pursed his lips and nodded.

"I guess you're not sorry," he said dryly.

"Hang it! Cooley, why should I care?" cried Tod explosively. "He was
nothing to me. I never even saw him. Yet--do you know--I sometimes felt
a sneaking respect for the old man for the delicious way he snubbed
Jimmy. No doubt he was disgusted with him long ago. You know he wouldn't
see him or have anything to do with him. I guess he knew him better than
any of us. Jimmy's the limit--there's no doubt of that. I'm no saint
myself, but I know when to stop. The mater must have been wuzzy when she
married him. She's had a peck of trouble with him--you've no idea! Of
course this windfall puts everything right. I'd have given a couple of
hundred to have seen Jimmy's face when he opened your cable."

Mr. Cooley smiled grimly.

"Yes--I guess he didn't sleep much that night. He's waited long enough."

"Waited!" ejaculated the other. "Why, he has thought of nothing
else--sleeping or waking. If anything should happen to rob him of that
inheritance I think it would kill him."

"Ain't much chance of that," replied the lawyer, puffing out his chest.
"I drew up the will. When Bascom Cooley attends to a thing, it's likely
to be for keeps. The will was witnessed and executed r