chapters since last Wednesday. He was reading them to us
when you came."

"Indeed! Since last Wednesday? How interesting!"

Malcolm did not seem to find the topic interesting, for he smothered a
yawn. His mother changed the subject. On their way home, however, she
again referred to it.

"You must make it a point to see her every day," she declared. "No
matter what happens, you must do it."

"Oh, Lord!" groaned her son, "I can't. There's the deuce and all on
'Change just now, and the billiard tournament's begun at the Club. My
days and nights are full up. Once a week is all she should expect, I
think."

"No matter what you think or what she expects, you must do as I say."

"Why?"

"Because I don't like the looks of things."

"Oh, rubbish! You're always seeing bugaboos. Uncle Hayseed is pacified,
isn't he? I've paid the Moriarty crowd off. Beastly big bills they were,
too!"

"Humph! Uncle Hayseed, as you call him, is anything but a fool. But he
isn't the particular trouble at present. He and I understand each other,
I believe, and he will be reasonable. But--there is this Pearson. I
don't like his calling so frequently."

Malcolm laughed in huge scorn. "Pearson!" he sneered. "Why, he's
nothing but a penny-a-liner, without the penny. Surely you're not afraid
Caroline will take a fancy to him. She isn't an idiot."

"She's a young girl, and more romantic than I wish she was. At her age
girls do silly things, sometimes. He called on Wednesday--you heard her
say so--and was there again to-night. I don't like it, I tell you."

"Her uncle is responsible for--"

"It is more than that. She knew him long before she knew her uncle
existed. Her father introduced him--her _father_. And to her mind,
whatever her father did was right."

"Witness his brilliant selection of an executor. Oh, Mater, you weary
me! I used to know this Pearson when he was a reporter downtown,
and.... Humph!"

"What is it?"

"Why, nothing, I guess. It seemed as if I remember Warren and Pearson in
some sort of mix-up. Some.... Humph! I wonder."

He was silent, thinking. His mother pressed his arm excitedly.

"If you remember anything that occurred between Rodgers Warren and
this man, anything to this Pearson's disadvantage, it may pay us to
investigate. What was it?"

"I don't know. But it seemed as if I remembered Warren's ... or a friend
of his telling me ... saying something ... but it couldn't be of
importance, because Caroline doe