d! Nonsense; You're just as young to me now as when I first
remember you."

The old lady smiled. Nodding her head feebly, she replied:

"When you used to play hide-and-seek with me. When I wanted to put you
to bed you were nowhere to be found."

Helen laughed while Kenneth protested:

"Oh, come now, Mary, I wasn't so bad as that."

"No. You weren't bad--just lively and natural as all healthy children.
You were always a better boy than your brother."

Helen looked up quickly.

"Your brother, Kenneth? I never heard you speak of a brother."

He looked at the old lady in amazement.

"My brother? What brother?"

The old lady smiled.

"That's so--you never knew. You were too young to remember. Yes, you
had a brother--a twin brother. People hardly knew you apart. There
was only one way in which your mother and I could tell."

"What was that?" demanded the promoter eagerly.

"He had a scar. He caught his hand in some machinery when a baby and
it left a scar in the index finger of the left hand."

Transfixed, Kenneth listened open-mouthed. At last breaking the spell,
he exclaimed:

"I never heard of him. You never spoke of him before."

"How should you remember?" went on the old woman. "It's many years
ago. Your father and mother are dead. You have no relatives living.
No one knows. But I know."

"Did he die?" asked Kenneth, deeply interested.

The old lady nodded affirmatively.

"I shall never forgive myself. It was my fault. You were playing
together in the garden. I didn't dream either of you could come to
harm. I went into the house for a moment to get something. When I
came back your brother was gone--no trace of him anywhere. We never
saw him again. Your father, heart-broken, offered a fortune for news
of him. The police hunted high and low all over the country. There
was no trace. Some gypsies had passed recently through the town. I
always suspected them. That is thirty years ago and more."

"So it's not even known if he's dead," interrupted Kenneth eagerly.

The beldame shook her head sorrowfully, as she answered sagely:

"Oh, he's dead all right. That's sure. There was money left to him by
your grandfather. For years the lawyers advertised for news of him.
But it was no good. If he'd been alive, he'd have claimed his own."

"He might still be alive, yet unaware of his identity," broke in Helen,
who was a keenly interested listener. She had been so accustomed