nt out in
his boat and he, too, disappeared, and then the family set up a claim
against his money and property, and as the granddaughter could not be
found, by ginger! they got it--yes, they produced some sort of will--a
forgery I'll swear--but according to the will Mrs. Canfield number two
was to have the money, and was to take care of the granddaughter. Yes,
they got the money after a few years in the courts, and they all
disappeared. I always wondered Jake did not come forward and claim his
money and beat them, but I reckon he was glad to get rid of them even at
the sacrifice of his fortune, and between you and me, it was whispered
sometimes that Jake had _money deposited in New York, that no one but
himself_ knew anything about. At any rate, he never showed up and his
widow, so-called, got the money. She sold the house and land, got the
money from the bank, and disappeared, and that was the last we ever saw
or heard of them around here. Of course there were all sorts of
stories."

"About what?"

"Jake."

"What was the character of the stories?"

"Well, they do say that the stepsons murdered him. Yes, one story was
that Jake never went out in the boat, but a dummy went out in his
clothes, one of the sons. Another story was that the son went out over
night, laid for Jake on the sea, knowing his habits, and murdered him
out on the water and sunk his boat and body, but I never took any stock
in those wild tales. No, sir, Jake was not murdered, he just 'sloped'
to get away from his devilish second-hand relatives. I never blamed him;
no, sir, I never did."

Jack was the most delighted man that ever started out to "shadow" a
mystery. He had indeed started without a single clue, and he had made
out a most wonderful case. He had traced and traced step by step, and
was satisfied that Jake Canfield was the strange man who had deposited
the money with Mr. Townsend, and what was far more important, he had
established a _motive_ for the singular deposit, and this, as intimated,
was the most important of all his discoveries. The adventure of Mr.
Townsend had been a very remarkable one; it was an incident that only
the facts could explain, for no one could ever have imagined a series of
incidents to account for so remarkable a proceeding. Jack felt that he
could claim without dispute that his success thus far had been a
remarkable detective feat--one of the most remarkable on record--but he
was not through. He had several im