sidy, and a boy named Percy Paget."

It was a final and telling blow. The squire fell back, pale and trembling.
Ralph faced him dauntlessly, while the others stood around, holding their
breath.

Squire Paget could not answer. He wanted to speak, but not a word would his
tongue utter. He looked about for his silk hat, and, finding it, dashed out
of the house as if a legion of demons were after him.

We will pass over the immediate scenes that followed. Mrs. Nelson could not
let Ralph leave her side for the rest of the day, and Horace Kelsey
undertook to follow the squire and bring him to terms.

But the exposure had been too much for Squire Paget. He disappeared that
night, leaving his business affairs just as they were. It was not until a
year afterward that he was heard from as living in an obscure state in a
little town in Canada.

On the strength of his confession, Ralph did not appear against Martin
Thomas, and the man got off with a very light sentence. Toglet took time by
the forelock, and fled to the Southwest.

The post office robbers were all heavily punished, although Percy Paget, on
account of his years, received a lighter sentence than his older
companions.

It was not long before the papers which had been missing were turned over
to Mrs. Nelson. Under Ralph's advice, the entire question of property was
placed in Horace Kelsey's charge.

The insurance agent was not long in finding out what Squire Paget had
intended to do with the land along the lake front. Part of it was to be
turned over to a syndicate for a factory site, and the balance was to be
cut up and sold as town lots. The plan was carried out later on for Mrs.
Nelson's benefit, and the sum of seventy thousand dollars was eventually
realized out of the transaction.

Of course this made the widow and her son the richest people in the
village. Ralph at once left off work, and took up his studies, and passed
through Yale College with high honors. To-day he is the mayor of Westville,
honored and loved by all who know him, and here we will leave him.

THE END.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Young Bridge-Tender, by Arthur M. Winfield

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