me for, and what
I intend to keep coming for, is to see her will."

"Her will?" asked Mr. Reed with surprise, and in an unconscious tone of
relief, for he had feared a much more serious demand.

"Yes, now you've hit it! Her adopted parents were dead. She had
inherited one-third of their estate. With such a fortune as that, she
must have left a will. Where is it? I want to know what became of that
money, and why you withheld--"

"Silence!" commanded Mr. Reed, sorely tempted to lay hands on the
fellow, and thrust him from the house. "No insolence, sir!"

Just then Lydia opened the door, and as we already know, vanished as
soon as she learned her presence had not been called for.

"What I want to know"--began Eben again, in a high key.

"Not so loud," said Mr. Reed, quietly.

His visitor's voice dropped, as, thrusting out his elbows and resting a
hand on each arm of his chair, he started afresh:

"So Miss Kate Reed, as she called herself, and as you called her, never
wrote me again after the old people died, eh?"

"Never" was uttered so significantly that his listener responded with a
quick, "Well! what do you mean?"

"What do _you_ mean?" echoed Slade with a darkening face. "Why didn't
she ever write to me afterward?"

This was a bit of acting designed to mislead; for Kate _had_ written
again, and at that moment a yellow, worn letter, fourteen years old, was
tucked snugly away in the visitor's pocket. And it was on the strength
of this same letter that he hoped yet to obtain heavy favors from George
Reed. Eben knew well enough what had become of the money, but, for some
cunning reason of his own, chose for the present to plead ignorance.

"I will ask you a question in return," said Mr. Reed. "Why, if you took
so keen an interest in your sister's fortune, did you not apply to me
long ago for information?"

"Because," replied Eben Slade, boldly, "I had my reasons. I knew the
money was safe; and I could bide my time."

"What!" exclaimed Mr. Reed, "do you pretend to be ignorant of the fact
that, two years after my sister Kate's marriage, she started with her
husband and baby to return to America, absolutely penniless?"

"Then, how could they pay for their passage?" asked Eben;--but meeting
Mr. Reed's eyes, he went on in an injured tone, "I know nothing but what
you choose to tell me. True, you forgot to advertise for me to put in an
appearance and hear of something to my advantage, but I supposed, very
natur