g fortune, and
he walks about with a strut as it he was a king and we all was common
trash 'way beneath his notice. I saw him talking to Dixie Hart this
morning in the post-office. His face was shining, and his eyes twinkling
over the news of his wife's big haul. Me an' him have had it nip and
tuck here ever since he set up in business, and he has always thwarted
me. I've pinched and delved to save a few dollars, and his comes to him
in rolls and wads. Folks say he's going to sell out and live over there
in ease the rest of his life. I don't care how soon he leaves, but I'd
like to wipe that grin off his gloating face."

"I've got to go, uncle," Bradley said. "It's too hot for me here. But I
need some money, and I must have it to-night."

"Money? Good Lord! How much do you want?"

"Five hundred. I'm going back West. I know the country, and I'll settle
there. As for Alf Henley, I've got something up my sleeve for him. He's
chuckling now over his wife's big luck, but I'll knock that higher than
a kite; he'll never live on that plantation or spend any of that cash.
You listen close and you'll hear something drop with a big clatter
before many days."

"What are you talking about?" the money-lender asked, bending forward
and peering eagerly into the bloated face of his nephew.

"I know what I'm talking about," Bradley replied, still evasively, "and
that will be the first thing I attend to when I get where I can breathe
fresh air. Say, uncle, I've had a secret in my hold for several years.
It is about Dick Wrinkle. If I thought you could hold your old tongue--"

"Hold my tongue?" Welborne broke in. "Did you ever hear of me telling
anything?"

"Nothing that concerned you, and this does, to some extent, I'll admit,"
Bradley said. "Listen, uncle. How would you like to hear that Alf Henley
ain't that woman's lawful husband? Dick Wrinkle is alive."

"Good Lord!" The old man's eyes gleamed even in the starlight. "You
don't mean it? Surely, surely, you don't."

"Yes, he's alive. He was in Oklahoma when I last saw him. He was done
with everything back here--bored to death by his wife and her odd ways,
and wanted to shake it all off. He had done me a good many favors. He
was hurt in that big storm and reported dead, and got me to confirm it
back here. I did the job right. You are the first one I've told the
facts to. I get a letter from him now and then, and know where he is.
He's made enough money to own a bar in a little p