to offer Slocum three or four thousand
dollars to set you up, and he is to decline to take it. Is that it?"

"That is not it at all," returned Richard. "My statement was this:
If you were to propose purchasing a share for me in the works, Mr.
Slocum would not entertain the proposition, thinking--as I don't
think--that he would mortify you by the refusal of your money."

"The only way Slocum could mortify me would be by getting hold of
it. But what are you driving at, anyhow? In one breath you demand
several thousand dollars, and in the next breath you tell me that
nobody expects it, or wants it, or could be induced to have it on any
terms. Perhaps you will inform me what you are here for?"

"That is what you will never discover!" cried Richard. "It is not
in you to comprehend the ties of sympathy that ought to hold between
two persons situated as we are. In most families this sympathy binds
closely at times,--at christenings, or burials, or when some member
is about to take an important step in life. Generally speaking, blood
is thicker than water; but your blood, cousin Shackford, seems to be
a good deal thinner. I came here to consult with you as my sole
remaining kinsman, as one authorized by years and position to give me
wise counsel and kindly encouragement at the turning point in my
fortune. I didn't wish to go among those people like a tramp, with
neither kith nor kin to say a word for me. Of course you don't
understand that. How should you? A sentiment of that kind is
something quite beyond your conception."

Richard's words went into one ear and out the other, without
seeming for an instant to arrest Mr. Shackford's attention. The idea
of Slocum not accepting money--anybody's money--presented itself to
Mr. Shackford in so facetious a light as nearly to throw him into
good humor. His foot was on the first step of the staircase, which he
now began slowly to mount, giving vent, as he ascended, to a series
of indescribable chuckles. At the top of the landing he halted, and
leaned over the rail.

"To think of Slocum refusing,--that's a good one!"

In the midst of his jocularity a sudden thought seemed to strike
Mr. Shackford; his features underwent a swift transformation, and as
he grasped the rail in front of him with both hands a malicious
cunning writhed and squirmed in every wrinkle of his face.

"Sir!" he shrieked, "it was a trap! Slocum would have taken it! If
I had been ass enough to make any such off