said, and he spoke precisely, "I do not recognize
the right of you, or any other man, to call my acts into account;
however"--and he made a curious gesture with his extended hands "not at
your command, but at my pleasure, I will tell you.

"This young woman had some estate from her mother at that lady's death.
As her guardian I invested it by permission of the court's decree." He
paused. "When the Maxwell lands were sold before the courthouse I bid
them in for my ward. The judge confirmed this use of the guardian funds.
It was done upon advice of counsel and within the letter of the law. Now
it appears that Maxwell had only a life interest in these lands; Maxwell
is dead, and one who has purchased the interest of his heirs sues in the
courts for this estate.

"This new claimant will recover; since one who buys at a judicial sale,
I find, buys under the doctrine of caveat emptor--that is to say, at his
peril. He takes his chance upon the title. The court does not insure it.
If it is defective he loses both the money and the lands. And so," he
added, "my ward will have no income to support her, and I decline to
assume that burden."

My father looked the hunchback in the face. "Who is the man bringing
this suit at law?"

"A Mr. Henderson, I believe," replied Dillworth, "from Maryland."

"Do you know him?" said my father.

"I never heard of him," replied the hunchback.

The girl, huddled in the chair, interrupted. "I have seen letters," she
said, "come in here with this man's return address at Baltimore written
on the envelope."

The hunchback made an irrelevant gesture. "The man wrote--to inquire
if I would buy his title. I declined." Then he turned to my father.
"Pendleton," he said, "you know about this matter. You know that every
step I took was legal. And with pains and care how I got an order out
of chancery to make this purchase, and how careful I was to have this
guardianship investment confirmed by the court. No affair was ever done
so exactly within the law."

"Why were you so extremely careful?" said my father.

"Because I wanted the safeguard of the law about me at every step,"
replied the man.

"But why?"

"You ask me that, Pendleton?"' cried the man. "Is not the wisdom of my
precautions evident? I took them to prevent this very thing; to protect
myself when this thing should happen!"

"Then," said my father, "you knew it was going to happen."

The man's eyes slipped about a moment in his hea