I will defer saying more till we are seated in my
room at the hotel."

In less than five minutes they were so seated. By the gaslight Maurice
got a fair view of his companion, and was led to wonder who he was.

"Mr. Walton," said the older man, "it is only fair that I should give
you an equal advantage with myself. I know your name. You do not know
mine. Let me introduce myself as James Grey."

"Formerly in business in this city?"

"The same."

"The uncle of Gilbert Grey?"

"So he says."

It was impossible to mistake the tone in which these words were spoken.

"Is he not really your nephew?" asked Maurice, in surprise.

James Grey shrugged his shoulders.

"He _pretends_ to be; but I believe him to be an impostor."

"What makes you think so? Why should he pretend to be related to you?"
asked Maurice, excited and eager.

"Because I am rich, and he has entered into a plot to extort money from
me. I can make clear his design very briefly. He pretends that he is
the son of my elder brother. If this be true, then the property which I
possess, or a large part of it, properly belongs to him."

"But, if it isn't true, how can he make such a claim?"

"My brother's only son disappeared when a mere boy, and, though his
body was not found, there is reason to believe that he fell into the
Ohio river and was drowned. At about the same time, a clerk in my
employ purloined a sum of money and fled. This boy has heard of these
two incidents, and, cunningly putting them together, comes forward with
a trumped-up story to the effect that this clerk, Jacob Morton, was
hired to carry off my nephew, in order that, the true heir being out of
the way, I might succeed to my brother's money. It is ridiculous, and
yet it is cunningly devised."

"I always thought he was artful," said Maurice.

"You are quite right there. He has an astonishing amount of artfulness
and unblushing impudence. But I have not told you all. He produces a
paper professing to be written by this Jacob Morton, who, he says, is
dead, asserting all that he claims."

"Do you think he wrote it himself?"

"Either that, or he has met this clerk somewhere, and they have devised
a plan for jointly enriching themselves at my expense. If this is the
case, and the paper was really written by Jacob Morton, the man is
probably still alive, but keeping himself somewhere in concealment."

"What a bold attempt at fraud!" exclaimed Maurice, who was completely
duped by h