my nephew."

He read with eager interest:

"DEAR SIR:--(so it commenced) You asked me to write you if anything
happened. I think you will like to know that your nephew, Gilbert
Grey, if he is your nephew, which I doubt, has just left here for
St. Louis. I suppose, from what I can learn, that he is in search
of you. I don't think he has any idea where you really live. He has
not learned from me, for I hate him, and I won't tell him anything
he wants to know. I didn't know but you might happen to be in St.
Louis, so I write to put you on your guard. I hope you will write
to me, so that I may know this letter went straight.

"Yours, respectfully,

"MAURICE WALTON."

"He wants me to write to him, inclosing ten dollars," thought James
Grey. "Well, he shall not be disappointed. His information is worth
that. So my young nephew is on the trail is he? He really thinks he is
a match for me. Well, well, we shall see. He mustn't push his inquiries
too far, or he may find me dangerous," and Mr. Grey's face assumed a
dark and threatening look. "However, he is not likely to find me in
this out-of-the-way place."

Mr. Grey went into his library, and penned a short letter to Maurice
Walton, commending him for his watchfulness, and inclosing a ten-dollar
greenback.

He had scarcely finished the letter when Pompey entered, and said:

"Scuse me, massa, but there's a young gemman below that axes to see
you."

"A young gentleman!" repeated Mr. Grey. "Can it be my nephew?" flashed
through his mind with sudden suspicion.

"Bring him up, Pompey," he said, aloud.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE GUEST OF HIS ENEMY.

While Pompey was gone to seek Gilbert and invite him to the library,
James Grey gave the time to rapid reflection. He saw that our hero was
a determined and dangerous opponent. He had not credited him with such
courage and perseverance. He thought that, being a mere boy, he would
be easily intimidated--that opposition and difficulty would daunt him.
But he had hardly reached home, and his nephew was already on his
track.

"How could he have found out my residence?" thought he. "Maurice Walton
wouldn't tell him. He must be sharper than I supposed."

When intimidation and force fail, a good general has recourse to
strategy. James Grey was a man of expedients, and he rapidly decided
upon a change of base. When, therefore, Gilbert entered the library,
expecting an angry rece