ed
to an inheritance from your grandfather's estate."

"Really?" cried Helen, eagerly.

"Really," answered the lawyer, with a smile. "It isn't a very large
fortune, but it will yield you a neat little income every year. In
fact there is quite an accumulation due you, and I shall be happy to
send it on as soon as I get back to New York. I congratulate you!"

CHAPTER XV

A WARNING

Helen could hardly believe the good news. Though she had hoped, since
hearing from the law firm, that she might be entitled to some money,
Helen had always been careful not to hope too much.

"For I don't want to be badly disappointed," she told Joe.

"Well," he remarked, "I wish my chances were as good as yours."

For the answers he received from the letters he wrote concerning his
mother's relatives in England were disappointing. As far as these
letters went there was no estate in which Joe might share, though Bill
Watson insisted that the late Mrs. Strong came of a wealthy family.

"Anyhow, you've got yours, Helen," said Joe.

"Well, I haven't exactly got it yet," and she looked at Mr. Pike.

"Oh, the money is perfectly safe," the lawyer assured Helen. "I have
part of it on deposit in my bank, and the rest is safe in California."

"Just how did it happen to come to me?" Helen inquired.

"Well," answered the lawyer slowly, "it's a long and complicated story.
Your grandfather on your father's side was quite a landholder in San
Francisco. Some of his property was not worth a great deal, and other
plots were very valuable. In time he sold off most of it, but one
large tract was considered so worthless that he could not find a buyer
for it. When he died he still owned it, and it descended to your
father.

"He thought so little of it that he never tried to put it on the
market. But during the last few years the city has grown out in the
direction of this land, and recently the property was sold.

"An effort was made to find the owner, your father, but as he was dead,
and no one knew what had become of his heirs, the land was sold, and
the money deposited with the state, to be turned over to the right
owner when found. We have a branch office in San Francisco, and we
were engaged to try to find any Morton heirs. Finally we found you,
and now I am glad to say that my work in this connection is so happily
ended.

"As I told you, I have some cash ready for you. The rest of your
inheritance is in the form of bonds