The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-11-07
THE AMETHYST SEAL.
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 He sat down in his easy chair tremb. ling with excitement, and drew the folded foolscap from its envelope. His uncle grabbed writing was familiar to him, and he had no difficulty in deciphering it His eyes skinned the m lnuscript rapid iy, taking no note of details, till on he third page he found the first mention of his own name. To my kinsman. liar old Dare, bequeath the sum of L8 900
 Eight thousand pounds It was more, far more, than his hopes Id dared to foreshadow. All would yet be we'll with him. His heart gave great throb of re. lief, the hand that held the paper dropped by his side; for the moment he was over come.
 But there was something else that he was almost equally anxious to see. He turned over another page, and there tound what he was looking for. "To my beloved ward, Elinor Trenton, who has been to me as dear daughter, l bequeath the sum of 66 GOO"
 Why, tn.s was better and better Harold felt that he had never loved Eli nor nearly so much as at that moment never had she seemed so dear to him be- fore. He made up his mind there and then to propose to her at Christmas, and he had a sufficiently good opinion of him. self to feel little doubt as to the result His star was evidently in the ascendant.
 When he had in some measure recov- cred his equanmity he read the draft through carefully, clause by clause. There was nothing else in it that interested him or course the bulk of everything went to his cousin, BruCe-i could not be other. wise.
 Now that he had asCettaiaed all that it oehooved him to know, the question arose as to the best and safest mode of forw ard ing the document to its destination so that no suspicion that it had been tam pered with should be aroused in the mind of its recipient He lit cigar and lay back in his chair, with his eyes fixed on ore correr of the ceiling. By the time his smoke was finished he had made up his mind as to the safest course to pur- sue. He would replace the manuscript in its original envelope it would never do to put it into fresh one and address 1t Tn his own writing and would carefully seal 1t up again. Only, and here was the rub, he would have to make use of seal of his own wherewlth to impress the wax, which as matter of course, would be altogether different fsom the one used by Sir George. He could not see that the difference would matter. How was MT. SYmes to know that the seal was other lha his clients?
 Going into his dresslng-room he un- locked an old-fashioned bureau which stood there, and took out of one of the drawers certain amethyst seal, set in gold, which once upon a time had be- tonged to his father. It was one of those ponderous seals which gentlemen used 10 wear attached to their watches some torty or fifty years ago. How it had come into his fathers possession Harold had never heard. It was beautifully cut. On the upper side were two hands clasped as If iu friendship underneath the hands was dagger, point downward and below that the one word Desormais." Nc one knew that be had such seal in his pos session; what could be safer than to make use of 1t in an emergency such as the present.
 Accordingly the envelope was reclosed, and the hot wax stamped with the impress of the amethyst seal Then fresh post age stamps were affixed over the place where the original ones had been and then there was nothing more ts do save to drop the packet into the nearest pillar box. He waited till dusk before doing this. Then with sigh of relief that his dangerous task was safely over, he turned and walked slowly in the direction of his club.