Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-09-06
AN UNCLE VANISHED,

character. either in real life or on the stage. But there is a material difference ln his behavior in the two situations, for whereas on the stage is he almost invari- ably turned to repentance by the beaux yeux of the young lady whom his heir has married, or by the maddening prat- tie of her tiresome child, and dies in the odor of sanctity distributing indiscrimi- nate blessings, in real life he more often than not carries his spite with him to the grave and leaves his posterity good reason to execrate his memory in the shape of an outrageously malicious will.
 Sir Toby Bunskin, of Bunsldn Hall, Fallowland, and No. 250 Grosvenor square, London, was not at all like the traditional old gentleman of the stage. His hatred for his heir, Capt. Jack Bun skin, of the Fiftieth Lancers, was not ex- aggerated, and did not betray him into foolish excesses, but it was sincere-the more so, perhaps, because it was abso- lutely unreasonable.
 And Jack had long ago reconciled him self to precarious existence on his pay, his wits and the money he could raise by mortgaging his reversion to certain fam fly estates which Sir Toby had not the power of willing away from him.
 Now, although Sir Toby hated Jack so heartily, it must not be imagined that he was sufficiently lost to the decencies of society as to ignore his existence, to insult him in public, or even to be point edly rude to him in private. Jack was always asked down to Bunskin Hall for the cover shooting, he was expected to assist at the annual rent dinner of Sir Tobys tenants, and at certain fixed sea sons he was formally invited to Gros- venor square. But Neere Sir Toby's recognition of his refstive began and ended He would not allow Jack 8 six pence, nor would he have lent him e20 i to save him from the bankruptcy court, | or even from suicide.
 The baronet was not very old-he was barely sixty-and for bodily yigor many man of fve-and-forty might have en- vied him. He rode regularly to hounds, was an experienced and successful deer stalker and could cast salmon fly with the best fishermen in Scotland; and he was addicted to none of the excesses which sometimes shorten the lives of men who indulge in hard exercise, for he neither ate too much nor drank too freely. In fact, he took excellent care of himself, and was on very good terms with his doctor. His friends said that he delighted in the idea of keeping Jack out of his inheritance as long as he pos sibly could
 Now, all men have their small weak nesses, and one of the most pronounced of Sir Toby's was a passion for literature and for plays of sensational and blood curdling description. He reveled ill pen ny dreadfuls and in soul moving melo- drama; he delighted in complicated plots of missing heirs, forged wills, mysterious murders and buried treasure. There was reason to suppose that many of his strong boxes, which presumably contained title deeds and ancient leases, were in reality stuffed with rejected manuscripts and stillborn dramas, declined with thanks.
 Sir Toby was firmly impressed with the idea that had his station and duties been otherwise he would have made his fortune as 8 detective, and nothing pleased him so much as endeavoring to discover the identity of an undetected murderer or the motive for mysterious disappearance. Whenever such an event occurred, which was pretty often, Sir Toby used to indict long epistles to The Times, setting forth his theories.
 It was one day in early spring that a great idea occurred to Sir Toby Bunskin
 He felt in peculiarly misanthropic
 humor, for Jack had been staying with
 him, and uncle and nephew had con
 trived to quarrel even more seriously
 than usual. Moreover, there had been
 published certain damaging facts in con
 nection with one or two charitable insti-
 tutions to which Sir Toby had intended
 to leave the greater part of his fortune,
 and he began to think that even Jack
 might not put his money to a much
 worse use than pack of overpaid, greedy
 officials. It was in this hunor that he
 had taken up a newspaper and studied
 the strange disappearance of Mr. Jabez
 Brown, an eminent Mudford merchant
 and millionaire, who had vanished from mortal ken in the most unexpected man her and without the slightest apparent reason
 The amateur detective was strong il Sir Toby, as usual, and he fell to musing
 over the fate of MT. Brown, and tC
 evolving all manner of theories which might account for his singular absence He was rich, eminently respectable, and , universally looked up to in the commer , cial world. An examination of his affair: had proved beyond doubt that no fnan } cial embarrassment existed. Then ht t was moral man, and there was no sus picion that he had eloped with somebody else's wife, or, indeed, that lady was il any way connected with the case. H.
 was perfectly sane and in good health ! and no conceivable reason could be i'm 2 agined for suicide.
 [ "He may have been murdered, o !. course" thought Sir Toby; but this 50 : lution seemed dcommonplace-''th there may
 be a woman in the case. Begad, l b9 l ieve be is alive, at any rate. He may
 have disappeared out of pure caprice found his responsibilities too trouble some; or perhaps he wanted to spitt 2 somebody" This last notion seemed t
 interest Sir Toby-it was really origina S that a man should disappear for such ; motive. He pondered deeply for severa ? minutes, and then he said to himself : quite slowly:
 He may have bolted to spite his heir! And then Sir Toby chuckled. "A
 lovely idear' he continued. ''Old Browl
 must have an heir-everybody has, O
 nearly everybody. Brown disappears
 delight of heir-long search after Browl
 body found in the Thames-much de composed-but easily identified as tha of Brown by servants in pay of heir
 heir takes possession of property-has r splendid time feF g few weeks, when be l hold Brown redivivus Brown alive anC well-promptly kicks out the heir an( :, declines all responsibility for his debts : What a splendid bttuation! Wonde Y how my dear nephew would like it? T. l. give five thousand pounds to see him. 6 And Sir Toby burst into harsh, unpleas y ant laughter, and positively rolled abou a in his chair with ghoulish merr1ment d The idea pleased him so much that Ii [, sat up good two hours later than usual | and when at last he went to bed it wa e with firm determination to carry ou l his scheme.
 1t Upon Sir Toby's preparations it is un d necessary to dwell. He contrived to DOS r., sess himself without susnicion of Sava1a