Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1899-12-28
CHAPTER v.
The Heir of Arnewood.

The Heir of ArnewOod.
The Arnewoods of Arnewood Hall.
like many other old Irish families of
good position. were descended from a
trooper enriched by Cromwell at the
expense of SCme unfortunate adherent
of the Stuart cause. No title had sub
sequently fallen to them, as to dozens
of families of similar genesis, but they
had always held a foremost place
among the squirearchy of the County
kildare. True, his descendants did not
emulate the austere virtue of the Crom-
wellian soldier; indeed, they We're
known, throughout the somewhat dis
solute Georgian epoch. as among the
widest and most spendthrift frequent
ers of Dublin gambling saloons and
night clubs. But fortune, aided by a
few heiress brides, always seemed to
favor them: and when the then head
of the family, Basil Arnewood. died in
IS. he left an unencumbered estate
worth nearly $4,000 year, and
$4,000 in hard cash.
Now. many years before, he had
quarreled seriously (and, as it turned
out, irrevocably) with his eldest son,
George. Reports differed as to the
cause Of the quarrel. The son was
known to be recklessly eXtravagant,
and the general belief was that, in or
der to meet some exceptionally heavy
losses upon the turf, he had forged his
fathers signature to bill Be that as
it might, the estrangement proved com.
plete. The young man disappeared.
and the story given out was that he
had emigrated to Australia, taking
with him a circus girl (whom he had
privately married. and their infant son.
There remained to Basil Arnewoou
one other son, Richard, and it was gen
orally supposed that he would profit by
the new act to bar the entail in the
younger sons favor. Richard howev-
er, also turned out to be scamp. mar
ried beneath him, and died young.
leaving behind him motherless boy,
also named Richard. This child the
old Squire took charge of, avowedly
only because he could not help doing
so. He had him we'll educated, and. in
due course, young Richard passed into
line regiment, and with very scanty
allowance to supplement his pay.
Whatever the Squire's ultimate in
tentions may have been with respect
to the disposal of his property, he died
practically interstate. A will was GER
tainly found, disposing of his personal
estate among number of more or less
distant kinsmen, with some minor leg
acies to servants and charities. But
he had omitted to sign this document,
which was. therefore, legally worth
less. Nor had he taken any steps what
ever to interfere with the entail. Con-
sequently, every acre and every shill-
ing passed to the eldest exiled son.
George. or his heirs.
This was very nice little windfall,
of course. for Messrs. O'Brien & Grudg-
cry. the family solicitors; and equally,
Of course, they made the most of it.
They Were obliged, however, to take
steps to discover the whereabouts of
the absent heir. and finally decided on
placing the work of inquiry in our
hands. 1t so happened las already
stated that Mr.. Hawkins was very ill
at the time. and the case. therefore.
came entirely into my hands, as man
aging clerk.
At the risk of appearing to advertise
the firm of which am now a partner,
l will venture to say that our agencies
afford us very exceptional advantages
for inquiries in the Colonies. These
are. i'll fact, our speciality. and it was a
knowledge of this fact which doubtless
induced the Dublin solicitors to place
the affair in our hands. l had. there
fore, very little doubt that if Mr..
George Arnewood were still above
ground, our agents would find him. In
addition to notifying them, had the
following advertisement inserted in the
principal Australian weekly journals:
George Arnewood. of Kildare, Ire
land. who emigrated to Melbourne in
IS. is earnestly requested to commu-
nicate at once with the undersigned.
Father dead intestate. Information
respecting whereabouts Of above
named literally rewarded. Address
Hawkins & Co, 80 Exeter Street,
Strand. London.
Somewhat to my surprise, our first
information came not through our
agents, hut as a direct reply to this adj
vertisement, and from the son of the
missing heir, 1t was not q lengthy
communication, but was very much to
the purpose:
Miners Arms, Cooktown. Queensland,
MO,rl, OIL, COO