Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-06-14
THE HARDCAS1LE Twins.
N0D ELL. May darling, what is to
M be done? Uncle Jim has come

WND ELL. May darling, what is to
y m be done? Uncle Jim has come
to life again. He is appar
ently married. and is the proud father
OF twin boys. So my chances OF In
neriting are-''
And Eric Strachan gave a half
choke. and looked ut Malsie. and the
girl looked first at him and then away
from him. and her beautiful eyes were
clouded.
And next week we were going to
ask the courts to to be allowed 70 pre-
sumo your nncle's death. and you
Mp9lted- slipped Into title and es-
States, and-oh. Eric! What man
Lord Hardcastle Is, dead one minute
and alive the next"
What you might call unreliable, 7"
said Eric dryly. ~
~ In early youth Lord Hardcastle had
had disappointment In love. and
though anyone who knew him would
have thought him the last man In the
world to have taken such matter Sc
riously to heart, he did, for he shut up
his house and wandered literally all
over the face of creation for many
I years.
He had no relative living but Eric
land not only was he bad CORE
$spondent, but when his rare and la
comic epistles from Canada. Australia
For South America did arrive only an
average Of one word in three was de.
cipherable, for his handwriting was
simply nbominablr.
He had been shot, stabbed, had fall
en- down a disused shaf. or two Mt the
diggings. and been shlpwrecked twice.
and seemed to thrive upon 1t: and once
he wrote he was suffering from what
looked like ''galloping consumption,
but the consumption either failed to
gallop. or the mir OF the Blue Noun
tains had cured him, or the bad writ
ing may not have been Consumption
Mt all; the symbols may have stood for
pain almost any where. Seven years
before when In England. he had made
the acquaintance of his nephew Eric,
who was 10: he took huge fancy to
the bright young fellow. gave him IL
< very handsome, check. indeed. told him
to look upon himself MS heir to the
s Hardcastle estates, and promised he
would write to his solicitors to see that
Eric had decent allowance worthy of
the heir to thousands, and he had bet
ter try for the army, and live well.
When old Hardcastle. leaving very
grateful lad behind him. returned to
his hotel, he met a. very old crOny who
was sailing on the following day for
the Argentine Buenos Ayres was one
of, the few places Jack Hardcastle had
not visited. so, forgetting all about his
plans for Eric, he said he would come,
too. There was no bother about pack
ing, for he had only arrived the day
before from Sydney. aud had not ull-
packed yet; so ut dawn the next morn
Ing this globe-trotter and his crony
started .or Buenos Ayres. and pOor
Eric was forgotten. The young fell
( low was practically alone in the world
and II 1t had not been for little Maisie
his boyhood's sweetheart, would have
refused the fairly good clerkship In
the city which had been offered him
and lived the life of an idle man OH
the very slender income his parents
had left him. and the prospects Of hell
from his rich. eccentric uncle.
s They had been married nearly n
year now, and two happier people
never lived ont of paradise; but theil
income was only n small one. and there
We're prospects of another little mouth
to feed. They had never quite givet
up hope that In the nick of time the
eccentric uncle would turn up like the
godmother in the fairy story. and now
had come this awful ill-written letter
saying he had twin boys. and no men
tion Of his wlfe--he probably forgol
to mention she was dead. AaIsit
spread 1t out upon the table. and once
more deciphered as much as she could
practically spelling out each symbol
".I'm bringing over my two Lowell!
twin boys; you will be delighted will
them; they're the image Of Rose q
suppose that Is his Wife. They vel
good deal at night-all boys do, hui
you can rig them mp ont of the way
where they will disturb no one
"Oh. Eric, how can we And room fol
them all:"
Irwin boys? 1t looks to me like
twin frogs never saw such writ