Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1905-07-08
THE HARDCASTLE TWINS.



RNT ELL, May darling. what is to
WNW be done? Uncle Jim has come
to life again. He Is appar.
emily married, and is the proud father
of twin boys. So my chances of in
heriting are"
And Eric strachan gave a half
choke, and looked at Maisie, 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 uncles death, and you
would have slipped into title and es-
tates, and-oh, Eric! What man
Lord Hardcastle is, dead one minute
and alive the nextw
what you might call unreliable"
said Eric dryly.
In early youth Lord Hardcastle had
had a disappointment in love, and,
though anyone who knew him would
have thought him the last man in the
world to have taken such n matter Sc
riously to heart, he did, for he shut up
his house and wandered literally all
over the face Of creation for many
years.
He had no relative living but Eric.
and not only was he bad CORE
spondent, but when his rare and la
comic epIstles from Canada, Australia
or South America did arrive only an
average of one word I'm three was de-
cipherable. for his handwriting was
simply abomlnable.
He had been shot. stabbed, had fall
en- down a dlsused shaft or two at the
diggings, and been shlpwrecked twice,
and seemed to thrive upon It; and once
he wrote he was suffering from what
looked ike "galloplng consumption. -
but the consumption either failed to
gnllop. or the air OF the Blue Noun
talns had cured him, or the bad writ
Ing may not have been consumption
Mt all: the symbols may have stood for
main almost anywhere. Seven years
before when I'm England. he had made
the acquaintance OF his nephew Eric
who was IS: he took a huge fancy tC
the bright young fellow, gave him d
very handsome check, indeed, told hin
70 look upon himself as heir to the
Hardcastle estates. and promised he
would write to his solicitors to see that
Eric had n decent allowance worthy Of
the heir to thousands, and he had bet
fer try for the army. and live well.
when old Hardcastle. leaving yer,
grateful lad behind him, returned e
his hotel, he met very old crOny who
was sailing on the following day FOL
the Argentine. Buenos Ayres was ont
OF the few places Jack Hardcastle haC
not visited. so. forgetting all about hi
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, and had not un
packed yet; so at dawn the next morn
ing this globe-trotter and his cronl
started .or BuenOs Ayres, and poo
Eric was forgotten. The young fel
low was practically alone in the world
and II It had not been for little Maisie
his boyhood's sweetheart, would hav'
refused the fairly good clerkship II
the city which had been offered him
and lived the life Of an idle man oil
the very slender income his parent
had left him. and the prospects Of hell
from his rich, eccentric uncle.
They had been married nearly
year now, and two happier peoepl
navar lived ont NJ naradfsa. hut thef
income was only a small one, and Their
were prospects of another little moutl
to feed. They had never quite givei
up hope that in the nick OF time tn
eccentric uncle would turn up like tn
godmother in the fairy story, and nov
had come this awful. ill-written letter
saying he had twin boys, and no men