Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-05-03

thing 1 eau do for you, considering
your father s kindness tonne"
ooh, Mr.. Trevor, l ,amtin such trou-
bic. In addition to being an orphan /
am paupea.
MY dearfMisss AinSworth. how /can
the heir Ato the sHalliweIl block be a
pauperT''
Il am mot thetheir to etHalliwell
block. AtlawyerI-I suppose You would
call him shYster-has produced a
deed from Mr.. fHalliwell 'priorfto the
one,he gaye,fatter."
Trevor was too astOniSteu for few
minutes to GiveS the girl any, comfort.
Then he asked:
WAS this deed offered before your
fathers deatl3g'
ut was thisVlargely thatikilled him."
"Would yOaI elike me TO see if 1 can
do anything fH. you?"
Eyes. only Ie1nve no money for law
yer's fees. Tlie block was fathers
only property.0
Never mind fhat Is Halliwell liv
ing?-
u don't know. (He.went 10 the Rocky
mountains after sellklg father the.prop-
Father bought it uoienable Mr.. Halli-
well to get away
The result of tits; conversation was
that Trevor found Fhat he must prove
the signature TO thes newly offered deed
a forgery or Miss -Minsworth must lose
her property. He Ina Il about IL hundred
dollars of what heI had brought west
with him, and on this he started out to
the mountains to find HalliTell in or
der to- get his testimony, chasing him
from place 10 place uill at Il mining vii
lage in. Nevada he found him, Il broken
down pr0spector. He had been in
many quarrel anddn one,of them had
an arm so badly shattered that the sur
geon who attended him was obliged to
amputate 1t. Trevor promised to Eelp
him in case,th suit was .won, and the
two started. eastward.
Halliwell told Trevor that he had
never made a deed to any one but Mr..
Ainsworth, and. any other deed was I'M
questionably a forgery. But Trevor
had misgMingS. He knew the reputa-
ton that Gibbs, the claimant. had
brought with him from his former
home for az very smart and unscrupu-
lous rascal. His only hope was that
Halliwell himself would pronounce the
signature a fbrgery.
When Trevor returned,and reported
what he had done, Miss Ainsworth was
very grateful and, notS understanding
sucIr matters, hopeful. For the first
time Trevor spoke without any enthC-
siasm as to winning the case.
AT the trial, the preliminaries having
been gone through with. Trevor called
HalliweI and showed flim the sigma
ture on the AinSworth ,deed, which he
identified as his own. Trevor next
showed him the,One on the Gibbs deed.
The court and the spectators, who
knew that the daughter of one of their
most respected associates, who had
done more than any other to build up
their city, was to be made rich or a
pauper by word. sat GREATNESS. Hal
liwell scrutiniZed the signature for
fully five minutes before answering the
question If he had written 1t; then.
looking up, he said unlfesitatingly:
Yes"
All eyes were turned upon the young
benefactor's daughter and had failed.
the witness he asked:
mfr. Halliwell, when did you lose
your right armT
About twelve years ago"
''Is your signature to this deed writ
ten with your right or with your left
hand?'
my left"
did you ever sign papers with your
left hand before losing your right |
arm?"
"No."
"That will do"
Trevor next called Gibbs and asked:
"On what date was your deed |
given?'
''It is dated Dec. 9, 1885"
'That was five years before Halli- |
we'll lost his right arm, and yet this
deed is signed with his left hand"
Suddenly the blood forsook Gibbs /
cheek. He had not known of 1alli- |,
wells loss of his arm. He had written
him and copied the signature of the re-
ply, and copied it so well that Halli- L
well had pronounced it his own. When
Gibbs descended from the witness 4
stand he was arrested for forgery, of Il
which he was easily convicted.
When Miss Ainsworth called for the
Of her counsel fee she was sur
prised to receive one made out as fol-
lows:
70 legal services. expenses, etc. 81 600 900
Or. by way of compromise. one lovely
girl, Dora Ainsworth)
The bill was compromised
ELINOR T. BOYD.