The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1907-11-28


women like Miss Brooks, in a cheap
South End lodging house, have few
visitors of the sterner SEX Mrs.
Tompkins fingered while her lodger
made light and tidied her slightly
disordered hair before the glass.
But the little spinister hazarded no
conjectures as t. her caller, though
/ her heart bounded. Was it a case OF
telepathy? Her dream had been SO
! vivid and so comforting, she could
not escape the conviction that some
of her hard-earned money so reckless
ly cast upon the waters in by-gone
days was coming back by hand in
stead of by letter
! But the man who rose as she en-
tered the dimly lighted, dingy parlor
was an utter stranger; tall, dark,
shabbily dressed, with furtive face
and manner half insolent, half insin-
uating and wholly disagreeable.
Miss Brooks?' and as the little wo-
man bowed timidly and seated herself
at the other side of the centre table
with the cracked marble top-"Miss
Sarah Brooks?''
She bowed again, and he continued:
IF you are Miss Sarah Brooks, niece
and only surviving relative of John
Peter Brooks, who died in San Fran
cisco on March II, 1882, know of
something to your advantage which
/ am prepared to make known to you
under proper conditions"
John Peter Brooks was my fathers
only brother, and / am his only living
relative. as | can easily prove, since
We all were born in Boston," she an
swered, her brief elation subsiding.
but / can't imagine any advantage
to come to me through him. He lost
his life in fire, which destroyed also
all his little effects and papers, and
in any case, judging from what my
parents-they're both dead over if
teen years-always told me of him
he would have had little to leave"
I'VE must not Judge by appear
ances. Miss Brooks" said the strang
er, portentiously. 1t is about forty
years, / believe. since your uncle last
visited Boston
$50 they told me- faltered Miss
Brooks.
well, madam, can assure you that
have made a discovery in connec
ton with your uncle's estate of the
greatest Importance to you, but 1t is
my right to let you into it on my
own conditions"
"Oh, certainly, sir murmured the
little woman, with faint return Of
hope, the while she trembled under
the sinister eyes fixed upon her.
When one has been subsisting fol
three or four days on one stale loa
and an occasional drink of milk anC
water, walking meantime mile upor
mile, in dismal weather, from one dis
appointment to another, and comins
back to a cold room and a sleepless
bed, ones courage is likely to be low
IF you would tell me"
'I'll tell you nothing until you have
filled out and signed these papers
Sign here," commanded the stranger
stretching two broad sheets OF paper
before her and taking fountain per
from his pocket.
One was power of attorney dated
two days ahead, authorizing the bear
er, Irving Wilson, to collect, as the
representative of Sarah Brooks, any
claim or claims belonging to the es
tate of her uncle, the late John Peter
Brooks, and the other was an agree
ment on the part of said Sarah Brooks
to allow said Irving Wilson half of the
recovered claim or claims for his dis
covery and trouble and expense in
collecting.
She took up the pen, but hesitated
"How much might it be-" she asked
timidly.
Her visitor waxed impatient
whatever it is. you'll get none of il