The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-04

myn had used so long that he quite for got that he might play in the game him self instead of waiting patiently to be moved. This was a cunning, prosperous pawn named Johnson-a lawyer, who had begun as Jermyns tool and now was his agent. He had been the making" of Johnson; and he never thought that John son might be like himself, entirely n- different about those who had made him.
 Johnson had studied the Transome his tory in the service of Jermyn. He knew every detail of it, from the time when John Transome had entailed the estates on his son Thomas and heirs male with remainder to the Bycliffes in fee. He knew now the son had sold his own and his descendants rigts to lawyer cousin, ! Durfey, from whom the present Tran somes- descended, being thus really Dur feys and holding the name of Transome only from the estate. He knew that, therefore, if the original line of Transome ever could be shown to have died out the Durfey-Transomes would have to re- linquish the estate to the Bycliffes.
 When Maurice Christian Bycliffe arrived in England to establish his claim, John son, as agent for Jermyn, had hunted out living Transome-a poor, half-witted lout, unable to read or write, ignorant of any claims to a great descent having lost even his original name and passing under the name of Trounsem There was no doubt of his descent, but the death of Maurice in prison had made the discovery useless-had, indeed, made 1t the wiser part to say nothing about it, and the fact remained, a secret known only to Jermyn and Johnson.
 Trounsem suspected something after the kept him well supplied with liquor, and the old fellows talk made him merely the joke of little Treby.
 While it was thought that the Bycliffes had died out with Maurice Christian By cliffe's death, the future existence or ex- i tinction of drunken old Trounsem was 1 unimportant, since the Durfey- y-Transomes
 were secure in their title through the base fee, which could be attacked only by a 1 Bycliffe But now, with the knowledge of living daughter of Bycliffe in Jermyn t, possession, it needed only Trounsem 1 death for Jermyn to be able to oust the 1 Durfey- -Transomes from their holdings. l All the knowledge of MT. Johnson was 1 quite useless to him without this knowl- edge that Bycliffe heir was living, and | MT. Jermyn might have been quite certain l in his sole ownership of that secret had his pawns not possessed brains, eyes and ears. But when pawns make away rom i their appointed posts the player who re- | gards his passionate pieces with mathe-
 nautical contempt may get checkmated
 suddenly.
 There came a great election in Little Treby, in which Harold Transome, great l ly to the affliction of his aristocratic
 neighbors and to the bitter humiliation | of his proud mother, stood for Parlia- | ment on the Radical side. Christian act 1 ing for his Tory masters, the Debarrys,
 gained the friendship of old Tommy Trounsem, who was acting as bill stcker
 for the Radicals His laudabie design
 was to exchange the Radical bills for
 others that maligned them, knowing that Tommy would not see the difference. But l he forgot all about his plans when
 Trounsem, in drunken candor, told him | all the old story of how he had been sought out by Jermyn and his agent
 Johnson, and how he was really Tran some and owned all the esate. 'if only
 the law would let poor man have his
 rights
 i Christian had heard the vague story of I the Transome property. It was one of l the standard topics of discussion in a
 town where topics were few and well
 proven by constant use. It lost nothing | in it's savor by the fact that the gossips
 had little knowledge to go on. Thus ], Christian knew that the present Tran somes held their title through the old base fee, and Tommy Trounsems inco- herent talk showed him that he was i'm portant to Jermyn and also that Bycliffe had made some claim. But all this did
 not help him.
 While his mind was full of the subject
 accident or blind destiny led him into g way where he met Esther Lyon. Had