Gilpin observer., 1910-07-28
CHAPTER vi.

When Roger Hews was dispatched
agent of Carboy Passavant & Cozine
to verify the strange story told by
Andrew Meleen on his death-bed he
unearthed far more curious and
complicated series of episodes, so
unusual and unexpected as to suggest
to his fertile and not over-scrupulous
mind plot by which the knowledge
thus gained might be turned to his
own advantage in several ways
Briefly told, this is what he discov-
cred after much painstaking piecing
together of fact and inference:
When Minna Meleen found herself,
as she supposed. deserted by her hus-
band SO soon after their marriage, un-
able to bear the taunts and gibes of
the village women. she left the out
skirts of Hazleton. then little more
than hamlet. and tramped across the
mountains to Nanticoke. Here, being
complete stranger. she resumed her
maiden name of Minna Tod, passing
herself off as a widow, and making
living by sewing and doing chores
Here daughter was born to her. A
year and more had elapsed since
leaving Hazleton, when seemingly
authentic tidings reached her that her
husband. Andrew Meleen, had been
killed in battle. So to her the erst-
while fiction became a cruel and bit
ter fact.
Believing herself free woman, and
being still young and handsome, her
scolding tongue and fiery temper
somewhat cooled by her misfortunes,
she permitted herself to be once more
wooed and won. this time by an arti-
san named John Trevecca.
In less than year she presented
Trevecca also with a daughter, but
this time she died during her ac-
couchement. and the infant with her,
and was buried In Nanticoke. exactly
as Roger Hews reported. This event
1t must have been which reached the
ears of Andrew Meleen, denuded of
the one vital fact that Minna had
married again and that his own child
still lived
To the day of her death John Trevec-
widow when she married him-as, of
course. did Mnna herself. The only
deception she had practiced consisted
In the concealment of her true name
When Minna died. John Trevecca
cherished her firstborn, the little
Eunice, as his own, bringing her up
lnder his name. giving her good
education. even sending her to a
country seminary for a couple Of
terms; then. In turn. he moved away,
and no ono in Nanticoke heard of him
for many years.
So much of the past Roger Hews
had discovered when he returned to
San Francisco to report to Mr. Car
boy. We have seen how he sup
pressed the essential facts, complete.
iy misleading the astute lawyer. When
ne went east for good 1t was with
che idea of tracing John Trevecca and
his stepdaughter. He hoped that the
girl still lived. and that, fortified with
proofs of the foregoing facts, he could
eventually produce her as the right.
full heir to the millions of old Andrew
MeleeD-for that she was his iegiti.
mate daughter, born In lawful wed.
lock. no one would be able to gainsay
in the face of the evidence he could
produce.
In one of two or three ways Hews
proposed to turn this valuable secret
to his own profit: If the girl were
alive and unmarried and in humble
circumstances. he would try to make
her his wife and dlvulge the truth
afterwards; in which case Roger Hews
would have somewhat to say con
corning the spending and scattering
of old Andrews boarded wealth. II
the girl were already welded to an
other. then he hoped to find his &C
count by selling her and her husband