The spectator., 1922-04-18

tue mOHey CedSeu COnlnS DeCduSe lHe person who sent it was dead? In that case, connection of Alan with the place where he belonged was per manently broken. Or would some other communication from that source reach him some time-if not money, then something else? Would he be sent for some day?
 Externally, Alan's learning the little that was known about himself made no change in his way of living; he went to the town school, which com- bined grammar and high schools under one roof; and, as he grew older, he clerked in one of the town stores during vacations and in the evenings. Alan always carried his money home as part payment of those arrears which had mounted up against him since the letters ceased coming. At seventeen, having finished high school he was clerking officially in Merrill's general store, when the next letter came.
 It was addressed this time not to papa. but to Alan Conrad. He seized
  fifteen hundred dollars fell out. There was no letter with the enclosure, no word of communication just the draft to the order of Alan Conrad. Alan wrote the Chicago bank by which the draft had been issued; their reply showed that the draft had been pur- chased with currency, so there was no record of the identity of the person who had sent ii. More than that amount was due for arrears for the seven years during which no money was sent, even when the total which Alan had earned was deducted. So Alan merely endorsed the draft over to father: and that fall Jim, Alan's foster brother, went to college. But. when Jim discovered that it not only was possible but planned at the uni verSity for a boy to work his way through. Alan went also.
 Four wonderful years followed. In companionshp with educated people i; ideas and manners came to him which he could not have acquired at home :; athletics straightened and added bear ing to his muscular, well-formed body; his pleasant. strong young face acquired self-reliance and self-control. Life became filled with possibilities for himself which it had never held before.
 But on his day of graduation he had put away the enterprises he had planned and the dreams he dreamed and conscious that his debt to father and mother still remained unpaid, he had returned to care for them; for fathers health had failed and Jim. who had opened a law office in Kansas City. could do nothing to help.
 No more money had followed the draft from Chicago and there had been no communication of any kind ; but the receipt of so considerable a sum had revived and intensified all Alan'S speculations about himself. The vague expectation of his childhood that sometime. in some way, he would he sent for: had grown during the last six years to a definite belief And now-on the afternoon before the summons had come
 This time. as he tore open the en- velope. he saw that beside check there was writing whitman uneven and nervous.looking but plainly legibls Communication in longhand. The letter made no explanation. It told him. rather than asked him. to come to Chicago. gave minute instructions for the journey. and advised him to telegraph when he started. The check was for hundred dollars tc pay his expenses Check and letter were signed by name completely strange Co him.
 He was a distinctly attractive look ing lad as he stood now on the station platform of the little town. while tho caStbound train rumhled in. and hs fingered in his pocket the letter from | Chicago
 On the train he took the letter from | hts pocket and for the dnzenth time ! reread lf. Was Covert a relatlve1 Was ! be the man who had sent the remit tanees when Alan was a litfle hoy | fifteen hundred dollarsf or vas he merely a go-between. perhaps a law yevf There was no letterhesd to givs ald ln the.e speculstions The ad dress ta which Alan was to come wa, in AssoF street He had never heard the name of the street before. Was il business street. Corvet's address II same great ofies building. perhaps;
 At Chicago Alan. following th' porter with hts suitrnse from the ear stepped down among the erswd hurrying to and from the trains. H' was not confused. he vas eniy in tenssiy excited. Acting in implicit sc cord with the insfvucticns of the letter which he knew by heart, he went C the uniformed attendant and engages A taxicab--it~eif no small experience there would he no one at the static' to meet hirn. the letter had said. H gave the Astor street address snd go into the cnb.