The Dugdale Millions — page 106: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

06 THE DUGDALE MILLIONS. reply of Ransom. ‘‘See; Dugdale died in 1858; the Powerses left New York in the same year; Powers died fifteen years after, 1873; at the same time the eldest daughter was twenty years old. Therefore in 1858 she was five years old—too young to know anything about the adoption of the child of Dugdale. When she was old enough, the adoption must have been an old story with Powers and his wife, because the only interest they could have had in the child was to get rid of it. The game is ours.”’ Moore was thoughtful. Bob watched him eagerly. “You are right,’’ he finally said. ‘‘The element of risk is out of it. Everything seems to run in our favor. Old Barber is dead. Mrs. Tomlinson knows nothing that can spoil us. And the two Powers peo- ple are dead. Yes, we are safe for the next move. What is it?”’ Ransom was silent for a long time, his head bent over the table at which he was sitting. His leadership was demonstrated in the respect the others paid his silence. ‘You know,’’ he said finally, as he lifted his head from the table, ‘‘when I was a kid, I worked in the office of the Courter and Inqutrer. Edmund Dugdale worked in the same office, putting the papers inte wrappers and addressing them. Now on the basis of that I mean to go to Mason, in answer to that adver- tisement of his, and claim I knew the man.”’ ‘‘Ves?’? asked Bob anxiously, even impatiently, *‘and what then?’’ ‘‘T will teli him that I used to run errands for him and go to his house; that I knew a woman named Tomlinson who took the baby; that I knew the Pow- erses and that if I can think of another name I can find who adopted the baby.”’ Again he was silent for a while. ‘“Well,’’ he continued, ‘‘by degrees I can get to an old man who adopted the baby and can find Dugdale to present him to Mason,”’ 3} CoOMmicbooks.c©