The Dugdale Millions — page 312: what you’re looking at

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

302 THE DUGDALE MILLIONS. so delight in, that he was cognizant of the facts of the adoption of the child of Edmund Dugdale, and that of his own knowledge he knew that the child delivered by James Powers and his wife to Orton Pierson and his wife was the child of Edmund Dugdale. Having finished he returned all of the papers to his pocket, save the one purporting to have been written by Edmund Dugdale, and passed around to the side of the table where Mr. Hetlow was sitting, and laid it before Mr. Hetlow. Dick and Mr. Stanton rose and took positions behind Mr. Hetlow, over whose shoulders they could observe the comparison between the two letters. A glance was sufficient to determine the similarity of the hand. The chance taken by the conspirators in writing this letter was determined in their favor. They had made no mistake. It would have required eyes more expert than were in Mr. Hetlow’s library to have determined which one was the forgery. By one of those singular chances that are continually turning up to confound the theory of probability, the paper, upon which these separate documents were written, was so nearly alike that it seemed as if they had come from the same ream. Mr. Stanton was dumfounded. The proof seemed to be complete. Dick could pick no flaw, and he appealed to Mr. Stanton to make the objection he looked for but could not find. So in fact did Mr. Hetlow. Finding that Mr. Stanton made no remark, Mr. Hetlow said: “Your proof is conclusive. It would appear I must accept you in fact as the heir to the Dugdale estates.” “‘Ves,’”’ said the old lawyer, more to himself than to the others, “the establishment of these proofs woula settle the question.” Dick, deeply disappointed, acquiesced in the judg- ment of Mr. Stanton. “ Mr, Pierson, or Mr. Dugdale, as we will have to Comicbooclk C@ 3