The Dugdale Millions — page 314: what you’re looking at

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

304 THE DUGDALE MILLIONS. Powers, it was learned that the same man had pres ceded them. When within a week Mr. Mason went to Philadelphia to consult a certain Mrs. Jenkins, again he found that the same man had preceded him there. And this man was one you met daily.” “Only recently,” exclaimed Harold Pierson hastily, and, as Dick thought, with some alarm. “I can ex- plain this to your satisfaction. A man named Ran- son, with whom until quite recently I had no ac- quaintance—the one whose communication to Mr, Mason found me out—had some knowledge that the Dugdale estate would fall to the child of Edmund Dugdale, if he could be found. It was he who insti- tuted this search you speak of. He employed a man named Moore to visit Mrs. Tomlinson and also to search in Newark for trace of James Powers. It was when he had determined that I was the child for whom they sought that he went to Mr. Mason. Al- though he assumed to Mr. Mason to have little knowledge of me, for he is a man of indirect methods, his purpose was to induce Mr. Mason to make the ex. amination himself and thus help him in the search he was making. Subsequent to all this he presented himself to me, and it was after I had been sent for by Mr. Hetlow, offering to assist me to the proof of my identity. But he bargained for a considerable sum in payment before he would give me such proof. Since that time he has been officious, and indeed pertinacious, in attendance upon us, forcing himself upon Mr. Orton Pierson and myself—both he and Moore—both of whom expect considerable sums upon the successful establishment of my claim. And I am bound to say that his knowledge gained by inquiry, and as well his recollection, have been of the greatest value. And I must further concede that it is very doubtful whether I would have been identi- fied as the person sought for, had it not been for his efforts ” Comicboclk C@ 5}