The Dugdale Millions — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

THE FIRST STEP. 27 ‘**Mr, Stanton,’’ he said, “‘I have come from New York in pursuit of information and beg to ask a ques- tion, by the answer to which I can tell at once whether I need to further trouble you in the matter.”’ Mrs. Stanton leaned forward in intense interest, her lips parted in her eagerness, and her eyes fixed upon her husband. Mr. Stanton hesitated before he re- pled, pursing up his lips, and wrinkling his brow. ‘*Proceed, sir,’’ he said, after a moment’s thought, *“but I reserve the right to answer or not as I see fit.’’ ““Of course! of course,’’ muttered Mrs. Stanton loud enough for both to hear, and in a tone which indicated her intense appreciation of her husband’s cunning. Mr. Stanton turned to her and said sharply, ‘‘Now don’t be silly.”’ “The right to answer or not,’’ said Dick coure teously, ‘‘cannot be denied by me, of course. The question is this, Did you ever have in your employ aman named Dugdale?”’ ‘‘Why, yes,’” answered the lawyer promptly, “‘but it was some twenty-five or six years ago.’’ **That is as I understand it,’’ said Dick. ‘But what is the meaning of this inquiry at this late day?”’ **It is the first step in a search for the son of Ed- mund Dugdale, I am commissioned to make by my employer Mr. Hetlow, your neighbor.’’ **Hetlow!’’ said Mr. Stanton, “‘why the deuce did he not ask me himself ?’’ ‘*‘I presume,”’ said Dick, ‘‘that he was not aware you ever knew Edmund Dugdale. I came to suppose so, by learning that a lawyer of the name of Stanton employed him in 1855, and search revealed to me that of all of that name at the bar in that year, still alive and practicing in 1883, you are the only one. So I began with you.”’ Comicloo S C@ 3