The $500 Check — page 300: what you’re looking at

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

HIRAM FRENCH, OF CHICAGO. 281 ‘*Not by me. He was far from being as highly respected as your father.”’ ‘* Yet he has prospered. He is the owner of a factory in Lakeville, and is considered worth thirty thousand dollars.”’ ‘‘*T am surprised to hear it. When I knew him he was always in debt.”’ ‘** If he really took the bonds charged upon my father, that would account for his start in business.”’ ‘‘Exactly so. Now that I think of it, two or three days after the theft, I saw him and Ralph Harding walking together, apparently engaged in earnest conversation. They evi- dently had a good understanding with each — other. I believe you are on the right track, and I heartily hope you will succeed in mak- ing your father’s innocence evident to the world. John Barton was my favorite friend, and I hope some day to see him in Chicago.”’ ‘* Are you in business here, Mr. French ?”’ ‘Yes; I am in the old line. Like Albert Marlowe I am the owner of a large shoe fac- tory, and I am worth, I should say, consider- ably more money.’ (ECO AAILICE JOO CS