A Wonderful Secret, or Marion Marlowe's Discovery — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XIII. EXPLANATIONS. _ Exactly twenty-four hours later the scene had shifted and Marion Marlowe sat with her friends, Alma Allyn and Dr. Reginald Brookes, in a private parlor of one of the -handsomest hotels on Broadway. They were waiting for Bert Jackson and his father to _ join them, and Lawyer Hobart was in an ad- joining room, ready to come at a pre-ar- ranged signal from Marion. _ After reading all of the papers he had done some rapid work, and the result was that, before they left Hickorytown to come ‘to New York, Judge Walters had been arrested _upon two separate charges and locked in the _county jail to await further developments. _ Marion opened her purse and secured board for every boy who had been made homeless by the fire at the poor farm, and already her bid was in to rebuild the struc- ture. _ Now, as they sat talking together, she turned to Dr. Brookes and added a few _ more details of the thrilling story. | “From all I could learn from our old _ neighbors, I find that a lady came to Hick- _ orytown just nineteen years and a half ago and boarded for a month with the widow _ Grubbs, as we called her. She was very pretty and refined, and appeared to be wealthy, but she shunned acquaintandes, so very few of the townspeople saw her. The night she died she sent for Judge Walters, and, after she was dead, he had her buried __ and her baby was put in the poor farm under _ the name of Bert Jackson. Nobody dreamed _ of questioning the judge’s authority, and, as _ mo one ever came to Hickorytown to find out _ anything about the lady, the whole thing died out as a sort of nine days’ wonder. The judge advertised the death once in the Hays- ville paper, but, of course, no one ever reads that except the people that knew all about the matter, so that was as good as no notice at all, in my opinion.” _ Dr. Brookes sighed as she finished, and _ shook his head dubiously. He was as fond of Bert as though they were brothers, _and it had been an effort for him to restrain his emotion since Marion had come to his office an hour before and had told him the story. __ There was a step in the hall outside, and Captain Hobart,Canfield entered and greeted them very cordially. Bert had told him of his Hickorytown experience, so he turned _to Marion immediately. “fT cannot thank you enough for your _ friendship to Bert,” he began, promptly. “I suppose it was foolish for him to go back to % — MY QUEEN. that place, but he was so sure that he was free that he did not dream of danger. Well, thank fortune, he was able to do as well as he did! There is one time when I actually rejoice in bribery and corruption.” The gentleman was smiling merrily—he had no‘idea of the truth, and of course he had not heard what followed Bert’s escape from Hickorytown. Marion tried to speak, but for a moment it was impossible, so her friend, Dr. Brookes, came promptly to the rescue. “The poor-house was set on fire long be- fore she knew that Bert had escaped, so you will understand that Marion had a few anx- ious hours, Captain Canfield,” he said, quiet- ly. “And not only was the poor farm burned down, but the overseer, Matt Jenkins, was murdered, and, of course, the whole thing was laid upon Bert, until his telegram proved that he could not have done it.” The gentleman looked at Marion and his kind face grew grave, but the young girl hastened to reassure him. “Oh, Bert’s reputation was fully cleared before I went to bed last night,” she said, quickly; ‘‘and besides, we are almost sure that the judge himself set fire to the build- ings, and he has already been arrested on suspicion of having done it. But that is not all we have come for, Captain Canfield. We have something to tell you that I am afraid will almost kill you—-we have discovered something’ definite about Bert’s father and mother!” - “They are not living, are they?” gasped the gentleman, growing paler. Marion rose with an impulsive movement and put her hand on his shoulder. “His mother is dead, but his father is liv- ing,” she said, softly. “I have proofs of everything, or, rather, Bert’s lawyer thas them; he told you of the gentleman who of- fered to help him, didn’t he?”’ The captain nodded his head and Marion went on: “Well, it seems that this gentleman had an interest in Bert; in fact, he said Bert looked exactly as his own brother looked when he was Bert’s age, and, because of that. he took an interest in the case, and then— oh, Captain Canfield, what do you think de- veloped? Bert’s father turns out to be this gentleman's brother. We found the proofs among the papers that I saved from Matt Jenkins’ desk at the poor farm. .The lawyer has them all, and you can imagine how he feels over it.” “Poor fellow! I am sorry for him,” was the captain’s answer. “If I could only have explained my interest in Bert upon some GOmiiGsdooksaco =