The Argosy, Vol. 82 No. 2 — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

236 ing us that way, uncle. I was sure it must be Thompson and—did he come?”’ Uncle Horace managed to draw breath. - “I don’t know whether he appeared or not, Jane; there was no sign of him up to last evening, at any rate. That isn’t what brought me here, you know. I saw Dresser yesterday morning and told him the whole terrible muddle.” ‘““And he said the marriage wasn’t binding at all, didn’t he?” Jane asked. Mr. Porter-Preston smiled oddly. “That part is immaterial just now,” he said. “It appears, Jane, that there is a clause in your father’s will which, if I ever heard of it, I had forgotten absolutely. Your portion of the estate goes to you if unmarried on your twenty-first birthday. If you are otherwise, it reverts to your father’s university.” “But I’m not married—really!” Jane pro- tested. Uncle Horace removed his cap and per- mitted the woodland breezes to cool his weary forehead. “As a matter ef record,” said he, “‘you are. And you'll have to get yourself legally unmarried before noon of next Wednesday, Jane, or lose eight hundred thousand dol- lars!” CHAPTER X. HOMEWARD BOUND. ANE FAYRE leaned weakly against young Mr. Farnham, who snorted indig- nantly. Her uncle, having fired his bomb- shell, resumed his cap, glanced at his watch and sighed heavily. “What a chase I’ve had!” he said. “And every minute of yesterday should have been put in at the office and I should have been there at eight this morning, too. Why didn’t you stop when you received word from me? “We thought you were Thompson,” Jane told him, ‘‘but—” ‘“‘And then, after I found that I had lost you at Albany, I got track of you again at Drayton!” the aggrieved Mr. Porter-Pres- ton went on, “I managed to get that ma- chine in Albany last night and the man has been protesting against driving all night and waking people to ask if I hadn’t remembered what that freak tread looked like on the road, I shouldn’t have overtaken you at all!” “But about the—the will?” THE ARGOSY. Uncle Horace cast aside his own troubles with some effort. “Dresser was unpleasant about that— deucedly unpleasant, to my mind! He said that two copies of that will had been in my safe ever since you came to live with us, Jane, and that he had never mentioned the matter to either of us simply because he assumed that I knew and that you were not contemplating matrimony. He also said that you made a dreadful blunder in keep- ing the secret so long; it could have been settled months ago.” “And it can be settled now, of course?” Farnham put in. “That,” sighed Uncle Horace, “would seem to depend on a good many things. Dresser said—quite nastily, it seemed to me —that the university would show a much livelier interest in the estate than did the direct heirs, and that if you were a married woman on your birthday and refused to step out of the settlement, the university would doubtless sue.” “But they could never—” Jane began. “According to Dresser, they might very well,” Mr. Porter- Preston corrected. “He said that the court might refuse full credence to your story, Jane, and might hold that while the marriage as a marriage was of doubtful value, the intent constituted a flat violation of the will’s provisions, and would cause you to forfeit your entire in- terest. Then there were seven or eight other things that might happen, I believe; but the meat of the affair is that there’s just one safe ground, Jane: to have yourself legally and unquestionably unmarried be- fore next Wednesday.” “I’m more than willing,’ Jane sighed. “We're going on to Batesford and—” ‘“Yow’re going to do nothing of the sort!” Uncle Horace snapped. “Jane, can’t. you understand that every little second is pre- cious now? Dresser said that he’d have to get down on his knees and pray to the court, to get any sort of action on the case in the few days we have left. “The very first thing of all is to get the man Thompson served with the summons and complaint, or whatever it is. Dresser had his clerk make out—I don’t know how many—copies of the thing; here’s one of them in my pocket now. Dresser has men rushing all over New York to find Thomp- son and serve him. And I have hired detec- tives to locate the Boggs sot and learn from him just where Thompson can be caught!” Go TOO AMNG S (C@)