single glass held out. The lawyer, with an evil smile, went on with his relentless client's story. "Ye had killed my wife; ye had killed my son; but this was not enough. Being lonesome in my great house, which was as much too large for me as my fortune was, I had taken a child to replace the boy I had lost. Remembering the cold blood running in the veins of those nearest me, I chose a boy from alien stock and, for a while, knew contentment again. But, as he developed and my affections strengthened, the possibility of all my money going his way roused my brothers and sisters from the complacency they had enjoyed since their road to fortune had been secured by my son's death, and one day—can[Pg 71] you recall it, Hudson? can you recall it, Lemuel?—the boy was brought in from the mill and laid at my feet, dead! He had stumbled amongst the great belts, but whose was the voice which had startled him with a sudden 'Halloo!' Can you say, Luke? Can you say, John? I can say in whose ear it was whispered that three, if not more of you, were seen moving among the machinery that fatal morning. [Pg 71] "Again, God's providence was said to have visited my house; and again ye were my heirs." "Stop there!" broke in the harsh voice of Luke, who was gradually growing livid under his long gray locks. "Lies! lies!" shrieked Hector, gathering courage from his brother. "Cut it all and give us the drink!" snarled one of the younger men, who was less under the effect of liquor than the rest. But a trembling voice muttered "Hush!" and the lawyer, whose eye had grown steely under these comments, took advantage of the[Pg 72] sudden silence which had followed this last objurgation and went steadily on. [Pg 72] "Some men would have made a will and denounced you. I made a will, but did not denounce you. I am no breaker of oaths. More than this, I learned a new trick. I, who hated all subtlety and looked upon craft as the favorite weapon of the devil, learned to smile with my lips while my heart was burning with hatred. Perhaps this was why you all began to smile too, and joke me about certain losses I had sustained, by which you meant the gains which had come to me. That these gains were many times greater than you realized added to the sting of this good fellowship, but I held my peace; and you began to have confidence in a good-nature which
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