the same time be able to change them if you didn’t like results. That gave me an idea. I’ve just developed it. That’s all. I’m going to make my cousins a little rich, and see which, if any of them, can stand being very rich.”

“But the money, man! How are you going to drop a hundred thousand dollars into three men’s laps, and expect to get away without an investigation as to the why and wherefore of such a singular proceeding?”

“That’s where your part comes in,” smiled the millionaire blandly. “Besides, to be accurate, one of the laps is—er—a petticoat one.”

“Oh, indeed! So much the worse, maybe. But—And so this is where I come in, is it? Well, and suppose I refuse to come in?”

“Regretfully I shall have to employ another attorney.”

“Humph! Well?”

“But you won’t refuse.” The blue eyes opposite were still twinkling. “In the first place, you’re my good friend—my best friend. You wouldn’t be seen letting me start off on a wild-goose chase like this without your guiding hand at the helm to see that I didn’t come a cropper.”

“Aren’t you getting your metaphors a trifle mixed?” This time the lawyer’s eyes were twinkling.

“Eh? What? Well, maybe. But I reckon you get my meaning. Besides, what I want you to do is a mere routine of regular business, with you.”

“It sounds like it. Routine, indeed!”

“But it is—your part. Listen. I’m off for South America, say, on an exploring tour. In your charge I leave certain papers with instructions that on the first day of the sixth month of my absence (I being unheard from), you are to open a certain envelope and act according to instructions within. Simplest thing in the world, man. Now isn’t it?”

“Oh, very simple—as you put it.”

“Well, meanwhile I’ll start for South America—alone, of course; and, so far as you’re concerned, that ends it. If on the way, somewhere, I determine suddenly on a change of destination, that is none of your affair. If, say in a month or two, a quiet, inoffensive gentleman by the name of Smith arrives in Hillerton on the legitimate and perfectly respectable business of looking up a family pedigree, that also is none of your concern.” With a sudden laugh the lawyer fell back in his chair.

“By 

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