"Well, I've got no particular objection to seeing the judge. There's plenty of time--ain't much else for me to do in these parts, now I'm here." With another sardonic laugh for his dashed hopes, he rose jerkily, as if he was ready to go anywhere at once. "It's rather early yet," Adelle remarked, consulting her watch. "We had better wait a little while before going to the judge." The young man reseated himself and looked about idly at the rich ornamentation of the hotel room. "Some class this," he observed, concerning the Eclair Hotel, which was precisely what the hotel management wanted its patrons to feel. "Did you see your sister in Philadelphia?" Adelle asked. "Yep," he replied non-committally. Evidently his tour of the family had not begun favorably, and Adelle refrained from pressing the questions she had in mind. "You have some first cousins, too, haven't you?" Adelle asked, remembering the judge's inquiry. "A whole bunch of 'em!" the mason laughed. "Father had two brothers and one sister, and all of 'em had big families, and my mother had a lot of nephews and nieces, but they don't count for the inheritance." In contrast with the Alton Clarks, of whom Adelle was the sole survivor, the California branch of the family had been prolific. Adelle realized that as the judge had pointed out to her, it was not simply a question of endowing one intelligent, interesting young man with a half of Clark's Field, but of parceling it out in small lots to a numerous family connection--a much less pleasant deed. "Do you know these Clark cousins?" she asked. "Some of 'em," the mason said. "They don't amount to much, the lot of 'em. There's only one made any stir in the world, that's Stan Clark, my uncle Samuel's son. He's in the California Legislature," he said with a certain pride. "And they tell me he's as much of a crook as they make 'em! Then there's a brother of Stan--Sol Clark. He runs a newspaper up in Fresno County, and I guess he's another little crook. There's a bunch of Clarks down in Los Angeles, in the fruit commission business--I don't know nothing about them. Oh, there's Clarks enough of our sort!" he concluded grimly.