Next she read one written on the boat. He told more about sending the
boy; how he loved her, what it would mean to both of them if he got the
evidence he wanted and won his first case; and how much it would bring
his friend. The next one told it all over again, and more. In that he
wrote a little about the ocean, the people on board the ship, and he
gave Shelley the name of the place where he was going and begged her to
write to him. He told her if the ship he was on passed another, they
were going to stop and send back the mail. He begged her to write
often, and to say she forgave him for starting away without seeing her,
as he had been forced to.
The next one was the same thing over, only a little more yet. In the
last he had reached England, the important man was still living, but he
was almost gone, and Mr. Paget took two good witnesses, all the
evidence he had, and went to see him; and the man saw it was no use, so
he made a statement, and Robert had it all written out, signed and
witnessed. For the real straight sense there was in that letter, I
could have done as well myself.
It was a wild jumble, because Robert was so crazy over having the
evidence that would win his case; and he told Shelley that now he was
perfectly free to love her all she would allow him. He said he had to
stay a while longer to find his friend's people so they would get back
their share of the money, but it was not going to be easy to locate
them. You wouldn't think the world so big, but maybe it seemed smaller
to me because as far as I could see from the top of our house, was all
I knew about it. After Shelley had read the letters, and the note
again, father heaved a big sigh that seemed to come clear from his boot
soles and he said: "Well Shelley, it looks to me as if you had found a
MAN. Seems to me that's a mighty important case for a young lawyer to
be trusted with, in a first effort."
"Yes, but it was for Robert's best friend, and only think, he has won!"
"I don't see how he could have done better if he'd been old as
Methuselah, and wise as Solomon," boasted mother.
"But he hasn't found the people who must have back their money," said
May. "He will have to go to England again. And he wants to take you,
Shelley. My! You'll get to sail on a big steamer, cross the Atlantic
Ocean, and see London. Maybe you'll even get a peep at the Queen!"
Shelley was busy making a little heap of her letters; when the top one
slid off I reached over and put it back for her. She looked straight
at me, and smiled the most wonderful and the most beautiful smile I
ever saw on any one's face, so I said to her: "You see! I TOLD you he
was coming!"
"I can't understand it!" said Shelley.
"YOU KNOW I told you."
"Of course I do! But what made you think so?"
"That was the answer. Just that he was coming."
"What are you two talking about?" asked mother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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