“Tha’s funny--tha’s awful funny. Gale’s great frien’ mine, too. Shake hands! Any frien’ of a frien’ of mine is a frien’ of mine, too. So you know good old Gale, eh?” “Oh, sure,” Hawley responded, with an enthusiasm that was well feigned. “By the way, old man, I suppose you’ve heard that he’s going to be married?” The man with the flushed face looked at him in astonishment. “I thought it was a secret.” The Camera Chap laughed noncommittally. “Nice girl, isn’t she?” he said lightly. “Nice? She’s regular peach!” The man winked at Hawley. “And rich, too--that’s more important than being nice. My frien’ Gale’s lucky fellow.” The Camera Chap was amazed to hear this. Evidently, then, the girl to whom his talkative neighbor referred was not Melba. But the other’s next utterance caused him to change his mind. “Don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t marry her, if she is his cousin,” the man exclaimed. “Nothing wrong in cousins marrying--especially when girl’s so rich.” Hawley’s face was a complete mask to his emotions. “Yes, I guess she’s rich, all right,” he remarked casually. “Let’s see; how much do they say she’s worth?” The young man looked at him in amazement. “Watcher talkin’ about? She ain’t worth anything now, of course. She won’t get the money until old Leggett’s death. Guess you mean how much is she mentioned for in the will, eh?” “Sure,” the Camera Chap assented. “That’s exactly what I meant.” “Well, tha’s funny--tha’s awful funny!” the man muttered, regarding Hawley with sudden suspicion. “How the deuce do you know anything about that will? I thought I was the only one who was wise to it--and I haven’t told anybody in Oldham a word about it, ’cept my friend Gale. Old Sam Leggett’s got her down in his will for fifty thousand dollars. Pretty soft for our friend Gale, eh?” Hawley had difficulty in concealing his astonishment. So Fred Carroll’s fiancée, instead of being a penniless orphan, was really an heiress. Here was good news, indeed. The Camera Chap was glad that he had set out on this trip to New York. He had already learned enough to enable him to understand Gale’s motive for suddenly desiring to marry his cousin. But there were several things he still wanted to know. By adroit questioning, he succeeded in eliciting these details from his babbling acquaintance. Samuel Leggett, a New York merchant, he learned, was a distant relative of Melba Gale on her mother’s side. The old man was worth millions, and, having no near kin, had made a will leaving most of his money to various charities and institutions in which he was interested. Remembering the existence of his young kinswoman, however, he had mentioned her in his will to the extent of fifty thousand dollars. It was a small amount compared with some of the other bequests, but old Leggett had not been on particularly good terms with that branch of the family from which Melba was descended; otherwise she would have been heiress to millions instead of thousands.