"Well! What was I saying--yes! I didn't ring the bell because I hadn't
made up my mind whether I wanted to claim any share of my brother's
fortune, or not; you see he hadn't been very fair to me in youth--taking
away my sweetheart. None of my family had--for--that--matter! I didn't
know whether I wanted to meet them again. Although I liked the look of
my little niece; I had seen her, at a distance, with her mother. And
then, we didn't need the money, my boy and I! Had enough of our own;
Treffrey Graham may be a terror, but he isn't a failure--financially!"
No--not by a long shot! said the flame of the pigeon-blood ruby upon the
pale little finger, now curling significantly in air,--the gem whose
fire in this wild spot seemed as erratic as his own, seeing that none
but a zany would have worn it here.
"So--so I told old Cartwright this morning that I stepped out of that
strung-out will," a smile curled the pallid lips now; "that I authorized
him to make preparations, at once, for the turning over of the remainder
of my brother's wealth, in his name and mine, to the University of our
native city, to be used for the furtherance of Professor Lorry's
won-der-ful invention for r-reaching in-de-finite heights."
"My father!... Oh! my fa-ther!" It was a wild little cry to which the
Man Killer rang now, as the head of Pemrose Lorry went down upon her
knees.
"Yes, I'm glad his way is clear--though, I suppose, only a man 'whose
head grew under his arm' would have managed the thing as I have done."
The sufferer winked through the veil of pain. "Now! my son is different.
He's a dare-devil too--but he knows where to stop. You couldn't have
bribed him to steal that record--though somebody played a trick on him
the other night--robbed him of his oars and a dance--just when he had
'taken the bit between his teeth', too; said he was tired of this
camouflage business, and he was going--going whether I liked it, or
not!"
"_Ah-h!_" That was the moment when Pem's shoulders trembled like
the needles upon the little green cedar sapling that grew by the rill:
all because the Wise Woman in her was shaking the Elf, bidding her go to
sleep for ever--which the Elf, very properly, refused to do, for, after
all, undiluted wisdom would be a colorless cloak for any young back.
"Well! he--he wouldn't speak to us when we just wanted to thank him for
saving us in that terrible train-accident," put in Una defensively.
"Ha! That was my fault, little niece. I made him promise, on coming
East, that he wouldn't go near any of his relatives, risk being
identified by them, until I had decided what to do about the legacy--and
whether I was going to make myself known to them, or not. Now-ow, I hope
you'll be friends. He's your own cousin--Treff junior."
And so Jack at a Pinch at last came into his own in the shape of a name!
"Yes, called after me, he is! Goodness! don't I wish he'd hurry up and
get here, now--with the doctor?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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