I awaited with as much patience as I could muster the result of the venture. I was proud of Uncle Naboth’s bravery, and hoped he would be successful. Surely the brief interview with my newly acquired relative had caused a great change in my future prospects, for it was not likely that my mother’s brother would desert me in my extremity. I had left the house that was now no longer my home without a single friend to whom I could turn, and behold, here was a champion waiting to espouse my cause! Mr. Perkins was somewhat peculiar in his actions, it is true, but he was my uncle and my dead father’s partner, and already I was beginning to have faith in him. It was a full half hour before I saw him coming back along the path; but now he no longer strutted with proud determination. Instead, his whole stout little body drooped despondently; his hat was thrust back from his forehead, and upon his deeply wrinkled face stood big drops of perspiration. “Sam,” said he, standing before me with a rather sheepish air, “I were wrong, an’ I beg your pardon. That woman ain’t no she-tiger. I mis-stated the case. She’s a she-devil!” The words were laden with disgust and indignation. Uncle Naboth drew out his gorgeous handkerchief and wiped his face with it. Then he dropped upon the bench and pushed his big hands deep into his capacious pockets, with the air of a man crushed and defeated. I sighed. “Then she refused to give up the property?” “Give up? She’d die first. Why, Sam, the critter tried to brain me with a gridiron! Almost, my boy, you was an orphan agin. He who fights an’ runs away may n’t get much credit for it, but he’s a durned sight safer ner a dead man. The Perkinses was allus a reckless crew; but sooner ’n face that female agin I’d tackle a mad bull!” “Won’t the law help us?” I asked. “The law!” cried Mr. Perkins, in a voice of intense horror. “W’y, Sam, the law’s more to be dreaded than a woman. It’s an invention of the devil to keep poor mortals from becomin’ too happy in this ’ere vale o’ tears. My boy, if ye ever has to choose between the law an’ a woman, my advice is to commit suicide at once. It’s quicker an’ less painful.” “But the law stands for justice,” I protested. “That’s the bluff it puts up,” said Uncle Naboth, “but it ain’t so. An’ where’s your proof agin Mrs. Ranck, anyhow? Cap’n Steele foolishly put the house in her name. If she ain’t honest enough to give it up, no one can take it from her. An’ he kep’ secret about the fortune that was left in his room, so we can’t describe the things you’ve been robbed of. Altogether, it’s jest a hopeless case. The she-devil has made up her mind to inherit your fortune, an’ you can’t help yourself.”