"Very well!" said Fitzgerald, rising. "What are you going to do?" asked Hugo, anxiously. "To leave you to your fate! Within a few hours you will be arrested on a charge of complicity in an attempted murder." "Stay!" exclaimed Hugo, now thoroughly alarmed. "How far has this gone? Surely you have not revealed anything to Robert Rudd? "Everything," answered Fitzgerald, laconically. "To any one else?" "Yes, to a lawyer, who is possessed of all the evidence in the case, and is prepared to communicate all to your uncle!" "Is this true?" asked Hugo, pale with dismay. "You can believe it or not. I have only this to say, that you had better go with me to the hotel where your cousin and his lawyer are now staying, and assure yourself whether we are in earnest." "Suppose I grant your demands and acknowledge the boy?" "Then you will be suffered to go where you please unharmed." "I will go with you." Hugo accompanied Fitzgerald to the hotel, had a private interview with the lawyer, and decided that opposition was useless. He took care, however, to feather his own nest by appropriating a large amount of government bonds belonging to his uncle, which, in addition to his pickings and stealings for eight years past, provided him with a competency. The theft could not be proved, for he alone had the charge of his uncle's affairs. With his ill-gotten gains he sailed for Europe, where he is now residing. The joy of Cornelius Richmond when his grandson was restored to him can be imagined. It seemed to bring him back from the grave and restore his strength. A tutor was at once engaged to remedy Robert Rudd's—now Robert Richmond's—defective education, and money was actually lavished upon him by his doting grandfather. But Robert stood the test of prosperity as he had stood the test of adversity. He remained the same frank, manly, self-respecting boy, and was not drawn into squandering his money in policy or dissipation. But he delighted to help those of his former associates who were unfortunate and needed assistance—for instance, a trapeze performer, who having fractured a leg by a fall from the trapeze, was left in want with a wife and four young children dependent upon his exertions. For months Robert allowed him $10 a week, and was heartily glad that his grandfather's liberality allowed him also to be liberal.