“I won’t tell you everything,” began Roy, with a quick glance up at the trestle, “but first I’ll have to go back a little and say that almost as far back as I can remember we’ve lived in that house you can see down yonder with the peaked roof. We had only about enough money to keep us comfortable, for father died when I was a little fellow, and there were five of us children. But we had good times and I was looking forward to the future when I would be a man and Rex and I—that’s my twin brother—could give mother some of the luxuries with what we should earn, for I expected that by that time Sydney would be married and have a home of his own. You’re not bored listening to all this, are you? There’s a more exciting part coming?” “I never was so absorbed in a story in my life, my dear fellow. Go on, please.” “Well, over yonder, not far from the end of the trestle, lived an old man—but never mind the name. At any rate he was sort of a miser, or rather he had lots of money which he never spent and when he died he left it all to my mother.” “You’ve left something out I think,” interrupted Mr. Keeler, and there was a smile about the corners of his mouth that caused Roy to flush deeply. CHAPTER XI MR. CHARLES KEELER “Well, why don’t you go on?” asked Mr. Keeler, as Roy paused. “You’ve heard something about the affair. I can see you have by the way you look. Please tell me what it was.” “Only a very little,” was the reply. “As I was crossing the trestle in the train a while ago I heard a lady behind me telling a gentleman who was with her that this was the place where Roy Pell rescued the old miser. So now you see I know who you are, but I hope that won’t make any difference about your telling the story. You left off in the most interesting place. It would be worse than the serials in the weekly papers, for I couldn’t look forward to getting the continuation next Saturday.” Roy smiled and then said “All right, you’ve promised not to use it unless I give you leave, you know. But I don’t want you to think of me as a regular hero because I lugged that old man off the bridge. There would have been plenty of time for me to have run down to Burdock and stopped the train and got help there, but I really didn’t think of it.” “Oh, no, that isn’t the part I’m interested in at all. What I want to know is the reason you seemed so glum over having come into a fortune. Was it much, may I inquire?”