Mr. Darley stepped around to take Miles’s seat, but as the other rose
they were face to face, and very close to each other for an instant.
Mr. Darley put out both hands and grasped the boy by the shoulders.
“What is your name?” he said in a tone that was quite different from
the one in which he had hitherto spoken. It was much more decided, and
firmer.
“Miles,” answered the other, trying his best to keep his excitement
down.
He could see Mrs. Fox standing just behind his father, her hands
clasped together in an agony of suspense.
“Miles, eh! Well, you look as if your name ought to be Maurice. Great
Cæsar! doesn’t he look like me, Mrs. Fox?”
He wheeled around so suddenly that the poor old lady was taken quite
unawares. She dropped her hands quickly to her sides and had not a word
to say.
“Don’t he look like me?” Mr. Darley now appealed to Sydney, who managed
to stammer out: “I certainly see a strong resemblance, sir.”
“What is your last name, young man?” went on the other.
Miles hesitated an instant. He was about to say Darley, but some happy
instinct prompted him to substitute “Morrisey.”
Mr. Darley started.
“Morrisey, you say?” he exclaimed.
A swift change passed over his features. He had dropped his hand from
Miles’s shoulders, but now reached forth and caught him by the arm.
“Come with me,” he said quietly, and led him into the back room.
The others looked at one another without speaking. No one thought of
the game. The fish lines, tangled up, were lying in the pasteboard
pond.
Mrs. Fox had sunk down on the sofa, her head covered with her apron.
From the inner room came the subdued sound of voices.
“Do you suppose he has recognized him?” It was Rex who at length broke
the silence, and he spoke in an awed whisper.
Nobody made any reply, for footsteps were heard approaching from the
rear. It was Miles. His face was handsomer than Rex had ever seen it.
It was lighted up with joy.
He came straight to Rex and put a hand on his shoulder, while he leaned
over till his chin rested on the other’s head.
“I want to tell you first, Rex,” he said, “who have been the means of
bringing me to this happiness. He knows me. His mind has come back to
him. He called me Maurice, and he remembers giving me to the Morriseys
to take care of for a while. Then his brain went back on him, and he
thought I was dead.”
“Where is he?” asked Rex.
“Lying down on the bed. He is utterly exhausted. I must go back to him
now,” and Miles hurried off again.
CHAPTER XXXIV
REX RISES TO THE OCCASION
“It’s wonderful. I never heard anything like it.” This was Mrs. Fox’s
exclamation when the four were left alone in the front room again.
“All the credit belongs to you, Mr. Pell,” she went on, turning to
Sydney. “It was you thought of this way of doing things.”
“Oh, he might have recognized him any other way just as quickly,”
returned Sydney. “And now some one must tell him about Mr. Tyler’s
legacy,” he added. “I want to get that off my mind.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account