Impatiently George Benson sat down, for he had not patience with this imbecile old man. “I would not waste my energy upon the ungrateful girl,” said he, “for she does not seem to care, or why should she not answer your letters? It is shameful for a daughter to be so undutiful.” There was something in the young man’s tone that caused the millionaire to look keenly at him. Then he closed his lips upon the words that were about to fall. He was upon the point of confiding how Tom was going after Annie, but the rich man noticed a glitter in the blue eyes, and he said nothing. Then George spoke slowly: “Uncle, will you keep to yourself what I am going to tell you?” “Of course,” responded the rich man; “I have never betrayed your confidence.” “Never.” “Then, I will not begin now.” “Did you know that Tom Cooper thinks that you are going to leave him half your fortune? I saw him just now as he went out, and he said that you had asked him to help find Annie, and that he was not going to do anything like it, but to give you the idea that he was working hard to locate her, and he said that if she kept away from the house that you would leave him half your fortune.” The old man was rising from his chair slowly. “Are you telling me the truth?” “Surely. He said that you two talked over the matter, and that you asked him to aid you in finding the girl, and he said he had given you the idea that he could bring her back to you.” “So he did,” ejaculated the old man. “And I fear that he intends to do you wrong, as much as I hate to say it of the fellow whom I have grown up with, but then we could not expect to have him care as much for Annie as I do, not being related to her.” For a long time the old man sat in his chair muttering to himself. He had grown to love this boy, this very young boy, who had always sent in the best reports from college to him, like his own son even. But the last blow had fallen. “Annie,” he whispered as he labored upstairs to his bedroom, “I shall never see you again. You have had your revenge now, for I shall not be upon the earth long.” Then he sent for his nephew after his valet had put him in bed, and said: “If Tom Cooper comes here, he is to be refused admittance; also notify the bank that he is to be discharged.” After George Benson heard this he went down stairs, and with a malicious smile upon his face wrote the letter, and as he dropped it in the mail box, he said to himself: “So you will find the girl, will you, Tom Cooper? We will soon see what your future will amount to.” CHAPTER III. The next morning Tom Cooper came whistling into the bank. His future looked so bright, and did he not have his uncle’s permission to find the little lost girl? He went behind the glass window and found a notice upon his desk to call upon the president in his room, and without delay the lad ran into the rear of the building and tapped lightly upon a door marked, “T. D. Dalton.”