“It may be all right,” he muttered to himself, “but that old rascal looks like an impostor to me. How can Mrs. Horner tell whether it’s her brother or not, when she hasn’t seen him for so many years?”
He determined then and there to constitute himself a vigilance committee of one to watch the stranger closely. If he detected anything that looked suspicious it would of course be his duty to tell his chum, and so put the Horners on their guard.
Meanwhile, the others were so excited that none of them even noticed the presence of Leslie Capes, so that he had plenty of chances to listen and observe.
“For years,” the wanderer was saying, with a touch of regret in his voice, “I’ve been promising myself to look up my only sister if I could strike it rich. Fortune plays queer pranks with men up there in Alaska. Several times I believed I was on the verge of a glorious fortune, only to have the bubble burst.”
He uttered the last words with a half groan as though nearly overpowered.
“Never mind, Silas,” said Mrs. Horner, as cheerily as she could, “your intentions were good at least. It was not your fault if fortune failed to knock at your door. But how did you find us out?”
The shabby stranger swallowed hard as though nearly overcome with emotion; but the watchful Leslie believed this was mostly assumed. He was more than ever convinced that the so-called Silas would bear close scrutiny.
“When I finally fell sick,” continued the weary wanderer, “somehow my thoughts seemed to roam back to the old life more than ever. Finally, I could stand it no longer, and determined to start out in hopes of finding my little sister Polly. I had enough to take me to the States, and East. By following up certain clues, I learned that you were living in this section, and I came here to see you once more before I cashed in.”
“But you have been walking far today, Silas, and you look half dead with fatigue,” Dick’s gentle mother went on to say. “Indeed, you must rest here for a few days until you can plan for your future. Oh! I wish we were better off, so that I could offer you a home for the rest of your life!”
“That would be an imposition, Polly, which I could not hear of,” said the other, though Leslie noticed that when he turned his head aside, he smiled as though secretly pleased. “If I can rest a day or two, I intend to go on to New York City, where an old partner of mine lives.”