"So I always believed. But listen. My father died suddenly, it was said. I returned home in time to hear his will read. In this, his property, without being specified, was left to me as the only surviving member of the family, with Felix Gray as the sole executor and my guardian."
"It was a good deal to trust in his hands."
"I suppose my father had unlimited confidence in his brother. I trusted him, too, and continued at school for three years longer.
"When seventeen years old I returned home, and asked him if I was not old enough to take an active position at the works, and then he offered me my present clerkship, and astonished me by asserting that my father had squandered most of his wealth by extravagant living, and that several hundred dollars was all there was remaining of my share."
"And you think?" began the young machinist, who was beginning to see through the situation.
"What would you think, Jack?" asked the young man, earnestly. "My father lived well--owned the yacht we just left, and all that--but was on the whole, I've been told, a prudent man. Now you know my uncle, what do you make of the matter?"
"Did Mr. Gray ever offer to let you examine the accounts?"
"Only those at the tool works, but not the private ones at home."
"Then, to say the least, he is certainly not acting as a guardian should," declared Jack. "And I think you would be perfectly justified in demanding an examination."
"That's your honest opinion?"