Slowly the cattleman again produced the old relic. At the first sight of it Mr. Bellmore exclaimed:
"Yes! That's it! I'd know it anywhere! Dave, there's no doubt but that you are my brother! Shake!"
"But are you sure?" asked Mr. Carson.
"Positive!" exclaimed the young engineer. "See, I can point out a dozen little points about this belt that makes me certain it is mine," and he did. He even recalled where he got certain oddly-shaped corks from the neighbors.
Then he related his story—how he had lived as a boy in the town where, later, the flood came and swept away the Bellmore home, taking Dave with it. The future engineer was away at the time of the disaster, and he knew nothing of the particulars of the rush of the waters, save what relatives told him afterward.
"But they said my whole family was drowned, including my little brother," he went on. "His name wasn't Dave, by the way, but Charles."
"I named him Dave," said Mr. Carson.
"And I'm going to keep it," Dave said.
"It's just as well," decided Mr. Bellmore. "But, as I said, all I know is what I was told. I was only about ten years old at the time, and you must have been about two, Dave. How it happened we can only guess, but mother or father must have put my odd cork life-preserver on you when they saw the waters rising, and it probably saved your life when the house was carried away. What a strange coincidence!"
"Isn't it?" agreed Mr. Carson. He could add little to the story, for all he knew was the finding of the baby. His inquiries had come to naught, so it was assumed that all the rest of the Bellmore family had perished in the high waters.