“Things have come to a pretty pass, I must confess,” said he, and he was almost boiling over with fury. “I must wait the pleasure of strangers, till they get ready to let me have my brother’s things! What kind of a law do you call that?”
“It’s the law in this State, whatever it may be elsewhere,” said Mr. Chisholm.
“Upon my word, I never saw this boy before,” continued Henderson. “He is some little upstart that my brother has seen since he came to Texas. He wouldn’t have adopted anything like him, anyway.”
“Why, Clifford Henderson, I know you,” said Bob. “I remember when I used to see you in St. Louis——”
“You never saw me before in your life,” returned Henderson, with a scowl on his forehead that might have made Bob tremble if he had been alone. “And I never saw you before.”
“Easy, easy!” exclaimed Mr. Chisholm soothingly. “It will all come out when we have had our supper. Until then just rest in peace.”
Henderson started off with the air of a man who would have snatched things bald-headed if he had only possessed the opportunity, and when he was well out of hearing Mr. Chisholm continued:
“Bob, you want to keep mum and answer such questions as I shall ask you by and by. These boys have all signed the will in your favor? Well, that’s enough. Let’s see him get around that.”
“But I can’t help thinking that he has got something back of it,” said Bob, between his sobs. “He goes about it so confidently that I am really afraid of him. He denies that he ever saw me.”
“Of course. That’s to be expected. But you are sure that you have seen him before?”