“Yes that is my present intention. As my will stands now, all my property goes to my son and as he is dead, Sam as the next of kin would inherit it anyway. Therefore I hardly think it necessary to write a new one, but will destroy the old one, which will throw the property into his hands.”
“And does he know this?” asked Mr. Van Kuren.
“I haven’t told him so in so many words, but I am sure he must know what my intentions are. However he has never broached the topic to me and I am bound to say that he seems to be thoroughly disinterested in his regard for me.”
“In that case,” observed Mr. Van Kuren, watching his friend’s face carefully as he spoke, “you had better write to him and ask him to arrange this little family matter that troubles you. At any rate it will save you the trouble of making a trip across the water. A journey at your time of life and at this season of the year might be regarded as almost unsafe.”
Mr. Dexter made no reply to this remark, and there was silence in the room for fully a minute. Then he shook his head slowly, and said: “No, I don’t exactly like to ask Sam to help me in this affair, and perhaps, after all it would be better for me to write than to make the journey myself.”
“My dear Mr. Dexter,” said Mr. Van Kuren, rising from his seat and placing his hand on his old friends arm, “the mere fact that you do not write to him in this matter is a proof that you do not fully trust him; but don’t take the trip yourself. Write a letter; this is no season for a man of your age to travel.”
Soon after this the visitor took his leave, and the old gentleman sat down at his library table and addressed a polite and formal note to Bruce Decker, telling him what he had learned from a mutual friend, and asking him to send him full information concerning himself and his family, adding that he very well remembered meeting him before, and hoped that he was making progress in the calling which he had chosen. Having sealed and addressed this letter he sat for some time lost in reflection. Then taking up his pen again, he wrote another letter to the man to whom Mr. Van Kuren had referred as “Sam.”
Both these letters reached New York on the same day, and were the cause of the strange meeting of the two boys, which has been described in another chapter. But in the letter to his kinsman, Sam, the old gentleman did not reveal the address which Laura had given him.
Chapter XXIX.
When Skinny the Swiper, standing in the little country burying-ground, looked upon the time-stained marble slab, and deciphered the inscription upon it, he opened his eyes in wonder, and for the second time within five minutes, uttered the exclamation which he kept on hand for such emergencies as demanded something more vigorous and expressive than commonplace English.