“What!” exclaimed Gerald in startled surprise.

“Do you know the name?” asked the clerk.

“I know a man of that name. It may not be the same one.”

“This man, so Hastings told me once, was a manufacturer, and lived in—in—”

“Seneca, Illinois?”

“The very place. Then it is the man you know?”

“It seems so. What is this man’s name?”

“Thomas Hastings.”

“Did he ever live in Seneca?”