He wrote the following reply:
Mr. Kenyon:
I have received your harsh and unjust letter. I am innocent, and you know it. Of the large property which my mother left, you send me twenty dollars, and keep the remainder. I shall keep and use the money, for it is justly mine. Sometime you will repent defrauding an orphan. I don't think I shall starve, but I shall not soon forget your treachery. Some day—I don't know when—I will punish you for it.
Oliver Conrad.
CHAPTER XIX.
A STRANGE ACQUAINTANCE.
M R. KENYON shrugged his shoulders, and smiled, when he read Oliver's letter.
"So the young cub is showing his claws, is he?" he said to himself. "I fancy he will find it harder to punish me than he supposes. Where will he get the power? Money is power, and I have the money." "Yes," he continued, his sallow face lighting up with exultation, "I have played boldly for it, and it is mine! Who shall dispute my claim? My wife is in a mad-house, and likely to remain there, and now Oliver is disposed of. I wish he would go to sea, and never be heard of again. But at any rate I am pretty safe so far as he is concerned."
Oliver did not expect to terrify Mr. Kenyon with his threats. He, too, felt hispresent want of power; but he was young, and he could wait. Indeed, the question of punishing his step-father was not the one that first demanded his attention. He had but twenty dollars in the world, and no expectations. He must find work of some kind, and that soon. Now, unluckily for Oliver, the times were hard. There were thousands out of employment, and fifty applications where there was one vacancy. Day after day he answered advertisements without effect. Only once he had a favorable answer. This was in a great dry-goods house.
"Yes," said the superintendent, who was pleased with his appearance and manners, "we will take you, if you like to come."