"What more proof do you want than this paragraph? The fact is, you don't want to believe it."
"No!" answered Mr. Howard in a tone of emotion, "I don't want to believe that poor Harry is dead."
"Nor I," said John Fox. "If the boy hadn't been foolish and left my happy home, he'd have been alive to-day. But we can't alter facts. He's dead, and all our grief won't bring him back."
Benjamin Howard looked at the man curiously. "His grief doesn't seem to be very profound," he thought. "I will test him."
"Even if I were convinced that poor Harry was dead," he said, "I should not deliver up the money till you had established a legal claim to it."
"So you mean to put all possible obstacles in my way," said John Fox, provoked. "I thought so. But, Mr. Howard, let me tell you that you can't rob the orphan."
"Meaning yourself?"
"No, I mean the dead boy—that is the orphan's estate—without settling with me. I am a man of influence, I'd have you know, and I'll put the matter in the hands of the lawyer right off."
"It might be well, first, to listen to what I have to say."
"Aha! he's scared!" thought John FoX. — "I'm ready to hear what you've got to say," he answered, "but it won't influence me a particle."