"No; though I know the sale was made through them."
Solon Talbot paused long enough to pull himself together. It would never do to surrender at discretion. He would brazen it out to the last.
"Your information is partly true," he said. "I did sell some shares of mining stock, but they belonged to me. You have nothing to do with them."
"Uncle Solon," said Mark composedly, "it is useless to try to deceive me. The four hundred shares were bought by my grandfather, and belonged to his estate. Half of the proceeds rightfully belongs to my mother."
Spots of perspiration stood on Solon Talbot's brow. Should he allow fifty thousand dollars to slip from his grasp?
"You audacious boy!" he exclaimed. "How dare you make such an assertion?"
"Because I happen to know that the four hundred shares stood in the name of my grandfather, Elisha Doane."
"That is a lie. May I ask where you got this information?"
"From the purchaser of the stock, Luther Rockwell."
"What do you know of Luther Rockwell?" demanded Solon Talbot, incredulous.