"Jabez Smith? The Hapgood woman's husband? Father of Mary Smith? He isn't dead. He's alive and drunk almost every day."
He indicated a man leaning against the wall of the corridor and Mr. Emerson and Roger approached him.
"Don't you know the Miss Clarks said they thought that Mary said her father was alive but her uncle interrupted her loudly and said she was 'an orphan, poor kid'?" Roger reminded his grandfather.
"She's half an orphan; her mother really is dead, the clerk says."
Jabez Smith acknowledged his identity and received news of his brother-in-law and his daughter with no signs of pleasure.
"What scheming is Hapgood up to now?" he muttered crossly.
"Do you remember what your grandfather and grandmother Leonards' names were," asked Mr. Emerson.
The man looked at him dully, as if he wondered what trick there might be in the inquiry, but evidently he came to the conclusion that his new acquaintance was testing his memory, so he pulled himself together and after some mental searching answered, "George Leonard; Sabina Leonard."
His hearers were satisfied, and left him still supporting the Court House wall with his person instead of his taxes.
Stanley, the long pursued, was caught on the wire, and hailed their coming with delight. He said that he thought he had all the information he needed and that he had been planning to go home the next day, so they were just in time.