The other man shook his head.
“No, not so simple as that! The story is more involved and a good deal more sentimental, romantic, whatever you wish to call it.”
“I don’t see any reason why one should not believe what Mr. Moore says,” Dorothy McClain declared, breaking into the conversation for the first time. The color was coming and going swiftly in her clear skin, her gray-blue eyes were calm and untroubled. “He is a gentleman and has any number of friends willing to guarantee the truth of what he says. Lance declares he is the kindest and sincerest human being he has ever known.”
“Well, here is what Mr. Moore told me at our original interview! Later we decided to send for Dr. McClain and Dorothy for two reasons; Mr. Moore wished to have some one else judge of his statement. He also wished some one else to verify the account I gave of discovering a baby, deserted in a cabin on the outskirts of Westhaven more than ten years ago. Moreover, Mr. Moore had an added interest in seeing Dr. McClain and Dorothy in that he wished to propose a plan concerning Lance,” Mr. Hammond continued.
“Owen Moore is a quiet, eccentric man, I should say between thirty and forty years old, who comes originally from Boston.
“Somewhere between ten and eleven years ago he was seriously ill when he received a letter from an old friend asking him to come to her at once. I believe she had been more than a friend when they were younger. They had been engaged and the engagement broken off for a reason they afterwards regretted. So, notwithstanding his illness, knowing that the need was urgent, he went at once to the writer of the letter. He found her in a tumble-down farmhouse between twenty and thirty miles from Westhaven. She was deserted and alone save for the kindness of the neighbors, the nearest living more than a mile away. The only human being with her was a little girl of between two and three years of age.
“Very soon after his arrival he saw that his friend was dying. She and a physician left no doubt of the matter in his mind.
“She asked him to take her little girl, to adopt her and give her the name, Katherine Moore.”
Dorothy’s hand reached out and caught Tory’s, calming her excitement by her quiet grasp.
“Mr. Moore gave her his promise. The child’s father had disappeared and there was no one else. He agreed to return later and take the little girl away, and in the meantime intended to arrange that the friend he had once cared for should have every comfort.