"Not so loud," said Mr. Reed, quietly.
His visitor's voice dropped, as, thrusting out his elbows and resting a hand on each arm of his chair, he started afresh:
"So Miss Kate Reed, as she called herself, and as you called her, never wrote me again after the old people died, eh?"
"Never" was uttered so significantly that his listener responded with a quick, "Well! what do you mean?"
"What do you mean?" echoed Slade with a darkening face. "Why didn't she ever write to me afterward?"
This was a bit of acting designed to mislead; for Kate had written again, and at that moment a yellow, worn letter, fourteen years old, was tucked snugly away in the visitor's pocket. And it was on the strength of this same letter that he hoped yet to obtain heavy favors from George Reed. Eben knew well enough what had become of the money, but, for some cunning reason of his own, chose for the present to plead ignorance.
"I will ask you a question in return," said Mr. Reed. "Why, if you took so keen an interest in your sister's fortune, did you not apply to me long ago for information?"
"Because," replied Eben Slade, boldly, "I had my reasons. I knew the money was safe; and I could bide my time."
"What!" exclaimed Mr. Reed, "do you pretend to be ignorant of the fact that, two years after my sister Kate's marriage, she started with her husband and baby to return to America, absolutely penniless?"
"Then, how could they pay for their passage?" asked Eben;—but meeting Mr. Reed's eyes, he went on in an injured tone, "I know nothing but what you choose to tell me. True, you forgot to advertise for me to put in an appearance and hear of something to my advantage, but I supposed, very naturally, that coming here I should learn that Kate had left me a share of her fortune as a matter of course, and then I'd be able to go back and settle myself respectably in the far West. I may as well tell you I have a wife somewhere out there, and if I had means to buy up a splendid mining property which can be had now for a mere song, I'd just buy it clean and settle down to a steady life."