“George Smart. I wonder what brings him down here?” said Northrup, as he read the card that the servant brought to him. “Show the gentleman in here. George is a young lawyer, and an awfully nice chap. You’ll like him,” he continued, turning to Nick as the servant retired.
The lawyer promptly followed his card and greeted Northrup cordially as he entered the room with the air of a man of determination and quick action.
“Why, George, what brings you down here?” asked Northrup.
“Business,” replied Smart promptly. “You didn’t think I had wandered down to this hole in the world for pleasure, did you?”
“My friend, Mr. Carter,” said Northrup, laughing at the lawyer’s wry face, as he introduced the men. “Now lay off your coat and join us in a pipe. You will stay all night, of course, and as we have fished all the streams in the neighborhood dry by day and told about it at night we will be glad to compose ourselves and listen to the tale of the business that brings you to this ‘hole.’ Your business always has a romantic side, George, and I am sure that it must be something out of the usual to get you out of New York and away from your office, club, and cronies. Come let’s have it. Our friend Carter here is a bit interested in the law.”
“Why, it’s a deuce of a mess altogether,” said Smart, as he pulled up an easy chair and filled a long pipe. “And it concerns one of your neighbors, too, or, rather, his heirs.”
“Not old man Peters?” said Northrup.
“Yes—his estate.”
“Must have left a handsome fortune. He had no direct heirs, had he?”
“Yes, one—a burglar.”