"Yes, sir; what was the constable after me for, if not for that?"
"It's a mistake, and I told you so in Albany. Didn't I say you would be a rich man?"
"You did, sir; but I thought that was only to catch me. All of them said something of that sort. I knew I couldn't be a rich man, because my father never had a cent to leave me. That's what they told me."
"But you had an uncle."
"Never heard of him," replied Noddy, bewildered at the prospect before him.
"Your father's only brother died in California more than a year ago. He had no family; but an honest man who went with him knew where he came from; and Squire Wriggs has hunted up all the evidence, which fully proves that all your uncle's property, in the absence of other heirs, belongs to you. He left over thirty thousand dollars, and it is all yours."
"Dear me!" exclaimed Noddy, utterly confounded by this intelligence.
"This sum, judiciously invested, will produce at least fifty thousand when you are of age. I have been appointed your guardian."
"I don't think I'm Noddy Newman after this," added the heir, in breathless excitement.
"I know you are not," added Bertha, laughing. "Your real name is Ogden Newman."