"It is not a simple matter at all to consider the claims of these California Clarks. The land has passed out of our—your control: it has probably passed through several hands in many instances, each owner pledging his faith in the validity of his title. You can see that any action taken now by these heirs of Edward S. Clark against the present owners of Clark's Field would injure numberless innocent people. It is not to be thought of for one moment!" Having reached a moral ground for not upsetting things as they were, the president of the trust company felt more at ease and expatiated at length on "the good faith of the Washington Trust Company and all others" who had been parties to the transaction. Adelle sighed as she listened to the torrent of eloquence and realized what an upheaval her simple act of restitution would cause. It seemed to her that the law was a very peculiar institution, indeed, which prevented people from using their property for many years in order not to injure some possible heirs, and then just as stoutly prevented those heirs when they had been discovered from getting their own!
"It is simply preposterous, the whole thing," one of the younger officers observed, rising to go about more important business.
"It's not likely to come to anything—they are poor people, these other Clarks, you said?" inquired Mr. Smith.
"I know only one of them," Adelle replied. "He was a stone mason working on my place in California. It was by accident that I learned of his relationship to me. He has some brothers and sisters living, four of them I think he said. They are all poor people. I don't know whether he has any cousins. I didn't ask him. But I think he said something once about an uncle or aunt, so it's likely there are other heirs, too."
The trust president asked testily,—
"You didn't by any chance mention to this stone mason your belief that he was entitled to a share in his grandfather's property?"
"Yes, I did!" Adelle promptly replied. "We talked it over several times."
The three gentlemen murmured something.
"And he is coming on to see about it. I arranged to meet him here on the sixteenth, day after to-morrow."
"Here!"