The sobbing had stopped. “We—we lived in the city,” came from between the lad’s hands, “my pop and me, and pop got sick and they said he should go to the country. I don’t know how it happened, but we came to Boothy Wilkes’. I liked it there. Then pop died, and that changed everything. I was nine then, nine nearly ten, and Wilkes made me do all the chores—said I had to earn my keep. Telling me every day I was a pauper and threatening to send me away to the pauper farm. Then he began to shout and yell that I ate too much. That was when I lit out.
“I went to Philadelphia and sold newspapers. They told me to keep out of the way of the cops or they’d slap me in a home because I ought to be in school. It wasn’t so bad in the summer, but in the winter it was tough. Snowy days I wouldn’t sell many papers, and maybe I’d have to sleep in a hallway that night.”
“How old were you then, Jud?”
“About fourteen.”
Joe shot a glance at his uncle. The unruffled tranquillity was gone. The blind man’s face was dark with a bitter wrath.
“I figured I’d go some place where there wouldn’t be so much cold, so I beat it to California. There I got jobs doing this and that, and got along. One day, when I was out of work and feeling pretty low, a man stopped me and asked wasn’t I Jud Cory. He said I looked as though I was on my uppers, and I said I was. He said I must have gone through the money pretty fast, and I asked him what money, and he said he had been cashier for the bank here and that just a few days before my father died he was sent for, and went to Wilkes’ house, and that my father put nine thousand dollars in Wilkes’ account for me. It seemed pop didn’t want any dealings with lawyers and courts and thought Wilkes was honest. Maybe this man was telling me straight and maybe he wasn’t. I got thinking it over, and it seemed maybe Wilkes had laid it on me heavy so I’d light out and he’d have the money to himself. So I came back here, and the first time I spoke to Wilkes I knew it was true.”
“How?” Dr. Stone asked.
“By his face.”
“What was the name of this man, Jud?”
“I—I don’t know. I got so excited I forgot to ask, and when I went looking for him afterwards I couldn’t find him. Does that make any difference?”