Solon Talbot went home in high spirits. It was only recently that he had become aware of the great value of the Golden Hope shares. It had come to him as an agreeable surprise.

"With what I was worth before," he soliloquized, "I may now rate myself at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That is very good—for a beginning. I can afford to buy the house in Forty-Seventh Street, for I shall still have a hundred thousand dollars over, and in five years I mean to make it half a million."

He paced up and down his library in a state of joyous excitement. No thought of giving his sister-in-law her rightful due entered his mind.

"How can she find out?" he reflected. "Old Mr. Doane never told any of us of his mining shares. I presume he looked upon them as rather a risky investment. It has proved to be a splendid speculation, but it was rather a lucky accident than a shrewd purchase."

It was after breakfast on the morning succeeding the sale of stock. Mr. Talbot was preparing to go over to the house which he proposed to purchase for a last examination before making up his mind, when the servant entered the library.

"There is a boy down-stairs wishes to see you, Mr. Talbot," he said.

"Perhaps a boy from Crane & Lawton," he reflected. "Show him up."

Directly afterwards Mark Mason entered the room.

"Mark!" exclaimed Talbot. "What brings you here!"

"A matter of business, Uncle Solon."

"Then you will have to wait, for I am just going out."

"The business is important," said Mark significantly.

"Well, what is it?"

"I understand you sold yesterday the shares in the Golden Hope Mine belonging to grandfather's estate."

"What!" exclaimed Solon Talbot, his face showing his surprise and dismay.

"There were four hundred shares, and they were sold to Luther Rockwell, the banker."

"Who told you this? Have you had any communication from Crane & Lawton?"

"No; though I know the sale was made through them."

Solon Talbot paused long enough to pull himself together. It would never do to surrender at discretion. He would brazen it out to the last.

"Your information is partly true," he said. "I did sell some shares of mining stock, but they belonged to me. You have nothing to do with them."

"Uncle Solon," said Mark composedly, "it is useless to try to deceive me. The four hundred shares were bought by my grandfather, and belonged to his estate. Half of the proceeds rightfully belongs to my mother."

Spots of perspiration stood on Solon Talbot's brow. Should he allow fifty thousand dollars to slip from his grasp?

"You audacious boy!" he exclaimed. "How dare you make such an assertion?"

"Because I happen to know that the four hundred shares stood in the name of my grandfather, Elisha Doane."

"That is a lie. May I ask where you got this information?"

"From the purchaser of the stock, Luther Rockwell."

"What do you know of Luther Rockwell?" demanded Solon Talbot, incredulous.

"He is one of my best friends. Before buying the shares of the Golden Hope mine he asked my advice."

"Do you expect me to believe such ridiculous stuff? What could you know about the mine?"

"I have recently returned from California. On the way I stopped in Nevada, and I have in my pocket a statement signed by the secretary of the company, that four hundred shares of the stock stood in the name of my grandfather."

It was a series of surprises. Solon Talbot walked up and down the library in a state of nervous agitation.

"What do you expect me to do?" he added finally.

"This letter will inform you, Uncle Solon."

"From whom is it?"

"From my lawyer, George Gerrish."

Mr. Gerrish, as Mr. Talbot knew, was one of the leaders of the bar. He opened it with trembling hands, and read the following:

"Mr. Solon Talbot:

"Dear Sir:

"My client, Mark Mason, authorizes me to demand of you an accounting of the sums received by you as executor of the estate of his late grandfather, Elisha Doane, to the end that his mother, co-heiress with your wife, may receive her proper shares of the estate. An early answer will oblige,

"Yours respectfully,

"George Gerrish."