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A less abstracted and more observant critic than Slinn would have seen in this patient aptitude for real work, and the recognition of the force of petty detail, the dominance of the old market-gardener in his former humble, as well as his later more ambitious, successes. "Heaven keep us from being dependent upon our children!" said Slinn, darkly.
Then, catching sight of Slinn's pale and anxious face, he added abruptly, "Are you sick?" Slinn was on the point of telling him his good fortune, but stopped. The unlucky question confirmed his consciousness of his physical and mental disturbance, and he dreaded the ready ridicule of his companion. He would tell him later; Masters need not know WHEN he had made the strike.
Duchesne; and as the young Spaniard left Los Gatos the next day, he escaped not only the active reporter of the "Record," but the perusal of a grateful paragraph in the next day's paper recording his prompt kindness and courtesy. Dr. Duchesne's prognosis, however, seemed at fault; the elder Slinn did not succumb to this second stroke, nor did he recover his reason.
I let him bring me here. He could do no less, and common decency obliged him to do that." "And what proof could you show of your claim?" asked Mulrady, gravely. "If I had that letter if I could find Masters," began Slinn, vaguely.
You used to sit there looking at it, as if it reminded you of something. You never said it did. They say you was sitting on that boulder there when you had that last attack, you know; but," he added, gently, "you've forgotten all about it." "I have forgotten nothing," said Slinn, rising, with a choking voice. "I wish to God I had; I wish to God I could!"
"Then you mean to say that during these three years the vein o' your mind, so to speak, was a lost lead, and sorter dropped out o' sight or follerin'?" queried Mulrady, with infinite seriousness. "Yes," returned Slinn, with less impatience than he usually showed to questions. "And durin' that time, when you was dried up and waitin' for rain, I reckon you kinder had visions?"
Unheeding the frightened gesture of entreaty from Slinn, equally with the unfeigned astonishment of Don Caesar, who was entirely unprepared for this revelation of Mulrady's and Slinn's confidences, he continued, "He has brought the copy with him. I reckon it would be only square for you to compare it with what you remember of the original."
He was not here to quarrel with these fair strangers at their first meeting; he must seek Slinn elsewhere, and at another time. The frankness of his reception and the allusion to their brother made it appear impossible that they should be either a party to his disappointment, or even aware of it.
When this was done he resumed his old relations with Slinn, with the exception that the domestic letters of Mrs. Mulrady and Mamie were no longer a subject of comment, and their bills no longer passed through his private secretary's hands.
"And you don't remember sitting down on a stone by the road?" The old man kept his eyes resolutely fixed on the bedclothes before him. "No!" he said, with a certain sharp decision that was new to him. The doctor's eye brightened. "All right, old man; then don't." On his way out he took the eldest Miss Slinn aside. "He'll do," he said, grimly: "he's beginning to lie."
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