e doubtless is some resemblance--it is only natural that there
should be a resemblance between father and son," nodded the judge. "But
as for myself, I cannot say."

"You ain't seen him, heh?" said Sol, eyeing him sharply.

"Not exactly," allowed the judge.

"Land o' Moab!" said Sol.

They rode on another eighty rods without a word between them.

"Got his picture, I reckon?" asked Sol at last, sounding the judge's
face all the while with his eager eyes.

"I turn off here," said the judge. "I'm takin' the short cut over the
ford and through Miller's place. Looks like the rain would thicken."

He gave Sol good day, and turned off into a brush-grown road which
plunged into the woods.

Sol went on his way, stirred by comfortable emotions. What a story he
meant to spread next day at the county-seat; what a piece of news he was
going to be the source of, indeed!

Of course, Sol had no knowledge of what was going forward at the county
farm that very afternoon, even the very hour when Joe Newbolt was
sweating blood on the witness stand, If he had known, it is not likely
that he would have waited until morning to spread the tale abroad.

This is what it was.

Ollie's lawyer was there in consultation with Uncle John Owens regarding
Isom's will. Consultation is the word, for it had come to that
felicitous pass between them. Uncle John could communicate his thoughts
freely to his fellow-beings again, and receive theirs intelligently.

All this had been wrought not by a miracle, but by the systematic
preparation of the attorney, who was determined to sound the secret
which lay locked in that silent mind. If Isom had a son when that will
was made a generation back, Uncle John Owens was the man who knew it,
and the only living man.

In pursuit of this mystery, the lawyer had caused to be printed many
little strips of cardboard in the language of the blind. These covered
all the ground that he desired to explore, from preliminaries to climax,
with every pertinent question which his fertile mind could shape, and
every answer which he felt was due to Uncle John to satisfy his
curiosity and inform him fully of what had transpired.

The attorney had been waiting for Uncle John to become proficient enough
in his new reading to proceed without difficulty. He had provided the
patriarch with a large slate, which gave him comfortable room for his
big characters. Several days before that which the lawyer had set for
the explorat