the
future--they wanted to get a hold on this place so as to try and bar us
from immediate work, or perhaps, to make a fortune out of us by selling
their option to us. They never dreamed that Latimer had a son right
here, and that there was a deeper cause for our meeting you all than
mere business reasons. Had either of these lawyers known about Montresor
and that mine, they would not have spent so much time and money to get
here to outwit us.

"It is fortunate that the doctor kept those letters at home where Brown
could not read and copy them for his firm of rascals. But, to tell the
truth, that was one reason why Dr. Evans was so anxious to meet
you-all. We want to hear everything about the old man and that claim."

As Mr. Latimer finished speaking, Dr. Evans said: "If you will pardon
me, a moment, I have here a photograph taken of my brother-in-law just
before he left for the Klondike. Perhaps you will recognize something in
the face to assure us it was your Montresor."

The doctor took out his large flat pocket-book and removed the
card-photograph wrapped in tissue paper. This was passed to Sam
Brewster, who needed but a glance to tell him that the pictured face was
the same man that he had defended so valiantly to others.

Polly ran over to her father's side and took the picture. "Oh, you dear
old friend--it is our Old Man Montresor, sure enough, but his hair was
white when we knew him!" she exclaimed.

She impulsively kissed the senseless card, and every one smiled
sympathetically, even though there was a suspicion of moisture in most
eyes.

"I am so glad to find that he had good friends, somewhere, even though
he was too proud to let any one know about his relatives. And Ken! I'm
so glad to know that he, and you people, will all come in on Choko's
Find--or to be exact, it is Montresor's Mine," said Polly.

"That's going to be a fine tangle in law, Polly," remarked Mr. Latimer.
"You see, Montresor made you his sole heiress, so the mine is yours, not
only by inheritance, but also by rediscovery after it was lost in the
first land-slide.

"We stopped at Simms' office to-day--that is what made us late--and
learned, without a doubt, that the two claims are the same. As it now
stands, Polly and her friends are claim-jumpers on the same claim that
Montresor bequeathed to Polly a few years ago. And should you all go to
law over the tangle, the State of Colorado would benefit, in-as-much as
the costs of an endle