you may see fit.'"

Again the banker meditated a few moments, and Jack sat silent, wondering
what the denouement to the strange story would prove. At length Mr.
Richard Townsend after an interval resumed, and said:

"I thought the matter over and concluded that stolen money would not be
hidden away for twenty years, and after due reflection, having decided
to have him give me the letter, I consented to accept the trust. Ten
thousand dollars paid in hand was a great temptation, but not even for
ten thousand dollars would I have accepted a criminal trust.

"The man gave me the letter signed by a name I had never heard before. I
proposed that he make it in the form of an affidavit, but he said:

"'You will have the money; it will be a matter of conscience with you
anyway; in fact, I have no witnesses. You can steal the money, no one
can call you to account; it is an even thing between us.'

"I so concluded, and the man went away after some further talk. Now, Mr.
Alvarez, that is one part of this mysterious affair."

"Did the man give you no intimation of his purpose in making such a
strange contract?"

"He did not, but he did say I could change the securities and cash the
draft in London and make investments in the United States, but he
imposed the conditions that I should do so at once and then place the
securities in some safe place and let them lay collecting interest and
dividends according to my judgment; 'but the letter,' said he, 'you must
not open until twenty years from to-day.'

"The man went away and I was in possession of the securities. I let a
week or two pass, thinking he might be crazy or that some development
might come, but he came not nor did any development. I waited one year
before I did anything with the securities, then I changed all the
foreign investments into American securities. I collected the draft on
the London solicitors; I decided to invest the money all in real estate.
I did so in my own name, but provided for its going to the proper person
at the end of the twenty years."

"Did the man never turn up?"

"He never did; and it is just forty years ago that I received the trust.
My investments have increased so that at this moment the estate which I
hold in trust amounts to over two and a half millions, and I know not
who the real owner of this vast property is."

"Didn't you learn when you opened the letter?"

"Aha! Mr. Alvarez, here comes in my criminality."

Jack expected to