ably!"

He smiled indulgently upon Adelle with his little tag of legal Latin. He
might be a poet, but he knew the laws of inheritance, and moreover, now
in his old age, he had come out from his valleys of indecision and knew
that there must be many wrongs both legal and extra-legal in our human
system, and that it was not always accomplishing the most good to try to
do exact justice. As he had said to Adelle, ours is a world of chance
and mistake, and the most wholesome thing for every generation is to
wipe the slate clean as far as possible and go ahead hopefully,
courageously to create a new and sounder life upon a substructure
possibly of fraud and injustice and cruelty. Thus man climbed always
upwards. To rend and tear and fight, to try to eradicate every wrong was
also human, but it was largely futile.

So when Adelle ventured to say,--

"But people often do try to upset titles, don't they? I have seen
stories in the newspapers about heirs getting together to recover
possession of valuable lands that have been out of the family longer
than Clark's Field."

The judge nodded, and added,--

"Too true! But do you know how few of these attempts ever succeed--even
get to a trial of the case? Almost none. Usually they are fraudulent
schemes of rascals who collect money from gullible persons and then put
the money into their own pockets and nothing whatever is done. It would
be very foolish of these cousins of yours to try anything of the sort.
It would make them miserable for years and eat up what little money they
have. You must make this all clear to the young man who is to meet you
here. Send him to me if he has any doubts!"

"What can I do about it, then?" Adelle demanded. "It belongs to them,
and I want them to have it. There must be some way!"

The judge looked at the young woman with a curious, indulgent smile. He
had gathered from her story that her own experience with Clark's Field
had not been a successful one by any means. Was that why she was so
anxious to shoulder off upon these unknown members of her family the
burden of riches which had proved too much for her? Just what was her
motive? A conscience newly aroused by her terrible tragedy and
hypersensitive? An interest womanwise in this young stone mason, who was
the only one of the California Clarks she had yet seen?... The judge
leaned forward and took Adelle's hand.

"Tell me, my dear," he said, "just why you want them to have your money.
For of