"And I didn't understand either," Adelle added.

"I guess I could keep you from getting into trouble with your money as
well as the next man. I'd keep you out of the hands of the charity
grafters anyhow!"

"I think," the judge summed up whimsically, "that you are one of the
best persons in the world to advise on how to distribute the Clark
millions. That is what should be done with every young anarchist--set
him to work spending money on others. He would end up either in prison
or among the conservatives."

"But," Adelle demurred finally, "that leaves the others--all the
California Clarks--out of it for good."

"Where they belong," put in the mason.

"I'm not so sure of that," the judge added cautiously. And after further
reflection he suggested, "Why shouldn't you two make yourselves into a
little private and extra-legal Providence for these members of your
family? Once, my dear," he said to Adelle, "I did the same for you! At
considerable risk to your welfare I intervened and prevented certain
greedy rascals from doing your aunt and you out of Clark's Field, you
remember?"

He paused to relate for Tom Clark's benefit the story of the transaction
with which we are fully familiar.

"Of course, if then I had known of the existence of our young friend and
his family, I should have been obliged to include him in the beneficence
of my Providence. But I didn't. It was left for you, my dear, to
discover him!... There was a time when I felt that I had played the part
of Providence rashly,"--he smiled upon Adelle, who recalled quite
vividly the stern lecture that the court had given her when she was
about to receive her fortune. "But now I feel that I did very well,
indeed. In fact I am rather proud of my success as Providence to this
young woman.... So I recommend the same role to you and Mr. Clark. Look
up these California Clarks, study them, make up your minds what they
need most, then act as wisely as you can, not merely in their behalf,
but in behalf of us all, of all the people who find themselves upon this
earth in the long struggle out of ignorance and misery upwards to
light.... It will keep you busy," he concluded with his fine
smile,--"busy, I think, for the better part of your two lives. But I can
think of no more interesting occupation than to try to be a just and
wise Providence!"

"It's some job," the mason remarked. "I don't feel sure we'd succeed in
it much better than Fate."

"You will become a p