ou this
so you can tell the Judge. Tell him I told you. Tell him the fellow's
mother is much better now. Tell him Judge Bassio Bates's toe is quite
well. And then ask him for the twenty dollars he owes you. You'll get
it."

"And you was there?" asked Philo Gubb, amazed.

"Out of sight, but there," said the false Mr. Burns glibly. "Just
ready to put my hand on the fellow--but I couldn't. I hadn't the heart
to do it. I thought of the ridicule it would bring down on the poor
old Judge. You know he's an uncle of mine. I'm his nephew."

"He said," said Philo Gubb hesitatingly, "he'd never heard of you."

"He never did," said the Bald Impostor promptly. "I was his third
sister's adopted child--I am an adopted nephew. And of course you
know he would never have anything to do with his sister after she
married--ah--General Winston Wells. Not a thing! It was what killed my
poor foster mother. Grief!"

He wiped his eyes with his silk handkerchief.

"Grief. Yes, grief. And I hadn't the heart to bring shame to the old
man by arresting the Impostor in his house--by showing that the good
old man was such a silly old fellow as to be done by a simple trick.
And what did it matter? I can pick up the Bald Impostor in
Derlingport."

"In Derlingport?" queried Philo Gubb.

"In Derlingport," said the Bald Impostor nervously, "for that is where
he went. I'll get him there. But half of the thousand dollars is
rightfully yours, and you shall have it."

"Thousand dollars?" queried Philo Gubb in amazement.

"The reward has been increased," said the false Mr. Burns. "The--the
publishers of 'Who's Who' increased it to a thousand because the Bald
Impostor works on the names in their book. They thought they ought to.
But you shall have your half of the thousand. I can pick him up in
Derlingport this afternoon if--if I can get there in time. And of
course I _should_ have arrested him here in Riverbank where you are
our correspondent and thus entitled to half the reward earned by any
one in the head office. You knew that, didn't you?"

"No!" said Philo Gubb. "Am I?"

"Didn't you get circular No. 786?" asked the Bald Impostor.

"I didn't ever get the receipt of it at all," said Mr. Gubb.

"An oversight," said the Bald Impostor. "I'll send you one the minute
I get back to Chicago. I'll pick up the Bald Impostor at Derlingport
this afternoon--if--Mr. Gubb, I am ashamed to make an admission to
you. I--"

The Bald Impostor sat on the edge