cumulate,
and have been in my grave at the hands of Mowbray. But of this latter I
am in constant dread, and I feel such will yet be my fate. If my dead
body is found with marks of violence on it, and my house robbed, it will
have been the work of said Mowbray. Therefore, in the way of a tardy
reward for the loyalty, care, protection, and love given me by my
brother, Frederic Caruthers, I leave to him the bulk of my property,
personal and real, in mining stocks, jewels, money, and the turquoise
beds in New Mexico, as well as the San Fernando Ranch. I especially
charge my brother John Stairs Caruthers to find his brother, and to
defend him and clear his name, should it be necessary, and to put him in
full possession of his property.'"

As the major finished reading he looked at Ted inquiringly.

"Well, what do you make of it?" he asked. "I confess it puzzles me."

"I can see through it. But you have your work cut out for you, major."

"In what way?"

"You will find this fellow Mowbray a hard customer."

"Pshaw! I am not afraid of him."

"Neither am I, for that matter; but it is not he alone that is to be
feared in this matter."

"What do you mean?"

"Just this: Mowbray evidently is an archvillain, but he could not do all
his dirty work alone."

"You think he has accomplices, then?"

"Exactly. And of the most dangerous sort."

"For instance?"

"I have been thinking the matter over, and I am convinced that Mowbray
has got about him the most dangerous sort of a gang to carry on his work
for him. Do you know if he is a man of any particular force and
cleverness?"

"When I knew him, which was before I went to India, he was already
beginning to practice his shady transactions in England, but he had
never been directly caught at it. This led to the greatest opposition on
the part of my family to his marriage to my sister."

"But, in spite of it, she married him?"

"Yes; she had an idea that he was abused and misrepresented, and flew to
his defense by secretly marrying him. After that he got worse and bolder
until he was caught not only cheating at cards, but actually stealing by
means of forgery and in other ways, and they had to flee from England."

"Then, of course, he is a master in crime by this time."

"It would not surprise me to learn it. But you spoke of his being
especially dangerous because of the men he had gathered about him?"

"Yes, and I mean it. I am sure now that in his gang are several me