. Miller?" he asked.

"It is supposed to have been set on fire."

"Who would do it?"

"From what Nicholas tells me I suspect that the fire was the work of
Mrs. Kent's brother."

"Her brother!" exclaimed Jasper. "I met him in the West."

"Then you probably know that he was not a very respectable character."

"I know that he was concerned in kidnapping a child."

"Nicholas tells me that he had just got out of prison, and applied to
Mrs. Kent for help, which she refused. Incensed at this, he probably set
the house on fire."

"I think he would be capable of doing it. Has he been arrested?"

"Not yet, but the police are on his track. I don't think he can escape."

"Nicholas doesn't seem to take his mother's death very hard."

"No. I am disgusted with his selfishness. He seems to be principally
concerned about property which she leaves."

"I suppose he will inherit it."

"Yes. I don't know in what state it is, but it ought to amount to thirty
thousand dollars. It is a large slice of your father's fortune."

"I do not begrudge it to him. I shall have enough."

"That reminds me that it is time to open the instrument which your
father left with me."

The paper was opened then and there, and proved to contain the following
direction: That in case Jasper and his step-mother did not get along
harmoniously, his old friend, Mr. Miller, was empowered and requested to
assume the guardianship of Jasper.

"That arrangement suits me precisely," said Jasper, warmly. "Will you
accept the trust?"

"Cheerfully," said his friend. "I don't think there is any danger of our
disagreeing."

Jasper shook his head.

"If there should be any disagreement it would be my fault," he said.
"But won't Nicholas need a guardian?"

"Yes; one will have to be appointed."

"I suppose his uncle would be willing to take the post."

"His uncle, if found, will hardly be in a position to act in that
capacity."

Dick was not found. He disappeared, and from that day was not seen in
the neighborhood. It is supposed that he went West and found a secure
concealment in some of the distant territories, where probably he is
engaged in the same discreditable courses for which he was already
notorious.

As was anticipated, Nicholas inherited about thirty thousand dollars. He
selected as his guardian the young physician whom his mother had
employed in her husband's last sickness. But the man proved faithless to
his trust, and ran away with the en