n you think."

A gasp of greed shook the partition against which my ear was pressed.
Some one must have backed up against the wainscoting since my departure
from the room. I found myself wondering which of them it was. Meantime
old Smead was having his say, with the smoothness of a man who perfectly
understands what is required of him.

"Mr. Westonhaugh would not have put you to so much trouble or had you
wait so long if he had not expected to reward you amply. There are
shares in this bag which are worth thousands instead of hundreds. Now,
now stop that! Hands off! hands off! There are calculations to make
first. How many of you are there? Count yourselves up."

"Nine!" called out a voice with such rapacious eagerness that the word
was almost unintelligible.

"Nine." How slowly the old knave spoke! What pleasure he seemed to take
in the suspense he purposely made as exasperating as possible!

"Well, if each one gets his share, he may count himself richer by two
hundred thousand dollars than when he came in here to-night."

Two hundred thousand dollars! They had expected no more than thirty.
Surprise made them speechless--that is, for a moment; then a pandemonium
of hurrahs, shrieks, and loud-voiced enthusiasm made the room ring till
wonder seized them again, and a sudden silence fell, through which I
caught a far-off wail of grief from the disappointed ones without,
which, heard in the dark and narrow place in which I was confined, had a
peculiarly weird and desolate effect.

Perhaps it likewise was heard by some of the fortunate ones within!
Perhaps one head, to mark which, in this moment of universal elation, I
would have given a year from my life, turned toward the dark without, in
recognition of the despair thus piteously voiced; but if so, no token of
the same came to me, and I could but hope that she had shown by some
such movement the natural sympathy of her sex.

Meanwhile the lawyer was addressing the company in his smoothest and
most sarcastic tones.

"Mr. Westonhaugh was a wise man--a very wise man," he droned. "He
foresaw what your pleasure would be, and left a letter for you. But
before I read it, before I invite you to the board he ordered to be
spread for you in honour of this happy occasion, there is one appeal he
bade me make to those I should find assembled here. As you know, he was
not personally acquainted with all the children and grandchildren of his
many brothers and sisters. Salmon's s