here."

"I will stay with you till morning, Uncle Solon, but I shall have to
leave you then, as I have business to attend to."

"What kind of business?"

"I don't care to mention it just now. I am traveling for another party."

"I had no idea there would be an accident," said Mr. Talbot. "Good
heavens, we might have been in eternity by this time," he added with a
shudder.

"I feel very much alive," said Mark, laughing.

"I suppose the accident will be in the New York morning papers."

"So it will. I must telegraph that I am all right, or my mother will be
frightened."

"Telegraph for me too," said Solon Talbot.

"All right. Tell me to whom to telegraph, Uncle Solon, and where."

"To Edgar, I think."

Few more words were spoken, as Mark and his uncle were both dead tired.
It was eight o'clock when Mark opened his eyes. He dressed himself as
quickly as possible and prepared to go down-stairs. As he was moving
toward the door, Mark espied a scrap of paper. It contained what
appeared to be a memorandum in his uncle's handwriting.

It was brief, and a single glance revealed its purpose to Mark. It ran
thus: "Crane and Lawton told me to-day that their agent writes them from
Nevada that the Golden Hope mine is developing great richness. I
shouldn't wonder if it would run up to one hundred dollars per share. At
this rate the 400 shares I hold will make a small fortune. C. & L.
advise holding on for at least six months."

It may be imagined that Mark read this memorandum with interest. He knew
very well that the mining stock referred to belonged to his
grandfather's estate, but hitherto had been ignorant of the number of
shares held by the same. If there were four hundred, and the price ran
up to one hundred dollars per share, this would make his mother's share
twenty thousand dollars!

This would be a fortune indeed, and it made his blood boil to think that
his uncle proposed to cheat her out of it. The munificent sum of
twenty-five dollars was all that he had offered for a receipt in full
that would give him a title to the whole value of the Golden Hope
shares.

Mark turned to the bed.

His uncle was fast asleep. He was not a strong man, and the shock and
fatigue of the night previous had quite exhausted him.

"What shall I do with the memorandum?" thought Mark.

He felt that it was not quite the thing to keep a private paper
belonging to his uncle, yet under the circumstances, considering that
his uncl