“Yes, after your appointment; but I don’t think I would, if I were you.  If he is contented and well off, you had better let him stay where he is.  He might give you the slip again.  How old is he now?”

“I don’t know exactly; somewhere between ten and twelve, I think.”

“Well, his consent to the choice of a guardian is not necessary; but I think it would be better, under the circumstances, if he would go into court with us, and agree to your appointment.  Do you think he will?”

Old Simon frowned savagely.

“Yes, he will,” he exclaimed.  “I’ll make him do it.  I’ve made him do harder things than that; it’s a pity if I can’t make him do what’s for his own benefit now!” He struck the floor viciously with his cane.

“Easy,” said the lawyer, soothingly, “easy; I fear the boy has been his own master too long to be bullied.  We shall have to work him in a different way now.  I think I can manage it, though.  I’ll have him come down here some day, after we get Mrs. Burnham’s refusal to acknowledge him, and I’ll explain matters to him, and show him why it’s necessary that you should take hold of the case.  I’ll use logic with him, and I’ll wager that he’ll come around all right.  You must treat boys as though they were men, Craft.  They will listen to reason, and yield to persuasion, but they won’t be bullied, not even into a fortune.  By the way, I don’t quite understand how it was, if Burnham was searching energetically for the boy, and you were searching with as much energy for the boy’s father all those years, that you didn’t meet each other sooner.”

Craft looked up slyly from under his shaggy eyebrows.

“May I speak confidentially?” he asked.

“Certainly.”

“Well, then, I didn’t wear myself out hunting for the boy’s friends, for the first year or two.  Time increases the value of some things, you know—­lost children, particularly.  I knew there was money back of the boy by the looks of his clothes.  I kept matters pretty well covered up for a while; allowed that he was my grandson; made him call me ‘Grandpa’; carried the scheme a little too far, and came near losing everything.  Now, do you see?”

Sharpman nodded, and smiled knowingly.  “You’re a shrewd man, Craft,” he said.

But the old man’s thought had returned to the wealth he believed to be in store for him.  “What’s to be done now?” he asked.  “Ain’t there something we can start on?”

“No; we can do nothing until after I have seen the widow, and that will be a couple of months yet at least.  In the meantime, you must not say a word to any one about this matter.  The boy, especially, must not know that you have been here.  Come again about the first of September.  In the meantime, get together the evidence necessary to establish the boy’s identity.  We mustn’t fail in that when it comes to an issue.”

“I’ll have proof enough, no fear of that.  The only thing I don’t like about the business is this waiting.  I’m pretty bad here,” placing his bony hand on his chest; “no knowing how long I’ll last.”