“So the years went on, and all at once I awoke to find that I was getting old and gray.  When a man passes sixty, lad, his thoughts begin to travel far back into the days of his childhood.  So more and more I got to thinking of those who were everything to me.  I knew that all of them had checked in but a sister, and her I hadn’t seen for twenty years and more; though I believed she was still living.

“It was down in Texas a few months ago that I had a little sick spell, and while I lay there convalescing strange fancies came into my head.  I made up my mind the time had come for me to quit this foolish roaming all about the world.  I couldn’t expect to live a great many years more, and why not settle down to being decent and respectable, as well as do some good with my money before I cashed in?

“That idea kept gripping me until I finally made up my mind to sell all my big holdings in the new oil wells.  This I did, and banked the cash in New York—–­I won’t tell you what it was, lad, but six figures would be needed to cover it, and maybe seven, if all goes well with my last sale.

“But somehow an old distrust of human nature began to get a hold on me.  I found myself wondering whether Matilda, if she should still be living, would welcome her long-missing brother for himself alone, or because he was close on a millionaire.

“That bothered me a heap, Hugh.  Finally a bright idea came to me, and I determined to fix myself up like the worst old tramp going, and pretend to be sick, as well as out of funds.  The game appealed to my liking for new adventures, and—–­well, you know how it succeeded.  You boys became connected with the affair from the start, and I’m glad of it, for I like you both.

“All through these weeks I’ve grimly held out, though ready to call the game more than a few times when it seemed that poor Matilda was having a bigger load on her shoulders than she could carry.  But I fixed up several little schemes to ease the strain, when I decided to hold back the grand disclosure till her birthday.  For one thing, I hid a ten-dollar bill in her Bible, and she never could remember putting the bill there, although she tried her best.  Another time I wrote a letter in a disguised hand that was signed by a fictitious name, and which said that in a long-ago deal I had got the better of her, which my conscience wouldn’t allow; so to ease my mind I was enclosing a twenty-dollar bill to her to cover interest.

“Say, that certainly did make her lie awake and wonder, because, of course, she couldn’t remember anything of the sort; nor could Andrew.  I used to listen to them talking it over again and again, and I am sure got heaps of enjoyment out of it; but I told them it was perfectly proper for them to use the money, and they did.  I ate part of it up myself, Hugh.