“Do you know any easy way of getting money?” asked Leonard, pointedly.

“The easy ways are not generally the true ways.  A man sometimes makes money by speculation, but he has to have some to begin with.”

“I can’t get anything out of him,” thought Leonard.  “Well, good-evening.”

He crossed the street, and joined the man who has already been referred to as boarding at the hotel.

Mr. Stark had now been several days in Milford.  What brought him there, or what object he had in staying, Leonard had not yet ascertained.  He generally spent part of his evenings with the stranger, and had once or twice received from him a small sum of money.  Usually, however, he had met Mr. Stark in the billiard room, and played a game or two of billiards with him.  Mr. Stark always paid for the use of the table, and that was naturally satisfactory to Leonard, who enjoyed amusement at the expense of others.

Leonard, bearing in mind his uncle’s request, had not mentioned his name to Mr. Stark, and Stark, though he had walked about the village more or less, had not chanced to meet Mr. Gibbon.

He had questioned Leonard, however, about Mr. Jennings, and whether he was supposed to be rich.

Leonard had answered freely that everyone considered him so.

“But he doesn’t know how to enjoy his money,” he added.

“We should,” said Stark, jocularly.

“You bet we would,” returned Leonard; and he was quite sincere in his boast, as we know from his conversation with Carl.

“By the way,” said Stark, on this particular evening, “I never asked you about your family, Leonard.  I suppose you live with your parents.”

“No, sir.  They are dead.”

“Then whom do you live with?”

“With my uncle,” answered Leonard, guardedly.

“Is his name Craig?”

“No.”

“What then?”

“I’ve got to tell him,” thought Leonard.  “Well, I don’t suppose there will be much harm in it.  My uncle is bookkeeper for Mr. Jennings,” he said, “and his name is Julius Gibbon.”

Philip Stark wheeled round, and eyed Leonard in blank astonishment.

“Your uncle is Julius Gibbon!” he exclaimed.

“Yes.”

“Well, I’ll be blowed.”

“Do you—­know my uncle?” asked Leonard, hesitating.

“I rather think I do.  Take me round to the house.  I want to see him.”

CHAPTER XXI.

An unwelcome guest.

When Julius Gibbon saw the door open and Philip Stark enter the room where he was smoking his noon cigar, his heart quickened its pulsations and he turned pale.

“How are you, old friend?” said Stark, boisterously.  “Funny, isn’t it, that I should run across your nephew?”

“Very strange!” ejaculated Gibbon, looking the reverse of joyous.

“It’s a happy meeting, isn’t it?  We used to see a good deal of each other,” and he laughed in a way that Gibbon was far from enjoying.  “Now, I’ve come over to have a good, long chat with you.  Leonard, I think we won’t keep you, as you wouldn’t be interested in our talk about old times.”