RISEN FROM THE DEAD

Ralph Pendleton proceeded.

“This blow overwhelmed me.  All that I had been laboring for seemed suddenly snatched from me.”

“You had your money,” suggested Mr. Stanton.

“Yes, I had my money; but for money itself I cared little.”

Mr. Stanton shrugged his shoulders a little contemptuously.  He could not understand how anyone could think slightingly of money, and he decided in his own mind that Ralph was an unpractical enthusiast.

“I valued money only as a means to an end, and that end was to make Margaret Lindsay my wife.  She failed me, and my money lost its charm.”

“There were plenty who could have consoled you in her place.”

“No doubt, I might have been successful in other quarters, but I did not care to try.  I left New York in disgust, and, going West, I buried myself in the forest, where I built a rude cabin, and there I have lived since, an unsocial, solitary life.  Years have passed since I visited New York.”

“What did you do with your money all this while?”

“I left it in the hands of men whom I could trust.  It has been accumulating all these years, and I find that the fifty thousand dollars have swelled to ninety thousand.”

“Indeed!” ejaculated Mr. Stanton, his respect for Ralph considerably raised.  “And now you have come here to enjoy it, I suppose?”

“A different motive has led to my coming—­a motive connected with you,” said Ralph, fixing his eyes steadily upon Mr. Stanton.

“Connected with me!” repeated the merchant, uneasily.

“Yes.”

“May I ask in what manner?”

“I expected the question, and am come to answer it.  When I returned from Europe impoverished, you gave me a brief statement of the manner in which you had invested my fortune, and showed me how it had melted away like snow before the sun.”

“You remember rightly.  I bought, on your account, shares in Lake Superior Mining Company, which promised excellently, and bade fair to make handsome returns.  But it proved to be under the management of knaves, and ran quickly down from par to two per cent., at which price I thought best to sell out, considering that a little saved from the wreck was better than nothing.”

“This is according to the statement you made me,” said Ralph, quietly.

“I am sure,” said Mr. Stanton, “that no one regretted more than I do the disastrous result.  Indeed, I had reason to do so, for I was myself involved, and suffered considerable loss.”

“I am aware now that you were concerned in the matter,” said Ralph, significantly.

“What do you mean?” asked Mr. Stanton, quickly, detecting something peculiar in his tone.

“I will tell you.  You were right in denouncing the management as knavish.  The company was got up by knaves, on a basis of fraud, and was from the first intended as a trap for the unwary.  But there is one important circumstance which you have neglected to mention.”