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“Why were you so extremely careful?” said my father.

“Because I wanted the safeguard of the law about me at every step,” replied the man.

“But why?”

“You ask me that, Pendleton?”‘ cried the man. “Is not the wisdom of my precautions evident? I took them to prevent this very thing; to protect myself when this thing should happen!”

“Then,” said my father, “you knew it was going to happen.”

The man’s eyes slipped about a moment in his head. “I knew it was going to happen that I would be charged with all sorts of crimes and misdemeanors if there should be any hooks on which to hang them. Because a man locks his door is it proof that he knows a robber is on the way? Human foresight and the experience of men move prudent persons to a reasonable precaution in the conduct of affairs.”

“And what is it,” said my father, “that moves them to an excessive caution?”

The hunchback snapped his fingers with an exasperated gesture. “I will not be annoyed by your big, dominating manner!” he cried.

My father was not concerned by this defiance. “Dillworth,” he said, “you sent this child out to seek her father. Well, she took the right road to find him.”

The hunchback stepped back quickly, his face changed. He sat down in his chair and looked up at my father. There was here suddenly uncovered something that he had not looked for. And he talked to gain time.

“I have cast up the accounts in proper form,” he said while he studied my father, his hand moving the figured sheets. “They are correct and settled before two commissioners in chancery. Taking out my commission as guardian, the amounts allowed me for the maintenance and education of the ward, and no dollar of this personal estate remains.”

His long, thin hand with the nimble fingers turned the sheets over on the table as though to conclude that phase of the affair.

“The real property,” he continued, “will return nothing; the purchase money was applied on Maxwell’s debts and cannot be followed. This new claimant, Henderson, who has bought up the outstanding title, will take the land.”

“For some trifling sum,” said my father.

The hunchback nodded slowly, his eyes in a study of my father’s face.

“Doubtless,” he said, “it was not known that Maxwell had only a life estate in the lands, and the remainder to the heirs was likely purchased for some slight amount. The language of the deeds that Henderson exhibits in his suit shows a transfer of all claim or title, as though he bought a thing which the grantees thought lay with the uncertainties of a decree in chancery.”

“I have seen the deeds,” said my father.

“Then,” said the hunchback, “you know they are valid, and transfer the title.” He paused. “I have no doubt that Mr. Henderson assembled these outstanding interests at no great cost, but his conveyances are in form and legal.”

“Everything connected with this affair,” said my father, “is strangely legal!”

The hunchback considered my father through his narrow eyelids.

“It is a strange world,” he said.

“It is,” replied my father. “It is profoundly, inconceivably strange.”

There was a moment of silence. The two men regarded each other across the half-length of the room. The girl sat in the chair. She had got back her courage. The big, forceful presence of my father, like the shadow of a great rock, was there behind her. She had the fine courage of her blood, and, after the first cruel shock of this affair, she faced the tragedies that might lie within it calmly.

Shadows lay along the walls of the great room, along the gilt frames of the portraits, the empty fireplace, the rosewood furniture of ancient make and the oak floor. Only the hunchback was in the light, behind the four candles on the table.

“It was strange,” continued my father over the long pause, “that your father’s will discovered at his death left his lands to you, and no acre to your brother David.”