"I remember he told me one day that he had sc.r.a.ped together seven or eight thousand dollars."
Browning shrugged his shoulders. "I think that was a mistake," he said. "Walton liked to put his best foot foremost."
"You think, then, he misrepresented?"
"I think he would have found it hard to find the sum you mention."
"You surprise me, Butler. I always looked upon Walton as a singularly reliable man."
"So he was--in most things. But let me correct you on one point. You call me Butler?"
"Isn"t that your name?"
"It was, but I had a reason--a good, substantial, pecuniary reason--for changing it. I am now Thomas Browning."
"Say you so? Are you engaged this evening?"
"Yes, unfortunately."
"I was about to invite you to some theater."
"Another time--thanks."
"I must steer clear of that man," thought Browning. "I won"t meet him again, if I can help it."
CHAPTER IX
STEPHEN WEBB
The more Browning thought of the newsboy in whom he had so strangely recognized the son of the man whom he had so cruelly wronged, the more uneasy he felt.
"He has evidently heard of me," he soliloquized. "His father could not have been so near death as I supposed. He must have sent the boy or his mother a message about that money. If it should come to his knowledge that I am the Thomas Butler to whom his father confided ten thousand dollars which I have failed to hand over to the family, he may make it very disagreeable for me."
The fact that so many persons were able to identify him as Thomas Butler made the danger more imminent.
"I must take some steps--but what?" Browning asked himself.
He kept on walking till he found himself pa.s.sing the entrance of a low poolroom. He never played pool, nor would it have suited a man of his social position to enter such a place, but that he caught sight of a young man, whose face and figure were familiar to him, in the act of going into it. He quickened his pace, and laid a hand on the young man"s shoulder.
The latter turned quickly, revealing a face bearing the unmistakable marks of dissipation.
"Uncle Thomas!" he exclaimed, apparently ill at ease.
"Yes, Stephen, it is I. Where are you going?" The young man hesitated.
"You need not answer. I see you are wedded to your old amus.e.m.e.nts. Are you still in the place I got for you?"
Stephen Webb looked uneasy and shamefaced.
"I have lost my place," he answered, after a pause.
"How does it happen that you lost it?"
"I don"t know. Some one must have prejudiced my employer against me."
"It is your own habits that have prejudiced him, I make no doubt."
This was true. One morning Stephen, whose besetting sin was intemperance, appeared at the office where he was employed in such a state of intoxication that he was summarily discharged. It may be explained that he was a son of Mr. Browning"s only sister.
"When were you discharged?" asked his uncle.
"Last week."
"And have you tried to get another situation?"
"Yes."
"What are your prospects of success?"
"There seem to be very few openings just now, Uncle Thomas."
"The greater reason why you should have kept the place I obtained for you. Were you going to play pool in this low place?"
"I was going to look on. A man must have some amus.e.m.e.nt," said Stephen, sullenly.
"Amus.e.m.e.nt is all you think of. However, it so happens that I have something that I wish you to do."
Stephen regarded his uncle in surprise.
"Are you going to open an office in Chicago?" he asked.
"No; the service is of a different nature. It is--secret and confidential. It is, I may say, something in the detective line."
"Then I"m your man," said his nephew, brightening up.
"The service is simple, so that you will probably be qualified to do what I require."
"I"ve read lots of detective stories," said Stephen, eagerly. "It"s just the work I should like."
"Humph! I don"t think much is to be learned from detective stories.
You will understand, of course, that you are not to let anyone know you are acting for me."
"Certainly. You will find that I can keep a secret."
"I leave Chicago to-morrow morning, and will give you directions before I go. Where can we have a private conference?"