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Page 62
My father looked the hunchback in the face. "Who is the man
bringing this suit at law?"
"A Mr. Henderson, I believe," replied Dillworth, "from Maryland."
"Do you know him?" said my father.
"I never heard of him," replied the hunchback.
The girl, huddled in the chair, interrupted. "I have seen
letters," she said, "come in here with this man's return address
at Baltimore written on the envelope."
The hunchback made an irrelevant gesture. "The man wrote - to
inquire if I would buy his title. I declined." Then he turned
to my father. "Pendleton," he said, "you know about this matter.
You know that every step I took was legal. And with pains and
care how I got an order out of chancery to make this purchase,
and how careful I was to have this guardianship investment
confirmed by the court. No affair was ever done so exactly
within the law."
"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."
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