but that was gone too. Then she wrote to France. She learned
that some money was really coming to her and my uncle, but could
not get any particulars. She even employed a lawyer, but after a
year the lawyer gave up, too. There was a mystery about the whole
affair and the solution, it seems, rested with my Uncle Pierre."

"And you never got the money?" asked Whopper.

"Not a dollar of it."

"It's queer you never spoke about this before," said Snap.

"Well, mother doesn't like to speak of it, because she doesn't want
folks to know we had a crazy man in our family. But Uncle Pierre
wasn't really crazy---he was only queer---and that lightning bolt
burning up his beloved manuscripts unset him completely."

"I hope you'll get that money some day, Giant," said Snap. "I
wouldn't give up trying for it so easily."

"When I am a man and can afford it, I am going to France and try
to hunt it up," answered the small youth.

"Does your mother ever say anything about it?" questioned Shep.

"Not much. She hates to think of my uncle. She was very much
attached to him, and to have him disappear like that makes her
shudder and feel very bad."

"Were you living over on the coast when he disappeared?"