"Why, Aleck, I could do it and not be found out--I'm certain of it."

"Sally Foster, don't you know you would have to inquire around?"

"Of course, but what of it? Nobody would suspect who I was."

"Oh, listen to the man! Some day you've got to prove to the
executors that you never inquired. What then?"

He had forgotten that detail. He didn't reply; there wasn't
anything to say. Aleck added:

"Now then, drop that notion out of your mind, and don't ever meddle
with it again. Tilbury set that trap for you. Don't you know it's
a trap? He is on the watch, and fully expecting you to blunder
into it. Well, he is going to be disappointed--at least while I
am on deck. Sally!"

"Well?"

"As long as you live, if it's a hundred years, don't you ever make
an inquiry. Promise!"

"All right," with a sigh and reluctantly.

Then Aleck softened and said:

"Don't be impatient. We are prospering; we can wait; there is
no hurry. Our small dead-certain income increases all the time;
and as to futures, I have not made a mistake yet--they are piling