Joe; so don't you think it."

"I've been to-day," Joe continued, "to Doctors' Commons, and I've seen
the will. There's no manner of doubt about it; and the money--oh,
Lord, Lotty, if you only knew how much it is!"

"What does it matter, Joe, how much it is, if it is neither yours nor
mine?"

"It matters this: that it ought all to be mine."

"How can that be, if it was not left to you?"

Joe was nothing if not a man of resource. He therefore replied without
hesitation or confusion:

"The money was left to a certain man and to his heirs. That man is
dead. His heiress should have succeeded, but she was kept out of her
rights. She is dead, and I am her cousin, and entitled to all her
property, because she made no will."

"Is that gospel truth, Joe? Is she dead? Are you sure?"

"Quite sure," he replied. "Dead as a door-nail."

"Is that the way you got the papers?"

"That's the way, Lotty."

"Then why not go to a lawyer and make him take up the case for you,