many days following the first report of the Gallantic disaster, particularly when Oliver's death caused the publishing of his obituary and extensive review of his wife's activities; and during the following days, the papers had given a good deal of space to the remarkable situation brought about by Oliver's death and the lack of legal proof of the prior death of his wife. If, by any chance, she had happened to survive the wreck and could have been proved to be living five days later—even though afterwards she expired—obviously all the Oliver Cullen properties belonged to her heirs. And who were they? No one knew. There was a list of "the most important properties" in a separate column, and Barney whistled to himself when he read it over and saw the totals, in millions, of their estimated present value. What a stake, he thought, even for a rich man like Lucas Cullen to fight for! What a stake for unknown "heirs" to claim. But it belonged, of course, to that woman who lay, barely breathing, in the hospital bed. His mother! This property then, if she had died, would have been—his?
He had to put down the newspaper file for a moment and walk to the dark window and stare out at the city street to get better possession of his emotions. How much of that, which had seemed hopelessly confused before, was beginning to become plain. Lucas Cullen—Barney thought—had believed his mother dead; but he had known that he, who called himself Barney Loutrelle, was her son. Some one else had known that—James Quinlan—who had gone to meet him at Resurrection Rock. Old Lucas knew that, too. Now if he, Barney, could not find out that he was Agnes Cullen's son, he would give no trouble to Lucas; so the old man tried, first, to draw him away; failing that, old
