Anna Alice Chapin

“ He appealed to Ware. "Beneficiaries can't witness wills, yet I'd have sworn Uncle Adam had made some provision for Judson here."
"Oh, sir——" deprecated Judson.
Ware broke in harshly: "Men confronted with death are often apt to forget the smaller considerations of life, and to remember only one great obligation—or one great revenge——" He broke off, oddly disconcerted, for Cyril was looking at him with a more inscrutable expression than he would have expected in that shallow and transparent young person. ”

“ Cyril." The old eyes blinked at him anxiously. "You're not coming back, sir?"
"No! Never—never!"
"If it isn't making too free, sir, is it a play actor you're going to be after all?"
"A play actor? After this—horror? I've played my last part! It's life, now, and learning how to be a man! Good-by!"
Scarcely conscious of what he said or did, Cyril Norton fled from the room and the house. And Judson was left alone with his dead. He approached near to the sheeted body of Adam Norton, and uncovering the fragile face, strangely stern now, nodded slowly, as one who bows before the will of God. ”

“ Cyril went on calmly, "the jar has not even been unsealed. I intend to have it analyzed to-morrow."
Ware, his face ashen and convulsed, started toward him, but the effeminate-looking man with the black band on his sleeve had already exchanged the ginger jar for a revolver. All three maids shrieked in unison, but young Norton's steady tone brought instant quiet. "I wouldn't kick up a fuss, Ware, I really wouldn't," he advised, almost gently. "Things are complicated enough without our getting into a free fight, you know. We don't want the police butting in, do we?" ”

“ He was a marked contrast to his host, being close to forty, unusually dark of skin and hair, with a heavily lined, stern face and curiously light-colored eyes which he kept half closed. He did not look amiable, and the young man who had admitted him seemed to shrink from his grim and unresponsive demeanor. ”

“ His poor heart——"
Still Cyril rattled on unheeding. "I guess his fangs are pretty well drawn, uncle," he cried, turning to the delicate old face above the white sheet, which still made the maids shiver, it was that deathly, as you might say, "He won't trouble you again. But say. It was lucky we sent his jar of ginger to the laboratory and found it was poisoned, wasn't it?" He chuckled. "Good old ginger jars, they all look pretty much the same, and this had him scared stiff!" His voice deepened with a sudden emotion as he came closer. ”

“ As my grand-nephew Cyril is quite capable of running away and going on the stage against my wishes, and I am daily hounded by the base ingratitude and extortions of a man I used to befriend, but whom I trust to unmask and disarm before I die, I wish to state that, in the event of no subsequent legitimate claim being made upon my estate, I leave all I die possessed of to my faithful servant, James Judson ... ”