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Rh asked the young electrician, as quietly as he could, for he saw that Mrs. Bliss was working herself up into a state bordering upon hysteria.

"It is over a year ago. He was then in Milwaukee. He had sold one patent to this man in the east, and was working on several new inventions. He came here once to talk to me, and then he was taken away by Montague Smith and his companions—Fipher and somebody else."

"Did your brother have a child—a little girl?"

"Yes; Wilbur had an only child, named Cora. He left her in some home in New York City, I believe. He couldn't very well take care of her and work on his inventions."

Franklin drew a long breath. His supposition was correct concerning little Cora. She was really Wilbur Bliss's daughter.

"I could not understand how Wilbur could leave that child," went on Mrs. Bliss. "But he was so wrapped up in his inventions, he thought of nothing else. And to think they acted so towards him!" and again she began to weep.

"And you never heard from your brother after he was taken away?"

"I heard through Montague Smith one day, when he was talking to Fipher, that Wilbur had been sent east and that that man. Price or Brice, was going to take care of him so that he would never bother anybody again. Oh, it was shameful I They ought all to be arrested!"