Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/211

 value of her property and made nothing for myself.”

“Any auditing?”

“Her brother has had all my statements audited quarterly.”

“How old is your son?”

“Six.”

“He ’s your wife’s heir?”

“Naturally.”

“You did not marry until after her father’s death?”

“No.”

“Yet you don’t think her brother ’s behind this attempt to separate you?”

“Well, he ’s hardly that sort.”

“What sort is he?”

“He ’s an inoffensive kind of idler. When I knew him first, he used to collect birds, and make water-color drawings of them. He ’s at the head of a local Audubon society—and mixed up with a society for the preservation of the Palisades, and another for abolishing bill-boards—and all that sort of piffle. He ’s