Page:On to Pekin.djvu/27

Rh estate had been twenty to thirty thousand dollars. She had no other money than that received from the company, and this was not enough to support her for long; and she died two years later, poor and broken-hearted, leaving Gilbert, then a lad of twelve, to the care of an aged aunt, with whom he lived for four years, when he left home to strike out for himself.

Gilbert had often thought to hunt up Mr. Amos Bartlett, and see if something could not be done toward getting the balance of the money due his father's estate. But China was a long way off; and from some friends he learned that Mr. Bartlett had left Tien-Tsin, and gone into the interior, and that his present whereabouts was unknown. Moreover, the war in Cuba and in the Philippines had driven everything else out of his head, and he had taken matters as they had come.

"But, if I get the chance, I'm going to hunt him up," said the young lieutenant to himself. "And, if I find him, I'll make him tell me all about the doings of the Richmond Importing Company or else know the reason why. I'm bound to have that money, if there is any of it coming to me."