MISER FAREBROTHER Volume 3 of 3

CONTENTS.


CHAP. PAGE

I.--A BAD BUSINESS 1

II.--THE DIAMOND BRACELET 8

III.--SISTER AND BROTHER 18

IV.--JEREMIAH IN TRIBULATION 29

V.--MISER FAREBROTHER THREATENS JEREMIAH 46

VI.--A DREAM OF AN ANGEL 71

VII.--BETTER THAN ANY DAY-DREAM 77

VIII.--PHOEBE IN PERIL 90

IX.--FRED CORNWALL TO THE RESCUE 106

X.--THE INQUEST 118

XI.--THE TRIAL AND VERDICT--EXTRACTED FROM A POPULAR
DAILY PAPER 144

XII.--DICK GARDEN TO THE RESCUE 170

XIII.--THE DIAMOND BRACELET AGAIN 186

XIV.--RICHARD GARDEN MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF FANNY
LETHBRIDGE 203

XV.--A STRANGE EXPERIMENT 216

XVI.--JEREMIAH AND HIS MOTHER DISAPPEAR 224

XVII.--CHIEFLY CONCERNING FANNY 238

XVIII.--A LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE 249

XIX.--OFF FOR THE HONEY-MOON 260




MISER FAREBROTHER.




CHAPTER I.

A BAD BUSINESS.


At ten o'clock on this morning Captain Ablewhite, unannounced, and
without knocking at the door, walked into Jeremiah's room in the hotel
at which he had taken up his quarters. Jeremiah was still in bed.
Closing the door carefully behind him and turning the key, Captain
Ablewhite drew a chair to the side of the bed and sat down.

"This is a bad business," said Captain Ablewhite.

Jeremiah was in a parlous condition. His face was haggard; his eyes were
bloodshot; he was shaking like a man in a palsy.

"This is a bad business," repeated Captain Ablewhite, "You are too much
upset to reply. But why, oh, _why_ have you lost your head?"

Jeremiah put his hand up, feebly and despairingly, and passed it
vacantly over his forehead.

"I have here," said Captain Ablewhite, plunging his hands into the
pockets of his gorgeous dressing-gown, "a pick-me-up. It will pull you
round, and then we can talk."

He produced two bottles--one containing the pick-me-up, the other soda.
Taking a large tumbler from a table he poured a good dose of the
pick-me-up into it, and then uncorked the soda, which he emptied into
the glass.

"Drink this."

Jeremiah drank it, and almost instantly became for a while
clear-brained.

"Better?" asked Captain Ablewhite.

"A great deal better," replied Jeremiah.

Then, for the third time, the jovial Captain--he was as fresh as a
two-year-old--said, "This is a bad business."

And still, clear-headed as he now was, Jeremiah did not know what to say
in answer to a very plain statement of fact.

"Let me see," said Captain Ablewhite, taking out his pocket-book.
"There is nothing like looking a difficulty straight in the face. It is
not a bit of good shirking it. What you've got to do is to meet it--and,
Mr. Jeremiah Pamflett, meet it you must. Now, then, for the facts. You
brought down with you to Doncaster a very comfortable sum of ready
money. How much?"

"Two thousand pounds," replied Jeremiah.