Manning could not have
looked paler or more thoroughly dismayed. Yet he tried to keep up a
little longer.
"I don't know any man of that name," he answered, faintly.
"Your looks show that you do. I may as well tell you, Mr. Manning, that
resistance is useless. We can overwhelm you with proof if we take the
matter before the courts. But we do not care to do so. We have something
to propose."
"What is it?" said Mr. Manning, faintly.
"The genuine will must be substituted for the fraudulent one. By it you
will receive ten thousand dollars, and Frank will consent that you shall
receive it. He will not ask you to account for the sums you have
wrongfully spent during the last year, and will promise not to prosecute
you, provided you leave this neighborhood and never return to it, or in
any way interfere with him. To insure this, we shall have Jonas Barton's
written confession, attested before a justice of the peace, ready for
use, if needful. Do you accept?"
"I must," said Mr. Manning, despondently. "But I shall be a poor man."
"No man who has health and the use of his facilities is poor with ten
thousand dollars," answered the colonel.
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