Part 39 (1/2)
”Then you mean that this is not an entry of a death at all”
”Yes The fact is, the superintendent for soot it into his head that this Brandon”--and he pointed to Edith's name--”had been buried alive He brooded over the nas wrote it down here at the end of the list for the day That's the way in which my predecessor accounted for it”
”It is a very natural one,” said Brandon
”Quite so” The clerk let it stand You see, if he had erased it, he ht have been overhauled, and there would have been a coht it better to say nothing about it He wouldn't have told me, only he said that a party came here once for a list of all the dead of the _Tecu this doubtful one He thought that he had done wrong, and therefore told ht knohat to say”
”Are there many mistakes in these records?”
[Illustration: ”A STRANGE FEELING PassED OVER BRANDON HE STEPPED FORWARD”]
”I dare say there are a good many in the list for 1846 There was so ed, and people died whose na who had recovered As some of those that recovered or had not been sick slipped away secretly, of course there was inaccuracy”
Brandon had nothing more to ask He thanked the clerk and departed
There was a faint hope, then, that Frank ht yet be alive On his way to Quebec he decided what to do As soon as he arrived he inserted an advertise effect:
NOTICE:
Information of any one of the names of ”BRANDON,” who came out in the shi+p _Tecumseh_ in 1846 from Liverpool to Quebec, is earnestly desired by friends of the faive the above information Apply to:
Henry Peters, 22 Place d'Armes
Brandon waited in Quebec six weeks without any results He then went to Montreal and inserted the saiving his Montreal address After waiting five or six weeks in Montreal he went to Toronto, and advertised again, giving his new address He waited here for soan to draw to a close Not yet despondent, he began to for in every city of the United States
Meanwhile he had received many coue hope of getting a reward None were at all reliable At length he thought that it was useless to wait any longer in Canada, and concluded to go to New York as a centre of action
He arrived in New York at the end of Decean to insert his notices in all parts of the country, giving his address at the Astor House
One day, as he came in from the street, he was informed that there was some one in his roo that it was so the roo by the , in his shi+rt-sleeves, dressed in coarse clothes The e, Roman features, and heavy beard and mustache His face was marked by profound dejection; he looked like one whose whole life had been one long misfortune Louis Brandon had never seen any face which bore so deep an ier turned as he came in and looked at him with his sad eyes earnestly
”Sir,” said he, in a voice which thrilled through Brandon, ”are you Henry Peters?”
A strange feeling passed over Brandon He stepped forward
”Frank!” he cried, in a broken voice
”Merciful Heavens!” cried the other ”Have you too co between the two brothers, after so many eventful years of separation, each had ht have doubted it, had not the reat Frank's story, however, is the only one that the reader will care to hear, and that must be reserved for another chapter
CHAPTER XX
FRANK'S STORY