You don't want to break that childless old man's heart."

God knows I don't!"

Then wait till he sends for his son's remains. If you do that, you will

never have to give him the last and sharpest pain a parent can know--

I mean, the certainty that his son is dead. For he will never send."

"Why won't he?"

"Because to send--and find out the truth--would rob him of the one

precious thing left him, the uncertainty, the dim hope that maybe, after

all, his boy escaped, and he will see him again some day."

Why Polly, he'll know by the papers that he was burnt up."

"He won't let himself believe the papers; he'll argue against anything

and everything that proves his son is dead; and he will keep that up and

live on it, and on nothing else till he dies. But if the remains should

actually come, and be put before that poor old dim-hoping soul--"

"Oh, my God, they never shall! Polly, you've saved me from a crime, and

I'll bless you for it always. Now we know what to do. We'll place them

reverently away, and he shall never know."

CHAPTER X.

The American Claimant