He was passing along a lighted walk near the lake beach, when a young lady ran past him towards a group of friends.
A foppishly-dressed man with a great black moustache was hastening after her, but she was calling laughingly back at him:
"No, no, count, you would take all night getting that ring off--I'll try some one else."
"It ees a meestake. Allow me to try once more, my dear young lady."
"Hello!" ejaculated Frank, with a violent start. Then in a flash he slipped the tray from place, set it hastily on a vacant bench, and as the man was passing by him caught him deliberately by the sleeve.
"Sare!" challenged the man, with a supercilious stare. "Oh!" he added, wilting down in an instant.
"I suppose you don't know me?" demanded Frank.
"I am Frank Newton, of Greenville, and, for all your false moustache and broken English, you are Gideon Purnell."
"Let go!" hissed the man, with a rapid glance at the group just beyond them.
"No," replied Frank firmly, only tightening his grasp on the man's coat sleeve. "I have been looking for you for over a year. I knew I should find you some time. I have found you now."
"What do you want?" stammered his crestfallen companion.
"Ten minutes' quiet conversation with you."
"You know. You were the tool Mr. Dorsett used to rob my mother of her fortune. He got what he was after. You overstepped yourself. You forged two names in your crooked dealings, as Mr. Beach, our lawyer at Greenville, has the proof."
"Boy," said Purnell, in a low, quick tone, "don't make a rumpus here. Come and see me to-morrow, and I will do the square thing by you."
"You'll do it now," declared Frank definitely, "or I will expose you to the people here, and wire Mr. Beach for instructions."
"At least let me go and make some excuse to my friends yonder," pleaded "the count."
Frank kept a close watch on Purnell. He had reason to do so. Upon what he might by threats or persuasion compel this man to divulge, hung all the future prospects of his mother ever recovering her stolen fortune.
When Frank's step-father died, this person, one of his former associates, had produced notes and deeds apparently giving him the ownership to everything that Mr. Ismond owned.
There were many flaws to his claim. Mrs. Ismond's lawyer, Mr. Beach, discovered two arrant forgeries. Before any action at law could be taken, however, Purnell transferred all the property to "an innocent purchaser," Dorsett.