Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West

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Uncle John nodded.

"He is a rather clean-cut young fellow," said he, "and the chances are he

won't become dissipated, even though he loses his money through lack of

worldly knowledge or business experience. A boy brought up and educated

on an island can't be expected to prove very shrewd, and whatever the

extent of his fortune it is liable to melt like snow in the sunshine."

"After all," returned Arthur, "this experience won't hurt him. He will

still have his island to return to."

They smoked for a time in silence.

"Has it ever occurred to you, sir," said Arthur, "that the story Jones

has related to us, meager though it is, bears somewhat the stamp of a

fairy tale?"

Uncle John removed his cigar and looked reflectively at the ash.

"You mean that the boy is not what he seems?"

"Scarcely that, sir. He seems like a good boy, in the main. But his story

is--such as one might invent if he were loath to tell the truth."

Uncle John struck a match and relit his cigar.

"I believe in A. Jones, and I see no reason to doubt his story," he

asserted. "If real life was not full of romance and surprises, the

novelists would be unable to interest us in their books."

CHAPTER XI

A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS

The day had not started auspiciously for the Stanton sisters. Soon after

they arrived at the Continental Film Company's plant Maud had wrenched

her ankle by stumbling over some loose planks which had been carelessly

left on the open-air stage, and she was now lying upon a sofa in the

manager's room with her limb bandaged and soaked with liniment.

Flo was having troubles, too. A girl who had been selected by the

producer to fall from an aeroplane in mid-air had sent word she was ill

and could not work to-day, and the producer had ordered Flo to prepare

for the part. Indignantly she sought the manager, to file a protest, and

while she waited in the anteroom for an audience, Mr. A. Jones of Sangoa

came in and greeted her with a bow and a smile.

"Good gracious! Where did _you_ come from?

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