CHAPTER XXXIII.
CONCLUSION.
Franklin was intensely surprised at Walter Robinson's astonishing declaration.
"Do you mean to tell me that Wilbur Bliss is alive?" he cried.
"Exactly."
"Mrs. Bliss thinks him dead—that he was murdered."
Well, it is due to his pure luck that he is alive. Montague Smith sent him on a voyage from which he was never expected to return, but he discovered the plot against him and thwarted his enemies. There was a man on the vessel who was expected to dump Wilbur Bliss overboard in mid-ocean, but he got sick with the small-pox and Wilbur nursed him through it, and the man got so ashamed of himself that he confessed the whole thing. He left the ship at Melbourne, and Wilbur started for home to accuse Montague Smith of the whole thing. But the ship was wrecked, and Wilbur was
