At this important juncture a letter, post-marked in New York on the
day before, was offered in court, and a demand, based on its
contents, made for a stay of proceedings. It came from the Spanish
Consul, and was addressed to Abel Bigelow and John Floyd, executors
of the late Captain Allen, and notified them that he had just
received letters from San Juan De Porto Rico, containing information
as to the existence of an heir to the estate in the person of a boy
named Leon Garcia, nephew to the late Mrs. Allen. The case was
immediately laid over until the next term of court.
In the meantime, steps were promptly taken to ascertain the truth of
this assumption. An agent was sent out to the island of Porto Rico,
who brought back all the proofs needed to establish the claim, and
also the lad himself, who was represented to be in his fourteenth
year. He was a coarse, wicked-looking boy, who, it was plain, had
not yet fully awakened to a realizing sense of the good fortune that
awaited him.
A resolute opposition was made by Wallingford, but all the evidence
adduced to prove Leon Garcia's relationship to Mrs.
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