The Lost Heir Who Never Was

George Wendelin, the man who imagined himself wealthy and passed worthless checks in Seattle, also operated in Port Townsend. The Call of that city says this of him:

'It was something over two months ago that a well-dressed and fine-appearing German gentleman appeared in this city and worked himself into the confidence of several of his countrymen by a well-concocted story to the effect that he was in this country looking for a brother who had left home years ago to escape compulsory service as a soldier in Emperor William's forces, but who was now wanted to permit the distribution of an enormous estate to which the two had fallen heir.

'His trip to Port Townsend, he said, was to investigate a rumor that the lost brother had entered the service of Uncle Sam by joining the company on duty at Fort Townsend. The man, who had a clever address, gave his name as George Wendelin and appeared to be a person of means.

'He remained here some time awaiting information from the fort, and while so doing happened to run out of money, owing to the non-appearance of his remittance from the Fatherland. If it could be conveniently done, Mr. Wendelin said to a friend, he would like to be accommodated with a small loan until his own money came, when he would repay it with liberal interest. The victim was Gustav Halben, who has since distinguished himself by absconding with funds of the Mystic Workers of the World, but who at the time was chief circulator of waffles in a prominent local emporium. Into the ear of the trusting Halben Wendelin told his tale of woe with good effect, for it brought forth a loan. The idea of associating with a man who had money to burn seemed to appeal to the festive circulator of pie and soup and other comestibles, for he continued to put up for the millionaire with a good deal until one morning he awakened to find himself out the money he had loaned and his new friend a vanished quantity.'

Miss Camell, with whose family Wendelin boarded in Seattle, and to whom he said he was engaged to be married, is a modest and good-looking young woman, very much embarrassed by Wendelin's statement, and denies it emphatically. She says her acquaintance with the man was brief and not intimate.