Part 24 (1/2)

”So I gathered!” he answered.

”I wish I'd been present when Methley and Woodlesford put forward that proposition,” exclaimed the old lawyer. ”Did they seem serious?”

”Oh, I think they were quite serious,” replied Lord Ellingham. ”They seemed so; they spoke of it as what they called a domestic arrangement.”

”Excellent phrase!” remarked Mr. Pawle. ”And what said your lords.h.i.+p to their--or the claimant's proposition?”

”I told them that the matter was so serious that they and I must see my solicitors about it,” answered Lord Ellingham, ”and I arranged to meet them here at one o'clock today. They quite agreed that that was the proper thing to do, and went away. Then--you and Mr. Viner called.”

”With, I understand, another extraordinary story,” remarked Mr. Carless.

”The particulars of which His Lords.h.i.+p has also told me. Now, Pawle, what do you really say about all this?”

Mr. Pawle smote his clenched right fist on the palm of his open left hand.

”I will tell you what I say, Carless!” he exclaimed with emphasis. ”I say that whatever the papers and doc.u.ments were which were produced by this man to Methley and Woodlesford, they were stolen from the body of John Ashton, who was foully murdered in Lonsdale Pa.s.sage only last week.

I'll stake all I have on that! Now, then, did this claimant steal them?

Did he murder John Ashton for them? No--a thousand times no, for no man would have been such a fool as to come forward with them so soon after his victim's death! This claimant doesn't know how or where or when they were obtained--he doesn't suspect that murder's in it. Now, then--where did he get them? Who's at the back of him? Who--to be plain--who's making a cat's-paw of him? Find that out, and we shall know who murdered John Ashton!”

Viner, glancing at Lord Ellingham and at Mr. Carless, saw that Mr.

Pawle's words had impressed them greatly, the solicitor especially. He nodded sympathetically, and Mr. Pawle went on speaking.

”Listen here, Carless!” he continued. ”Mr. Viner and I have been investigating this case as far as we could, largely to save a man whom we both believe to be absolutely innocent of murder. I have come to certain conclusions. John Ashton, many years ago, fell in with the missing Lord Marketstoke, then living under the name of Wickham, in Australia, and they became close friends. At some time or other, Wickham told Ashton the real truth about himself, and when he died, left his little daughter--”

Carless looked sharply round.

”Ah!” he exclaimed. ”So there's a daughter?”

”There is a daughter, and her name is Avice--a name borne by a good many women of the Cave-Gray family,” answered Mr. Pawle with a significant glance at his fellow-pract.i.tioner. ”But let me go on: Wickham left his daughter, her mother being dead, in Ashton's guardians.h.i.+p. She was then about six years of age. Ashton sent her to school here in England. About twelve or thirteen years later, he came home and settled in Markendale Square. He brought Avice Wickham to live with him. He handed over to her a considerable sum, which, he said, her father had left in his hands for her. And then, secretly, Ashton went down to Marketstoke and evidently made certain inquiries and investigations. Whether he was going to reveal the truth as to what I have just told you, we don't know--probably he was. But he was murdered, and we all know when and where. And I say he was murdered for the sake of these very papers which we now know were produced to Methley and Woodlesford by this claimant. Now, then--”

Mr. Carless suddenly bent forward.

”A moment, Pawle!” he said. ”If this man Wickham really was the lost Lord Marketstoke, and he's dead, and he left a daughter, and the daughter's alive--”

”Well?” demanded Mr. Pawle. ”Well?”

”Why, then, of course, that daughter,” said Mr. Carless slowly, ”that daughter is--”

A clerk opened the door and glanced at his employer.

”Mr. Methley and Mr. Woodlesford, sir,” he announced. ”By appointment.”

CHAPTER XVIII

LET HIM APPEAR!

The meeting between the solicitors suggested to Viner and to Lord Ellingham, who looked on curiously while they exchanged formal greetings and explanations, a certain solemnity--each of them seemed to imply in look and manner that this was an unusually grave occasion. And Mr.

Carless, a.s.suming the direction of things, became almost judicial in his deportment.