Part 14 (2/2)

Now, as no allusion to the son's existence was made in that will--which was a great oversight of the Doctor's--it is a fiction of the law that such an omission is an act of forgetfulness, and therefore leaves the son the same rights as if there had been no will at all. In other words, if the Doctor had seen fit to throw his scapegrace son a hundred dollar bill, it would have been legal evidence that he remembered him.

As he did not, it's a fair legal presumption that he forgot him, or that the will is incomplete.”

”This seems to be a question for Mrs. Saltonstall's lawyers--not for her friends,” said Carroll, coldly.

”Excuse me; that remains for you to decide--when you hear all. You understand at present, then, that Dr. West's property, both by a.s.signment and will, was made over, in the event of his death, not to his legal heirs, but to a comparative stranger. It looked queer to a good many people, but the only explanation was, that the Doctor had fallen very much in love with the widow--that he would have probably married her--had he lived.”

With an unpleasant recollection that this was almost exactly Maruja's explanation of her mother's relations to Dr. West, Carroll returned, impatiently, ”If you mean that their private relations may be made the subject of legal discussion, in the event of litigation in regard to the property, that again is a matter for Mrs. Saltonstall to decide--and not her friends. It is purely a matter of taste.”

”It may be a matter of discretion, Captain Carroll.”

”Of discretion!” repeated Carroll, superciliously.

”Well,” said Prince, leaving his desk and coming to the fire-place, with his hands in his pockets, ”what would you call it, if it could be found that Dr. West, on leaving Mrs. Saltonstall's that night, did not meet with an accident, was not thrown from his horse, but was coolly and deliberately murdered!”

Captain Carroll's swift recollection of the discovery he himself had made in the road, and its inconsistency with the accepted theory of the accident, unmistakably showed itself in his face. It was a moment before he recovered himself.

”But even if it can be proved to have been a murder and not an accident, what has that to do with Mrs. Saltonstall or her claim to the property?”

”Only that she was the one person directly benefited by his death.”

Captain Carroll looked at him steadily, and then rose to his feet. ”Do I understand that you have called me here to listen to this infamous aspersion of a lady?”

”I have called you here, Captain Carroll, to listen to the arguments that may be used to set aside Dr. West's will, and return the property to the legal heir. You are to listen to them or not, as you choose; but I warn you that your opportunity to hear them in confidence and convey them to your friend will end here. I have no opinion in the case. I only tell you that it will be argued that Dr. West was unduly influenced to make a will in Mrs. Saltonstall's favor; that, after having done so, it will be shown that, just before his death, he became aware of the existence of his son and heir, and actually had an interview with him; that he visited Mrs. Saltonstall that evening, with the records of his son's ident.i.ty and a memorandum of his interview in his pocket-book; and that, an hour after leaving the house, he was foully murdered. That is the theory which Mrs. Saltonstall has to consider. I told you I have no opinion. I only know that there are witnesses to the interview of the Doctor and his son; there is evidence of murder, and the murderer is suspected; there is the evidence of the pocket-book, with the memorandum picked up on the spot, which you handed me yourself.”

”Do you mean to say that you will permit this pocketbook, handed you in confidence, to be used for such an infamous purpose?” said Carroll.

”I think you offered it to me in exchange for Dr. West's letters to Mrs. Saltonstall,” returned Prince, dryly. ”The less said about that, the less is likely to be said about compromising letters written by the widow to the Doctor, which she got you to recover--letters which they may claim had a bearing on the case, and even lured him to his fate.”

For an instant Captain Carroll recoiled before the gulf which seemed to open at the feet of the unhappy family. For an instant a terrible doubt possessed him, and in that doubt he found a new reason for a certain changed and altered tone in Maruja's later correspondence with him, and the vague hints she had thrown out of the impossibility of their union. ”I beg you will not press me to greater candor,” she had written, ”and try to forget me before you learn to hate me.” For an instant he believed--and even took a miserable comfort in the belief--that it was this hideous secret, and not some coquettish caprice, to which she vaguely alluded. But it was only for a moment; the next instant the monstrous doubt pa.s.sed from the mind of the simple gentleman, with only a slight flush of shame at his momentary disloyalty.

Prince, however, had noticed it, not without a faint sense of sympathy.

”Look here!” he said, with a certain brusqueness, which in a man of his character was less dangerous than his smoothness. ”I know your feelings to that family--at least to one of them--and, if I've been playing it pretty rough on you, it's only because you played it rather rough on ME the last time you were here. Let's understand each other. I'll go so far as to say I don't believe that Mrs. Saltonstall had anything to do with that murder, but, as a business man, I'm bound to say that these circ.u.mstances and her own indiscretion are quite enough to bring the biggest pressure down on her. I wouldn't want any better 'bear' on the market value of her rights than this. Take it at its best. Say that the Coroner's verdict is set aside, and a charge of murder against unknown parties is made--”

”One moment, Mr. Prince,” said Carroll. ”I shall be one of the first to insist that this is done, and I have confidence enough in Mrs.

Saltonstall's honest friends.h.i.+p for the Doctor to know that she will lose no time in pursuing his murderers.”

Prince looked at Carroll with a feeling of half envy and half pity. ”I think not,” he said, dryly; ”for all suspicion points to one man as the perpetrator, and that man was Mrs. Saltonstall's confidential servant--the mayordomo, Pereo.” He waited for a moment for the effect of this announcement on Carroll, and then went on: ”You now understand that, even if Mrs. Saltonstall is acquitted of any connivance with or even knowledge of the deed, she will hardly enjoy the prosecution of her confidential servant for murder.”

”But how can this be prevented? If, as you say, there are actual proofs, why have they not been acted upon before? What can keep them from being acted upon now?”

”The proofs have been collected by one man, have been in possession of one man, and will only pa.s.s out of his possession when it is for the benefit of the legal heir--who does not yet even know of their existence.”

”And who is this one man?”

”Myself.”

”You?--You?” said Carroll, advancing towards him. ”Then this is YOUR work!”

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