Part 24 (2/2)
”The man's presence somehow more real. More of a physical fact.”
”As poor Roland never seemed a fact.”
They stood for some time smoking their cigars, pondering.
At last Lyle said impatiently, ”He must be Roland. No one has said he isn't.”
”Except Father. And us.”
”I haven't said it isn't Roland, not exactly,” Willard said.
”Well, I have,” said Bertram. ”I know the man is not Roland.”
”Look, it's inconceivable that a stranger could deceive so many of us, beginning with Bagot. Bagot is no fool. Many of the relatives have seen him, and granted some of them are idiots like Aunt Anna Emery, yet they would sense if Roland weren't Roland; the Sewalls were all so fond of him. The servants at Castlewood appear to accept him-not that they matter greatly. But-there is Bagot. How d'you account for Bagot?”
”A fellow conspirator,” Bertram said bitterly.
”Not Bagot!”
”Surely. The man isn't to be trusted, he has never been on our side.”
”Father spoke at length to Bagot-”
”And Bagot was, Father said, rude.”
”To Father?”
”To Father.”
”Well, he'll regret that.”
”They will all regret that.”
”In the meantime-”
”What of the man's handwriting? A sample-”
”It was that, partly, Father saw Bagot about.”
”And-?”
”This Roland's handwriting is very close to the old-allowing for a certain shakiness. He isn't well, after all; they say he nearly died in New Mexico.”
”He may have died-but this one lives.”
”And he will live to regret it. If, of course, it is not the right man.”
”-an imposter, a brazen criminal, hoping to deceive the Shrikesdales, of all people-”
”That would be intolerable.”
”-inconceivable!”
”Not to be borne.”
”Yet,” said Willard, breathing harshly, ”-perhaps it is Roland after all?-and we are the ones who have somehow changed in our perceptions. For it isn't likely, nor would any jury be inclined to think so, that a man's very mother-”
”Anna Emery is not this man's mother,” said Bertram.
”She is Roland's mother-that is in fact all that she is.”
”No, you are speaking carelessly. She is a woman of advanced years, susceptible to all sorts of sickly fancies, on the verge, if she has not already crossed over, of senility, as any forceful attorney might argue.”
”But simply to erect so preposterous a case, with the man's very mother testifying in his behalf-”
”-we would be laughed out of court, we would never live it down-”
”Anna Emery Shrikesdale is not this man's mother. She is Roland's mother; and this man, as I keep telling you, is not Roland Shrikesdale. He is not our cousin.”
”Then who is he?-and how can it be humanly possible, that he so closely resembles Roland?”
Said Bertram contemptuously, ”That's your idiotic notion, that the man resembles Roland. Father and I see clearly he does not.”
”I hope, Bertie, you won't embarra.s.s the family by trying to demonstrate that Aunt Anna Emery doesn't know her own son,” Lyle said curtly. ”The wisest course of action is to stop thinking about this; to continue with our lives as if nothing were wrong.”
Willard said, with lawyerly aplomb and disdain, ”On the one hand, I counsel extreme caution. On the other, if the man is an imposter, this is doubtless what he wishes. Consider the fortune that's at stake: more than two hundred million dollars, as Father calculates. Of our money! And it's intolerable that a criminal should inherit Castlewood Hall and our name, without our putting up a fight. Yet-”
”Yet-?”
”-the prospect of an open legal disagreement, a lawsuit dragged through the civil court, terrifies me. As a man of the law, I know what we might expect. For the defense would be formidable, if not unshakable, with poor Aunt Anna Emery testifying for 'Roland' as her beloved son, and the Sewalls, and Bagot, and the Pinkerton men-their testimony would weigh heavily in the court. I'm afraid it's all but hopeless. Unless-'Roland' reveals himself by accident.”
”Certainly 'Roland' will reveal himself,” said Bertram. ”I'll see to that.”
”But how? Without tipping our hand?” Willard said. ”The man must be devilishly clever-in fact, he frightens me.”
”Ah, then you side with me!” Bertram said.
”I don't necessarily side with you,” Willard said stiffly.
”You admit the possibility, however.”
”There is always a 'possibility'-in the law. Yet another possibility remains that this man is our cousin and that his memory will eventually return-queerer things have happened in the annals of law, believe me. And we Shrikesdales would be committing a grave injustice if we took action against a blood relative-”
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