for there were,
apparently, no legal heirs. Since then, however, it has been discovered
that there is a legal heir--none other than the Doctor's only son.
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
assignment 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 p