ath. The only other remarkable circumstance in the case
was that the disreputable lover of the niece had been seen hanging about
the house at dusk, the testator having died at ten o'clock at night.
There was also a further fact. The son, on receiving a message from
the niece that his father was seriously worse, had hurried with
extraordinary speed to the house, passing some one or something--he
could not tell what--that seemed to be running, apparently from the
window of the sick man's room, which was on the ground floor, and
beneath which footmarks were afterwards found. Of these footmarks two
casts had been taken, of which photographs were forwarded with the
brief. They had been made by naked feet of small size, and in each
case the little joint of the third toe of the right foot seemed to be
missing. But all attempts to find the feet that made them had hitherto
failed. The will was contested by the next of kin, for whom Geoffrey was
one of the counsel, upon the usual grounds of undue influence and fraud;
but as it seemed at present with small prospect of success, for, though
the circumstances were superstitious enough, there was not the slightest
evidence of either. This curious case, of which the outlines are here
written, is briefly set out, because it proved to be the foundation of
Geoffrey's enormous practice and reputation at the Bar.

He read the brief through twice, thought it over well, and could make
little of it. It was perfectly obvious to him that there had been foul
play somewhere, but he found himself quite unable to form a workable
hypothesis. Was the person who had been seen running away concerned
in the matter?--if it was a person. If so, was he the author of the
footprints? Of course the ex-lawyer's clerk had something to do with
it, but what? In vain did Geoffrey cudgel his brains; every idea that
occurred to him broke down somewhere or other.

"We shall lose this," he said aloud in despair; "suspicious
circumstances are not enough to upset a will," and then, addressing
Beatrice, who was sitting at the table, working:

"Here, Miss Granger, you have a smattering of law, see if you can make
anything of this," and he pushed the heavy brief towards her.

Beatrice took it with a laugh, and for the next three-quarters of an
hour her fair brow was puckered up in a way quaint to see. At last she
finished and shut the brief up. "Let me look at the photographs," she
said.

Geoffrey handed them to her. S