chances
were greatly in your favor."

His companion brightened up very perceptibly at this assurance.

"Have you ever been employed in any similar cases?" he asked.

"My dear sir, I have an important case of the kind on my hands at this
moment. The amount involved is a quarter of a million dollars."

Mr. Bolton rose greatly in the estimation of his new client after he
had made this statement.

"Is the case at all similar?"

"Hardly. It is the case of a will concealed, or rather suppressed, and
acting upon a will previously made. I cannot go into details for
obvious reasons, as I wish to keep our enemy in the dark."

"I understand. Have you your card with you, so that I can call at your
office?"

This was a puzzling question for Bolton, but he was equal to the
occasion.

"Tell me what hotel you propose to stop at, and I will call upon you
at eleven o'clock to-morrow morning."

"I don't know much about the New York hotels."

"Then let me recommend a house," naming a comfortable but not
expensive hostelry on upper Broadway.

"I will go there."

"I think you have not yet mentioned your name."

"My name is Ephraim Paulding."

Bolton noted it down in his memorandum-book, and soon after the train
ran into the station at Forty-second Street.

There was no time to be lost. Bolton made inquiries and obtained the
name of a successful, go-ahead lawyer, having an office at 182 Nassau
Street. He did not wait till the next day, but made a call that same
evening at his house on Lexington Avenue.

Mr. Norcross, the lawyer, entered the parlor with Bolton's card in his
hand and a puzzled expression on his face.

"Have I ever met you before, Mr. Bolton?" he asked.

"No, sir."

"Please state your business."

"I should like to enter your office. I am a lawyer with fifteen years
experience."

"I should hardly think so, considering the strange, and I may say
unprecedented, proposal you are making."

"I am quite aware that it seems so, but I can make it worth your
while."

"How?"

"By bringing you business. I can put in your hands now a will case
involving an estate of fifty thousand dollars, and further on probably
a much more important case."

"You seem to be a hustler."

"I am."

"Where has your professional life been spent?" asked Norcross.

"At Elmira. Now I wish to remove to this city. It will give me a
larger and more profitable field."

"Give me some idea of the case you say you can put in my