Sir
Randolph Edge or his property."

The Colonel listened unmoved.

"In any case you would have nothing to do with my brother's property,"
he remarked. "He left a will by which I was constituted sole legatee."

"Then if she robbed anybody she robbed you?"

"Certainly; and three years later she came and told me so."

"Then how in the world does it concern me?" cried Harry impatiently.

"You put your finger on the spot, Mr Tristram, but you took it off
again. You said she presented the authority all the same."

"Yes. The authority would be revoked by his death. At least I suppose
there's no question of that? Did she get at them before they heard of
the death?"

"This money was payable on the 22nd June--the 10th as it's reckoned in
Russia--but we needn't trouble about that. As you and Neeld are both
aware, on the 18th my brother fell into a collapse which was mistaken
for death."

"Yes, the 18th," murmured Neeld, referring to the paper before him, and
reading Josiah Cholderton's account of what Madame de Kries had told him
at Heidelberg.

"From that attack he rallied temporarily, but not until his death had
been reported."

"I am not the man to forget that circumstance," said Harry.

"The report of his death was, of course, contradicted immediately. The
doctor attending him saw to that."

"Naturally; and I suppose the Comtesse would see to it too."

"And the only importance that the occurrence of the 18th has for us at
present is that, according to the Comtesse's story, it suggested to the
doctor the course which she, on his prompting as she declared and
certainly with his connivance, afterward adopted. My brother, having
rallied from his first collapse, kept up the fight a little while
longer. It was, however, plain to the doctor that he could live but a
very short time. The Comtesse knew this. My brother was not in a
condition to transact business and was incapable of securing to her any
benefit by testamentary disposition even if he had wished to do so. Her
only chance was the money for the property. This she saw her way to
securing with the doctor's help, even although my brother should die
before it fell due and the authority she held should thereby lose its
legal validity."

"You mean that they determined to carry out a fraud if necessary?"

"Precisely. I must remind you that my brother knew nothing of this. He
was altogether past understanding anything about it. I may be very brief
now, but I am