carefully examined the will. Although he had had the art to hide his
feelings during the interview just closed, he was more astonished and
puzzled than he had ever been before. Several months before this, in
looking through some documents pertaining to the Gilcrest property, he
had made two startling discoveries: First, that Mrs. Gilcrest's maiden
name was Sarah Jane Pepper, instead of Jane Temple, as even her own
children supposed it to be. Second, that she was a widow when Hiram
Gilcrest married her, and that her first husband had been a John Logan
who was killed in the battle of Monmouth Court-house. At the time when
Drane had made these discoveries, Gilcrest had explained that Mrs.
Gilcrest's first husband had been a worthless, bad fellow, and that for
that reason her desire was that her children should be kept in
ignorance of her ever having made this first marriage. On this account,
and for another reason which Gilcrest did not confide to Drane, she had
led her children to believe that her maiden name was Jane Temple, her
maternal grandmother's maiden name.

Abner had stated that his father was John Logan, a soldier in the
Continental army, who was killed in the battle of Monmouth Court-house.
"It may be a mere coincidence," thought Drane, "that two men named John
Logan were killed in that battle; but, then, why should this fellow
have, until now, worn the name of Dudley? Then, there's the unusual
wording of the will," and he seized the document and read the words,
"'to her' (Mary Belle Hollis Page) 'legitimate offspring, if any.'
'There's something rotten in the state of Denmark'," was Drane's
conclusion; "but how to discover it? Let me see, I'd better not mention
this to old Gilcrest yet awhile; and certainly I must let no inkling of
my suspicions escape to this Abner Dudley, or Abner Logan, or Page, or
whatever his right name may be--why, good Lord! I don't believe he has
a legitimate right to any name whatsoever. And this is the fine
gentleman who dares lift his eyes to the peerless Betty! I needn't have
run the risk I did in forging that letter, it seems; this will, I
suspect, settle the schoolmaster's pretensions even more effectually,
and with no danger to myself, either. But here, if his father and
Madame Gilcrest's first husband were one and the same man, I must work
very cautiously until I ascertain the exact date of the John Logan
alliance with Sarah Jane and that of his connection with Mary Belle. It