yes, I quite expect that--I also expect to hear, eventually,
another piece of news in relation to that man."

"What's that?" asked Mr. Tertius.

"Do you remember that, at the inquest, Mountain, the coachman, said that
there was another bit of evidence he had to give which he'd forgotten to
tell Mr. Barthorpe when he questioned him? Mountain"--continued Mr.
Halfpenny--"went on to say that while Jacob Herapath and the man stood
talking in Palace Yard, before Jacob got into his brougham, Jacob took
some object from his waistcoat pocket and handed it, with what looked
like a letter, to the man? Eh?"

"I remember very well," replied Mr. Tertius.

"Very good," said Mr. Halfpenny. "Now I believe that object to have been
the key of Jacob's safe at the Safe Deposit, which, you remember, could
not be found, but which young Selwood affirmed had been in Jacob's
possession only that afternoon. The letter I believe to have been a
formal authority to the Safe Deposit people to allow the bearer to open
that safe. I've thought all that out," concluded Mr. Halfpenny, with a
smile of triumph, "thought it out carefully, and it's my impression that
that's what we shall find when the police move. I believe that man has
revealed himself to the police, has told them--whatever it is he has to
tell, and that his story probably throws a vast flood of light on the
mystery. So I say--let us not at present concern ourselves with the
actual murder of our poor friend: the police will ferret that out! What
we're concerned with is--the will! That will, Tertius, must be proved,
and at once."

"I am as little conversant with legal matters as with police procedure,"
observed Mr. Tertius. "What is the exact course, now, in a case of this
sort?"

"The exact procedure, my dear sir," replied Mr. Halfpenny, dropping into
his best legal manner, and putting the tips of his warmly-gloved
fingers together in front of his well-filled overcoat, "the exact
procedure is as follows. Barthorpe Herapath is without doubt the
heir-at-law of his deceased uncle, Jacob Herapath. If Jacob had died
intestate Barthorpe would have taken what we may call everything, for
his uncle's property is practically all in the shape of real estate, in
comparison to which the personalty is a mere nothing. But there is a
will, leaving everything to Margaret Wynne. If Barthorpe Herapath
intends to contest the legality of that will----"

"Good heavens, is that possible?" exclaimed Mr. Te