o I put in my pocket. Bolting the shutters and
locking the door I returned to the stoep, where I was alone, for
as yet no one else was stirring. Then I remembered the letter in
my pocket and opened it. It ran--

"Dear Mr. Quatermain,--

"I have remembered that those who quarrel with Dr. Rodd are apt
to die soon and suddenly; at any rate life at my age is always
uncertain. Therefore, as I know you to be an honest man, I am
enclosing my will that it may be in safe keeping and purpose to
send it to your room to-morrow morning. Perhaps when you return
to Pretoria you will deposit it in the Standard Bank there, and
if I am still alive, forward me the receipt. You will see that I
leave everything to my daughter whom I dearly love, and that
there is enough to keep the wolf from her door, besides my share
in this property, if it is ever realized.

"After all that has passed to-night I do not feel up to writing a
long letter, so

"Remain sincerely yours,

"H. A. Marnham."

"PS.--I should like to state clearly upon paper that my earnest
hope and wish are that Heda may get clear of that black-hearted,
murderous, scoundrel Rodd and marry Mr. Anscombe, whom I like and
who, I am sure, would make her a good husband."

Thinking to myself this did not look very like the letter of a
suicide, I glanced through the will, as the testator seemed to
have wished that I should do so. It was short, but properly
drawn, signed, and witnessed, and bequeathed a sum of #9,000,
which was on deposit at the Standard Bank, together with all his
other property, real and personal, to Heda for her own sole use,
free from the debts and engagements of her husband, should she
marry. Also she was forbidden to spend more than #1,000 of the
capital. In short the money was strictly tied up. With the will
were some other papers that apparently referred to certain
property in Hungary to which Heda might become entitled, but
about these I did not trouble.

Replacing these documents in a safe inner pocket in the lining of
my waistcoat, I went into our room and woke up Anscombe who was
sleeping soundly, a fact that caused an unreasonable irritation
in my mind. When at length he was thoroughly aroused I said to
him--

"You are in luck's way, my friend. Marnham is dead."

"Oh! poor Heda," he exclaimed, "she loved him. It will half
break her heart."

"If it breaks half of her heart," I replied, "it will mend the
other half, for now her