e ladies from Fair Oaks--objected
to him as a fellow-traveller, either."

Mr. Whitney changed the subject. "Then you know that will to be
genuine, do you?"

"H'm! am I on the witness stand?"

"No; but I think I ought to subpoena you to keep the other side
from getting your testimony; you might make a troublesome witness
against us."

"My testimony might be worth much or little; I am not giving it to
either side at present."

"Well, I would not have it go out, of course; but for my part, I am
inclined, to believe not only that the will is genuine, but also
that Ralph Mainwaring knows that it is."

"He will fight it all the same."

"Yes, but on rather different grounds from what he first anticipated,"
and Mr. Whitney gave Merrick an account of young Mainwaring's
defection. "In my private opinion," concluded the attorney, "Ralph
Mainwaring is a fool, for he has got a pretty hard combination to go
against; they've evidently got a strong case, splendid legal talent,
and plenty of money to back it all. However, I'm making a good
thing out of it."

"Yes," said Merrick, enigmatically, "Barton & Barton are undoubtedly
men of great ability in their professions but that 'clerk' of theirs
who has come over with the party," with peculiar emphasis, "is the
smartest man in the whole crowd!"

"The clerk! why I thought he seemed rather an insignificant sort
of a fellow; what do you know about him?"

For reply the detective only gave a short, unpleasant laugh, and,
touching his cap, turned abruptly down another street.

"Hold on!" cried the attorney; "you haven't told me anything about
yourself yet. What have you been doing? and how long are you going
to be in town?"

"A day or two, perhaps, possibly a week; I cannot say."

"How are you getting on?"

But the detective was lost in thought and apparently did not hear
the question. "I suppose you read of the arrest of Brown, the
coachman?" he remarked, abstractedly, after a moment's silence.

"The coachman? No! you don't say that he was really concerned in
that affair?" the attorney exclaimed, excitedly.

"What affair, the Mainwaring murder? I don't know that I have
said that he was concerned in that," Merrick answered, suddenly
coming to himself and evidently enjoying the attorney's expression
of blank perplexity; "he was mixed up in a shooting affair, however,
which occurred about that time, and by holding him in custody we
hope to get on to the principals