all in help, it would be well that the newcomer found it
undisturbed.'

'You were quite right, my lord. You say you examined all the papers?'

'Yes; so far as that is concerned, the room has been very fairly gone
over, but nothing that was in it the day my uncle died has been
removed, not even his anvil.'

'His anvil?'

'Yes; I told you he made a blacksmith's shop, as well as bedroom, of
the library. It is a huge room, with a great fireplace at one end
which formed an excellent forge. He and the steward built the forge in
the eastern fireplace of brick and clay, with their own hands, and
erected there a second-hand blacksmith's bellows.'

'What work did he do at his forge?'

'Oh, anything that was required about the place. He seems to have been
a very expert ironworker. He would never buy a new implement for the
garden or the house so long as he could get one second-hand, and he
never bought anything second-hand while at his forge he might repair
what was already in use. He kept an old cob, on which he used to ride
through the park, and he always put the shoes on this cob himself, the
steward informs me, so he must have understood the use of blacksmith's
tools. He made a carpenter's shop of the chief drawing-room and
erected a bench there. I think a very useful mechanic was spoiled when
my uncle became an earl.'

'You have been living at the Chase since your uncle died?'

'If you call it living, yes. The old steward and his wife have been
looking after me, as they looked after my uncle, and, seeing me day
after day, coatless, and covered with dust, I imagine they think me a
second edition of the old man.'

'Does the steward know the money is missing?'

'No; no one knows it but myself. This will was left on the anvil, in
an envelope addressed to me.'

'Your statement is exceedingly clear, Lord Chizelrigg, but I confess I
don't see much daylight through it. Is there a pleasant country around
Chizelrigg Chase?'

'Very; especially at this season of the year. In autumn and winter the
house is a little draughty. It needs several thousand pounds to put it
in repair.'

'Draughts do not matter in the summer. I have been long enough in
England not to share the fear of my countrymen for a _courant d'air._
Is there a spare bed in the manor house, or shall I take down a cot
with me, or let us say a hammock?'

'Really,' stammered the earl, blushing again, 'you must not think I
detailed all these circumstances in or