e strange accidents of finance with which we are all acquainted,
I have placed the whole of her fortune, to the value of eight hundred
thousand pounds, in a safe at the London Safe Deposit, and in the terms
of the power vested in me as trustee by her late father I have
instructed my lawyers to hand her the key and the authority to open the
safe on the day she marries the aforesaid Frank Doughton. And if she
should refuse or through any cause or circumstance decline to carry out
my wishes in this respect, I direct that the fortune contained therein
shall be withheld from her for the space of five years as from the date
of my death.'"

There was another long silence. T. B. saw the change come over the face
of Poltavo. From rage he had passed to wonder, from wonder to suspicion,
and from suspicion to anger again. T. B. would have given something
substantial to have known what was going on inside the mind of this
smooth adventurer. Again the lawyer's voice insisted upon attention.

"'To Frank Doughton,'" he read, "'I bequeath the sum of a thousand
pounds to aid him in his search for the Tollington heir. To T. B. Smith,
the assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard with whom I have had some
acquaintance, and whose ability I hold in the highest regard, I leave
the sum of a thousand pounds as a slight reward for his service to
civilization, and I direct that on the day he discovers the most
insidious enemy to society, Montague Fallock, he shall receive a further
sum of one thousand pounds from the trustees of my estate.'"

The lawyer looked up from his reading.

"That again, Mr. Smith, is contingent upon certain matters."

T. B. smiled.

"I quite understand that," he said, drily, "though possibly you don't,"
he added under his breath.

This was a portion of the will about which he knew nothing for the
document had been executed but a few days before the tragedy which had
deprived the world of Gregory Farrington. There were a few more
paragraphs to read; certain jewelleries had been left to his dear friend
Count Ernesto Poltavo, and the reading was finished.

"I have only to say now," said the lawyer, as he carefully folded his
glasses and put them away in his pocket, "that there is a very
considerable sum of money at Mr. Farrington's bank. It will be for the
courts to decide in how so far that money is to be applied to the
liquidation of debts incurred by the deceased as director of a public
company. That is to say, tha