because I used always to improve all my lower-case _x_'s with a pen when
I re-read and corrected. I see their dodge clearly now. It is a most
diabolical conspiracy. Instead of forging a will in Lord Southminster's
favour, they have substituted a forgery for the real will, and then
managed to make my poor Harold prove it.'

'In that case, no doubt, they have destroyed the real one, the
original,' Mr. Hayes put in.

'I don't think so,' I answered, after a moment's deliberation. 'From
what I know of Mr. Ashurst, I don't believe it is likely he would have
left his will about carelessly anywhere. He was a secretive man, fond of
mysteries and mystifications. He would be sure to conceal it. Besides,
Lady Georgina and Harold have been taking care of everything in the
house ever since he died.'

'But,' Mr. Hayes objected, 'the forger of this document, supposing it to
be forged, must have had access to the original, since you say the terms
of the two are identical; only the signatures are forgeries. And if he
saw and copied it, why might he not also have destroyed it?'

A light flashed across me all at once. 'The forger _did_ see the
original,' I cried, 'but not the fair copy. I have it all now! I detect
their trick! It comes back to me vividly! When I had finished typing the
copy at Florence from my first rough draft, which I had taken down on
the machine before Mr. Ashurst's eyes, I remember now that I threw the
original into the waste-paper basket. It must have been there that
evening when Higginson called and asked for the will to take it back to
Mr. Ashurst. He called for it, no doubt, hoping to open the packet
before he delivered it and make a copy of the document for this very
purpose. But I refused to let him have it. Before he saw me, however,
he had been left by himself for ten minutes in the office; for I
remember coming out to him and finding him there alone: and during that
ten minutes, being what he is, you may be sure he fished out the rough
draft and appropriated it!'

[Illustration: WE SHALL HAVE HIM IN OUR POWER.]

'That is more than likely,' my solicitor nodded. 'You are tracking him
to his lair. We shall have him in our power.'

I grew more and more excited as the whole cunning plot unravelled itself
mentally step by step before me. 'He must then have gone to Lord
Southminster,' I went on, 'and told him of the legacy he expected from
Mr. Ashurst. It was five hundred pounds--a mere trifle to Higginson,