valet," to report progress; and he received another, the night
Mr. Ashurst died, at Moozuffernuggar. Depend upon it, White was more or
less in this plot; Higginson left him the forged will when they started
for India; and, as soon as Mr. Ashurst died, White hid it where Harold
was bound to find it.'

'If so,' Mr. Hayes answered, 'that's well; we have something to go upon.
The more of them, the better. There is safety in numbers--for the honest
folk. I never knew three rogues hold long together, especially when
threatened with a criminal prosecution. Their confederacy breaks down
before the chance of punishment. Each tries to screen himself by
betraying the others.'

'Higginson was the soul of this plot,' I went on. 'Of that you may be
sure. He's a wily old fox, but we'll run him to earth yet. The more I
think of it, the more I feel sure, from what I know of Mr. Ashurst's
character, he would never have put that will in so exposed a place as
the one where Harold says he found it.'

We drew up at the door of the disputed house just in time for the siege.
Mr. Hayes and I walked in. We found Lady Georgina face to face with Lord
Southminster. The opposing forces were still at the stage of
preliminaries of warfare.

'Look heah,' the pea-green young man was observing, in his drawling
voice, as we entered; 'it's no use your talking, deah Georgey. This
house is mine, and I won't have you meddling with it.'

'This house is not yours, you odious little scamp,' his aunt retorted,
raising her shrill voice some notes higher than usual; 'and while I can
hold a stick you shall not come inside it.'

'Very well, then; you drive me to hostilities, don't yah know. I'm sorry
to show disrespect to your gray hairs--if any--but I shall be obliged to
call in the police to eject yah.'

'Call them in if you like,' I answered, interposing between them. 'Go
out and get them! Mr. Hayes, while he's gone, send for a carpenter to
break open the back of Mr. Ashurst's escritoire.'

'A carpentah?' he cried, turning several degrees whiter than his pasty
wont. 'What for? A carpentah?'

I spoke distinctly. 'Because we have reason to believe Mr. Ashurst's
real will is concealed in this house in a secret drawer, and because the
keys were in the possession of White, whom we believe to be your
accomplice in this shallow conspiracy.'

He gasped and looked alarmed. 'No, you don't,' he cried, stepping
briskly forward. 'You don't, I tell yah! Break open M