ir Alan frae the groond."

"You said nothing of this at the time?"

"Would ye hae me speak o' wraiths to a Suffolk jury, Mr. Brett? I saw no
mortal man. 'Twas a ghaist for sure, an' if I had gone into the box to
talk of such things they wad hae discredited my evidence about Mr. David.
I might hae hanged him instead o' savin' him."

"Suppose I tell you that the man you saw was no ghost, but real flesh and
blood, a Japanese descendant of the David Hume who fought and killed the
first Sir Alan in 1763, what would you say?"

"I would say, sir, that it had to be, were it ever so strange."

"Have you ever, in gossip about family records, heard anything of the fate
of the David Hume I have just mentioned."

"Only this, sir. My people have lived on the Highland estate longer than
any Hume-Frazer of them a'. My father remembered his grandfather sayin'
that a man who was in India wi' Clive met Mr. Hume in Calcutta. There was
fightin' agin' the French, an' Mr. Hume would neither strike a blow for
King George nor draw a sword for the French, so he sailed away to the East
in a Dutch ship, and he was never heard of afterwards."

This was a most important confirmation of the theory evolved by the
barrister. For the rest, Fergusson's reminiscences were useless.

Next morning Brett went to Somerset House to consult the will in which
Margaret's father left her L1,000 a year. Her brother died intestate.

As he expected, the document was phrased adroitly. It read: "I give and
bequeath to Margaret Hume-Frazer, who has elected to desert the home
provided for her, the sum of--" etc., etc.

The fact that she was, in the eyes of the law, an illegitimate child could
not invalidate this bequest. For the rest, he imagined that when her
brother died so unexpectedly, no one ever dreamed of inquiring into the
well-intentioned fraud perpetrated by Lady Hume-Frazer and her husband.
Margaret was unquestionably accepted as the heiress to her brother's
property, the estate being unentailed.

Then he drove to 17 St. John's Mansions, Kensington, where Mr. and Mrs.
Jiro were "at home." They received him in the tiny drawing-room, and the
lady's manner betokened some degree of nervousness, which she vainly
endeavoured to conceal by a pretence of bland curiosity as to the object
of the barrister's visit.

Not so Numagawa, whose sharp ferret eyes snapped with anxiety.

Brett left them under no doubt from the commencement. He addressed his
remarks w