to destroy
it, so that my share of the estate might be greater as widow than that
which had been apportioned to me, and of course he would have a portion
of that, too. But I implored him not--that is true, is it not, Antoni?
You can answer to that? I begged you, and you promised! And he
threatened me even with exposure if I did not agree to the preposterous
idea! I complied, only upon the promise that it should not be destroyed.
But who took it I do not know."

"But I think I can pretty well guess," responded Cleek serenely, with a
quick look at Cyril's suddenly flushed face. "Your son, Lady Paula, has
much of his uncle's blood in his veins. And he acted, no doubt, upon
_forceful_ advice, and carried the thing through quite successfully.
Perhaps he will tell us just when he decided to steal his own father's
will--at the instigation of an unscrupulous relation."

Came a slight pause in the telling, meanwhile a startled exclamation
broke from Ross Duggan's lips, while every eye in that little assembly
fastened upon the unfortunate boy. He broke into quiet sobbing, darting
his eyes here and there for possible sympathy.

"Yes, I took it, sir--when Uncle Antoni told me," he broke out between
sobs. "It was--just after it had happened. I heard Mother's scream, and
then she ran into my room and told me of--the dreadful thing that had
happened! About half an hour afterward Uncle Antoni appeared at the
balcony which opens out from my bedroom window, and told me I must steal
the will for him. I was terrified--oh, I was!--but he threatened me
with--with a pistol----"

"That's a lie!" gave out the prisoner with a maledictory eye upon his
unfilial nephew.

"It isn't--it isn't! You told me to get it--just how to get it. That it
was lying upon the table-top; and so I slipped down in my stockinged
feet, and waited in the passage until I saw Ross slip out of the room
after everyone else had gone back to bed, and--and _you_ had come out,
Mr. Cleek, and were talking to Maud in the ante-room. So I crept into
the room--oh, it was dreadful, with Father lying there--like
that--snatched it up and fled back to my bedroom in terror. Uncle Antoni
was still waiting on the balcony, and when he got it he climbed down the
balustrade again and--and--that is all I know. Oh, I wish--I wish I'd
never had anything to do with it!"

Cleek nodded.

"I'm sure you do," he said quietly. "So it was really not your fault,
Cyril. You acted under considerab