ter Mr. Belcher had been apprised by his
agent at Sevenoaks that Mr. Benedict was undoubtedly alive, and that he
had lived, ever since his disappearance, at Number Nine, he wrote to Sam
Yates, putting profitable business into his hands, and that he also
directed his agent to attach him, by all possible means, to the
proprietor's interests. His motive, of course, was to shut the lawyer's
mouth concerning the autograph letters he had furnished. He knew that
Yates would remember the hints of forgery which he had breathed into his
ear during their first interview in the city, and would not be slow to
conclude that those autographs were procured for some foul purpose. He
had been careful, from the first, not to break up the friendly relations
that existed between them, and now that he saw that the lawyer had
played him false, he was more anxious than ever to conciliate him.

Yates attended faithfully to the business intrusted to him, and, on
reporting results to Mr. Belcher's agent, according to his client's
directions, was surprised to find him in a very friendly and
confidential mood, and ready with a proposition for further service.
There were tangled affairs in which he needed the lawyer's assistance,
and, as he did not wish to have the papers pertaining to them leave his
possession, he invited Yates to his house, where they could work
together during the brief evenings, when he would be free from the cares
of the mill.

So, for two or three weeks, Sam Yates occupied Mr. Belcher's
library--the very room in which that person was first introduced to the
reader. There, under the shade of the old Seven Oaks, he worked during
the day, and there, in the evening, he held his consultations with the
agent.

One day, during his work, he mislaid a paper, and in his search for it,
had occasion to examine the structure of the grand library table at
which he wrote. The table had two sides, finished and furnished exactly
alike, with duplicate sets of drawers opposite to each other. He pulled
out one of these drawers completely, to ascertain whether his lost paper
had not slipped through a crack and lodged beyond it. In reaching in, he
moved, or thought he moved, the drawer that met him from the opposite
side. On going to the opposite side, however, he found that he had not
moved the drawer at all. He then pulled that out, and, endeavoring to
look through the space thus vacated by both drawers, found that it was
blocked by some obsta