it to the admiral that
there is in leaving it to George."

"There is no danger, Mr. Noel, if you take my advice."

"What is your advice?"

"Follow your own idea, sir. Take the pen in hand again, and leave the
money to Admiral Bartram."

He mechanically dipped the pen in the ink, and then hesitated.

"You shall know where I am leading you, sir," said Mrs. Lecount, "before
you sign your will. In the meantime, let us gain every inch of ground
we can, as we go on. I want the will to be all written out before we
advance a single step beyond it. Begin your third paragraph, Mr. Noel,
under the lines which leave me my legacy of five thousand pounds."

She dictated the last momentous sentence of the will (from the rough
draft in her own possession) in these words:

"The whole residue of my estate, after payment of my burial expenses
and my lawful debts, I give and bequeath to Rear-Admiral Arthur Everard
Bartram, my Executor aforesaid; to be by him applied to such uses as he
may think fit.

"Signed, sealed, and delivered, this third day of November, eighteen
hundred and forty-seven, by Noel Vanstone, the within-named testator, as
and for his last Will and Testament, in the presence of us--"

"Is that all?" asked Noel Vanstone, in astonishment.

"That is enough, sir, to bequeath your fortune to the admiral; and
therefore that is all. Now let us go back to the case which we have
supposed already. Your widow pays her shilling, and sees this will.
There is the Combe-Raven money left to Admiral Bartram, with a
declaration in plain words that it is his, to use as he likes. When she
sees this, what does she do? She sets her trap for the admiral. He is a
bachelor, and he is an old man. Who is to protect him against the arts
of this desperate woman? Protect him yourself, sir, with a few more
strokes of that pen which has done such wonders already. You have left
him this legacy in your will--which your wife sees. Take the legacy away
again, in a letter--which is a dead secret between the admiral and
you. Put the will and the letter under one cover, and place them in the
admiral's possession, with your written directions to him to break the
seal on the day of your death. Let the will say what it says now; and
let the letter (which is your secret and his) tell him the truth. Say
that, in leaving him your fortune, you leave it with the request that he
will take his legacy with one hand from you, and give it with the other
to