w darkened the disappointed man's brow. His wound swelled and his
eyes gleamed ironically as he turned them upon Ransom.

Instantly that gentleman spoke.

"I have received but a moiety," said he. "You need not envy me the
amount."

"Who has it then?" briskly demanded the startled man. "Who? who? _She?_"

Mr. Harper never knew why he did it. He was reserved as a man and,
usually, more than reserved as a lawyer, but as Hazen lifted his hands
from the table and turned to leave, he quietly remarked:

"The chief legatee--the one she chose to leave the bulk of her very large
fortune to--is a man we none of us know. His name is Josiah Auchincloss."

The change which the utterance of this name caused in Hazen's expression
threw them both into confusion.

"Why didn't you tell me that in the beginning?" he cried. "I needn't have
wasted all this time and effort."

His eyes shone, his poor lips smiled, his whole air was jubilant. Both
Mr. Harper and his client surveyed him in amazement. The lines so fast
disappearing from his brow were beginning to reappear on theirs.

"Mr. Harper," this hard-to-be-understood man now declared, "you may
safely administer the estate of my sister. She is surely dead."

CHAPTER XXIII

A STARTLING DECISION

Before Mr. Ransom and the lawyer had recovered from their astonishment,
Hazen had slipped from the room. As Mr. Harper started to follow, he saw
the other's head disappearing down the staircase leading to the office.
He called to him, but Hazen declined to turn.

"No time," he shouted back. "I shall have to make use of somebody's
automobile now, to get to the Ferry in time."

The lawyer did not persist, not at that moment; he went back to his
client and they had a few hurried words; then Mr. Harper went below and
took up his stand on the portico. He was determined that Hazen should not
leave the place without some further explanation.

It was light where he stood and he very soon felt that this would not
do, so he slipped back into the shade of a pillar, and seeing, from the
bustle, that Hazen was likely to obtain the use of the one automobile
stored in the stable, he waited with reasonable patience for his
reappearance in the road before him.

Meanwhile he had confidence in Ransom, who he felt sure was watching
them both from the window overhead. If he should fail in getting in
the word he wanted, Ransom was pledged to shout it out without regard
to appearances. But this w