he other side, who will certainly make no
difficulty."

It was a good idea, and we resolved to act upon it. The lawyer drove
with us to the hotel, to introduce us to the manager, and left us when
we ascended to the room occupied by the dead man, which was still being
retained by the executor until the property should be removed.

The manager himself very civilly accompanied us, directing us to summon
a servant, when we had examined things to our satisfaction, and to give
orders about packing and removal.

I must confess that I had not altogether given up hope of discovering
the lost document among the clothes and packing-cases. But my
anticipations were dispelled when we entered. Everything had been
neatly folded and placed on the bed and the two tables; it was evident
that no document could have been passed unnoticed. The room, too, was
quite clean and in order. Val, like myself, seemed rather depressed at
the state of things. There was no receptacle where any paper could
have been stowed away that had not been thoroughly ransacked by the
lawyer's men, whose interest it was to discover the will. A wardrobe
for hanging clothes, a chest of drawers, dressing-table, and washstand
were the only articles of furniture besides bed, tables, and chairs;
none of them looked like possible receptacles of a hidden paper.

Scarcely realizing what I did, I began opening one after another the
drawers in the chest. Each was neatly lined with paper, but otherwise
empty. As though possessed by a mania for searching, I took out each
paper and carefully assured myself that nothing had slipped underneath.
Val, roused by my action, began to poke into the drawers of the
dressing-table; but his search was just as fruitless. There was
nothing to be done but to settle as to the packing of the clothes and
take our departure.

Suddenly an idea struck me. How often does a small article get lost in
a chest of drawers by slipping behind the drawers themselves. At once
I acted on the suggestion. I did not watt to consider that others had
probably searched as thoroughly as I could do. Out came the drawers,
one after the other, and were deposited on the floor. The bottom
drawer was rather tight, and would not come out easily; but I got it
out with an extra expenditure of muscle. Positively, there was a small
folded paper--like a letter--lying behind it; my heart sank, for it was
too small for such a document as I was anxious to find.