n they'd concluded
terms, Jacob said, turning to Frankton. 'I'll get the money in notes
from the bank this afternoon, Frankton, and if I don't give it to you in
the meantime, you'll find the notes in the top left-hand drawer of my
desk tomorrow morning.' Well, that was what the man told me; said he'd
been bothering his brains in wondering if Jacob did draw that money, and
so on--Frankton, of course, had told him that he knew nothing about it,
and that as Jacob was dead, no more could be done in the matter. Now on
that, I at once began some inquiries. I found out a thing or two--never
mind what--one was to trace a hundred pound note which Frankton had
cashed recently. I found, only yesterday morning, that that note was one
of fifty similar notes paid to Jacob Herapath by his bankers in exchange
for his own cheque on the afternoon of November 12th. And, on that, I
had Frankton watched all yesterday, last night, and today, and as I
said, I arrested him tonight--and, in all my experience I never saw a
man more surprised, and never knew one who so lost his nerve."

"And his confession?" asked Selwood.

"Oh! ordinary," answered Davidge. "Jacob had made an appointment with
him for half-past eleven or so. Got there a bit late, found his master
sitting at his desk with a wad of bank notes on the blotting-pad, a
paper of pearls on one side of him, a lot of diamond ornaments at the
other--big temptation to a chap, who, as it turns out, was hard up, and
had got into the hands of money-lenders. And, oh, just the ordinary
thing in such cases, happened to have on him a revolver that he'd bought
abroad, yielded to temptation, shot his man, took money and valuables,
went home, and turned up at the office next day to lift his hands in
horror at the dreadful news. You see what truth is, gentlemen, when you
get at it--just a common, vulgar murder, for the sake of robbery. And
he'll swing!"

"'Just a common, vulgar murder, and he'll swing!'" softly repeated
Cox-Raythwaite, as he and Selwood walked up the steps of the house in
Portman Square half an hour later. "Well, that's solved, anyway. As for
the other two----"

"I suppose there's no doubt of their guilt with respect to their
conspiring to upset the will?" said Selwood. "And that's a serious
offence, isn't it?"

"In this eminently commercial country, very," answered Cox-Raythwaite,
sententiously. "Barthorpe and Burchill will inevitably retire to the
shelter of a convict establishm