o a quiet corner as soon as he had entered the restaurant,
summoned a waiter with a glance, and for a moment concentrated his
attention on the bill of fare which the man put before him. That slight
mental exercise restored him; when the waiter had taken his simple order
and gone away, Barthorpe was fully himself again. And finding himself in
as satisfactory a state of privacy as he could desire, with none to
overlook or spy on him, he drew from an inner pocket a letter-case which
he had taken from Jacob Herapath's private safe at the estate office and
into which he had cast a hurried glance before leaving Kensington for
Portman Square.

From this letter-case he now drew a letter, and as he unfolded it he
muttered a word or two.

"Frank Burchill, 331, Upper Seymour Street," he said. "Um--but not Upper
Seymour Street any longer, I think. Now let's see what it all is--what
it all means I've got to find out."

The sheet of paper which he was handling was of the sort used by
typists, but the letter itself was written by hand, and Barthorpe
recognized the penmanship as that of his uncle's ex-secretary, Burchill,
second witness to the will which had just been exhibited to him. Then he
read, slowly and carefully, what Burchill had written to Jacob
Herapath--written, evidently, only a few days previously. For there was
the date, plain enough.

"35c, Calengrove Mansions,
"Maida Vale, W.
"_November 11th_, 19--.

"DEAR SIR,

"I don't know that I am particularly surprised that you
have up to now entirely ignored my letters of the 1st and
the 5th instant. You probably think that I am not a
person about whom any one need take much trouble; a mean
cur, perhaps, who can do no more than snap at a mastiff's
heels. I am very well aware (having had the benefit of a
year's experience of your character and temperament) that
you have very little respect for unmoneyed people and are
contemptuous of their ability to interfere with the
moneyed. But in that matter you are mistaken. And to put
matters plainly, it will pay you far better to keep me a
friend than to transform me into an enemy. Therefore I
ask you to consider well and deeply the next sentence of
this letter--which I will underline.

"I am in full possession of the secret whi