"Where were you born?" asked the attorney.

"In Melbourne, Australia," was the reply, while deep silence awaited
Mr. Sutherland's next question.

"Mr. Mainwaring, I believe you are familiar with the will just read,
are you not?"

"I am."

"Please state when, and under what conditions, you gained your
knowledge of this will."

"I first learned that such a will had existed and knew its general
terms, between five and six years since, through information given
me by James Wilson. From data found a little over a year ago among
the personal letters of the deceased Hugh Mainwaring, I ascertained
that the will was still in existence, and on the 7th of July last
I discovered the document itself and became personally familiar with
its contents."

At the mention of the name of Hugh Mainwaring and of the date so
eventful in the recent history of Fair Oaks, the interest of the
crowd deepened.

"Did you discover the document accidentally, or after special search
for it?"

"As the result of a systematic search for more than a year."

"Please state whether you took any steps leading to the discovery
of this will during the four or five years immediately following
your first knowledge of it; and if so, what?"

"As I first learned of the will soon after entering Oxford, my
studies necessarily occupied the greater part of my time for the
next three or four years; but I lost no opportunity for gaining all
possible information relating not only to the Mainwaring estate,
but more particularly to Hugh Mainwaring and his coadjutor, Richard
Hobson. Among other facts, I learned that immediately after the
settlement of the estate, Hugh Mainwaring had disposed of the same
and left England for America, while about the same time Richard
Hobson suddenly rose from a penniless pettifogger to a position of
affluence.

"As soon as my studies were completed, I sailed for America, with
the avowed determination of securing further evidence regarding the
will, and of establishing my claim to the property fraudulently
withheld from my father and from myself. In the securing of the
necessary evidence I succeeded beyond my expectations. As Hugh
Mainwaring's private secretary, I gained access to the files of
his personal letters, and soon was familiar with the entire
correspondence between himself and Richard Hobson, from which I
learned that the latter demanding and receiving large sums of
money as the price of his silence regarding some