with a keen eye to business, had
married the discarded daughter of a wealthy but not over-respectable New
York family, and he had, unsuspected, pulled the wires so that James had
been employed as the family lawyer, and in that capacity had drawn the
will of the mother. She was an imperious, hot-tempered body, one who,
when aroused, was accustomed to use language more vigorous than polite,
and who not infrequently went to fisticuffs with her daughters. The
husband and father, the creator of the fortune, was dead and the vast
family property, in securities, stocks and lands, was vested absolutely
in the mother. In the old lady's will Brea's wife, the second daughter
of the house (there were no sons), was down in the very first paragraph
for the magnificent sum of "one dollar lawful currency," and her name
nowhere else appeared in the lengthy document. The old lady was such a
termagant and so implacable in her hatreds that it was a moral certainty
she would never relent and change her purpose toward her daughter. But
James had also drawn up a second will of his own and Brea's
concoction, and a precious piece of villainy it was, in which the wife
was down for legacies amounting; to $750,000. The genuine will James
kept in his own possession, ready to destroy the very moment word came
that the old lady was an immortal, while the spurious will was kept in
the vaults of the Safety Deposit Company, there to remain until the
death of the testatrix, when, of course, it would in due time be
produced.

[Illustration: BANK OF ENGLAND PARLOR.]

Brea had been introduced to the other three men, and cultivated their
acquaintance in the belief that they would some day be useful to him. He
had a few days before introduced them to James. As a matter of
precaution he had concealed from them all knowledge of the will. At the
same time he gave them a hint that there was something in the wind, but
that some way must be found to secure at once a few thousands, enough
for a year or two, until the good time came when fortune was to lavish
her favors on them all with a liberal hand. But money must be had at
once, for Brea and James were in sore straits, particularly James, who
had been threatened with arrest, and was so far involved that he always
entered and left his house at night in order to escape importunate
creditors. This was James' second interview with the men, and the first
time he had been alone with them. He saw at once that he had t