"Precisely. He was delighted with the place and when my great
grandfather pointed out that even with the location and the high
surrounding wall there was no guarantee that wandering adventurers
might not move in and take possession at some distant date, the man
smiled cryptically and said he would see to it that that did not
occur."

* * * * *

The young man was scowling. "I know that man. He is somewhere back in
my mind, but he will not come forward."

John Pride regarded his listener for a moment and then went on. "The
man seemed in ample funds and paid for the property with a giant ruby
the like of which my great grandfather had never before set eyes on.

"But the affair was far from ended. The man moved his _menage_ into
the mansion saying he would call upon my great grandfather later.

* * * * *

"All the legal formalities had been of course taken care of--an
indisputable deed, guaranteed by the strongest trust company in the
land. But that was not enough.

"After a few weeks, during which time the man had inquired of my great
grandfather where certain materials could be obtained, he returned to
the old gentleman's office with the most startling request of all.

"He said that he had set in motion a procedure that would terminate in
exactly one hundred years from a given moment and that he wished to
retain grandfather's firm as trust agents in relation to that
procedure. The duties of the firm would be negligible during the
hundred-year period. My great grandfather and his issue were merely to
remain completely away from the property which was certainly a simple
thing to do.

"But knowledge of what had taken place must be passed down to his son
and in case the latter did not survive the one hundred years, to his
son's son.

"At this point my great grandfather interposed reality in the form of
a question: 'I have a son but suppose he is so inconsiderate as to not
duplicate with a male heir?'

"The man smiled and said he was sure that would not be the case. He
was right, but whether it was a gamble on his part or whether he spoke
from a knowledge beyond us, we never knew.

"But regardless--at the end of one hundred years the surviving issue
was, by sacred trust, to be present in this mansion. The door of a
vault beneath it would open and the trustee was to enter and deliver
therein a written account of the series of events leading up to tha