lves and his friends to speculate
vainly as to his whereabouts? Is he now in hiding abroad, or even at
home, indifferent alike to the safety of his own considerable property
and the peace of mind of his friends? Or is it that death has come upon
him unawares by sickness, by accident, or, more probably, by the hand of
some unknown criminal? Let us consider the probabilities.

"Can he have disappeared by his own deliberate act? Why not? it may be
asked. Men undoubtedly do disappear from time to time, to be discovered
by chance or to reappear voluntarily after intervals of years and find
their names almost forgotten and their places filled by new-comers. Yes;
but there is always some reason for a disappearance of this kind, even
though it be a bad one. Family discords that make life a weariness;
pecuniary difficulties that make life a succession of anxieties;
distaste for particular circumstances and surroundings from which there
seems no escape; inherent restlessness and vagabond tendencies, and so
on.

"Do any of these explanations apply to the present case? No, they do
not. Family discords--at least those capable of producing chronic
misery--appertain exclusively to the married state. But the testator was
a bachelor with no encumbrances whatever. Pecuniary anxieties can be
equally excluded. The testator was in easy, in fact, in affluent
circumstances. His mode of life was apparently agreeable and full of
interest and activity, and he had full liberty to change it if he
wished. He had been accustomed to travel, and could do so again without
absconding. He had reached an age when radical changes do not seem
desirable. He was a man of fixed and regular habits, and his regularity
was of his own choice and not due to compulsion or necessity. When last
seen by his friends, as I shall prove, he was proceeding to a definite
destination with the expressed intention of returning for purposes of
his own appointing. He did return and then vanished, leaving those
purposes unachieved.

"If we conclude that he has voluntarily disappeared and is at present in
hiding, we adopt an opinion that is entirely at variance with all these
weighty facts. If, on the other hand, we conclude that he has died
suddenly, or has been killed by an accident or otherwise, we are
adopting a view that involves no inherent improbabilities and that is
entirely congruous with the known facts; facts that will be proved by
the testimony of the witnesses whom