able properties and, evidently, had been worked
over very recently. Upon the last sheet, the second column had been
deducted from the first, and an apparently purely arbitrary sum of two
hundred thousand dollars had been taken away. From the remainder there
had been taken away approximately one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars more.

Alan having ascertained that the papers contained only this account,
looked up questioningly to Sherrill; but Sherrill, without speaking,
merely handed him the second of the papers.... This, Alan saw, had
evidently been folded to fit a smaller envelope. Alan unfolded it and
saw that it was a letter written in the same hand which had written the
summons he had received in Blue Rapids and had made the entries in the
little memorandum book of the remittances that had been sent to John
Welton.

It began simply:

Lawrence--

This will come to you in the event that I am not able to carry out the
plan upon which I am now, at last, determined. You will find with this
a list of my possessions which, except for two hundred thousand dollars
settled upon my wife which was hers absolutely to dispose of as she
desired and a further sum of approximately one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars presented in memory of her to the Hospital Service in
France, have been transferred to you without legal reservation.

You will find deeds for all real estate executed and complete except
for recording of the transfer at the county office; bonds,
certificates, and other documents representing my ownership of
properties, together with signed forms for their legal transfer to you,
are in this box. These properties, in their entirety, I give to you in
trust to hold for the young man now known as Alan Conrad of Blue
Rapids, Kansas, to deliver any part or all over to him or to continue
to hold it all in trust for him as you shall consider to be to his
greatest advantage.

This for the reasons which I shall have told to you or him--I cannot
know which one of you now, nor do I know how I shall tell it. But when
you learn, Lawrence, think as well of me as you can and help him to be
charitable to me.

With the greatest affection,
BENJAMIN CORVET.

Alan, as he finished reading, looked up to Sherrill, bewildered and
dazed.

"What does it mean, Mr. Sherrill?-- Does it mean that he has gone away
and left everything he had--everything to me?"

"The properties listed here," Sherrill touched the pages A