l to the safe?
Now, a word from him would give Jeanne all his fortune, and that word he
could not speak.

The will was between the leaves of a copy of "Pickwick," and it stood on
a shelf in his bedroom. One night, six months before, to alter a small
bequest, he had carried the will up-stairs and written a rough draft of
the new codicil. And then, merely because he was sleepy and disinclined
to struggle with a combination lock, he had stuck the will in the book
he was reading. He intended the first thing the next morning to put it
back in the safe. But the first thing the next morning word came from
the kennels that during the night six beagle puppies had arrived, and
naturally Jimmie gave no thought to anything so unimportant as a will.
Nor since then had he thought of it. And now how was he, a dead man, to
retrieve it?

That those in the library might not observe his agitation, he went
outside, and in Bryant Park on a bench faced his problem. Except
himself, of the hidden place of the will no one could possibly know. So,
if even by an anonymous letter, or by telephone, he gave the information
to his late lawyer or to the detectives, they at once would guess from
where the clew came and that James Blagwin was still alive. So that plan
was abandoned. Then he wondered if he might not convey the tip to some
one who had access to his bedroom; his valet or a chambermaid who, as
though by accident, might stumble upon the will. But, as every one would
know the anonymous tipster could be only Blagwin himself, that plan also
was rejected. He saw himself in a blind alley. Without an accomplice he
could not act; with an accomplice his secret would be betrayed.

Suddenly a line in one of the newspapers returned to him. It was to the
effect that to discover the lost will several clairvoyants, mediums, and
crystal-gazers had offered their services. Jimmie determined that one of
these should be his accomplice. He would tell the clairvoyant he
formerly had been employed as valet by Blagwin and knew where Blagwin
had placed his will. But he had been discharged under circumstances that
made it necessary for him to lie low. He would hint it was the police he
feared. This would explain why he could not come forward, and why he
sought the aid of the clairvoyant. If the clairvoyant fell in with his
plan he would tell him where the will could be found, the clairvoyant
would pretend in a trance to discover the hiding-place, would confide
hi