d, felt the oppression increasing, and the air in
the great gloomy room seemed to have become thick and hard to breathe.

He was as if in a dream as the lawyer went on:

"To Paul Capel, son of my nephew, Paul Capel, I leave my freehold house
and furniture, library, plate, pictures, statues, bronzes, and curios,
conditionally that the house be kept during his lifetime in the same
state as it is in now.

"Conditionally, also, that my body, after embalming, according to my
instructions, be carried into the room leading out of my bedroom, and
placed in the iron receptacle I had specially constructed, without
religious rite or ceremony of any kind. I have tried to make my peace
with my Creator; to Him I leave the rest. This done, the iron chamber
to be locked in the presence of the said Paul Capel, who shall take the
key. The doorway shall then be built-up with blocks of stone similar to
those of which I had the room built, a sufficiency of which are stored
up in cellar Number 4, sealed with my seal.

"And I here solemnly bind my heir and successor to observe exactly these
my commands, that my body may rest undisturbed in my old home, under
penalty of forfeiture of the said freehold as above named."

"He must have been mad," said Artis, in an audible voice.

"And as I, being now in full possession of my senses," continued Mr
Girtle, slightly raising his voice, "know that this is a strange and
arduous burden to lay upon my heir in chief, though I have taken such
precautions that in a short time my presence in the house may entirely
be forgotten, I give and bequeath to him for his sole use and
enjoyment--and in the hope that with the help and advice of my old
friend, Joshua Girtle, he will sensibly invest, and sell and invest--the
Russian leather case containing Bank of England notes amounting to five
hundred thousand pounds."

Artis drew a long breath through his teeth; Katrine D'Enghien leaned
forward, with her beautiful eyes fixed on Paul Capel; Lydia sank back in
her seat with a feeling of misery she could not have explained seeming
to crush her; while Paul Capel sat now unmoved.

"And," continued the old lawyer, "the flat silver case containing the
diamonds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds, bequeathed to me by my
mistresses, the Ranee of Illahad and Begum of Rahahbad, valued at one
million sterling, more or less. These cases are in the steel chest in
the iron chamber in which my coffin is to be placed when the ca