hat you have destroyed it."

"What right has he got to say that I have destroyed it? I have
destroyed nothing."

Mr Apjohn marked the words well, and was again all but convinced
that his client was not innocent. "He will endeavour to make a jury
believe from words coming out of your own mouth, or possibly by your
silence, that you have either destroyed the deed,--or have concealed
it."

Cousin Henry thought a moment whether he had concealed the will or
not. No! he had not put it within the book. The man who hides a thing
is the man who conceals the thing,--not a man who fails to tell that
he has found it.

"Or--concealed it," repeated Mr Apjohn with that peculiar voice of
his.

"I have not concealed it," said the victim.

"Nor know where it lies hidden?" Ghastly pale he became,--livid,
almost blue by degrees. Though he was fully determined to give up the
will, he could not yield to the pressure now put upon him. Nor could
he withstand it. The question was as terrible to him as though he had
entertained no idea of abandoning the property. To acknowledge that
he knew all along where it was hidden would be to confess his guilt
and to give himself up to the tormentors of the law.

"Nor know where it lies hidden?" repeated Mr Apjohn, in a low voice.
"Go out of the room, Ricketts," he said. "Nor know where it lies
hidden?" he asked a third time when the clerk had closed the door
behind him.

"I know nothing about it," gasped the poor man.

"You have nothing beyond that to say to me?"

"Nothing."

"You would rather that it should be left to Mr Cheekey? If there be
anything further that you can say, I should be more tender with you
than he."

"Nothing."

"And here, in this room, there is no public to gaze upon you."

"Nothing," he gasped again.

"Very well. So be it. Ricketts, see if the fly be there for Mr
Jones." A few minutes afterwards his confidential clerk was alone
with him in the room.

"I have learned so much, Ricketts," said he. "The will is still in
existence. I am sure of that. And he knows its whereabouts. We shall
have Miss Brodrick there before Christmas yet."

CHAPTER XIX

Mr Apjohn Sends for Assistance

The last words in the last chapter were spoken by Mr Apjohn to his
confidential clerk in a tone of triumph. He had picked up something
further, and, conscious that he had done so by his own ingenuity,
was for a moment triumphant. But when he came to think over it all
alone,--