THE FORGED WILL.

Evening Star, Issue 9582, 31 December 1894, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE FORGED WILL.

* [Anonymous.] - " Behind the wainscot ?" ♦'Yes; down behind the wainscot, in, what used to be the old gentleman's bedroom." " But how could it get there 1* " Oh, the wainscoting is warped a bit iway from the wall in parts, an' he'must ha' it down behind." " But why on earth should he want to hide it—there or anywhere else ?.' Gerald Mansfield opened the crunipkxT document, and read it through again. There was very little in it, and yet that little meant so much. Twelve months ago, when Uncle Cassimer died, and it .was found that, contrary to general expectation, he had made Gerald his heir, old Mr Gamlin—making a nice distinction between Gerald the pauper and Gerald the landed magnanimously consented to regard him as a prospective son-in-law, and allowed his daughter Essie to engage herself to him. Up to that time, in spite of Essie's protestations in Gerald's favor, Mr Gamlin had stubbornly supported the suit of Gerald's dashing and dissipated cousin Jack, who all along, in spite of his faults and follies, was popularly believed to be the favorite nephew. But, as I have intimated, the reading of Uncle Cassimer's will had miraculously opened old* Mr Gamlin's eyes to the fact that "he never had liked Jack Mansfield in his heart, and could not think of him as a husband for his daughter without horror and repugnance. So for twelve golden .months Gerald had lived in a dream of happy days to come, a dream that seemed moving slowly, but surely, towards its own realisation; and now had come a very different awakening from that he had hoped for. The .ruinous old house in which his uncle had lived had stood untenanted and condemned as unsafe for habitation, ever since the old gentleman's death, and Gerald had set the builders to work on I its destruction, as a preliminary to erecting upon the same spot—an ample area surrounded by a pleasant garden-ground of its own—a fair new dwelling which should one day be the home of himself and his wife. And here, in this crumpled document, was the death-warrant of that happiness. The builder's foreman had found it whilst pulling down the wainscoting of Uncle' Cassimer's bedroom, and had thought it his duty to bring it to Gerald. ( I read it, and, seem' what it was, I said notbin' to anyone, but just brought it straight to you," said the man* confidentially. " I knew your father, sir; I've known your uncle's family all„my life, an' I'd sooner see you at the head of it than Master Jack. I don't believe the - old man was in his right mind when he wrote that paper. I'm a poor man myself, an' I'd be sorry to see you lose your own, an' glad to see that paper destroyed—which the old gentleman never knew what he was writ- ' ing. That's jny belief." Gerald scarcely listened to him; and yet, as he mechanicallyj dazedly read the fatal document over and over again, he vaguely took in the man's meaning. Here was a later will than the one under which Gerald inherited, dated the day before his uncle's death, written out en* tirely in the old gentleman's own handwriting, and witnessed by the butler, whohad died only lately, and bv the footman, who had gone away somewhere abroad on the strength of a liberal legacy; aud this will bequeathed everything to Cousin Jack with the exception of a sum of five hundred pounds left to Gerald. Nobody suspected the existence of such a will but himself and the man who had found it, and he had pretty plainly intimated that his silence might be secured at a price. Such silence would mean that Gerald would retain his present wealth and position in society, and, more than all, that Essie would become his wife. The disclosure of the will must mean the inevitable loss of all these. It was a terrible temptation. Gerald Wavered for a few minutes, but strove 'desperately against it, and his better nature triumphed. " No," he said curtly ; " this document should be placed in the right hands. Come with me. We will take it on to Mr Dan vers at once." .. Mr Danvers had been his uncle's solicitor, and was now his own ; he had been appointed executor of the old will, and was appointed executor of this. "Therefore," observed Gerald,concluding his account of its discovery, "I thought I could not do better than place it in your , custody." .'■';" You have acted wisely and honorably, sir," returned the old lawyer warmly, f* There is no doubt," he added, carefully ( scanning the document again, " it is your uncle's writing ?' "Not the least." 'Vfet it was not like him to prepare ! such a document without coming to me." "Except," suggested Gerald, striving to t Hide his own dejection, " that as it is little iaore than a copy of the other will, with j my cousin's name substituted for mine, 3 perhaps he thought there was no need Jo* trouble you about it." \ 1 "Ashamed of his own weak partiality for such a worthless scoundrel," growled * 1 Mr Danvers. " Well, I am detply grjeyed _J for you, sir. You are Tiardly dealt "* and your cousin luckier than to be. But we cannot help ourselves. Jf { \ the will hadn't been found all woukihave been well. But it has been - fopnd-~-, "; there's the rub!" , . - s'-\ *#*• 'One thing Gerald soon mind- about—anything was•' Wtor 'tb*# | suspense-tfje would go' HhifyfnmitfaM£ i | .Gimlhvand be the first 1 .this "nnjsfortuneu l wow* "that. w*i sq-be <akwtfin, gravely whe» <3«^.i%^^*

; ..Hei&p&ded, fio^^^^MH^^^^H i that &he* was - tmt to> jus . fatten wiiuuNKWMMn-jw% * rdeari" she; said, earnestly,« wnateve* ■ father may say^' I love ydu only for y»w* v yowarerich-or pporcfgk to ma* - * ., "* . • home* with the sweet assurrepeating itself in ku raind,and; ifct-djcove away from ten aft ia»OTOht>f w,bai be bad lost, tH£ .near hif own doer, unexpectedly. face tot facejrith Jack. ""Well," excfcimsd that Jaunty j&s jovitd young gptlenian, "I've just-jpeeb, ; 014 and hen? Ibeen telling me the news. Bough'loß you, isn't it? By George! I should be quite sorry fbr you if I wWt myself. Ha, ha! Fortune of .war. Took nie all by surprise. I'd given . up all hope, of course." * " I suppose so?' answered Gerald shorfly.' - "Yes. Can't make out why {he old; man hifi it down there, as if he d been m insane jackdaw, eh ? Ton never know,— another will may turn up and >thrbw me over yet, They haven't pulled all the house down, have they ? They'll find a last will dated an hour before he died hidden in a bottle under the foundations. Tho old -chap was queer enough for anything. Well, ta-ta!" He swaggered airily away, lighting a fresh cigar. Tw.o days later Gerald had a letter from ~ Mr Dangers, asking him to be at his office that afternoon to finally arrange matters in connection with the new wilL • He went at the time appointed, and found Jack there before-him. They were ushered together into Danvers's private room, and he motioned them to the seats at either end of his table. '--'* Now, gentlemen," be said, leaning back in his chair and thoughtfully contemplating the opposite wall, "I thought it would l)e more satisfactory to both of you • if I had a few inquiries made as to where and how this will was found." " Quite so," Jack carelessly assented. - "I could not make these inquiries-in person ; my confidential clerk made them for me. You shall hear his report for yourselves." He rang his bell, and a clerk entered. "■Ask Mr Benson to come to me." Mr Benson came—a brisk, keen man, of a calm and deferential demeanor, a sort of human mechanical contrivance that always answered promptly and straight to the point . " You w,ent to the late Mr Cassimer's house in Piatt's lane, Benson, and made inquiries about the finding of this will 1" • "I did, sir." "What did you learn?' " The wainscoting and the whole bodroom were already pulled down and removed. I made inquiries at the cottages on the opposite side of the way, and a man at one of them informed me he happened to look out of his front window the night before the destruction of Mr Cassimer's house was commenced, and noticed a person—a gentleman—coming out of the gate? The gentleman looked round, casual like,, and went off. The man attached no importance to what he saw, and, as I told him-nothing, he attaches no importance to it now." " Did he recognise the gentleman V "Perfectly. Mentioned his name." "You also went and made some inquiries about the will itself?" said Mr Danvers. " About the paper it is written 6n 1 Yes, sir. I tried three different stationers in the town, and one kept that make of paper.in stock." "Yes. You mentioned to him the name of the gentleman already referred to?" " I did, sir. He knew the gentleman, and recollected that he bad called on him about a fortnight ai;o and bought some of the paper in question." "Thank you. That -will do, Mr Benson." Mr Beqson withdrew into the outer office. Some glimmering suspicion of the truth broke in upon Gerald's mind. He glanced wonderingly across the table, and - noticed that his cousin was looking pallid and subdued. " What do you gentlemen make of these circumstances?" asked Mr Danvers, i quietly, l " I hardly understand them yet," Gerald admitted. "What first led me to make inquiries was this—-* Mr Pauvers rose from his scat, opened out the will, and held- it up to the light so that they could both see it. "You observe the water mark," he continued, "the maker's initials and the date? This years date. So it would appear that your uoclc made his will on paper that was not manufactured until after his death." i' Do you mean to say " stammered Gerald. "I mean to say the whole thing's a forgery!" He tossed the document carelessly down on the table at Jack's elbow. " But with that document in existence we cannot ignore it We must either act upon it or prove it is not genuine. I should be sorry to drag your uncle's name into such a disgraceful business, but I cannot compound a felony by destroying that paper. The forger will have to be prosecuted. The fact that he used paper . that it&lf betrays him shows he isn't much of a knave-—" "No!* snarled Jack, with a sudden oath, snatching the paper from the table and savagely tearing it into fragments, and tossing them into the fire; "he's too much of a fool „!" He picked up his hat and hurried out of the room, furiously slamming the door after him. u - 1 wngratnlatejou, Mr Gerald," said the old'lawyer, smiling. "I hoped he would do that. It saves him from disgrace and you-from unpleasantness. The man who made the will has himself destroyed it, so we need not trouble ourselves about it any farther"