The Lost Heir

would come in at once. The feeling among those who were in his debt was one of absolute dismay, for it seemed to them certain the amounts would be at once calle

se papers, but he might not be as easy as I have been, and I should not like any of you to get into trouble. I have never pressed anyone since I have been here, still

twenty pounds, he took the same course, adding a little good advice

e to ruin you, and I fancy I have succeeded very well. There is no harm in a game of billiards now and then, but if you cannot play without betting you had better cut it altogeth

re once more free men, and until a fresh set of players had succeeded them the billiard

to him. He naturally supposed that I had just arrived from abroad, and he has offered to introduce me to many of his friends; and I think that I have a good chance of being put down in his will for a decent sum. I brought money home with me from abroad and have made a goodish sum here, so I shall resume my proper name and go West, and drop this affair altogether. I am not likely to come against any of the crew here, and, as you see," and he removed a false beard and whiskers from his face, "I have shaved, though I got this hair to wear until I had finally cut the court. So you see you have unintentionally done me a considerable service, and in return I shall say nothing about tha

at the General's he might recognize him and give him some trouble. He had made no secret that he had turned his hand to many callings, and that his doings in the southern seas would not always bear close investigation, and the fact that he had once kept a billiard room could do him no special harm. As to the will, Dawki

aven and faultlessly dressed man whom they might meet coming out of a West End club. Dawkins often turned the matter over i

re, and I could not say that it was a conversation of mine about the General's will that put it into his head to call upon him, and lastly, he has me on the hip with those I. O. U.'s. Possibly if the

, three months later, General Mathieson came into

erk was called in. On returning,

, but this legacy is to be inserted after that to Miss Covington. It might just as well

yn Street, I bequeath the sum of ten thousand pounds, as a token of my gratitude for his heroic conduct in

nts relating to his affairs. "Ten thousand pounds! I wish I could light upon a general in a fix of some sort, though I don't know that I should care about a tiger. It is wonderful what luck s

icult to keep his attention fixed upon his work, and when the ch

even sense. During all the time that I have been in this office I have never had such a disgraceful piece of work come into my hand

t feel very well to-day, and I have got such a he

go home and lie down. You are worse than of no use in the state that you are. I hope that you will be all right in the morning, for we are, as you know, very busy at present, and cannot spare a hand. Tear up that draft and h

came into the office at the usual hour next day, "though I must say th

; at any rate my

, the more hopeless seemed the prospect. John Simcoe was eminently a man whom it would be unsafe to anger. The promptness and decision of his methods had gained him at least the respect of all the frequenters of his establishment, and just as he had sternly kept ord

finally came to was that he must wait and watch events, and that, so far as he could see, his only chance of obtaining a penny of the legac

on Pentonville Hill, where one of the ablest criminals in London resided, passing unsuspected under the eyes of

seen you for months. I did not know you for the mom

given up the billiard rooms, and am now

billiards and cards paid well; but I suppo

but I have a very

for big things. They take time to work out, it is true; and after all one's trouble, something may go wrong at the last moment, and the thing has to be given up. Some girl who has been got at makes a fool of herself, and gets discharged a week before it comes off; or a lady takes it into her head to send her jewels to a banker's, and go on to the Continent a week earlier than she intended to do. Then there is

s first-rate, Harrison, an

again. I thought that he had gone down somehow, and had either been eaten by sharks or killed by the natives, or shot in some row with his mates. He was two years older than I was, and, as I have told you, we were sons of a well-to-do auctioneer in the country; but he wa

ick-pockets. The old fellow who kept it saw that we were fit for higher game than was usual, and instead of being sent out to pick up what we could get in the streets we were dressed as we had been before, and se

places, and one day when Bill was just pocketing a watch at Lord's one of these boys shouted out, 'Thief! thief! That boy has stolen your watch, sir

in again twice; he was too rash altogether. I took him away with me, but I soon found that it

d ticker, worth perhaps twenty pounds, we can't get above two for it, and it is the same with everything else. It is not good enough. We have been away from London so long that old Isaacs must have forgotten all about us. I have not been copped yet, and as I have got about

got into trouble the other should call once a month at the house of a woman we knew to ask for letters, and I did that regularly after he was sent out. I got a few letters from him. The first was written after he had made his escape. He told me that he intended

d retire if I liked, and live in a villa and keep my carriage. Why, I made five thousand pounds as my share of that bullion robbery between London and Brussels. But I know that I should be miserable without anything to do; as it is, I unite amusement with business. I sometimes take a stall at the Opera, and occasionally I find a diamond necklace in my pocket when I get home. I know well enough that it is foolish, but when I see a thing that I need only put out my hand to have, my old habit is too strong for me. Then I often walk into swell entertainments. You have only to be well go

d me of your doings abroad, I know that you are not squeamish in your ideas, a

st at present I have a matter in hand that will set me up for life if it turns out well, but I shall want a little assistance. In the first place I want to get hold of a m

particular jobs in hand, inquiries I could not trust anyone else to make, I have been to him, and when he has done with me and I have looked in th

as nearly as may be the same.

Here is the man's address; his usual fee is a guinea, but, as you wa

again, I may want to get hold of a man wh

he receives a note from him ordering him to come up to town with a dressing case, portmanteau, guns, or something of that kind, as may be suitable to the case. I got a countess out of the way once by a messenger arriving on horseback with a line from her husband, saying that he had met with an accident in the hunting-field, and beggin

thoroughly trustwo

e quite sober, but he will be less drunk than he will be later. As soon as he begins to write he pulls himself together. He puts a watchmaker's glass in his eye and closely examines the writing that he has to imitate, writes a few lines to accustom himself to it, and then w

e assistance of these two men, I shall be able to wor

, when the natives rose and massacred the whites, and you got Bill off, and if he did die afterwards of his wounds, anyhow you did your best to save

but I shall be very glad to have your opinion on it, and with your head you are like to se

ed the details

to have his money when he has done with it. Your plan of impersonating the General and getting another lawyer to draw out a fresh will is a capital one; and as you have a list of the bequests he made in h

e got out of th

ope, Simcoe. I could n

ying off a child of that age. It only wants two to do that: one to engage the nurse in talk, t

over the property unless they had some

could wait. They would probably carry out all the other provisions of the will, and with the ten

he signature

st three months practicing the General's, and I think now that I can defy any expert to detect the differ

ploy a firm of lawyers of long standing. If you were to

think I know of one. At the club the other day Colonel Bulstrode, a friend of the General's, said to him, 'I wish you would drive round with me to my lawyers'; their place is in the T

General would not have spoken at all. He would just have seen his friend sign the deed, and then have affixed his