“‘This paper is to be burnt the moment it has been read. I desire that no memorandum of it shall ever be put into writing. If litigation is threatened, this packet is to be burned immediately. A duplicate set of the papers is deposited in the name of the firm at the Chancery Lane Safe Deposit. The existence of this duplicate set is not to be disclosed. I leave it to the honour and integrity of my partners that if under litigation the trust ceases to exist, it shall at the earliest safe opportunity be again reconstituted.’”

“That does away with the risk I spoke[71] of. You were certainly right to destroy the papers.”

[71]

“In spite of the court?”

“Yes, I think so. I’m sure of it. The old boy intended you to stand the racket. I should fancy he anticipated it, though it’s more likely he expected litigation from the heir-at-law than the Crown.”

“That is the conclusion my partners and I came to. But, Tempest, ought we to disclose the other simply to catch the murderer?”

“No, I think not. Sir John is dead. You can’t bring him to life again. All you can do is to regard his wishes. I bet he’d prefer that to the stringing up of some poor devil.”

When the motion came on in court the trust was upheld. As constituted under the will it had been perfectly valid; but now under the terms of the will the litigation had put an end to it, and the court[72] ruled that the capital moneys had now vested in the surviving partners for their own benefit.

[72]

“Come and dine with all of us to-night, Tempest,” said one of the partners, as they left the law courts after hearing judgment given. “We’re in a deuce of a quandary!”

The invitation was accepted, and after dinner the four men sat over the walnuts and the wine in the sumptuously furnished bachelor chambers of Arthur Baxter.

“You see, Tempest,” said the host, “the secret trust is already reconstituted. We did it this afternoon. We can’t afford to run the risk of one of us dying and his executors claiming any proprietorship in the money. So the position now is exactly as it was when the will was first proved. But now that the court has declared the money to belong to us personally, the state of affairs isn’t particularly pleasant, because[73] that infernal evening rag is bound to adopt the standpoint that by 

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