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That was one reason why we took this old place it's a deal better air here nor what it is in the town." "So your husband is at Mallathorpe's Mill, eh?" asked Collingwood. "Been there in the counting-house boy and man, over thirty years, sir," replied Mrs. Cobcroft. "Did he see that terrible affair then was it two years ago?" The landlady shook her head and let out a weighty sigh.
"Yes," asserted Collingwood. "I know that." "I've oft wondered," continued Cobcroft, "if that could ha' been his will that they were signing! But then I reflected a bit on matters. And there were two or three things that made me say naught at all not a word. First of all, I considered it a very unlikely thing that a rich man like Mr. John Mallathorpe would make a will for himself.
The solicitor hastily drew out the enclosure, glanced it over, and turned sharply to Collingwood with a muttered exclamation. "Good gracious!" he said. "That man Cobcroft was right! There was a duplicate! And here it is!" Mrs. Mallathorpe had come nearer. The sight of the half sheet of foolscap in Eldrick's hands seemed to fascinate her.
I'll not deny that I have oft thought that I would like to tell it to a lawyer of some sort, and find out how it struck him." "Anything that you like to tell me, Mr. Cobcroft, I shall treat as a matter of confidence until you tell me it's no longer a secret," answered Collingwood.
And it was a good job," concluded Cobcroft, reflectively, "that it fell straight collapsed in itself, as you might say for if it had fallen slanting either way, it 'ud ha' smashed right through some of the sheds, and there'd ha' been a terrible loss of life." "Mr. John Mallathorpe was killed on the spot, I believe?" suggested Collingwood.
"A way is may be being made, just now through another affair," replied Collingwood. "At present matters are vague. One couldn't go to Pratt and demand something at which one is, after all, only guessing. Your mother, of course, would deny that she knows what it is that Pratt holds. But there is the possibility of the duplicate to which Cobcroft referred.
If they had been deposited in his own pocket, they would have been found when his clothing was removed and examined. If they were in the private office when the three men left it "You're sure the drawers, safe and so on in Mr. Mallathorpe's room were thoroughly searched after his death?" he asked. "I should think they were!" answered Cobcroft laconically. "I helped at that, myself.
"Why," continued Cobcroft, "it isn't what you rightly would call a secret though I don't think anybody knows aught about it but myself! It was just this and it may be there's naught in it but a mere fancy o' mine. That morning, before the accident happened, I was in and out of the private office a good deal carrying in and out letters, and account books, and so on. Mr.
It was one o' those things a man can never forget!" "Don't talk about it if you don't want to," remarked Collingwood. "But I've heard so much about that affair that " "Oh, I don't mind talking about it," replied Cobcroft. He leaned over the fence of his garden, still gazing at the mill in the distance. "There were others that saw it, of course: lots of 'em.
Supposing that the document which Cobcroft spoke of as being in process of execution before him were indeed duplicate copies of a will. What could have been done with them, in the few minutes which elapsed between the signing and the catastrophe to the chimney? It was scarcely likely that John Mallathorpe would have sent them away by post.
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