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She quietly acknowledged Pratt's somewhat elaborate bow, and motioned him to take a chair at the side of the big desk which stood before the fireplace she herself sat down at the desk itself, in John Mallathorpe's old elbow-chair.
Hundreds of people, competent to do so, could swear to John Mallathorpe's signature; hundreds to Gaukrodger's; thousands to Marshall's who as cashier was always sending his signature broadcast. No, there was nothing to do but to put that into the hands of the trustees named in it, and then.... Pratt thought next of the two trustees. They were well-known men in the town.
Did he do something particular after half-past four?" "There was a post came in just about then, sir," answered Jabey. "There was an American letter that's it, sir just in front of you. Mr. Bartle read it, and asked me if we'd got a good clear copy of Hopkinson's History of Barford. I reminded him that there was a copy amongst the books that had been bought from Mallathorpe's Mill some time ago."
"I've had something else to do for you!" retorted Esther, coming close to her mistress. "Listen, now! I've got it!" Mrs. Mallathorpe's attitude and manner suddenly changed. She caught sight of the packet of papers in the woman's hand, and at once sprang to her feet, white and trembling. Instinctively she held out her own hands and moved a little nearer to the maid.
What happened was, that not very long after Miss Mallathorpe had left for town in the carriage, Esther Mawson, the maid, came downstairs from Mrs. Mallathorpe's room, and was crossing the lower part of the hall, when Mrs. Mallathorpe suddenly appeared up there and called to me and James to stop her and lock her up, as she'd stolen money and jewels!
First: what Cobcroft had seen signed was John Mallathorpe's will. Second: John Mallathorpe had made it himself and had taken the unusual course of making a duplicate copy. Third: John Mallathorpe had probably slipped the copy into the History of Barford which was in his private office when he went out to speak to the steeple-jack.
Those documents were all ready, and in the sealed packet which he had just taken from the safe; in it, too, were some other documents John Mallathorpe's will; the letter which Mrs. Mallathorpe had written to him on the evening previous to her son's fatal accident; and the power of attorney which Pratt had obtained from her at his first interview after that occurrence.
It had been absolutely necessary to have some tool close at hand to Normandale Grange and its inhabitants; to have some person there upon whom he could depend for news. He had found that person, that tool, in Esther Mawson, who, as Mrs. Mallathorpe's maid, had opportunities which he at once recognized as being likely to be of the greatest value to him.
Up to the time of John Mallathorpe's death, they had lived in very humble fashion lived, indeed, on an allowance from their well-to-do kinsman for Richard Mallathorpe had been as much of a waster as his brother had been of a money-getter.
"No! I thought that he probably wanted to see me about buying some books of the late Mr. Mallathorpe's." "Did you tell Collingwood that?" asked Pratt, eagerly. "Yes of course." "Did it satisfy him?" Mrs. Mallathorpe frowned again. "Why shouldn't I?" she demanded. "It was the only explanation I could possibly give him. How do I know what the old man really wanted?"
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