"A few weeks later, the child was privately christened in a small church on the outskirts of Melbourne and the event duly recorded upon the church records. He was given his father's name in full, Harold Scott Mainwaring, but until his twenty-first birthday was known among our acquaintances as Harry Scott, the same name by which he has been known in your city while acting as private secretary to Hugh Mainwaring."
"Are you familiar with the letter written by Harold Mainwaring to his son?"
"Perfectly so; he gave it into my keeping on the day of the christening, to be given to his son when he should have reached his majority, if he himself had not, before that time, claimed him as his child."
"You can then vouch for its genuineness?"
"I can."
"How long a time elapsed between the birth of this child and the death of Harold Mainwaring, the father?"
"About five years. He left his wife soon after the birth of this child and spent the greater part of his time at the mines. He finally decided to go to the gold fields of Africa, and a few months after his departure, we received tidings of the wreck of the vessel in which he sailed, with the particulars of his death at sea."
"Mr. Scott, did you ever hear of the existence of this will?"
"Not until the boy, Harold, learned of it, soon after he entered Oxford."
"Do you know how he first heard of it?"