“My Dear,—As a tangible evidence of my wish when you claim the money which I am leaving in trust for you to have, if you are so placed that you ever need it after I am gone, I write you this letter. You understand it, so will my partners when you produce it.—Yours most affectionately, John Rellingham.”
“What do you think of it, Tempest?” asked the solicitor.
“It’s precisely what I’ve been expecting.”
“Expecting! Why should you expect it?”
“When I told the judge in open court (I shouldn’t have said it, of course, if I hadn’t known of the duplicate set of papers), but when I told him that the directions for the disposal of the trust were in a sealed packet, and that that packet had been destroyed, and that you three didn’t yourselves know what were the original intentions of Sir John in creating the trust, I felt pretty confident you would have a crop of bogus claims. This is the first. I was inviting them, and I knew it.”
“But this looks genuine. They have the fact of the marriage. That is not public property, but we know it is true.”
“Quite so, Baxter; but at least three other people, the witnesses and the parson, must also have known it originally. And goodness only knows who they have since told, and very likely there are several other people as well,—the relatives of Sir John’s wife.”
“But the letter fits so well.”
“Of course it does; but in view of what the public know, anybody could have concocted that letter. It could have been made to fit. You weren’t likely to have a letter fired at you that wouldn’t fit. Now, there are these points you must bear in mind: (1) The letter may be a forgery. (2) There may be no Lady Rellingham now in existence, and this may be a simple ramp on the part of Clutch & Holdem—you know the sort of reputation that firm has? (3) They may have a client who is claiming to be Lady Rellingham, but who is nothing of the kind. (4) But even if she is Lady Rellingham, and even if the letter is genuine, it doesn’t follow that it refers to the secret trust. Then added to all that, by a decree of the court, under the terms of the will, the money now belongs to you three in fee simple.”
“But we’ve reconstituted the trust.”