“Yes?”
“He said it should be proved tomorrow, unless a later will turned up.”
“Was there a later will?”
“That is what he did not know. He had drawn a new will about a year ago, but he doubted if it had ever been executed. Mr. Henderson was considering it. He thought he had a memorandum of it somewhere, but he remembered the principal features of it.”
“Was it a great change from the first?” Mavick asked.
“Yes, considerable. In fact, the greater part of his property, as far as I could make out, was to go to endow a vast training-school, library, and reading-room on the East Side. Of course that would be a fine thing.”
“Of course,” said Mavick. “And no such will has been found?”
“I've looked everywhere,” replied Carmen, simply; “all over the house. It should be in that desk if anywhere. We can look again, but I feel pretty sure there is no such document there.”
She took in her hand the bunch of keys that lay on the table, as if she were about to rise and unlock the desk. Then she hesitated, and looked Mavick full in the face.
“Do you think, Mr. Mavick, that will was ever executed?”