“So that he never returned?”
“I believe not; at least I never heard of it.”
“I have written down these questions and your answers to them,” said Repton; “will you read them over, and if you find them correct, append your signature. I am expecting Mr. Nelligan here, and I 'll go and see if there be any sign of his arrival.”
Repton just reached the door as Mr. Nelligan drove up to it.
“All goes on well and promptly to-day,” said the old lawyer. “I have got through a good deal of business already, and I expect to do as much more ere evening sets in. I have asked you to be present, as a magistrate, while I examine the contents of a certain closet in this house. I am led to believe that very important documents are deposited there, and it is in your presence, and that of Mr. Leslie, I purpose to make the inquiry. Before I do so, however, I will entreat your attention to a number of questions, and the answers to them, which will be read out to you. You will then be in a better position to judge of any discovery which the present investigation may reveal. All this sounds enigmatically enough, Mr. Nelligan; but you will extend your patience to me for a short while, and I hope to repay it.”
Nelligan bowed in silence, and followed him into the house.
“There,” said Mr. Leslie, “I have written my name to that paper; it is, so far as I can see, perfectly correct.”
“Now, let me read it for Mr. Nelligan,” said Repton; and, without further preface, recited aloud the contents of the document. “I conclude, sir,” said he, as he finished, “that there is nothing in what you have just heard very new or very strange to your ears. You knew before that Darcy Martin had two sons; that they were twins; and that one of them, Godfrey, inherited the estate. You may also have heard something of the brother's history; more, perhaps, than is here alluded to.”
“I have always heard him spoken of as a wild, reckless fellow, and that it was a piece of special good fortune he was not born to the property, or he had squandered every shilling of it,” said Nelligan.
“Yes,” said Leslie, “such was the character he bore.”