“Let me help you,” he said, entering the place with her. The strong room was lighted from above by a small skylight over a heavy grating, the boxes being arranged on shelves around the walls. John Bond went straight to the one that belonged to Totty and moved it forward a little so that she could open it. She held her envelope ostentatiously in one hand and felt for her key in her pocket with the other. She knew which was hers and which was her brother’s, because Tom’s had a label fastened to it, with his name, whereas her own had none.
“Thanks,” she said, as she turned the key in the lock and raised the lid. “Please do not stay here, Mr. Bond, I want to look over a lot of things so as to put this I have brought into the right place.”
“Well—if I cannot be of any use,” said John. “I have rather a busy day. Please call me to shut the room when you have finished.”
Totty breathed more freely when she was alone. She could hear John cross the corridor and enter the private office. A moment later everything was quiet. With a quick, stealthy movement, she slipped the other key into the box labelled “T. Craik,” turned it and lifted the cover. Her heart was beating violently.
Fortunately for her the will was the last paper that had been put with the others and lay on the top of them all. The heavy blue envelope was sealed and marked “Will,” with the date. Totty turned pale as she held it in her hands. She had not the slightest intention of destroying it, whatever it might contain, but even to break the seal and read it looked very like a criminal act. On the other hand, when she realised that she held in her hand the answer to all her questions, and that by a turn of the fingers she could satisfy all her boundless curiosity, she knew that it was of no use to attempt resistance in the face of such a temptation. She realised, indeed, that she would not be able to restore the seal, and that she must not hope to hide the fact that somebody had tampered with the will, but the thought could not deter her from carrying out her intention. As she turned, her sleeve caught on the corner of the box which she had inadvertently left open and the lid fell with a sharp snap. Instantly John Bond’s footstep was heard in the corridor.
Totty had barely time to withdraw the key from her brother’s box and to bury the will under her own papers when John entered the room.
“Oh!” he exclaimed in evident surprise, “I thought I heard you shut your box, and that you had finished.”
“No,” said Totty in an unsteady voice, bending her pale face over her documents. “The lid fell, but I opened it again. I will call you when I come out.”
John returned to his work without any suspicion of what had happened. Then Totty extracted a hairpin from the coils of her brown hair and tried to lift the seal of the will from the paper to which it was so firmly attached. But she only succeeded in damaging it. There was nothing to be done but to tear the envelope. Still using her hairpin she slit open one end of the cover and drew out the document.
When she knew the contents, her face expressed unbounded surprise. It had never entered her head that Tom could leave his money to George Wood of all people in the world.