Carrington considered the remark for a few moments and stared out of the window at the chimney pots. "I don't think that I would call if I were you, Hendle," he said at length.
"Why not?"
"Because this case needs a more careful handling than you are able to give it, my friend. Leave Leigh alone until to-morrow, and I'll come down some time about midday to interview the vicar along with you."
"It's very good of you, Carrington," said the perplexed Squire gratefully. "I don't expect one night will make any difference, as I shall be certain of the bad news soon enough. I'll wait until you can go with me to-morrow to the Vicarage; perhaps, by then, Leigh will have found the will."
"I don't leave the Vicarage until he has found it," said Carrington grimly. "It's too important a document to be left in the hands of a shiftless creature such as Leigh. He is quite capable of taking it to Mallien, if it is in favor of Mallien's grandmother, as he asserts."
Hendle, standing up to go away, shook his head. "I don't think he will go past me," he remarked slowly. "In the first place, he dislikes Mallien because of Mallien's brusque manners, and in the second Mallien refused, out of his present income, to help him to fit out an expedition to Yucatan."
"Central America. Why does the vicar want to go there?"
"Oh, he's been reading some diary of Mallien's father, describing certain researches amongst buried cities in those wilds, and wants to go there and look up things for himself."
"I dare say if you finance this expedition, Leigh will say nothing about the will--that is, if he has already said nothing to anyone," said Carrington.
"He told me that he had not. Save you and I no one knows about Leigh's discovery. It's just as well that Mallien doesn't know," ended Rupert, with a shrug, "or he would tear down the Vicarage, or rob it, to get the testament which would make him a rich man."