"On the other hand, if the will is found and proves to be illegal? What then will be your attitude?"
"Even then I shall refuse to----"
"Not you," broke in Rupert with a broad smile. "You are too anxious to buy that blue sapphire you were talking about. If you want the five hundred a year that my marriage with Dorinda will put into your pocket, you will have to put your pride in the same receptacle."
"We'll see about that!" snarled Mallien vindictively, but in a more subdued tone, for he did not wish to cross the Rubicon too soon. "The will has yet to be proved illegal."
"The will has yet to be found," answered the Squire, thinking how difficult it was to hammer an idea into the man's obstinate head.
"Ah!" Mallien's tone was significant. "I am quite sure that it never will be found."
Rupert opened his big blue eyes in genuine surprise. "You seem to have changed your opinion," he remarked, after a pause. "Just now you made sure it would be found."
"Bah!" Mallien's pent-up rage burst forth anew. "Do you think that I can't see through your pretended search?"
"Pretended search." Hendle rose slowly and towered above the stout little man like a giant. "Explain what you mean."
"It's easy to see," snapped the other, sulkily. "Lawson could not find the will among the papers of Leigh and you will not find it. And why? Because it is already in your possession, and has been destroyed for all I know."