"He was absent on many occasions, and had he signed as a witness he would not have benefited."
"Madame Marie Eppingrave?"
"Humph!" Martaban considered. "She and Agstone might have signed certainly, but in that case she would have come forward to state to whom the new will left the property. It could not have been Jadby, since the old will held good, if the second was destroyed."
"Madame Marie may have been bribed by Jadby to hold her tongue about the third will, so that the first could stand."
"Which points to the fact that the second must have been destroyed. Yet Mrs. Blexey says that it was not."
"I agree," admitted Prelice; "but, as you say, she does not prove her case."
Martaban nodded. "The sole way in which the case can be proved is by the production of the second will."
"Or of the third," remarked Prelice quietly. "The assassin of Sir Oliver burnt one will—we know not which—and holds the other. He will produce it when he is ready."
"And so lay himself open to arrest," ended Martaban neatly. He paused, and went on deliberately: "I advise a waiting game."
"A waiting game?"