"The wills? Whose will. What will?"
"Look up any will made by anyone called Durham. Go back fifteen or twenty years. Of course," said Gerald apologetically, "it is only my fancy based upon the few words let drop by Mrs. Geary, but I feel somehow--in my bones, as the old women say--that Mavis is being kept a prisoner on account of money."
Tod fidgeted. "It's such a wild idea," he protested.
"Wild or not, it is six and eightpence in your greedy, legal pocket."
"Rebb might not like my prying into his private affairs."
"I don't see that Rebb need know anything about it," said Gerald impatiently. "In fact, I want to keep my doings dark in the Rebb direction, for if there is anything in my belief the Major will do his best to queer my pitch. If you look up the will of a man or of a woman called Durham, Rebb cannot say anything, as neither you nor I are supposed to know anything about the Pixy's House business. Well?"
Tod nodded, and made a note. "I'll search," he assented. "Any will by someone called Durham, man or woman, and dated some fifteen or twenty years ago. Suppose I find nothing?"
"And suppose you do," retorted his friend, rising; "we are searching for a needle in a haystack, remember, Toddy, and must poke about in every direction. We'll look into the money business first, and then we can question Mrs. Pelham Odin and Bellaria as to the possibility of there being any relationship between these two girls."
"See here," remarked Macandrew slowly, "all this talk is first rate if you were writing a story and knew the end. But it seems to me that, as we have to deal with real life, you are making circumstances to fit in with your theories."
"Perhaps I am," replied Haskins, with a shrug, "but I am so much in love with Mavis that I shall move heaven and earth to get her."