"Not on or about the twenty-third of July?"
"No! I am positive. I should have known. It is true that he called to see us a few days after his mother's death, about the annuity which Carr ordered to be paid to Mrs. Joyce. He wanted to know if he would have it also. We communicated with Colonel Carr, who replied in his characteristic way that Joyce could go to the devil. Afterwards Joyce called a second time and we told him the message."
"The second time was on the twenty-fourth of July?"
"No! It was towards the end of April. We have not seen him since, nor, as I say, have we written him any letter."
This concise explanation showed Herrick that Robin for reasons of his own had told a deliberate lie. Whatever he had come to London about, it was not to see the Solicitors as he had alleged to Herrick. Dr. Jim pulled his moustache reflectively. "Why was an annuity paid to Mrs. Joyce?"
"I don't know," replied Frith, "and even if I did, it would be a breach of professional etiquette to tell you. A year after the Colonel came back to England--about nine years ago--he ordered my father to send a monthly cheque to Mrs. Joyce at an address at Hampstead. She sent a receipt every time, but she never came to see us, and we had absolutely nothing to do with her. When she changed her address, which she did several times, she notified the fact and we sent her allowance to the new place. That is all I know of the annuity. And as I say the Colonel stopped it when she died. What it was for, I don't know. The Colonel was dark in many ways."
"He was evidently a most dangerous person," said, Herrick rising to take his leave. "However he has received the reward of his crimes. By the way I suppose all the business of Marsh is in your hands?"
"Yes! It is all in order. The Colonel was a most methodical man, and left his estate in the best of conditions. We are now arranging for letters patent for this change of name. Our client has arranged to call himself Marsh-Carr. I suppose he did not like the idea of Carr alone."
"Can you wonder at it considering the reputation of the name?"
"No! not a very nice name to give one's wife," laughed Frith rising. "Well good-bye Dr. Herrick. I am glad to have seen you, and still more glad to think that our client has so excellent a friend at his elbow."