“What’s back of all this business about Byrl Gailord?” Mason asked.
“Just what I told you,” Freel said, and his eyes slithered away from those of the lawyer.
“Look up at me, Freel.”
Mason waited until the man had slowly raised his eyes.
“Now,” Mason said, “I’ll tell you the whole business. Byrl Gailord is no more the daughter of a grand duke than I am. Byrl Gailord is the illegitimate daughter of Mrs. Tump’s daughter. That grand duke business was invented within the last few months by Mrs. Tump to give the child a background of respectability. Gailord’s will referred to her as an adopted child. She inherited a lot of money under that will, but that will also disclosed the fact that she had been taken from a welfare home somewhere, and had never been formally adopted, that she was the illegitimate offspring of an illicit affair… No, don’t shift your eyes, Freel. Look up at me. Keep looking at me… Mrs. Tump wanted to get the girl into society. Byrl Gailord attracted the interest and attention of Coleman Reeger. Reeger’s family are high society with a capital H.S. They’d never have consented to a marriage with a young woman of Byrl Gailord’s real antecedents, so Mrs. Tump took it on herself to furnish a fictitious background. She knew she couldn’t do it by herself, so she hunted you up and planted you as a witness.”
Freel fidgeted. The bedsprings squeaked uneasy accompaniment.
“How much?” Mason asked.
“Fifteen thousand dollars,” Freel said in a thin, reedy voice.
“How much of it have you actually received?”
“One thousand. The other comes when… when…”