“You’re a rum old fellow, Mr Hampton, and some of these days we three will have some hearty laughs across the walnuts and the wine over all this worry.”
“Yes, that we will,” said Doctor Lawrence. “Over a glass of port.”
“You see, gentlemen, I must get to work; for I find that, besides the pseudo George Harrington, I have another enemy to fight.”
“Another?”
“Yes, gentlemen. Mr Saul Harrington—the next heir.”
“I do not quite understand you,” said the lawyer.
“I am sorry to say I do,” said the doctor. “Saul Harrington is next heir, and there can be no doubt about his being strongly attached to our young friend Gertrude.”
“Even if this be so,” said the lawyer, “it does not strengthen your case, Mr Blank.”
“Well, for the present, agreed then,” said the young man smiling. “Mr Blank be it so. But it does strengthen my case. Now, gentlemen, I am going to be my own detective and I am fighting for a large stake.”
“Yes, it is a big estate,” said the lawyer drily.