"It was I who copied it for my master, the wretched solicitor.
"I stole that copy and re-copied it, and sold it to the only man whom it could benefit, and that was your Uncle John."
"My Uncle John? He who sent you out to my poor, dear father?"
"The same. But let me hurry on. The real will is still in possession of the solicitor, and it gives all the estates of Burnley Hall, in Cornwall, to John, in the event of Peggy's death."
"I begin to see," said Dick.
"My reward was to have been great, if I managed the affair properly. I have never had it, and, alas! I need it not now.
"But," he continued, "your villainous uncle was too great a coward to have Peggy murdered. His last words to me on board the steamer before I sailed were: 'Remember--not one single drop of blood shed.'
"I might have done worse than even I did, but these were the words that instigated my vile plot, of which I now most heartily repent. All I had to do was to get apparent proof of Peggy's death."
"And my Uncle John now holds the estates of Burnley Hall? Is that so?"
"He does. The solicitor could not help but produce the will, on hearing of Peggy's capture and death.