The lawyer slowly nodded his head.
“In that case,” he said, “the answer is in the negative.”
“What? They would not have divided it? Why not?”
“The whole—or practically the whole—would have gone to Miss Inez Fratten. Mr. Ryland Fratten is not Sir Garth Fratten’s son.”
CHAPTER XI.
The Intervention of Inez
As the room cleared, at the adjournment of the Inquest, Chief Inspector Barrod turned to his subordinate.
“There you are, Poole,” he said. “I’ve given you a start on that young fellow. You stick to it now and don’t leave go till you’ve got him. You’ll have to keep him shadowed now.”
“Very well, sir, I’ve arranged to go round and see him at his house this evening—I’ll go into that girl question then. If you’ll excuse me, sir, I just want to catch Mr. Menticle to get a bit more out of him about this parentage business.”
“Yes, you’ll want that. I slipped a line to the Coroner not to press it too far in Court; we’ve done enough for the moment, as far as the public’s concerned.”
The Inspector caught Mr. Menticle before he had left the precincts of the Yard and the latter invited him to walk down the Embankment with him towards the City.