James Mowbray.
Aline gazed in blank astonishment when she saw her own name.
“That is your great-grandmother’s name,” said Master Richard, “but it is all right, the chest is yours all the same, as you are the sole heiress of that line. But if you do not mind I should like to see the will, even before you lift the velvet cloth.”
Aline ran upstairs, her heart beating with wild excitement, and was followed by Audry. The lock moved exactly as the other one had done and there lay the lost will.
“How stupid of us not to find it before,” said Audry, “but, oh, I am so glad that something really good has come to you at last.”
They ran down again.
“Here it is,” said Audry, who was holding the will.
“Let his Grace read it,” said Master Richard, “as he is a disinterested party.”
It was a long will, but the tenour of it was,—that the old Mowbray estates at Middleton went to James Mowbray’s son, but the little Holwick property, with half the contents of the library, was left to his daughter, Aline, and to her heirs after her forever.
The will concluded,—“And that the said Aline Gillespie and my son-in-law Angus Gillespie may be able to keep up the Holwick estate in a manner that is befitting, I also bequeath for the use of the said Aline and Angus and their heirs after them the great iron chest and its contents, the which chest, with the name of Aline Gillespie inside, is now within the secret room; and the means for the discovery of all these things are in the little book in the library, concealed in the lock opposite to this. The parchment with holes, that is hidden in the cover of the aforesaid book, is to be placed over each page in turn and the letters that appear through the holes may then be read as words.”