“I don’t know who he is, or was, as the case may he,” Miss Hamilton replied, a note of distress in her answer. “According to Uncle Brooke’s notes he is, or was, a lawyer. I know of no lawyer, however, by the name of Norris, who was practicing law in the town of Hamilton at that time.” She shook a puzzled head.
Jonas just then appearing in the library doorway, Miss Hamilton turned eagerly to him, “Jonas, do you know of another secret drawer here at the Arms besides the one in Uncle Brooke’s study desk?”
Jonas came forward without answering the question, his white brows contracted in an evident effort at recollection.
“I don’t know where there is another secret drawer at the Arms,” he said slowly, “but it seems to me I once heard Mr. Brooke speak of one. I can’t think now, when, or why, he spoke about it. Maybe it’ll come back to me after a while. I only think that he did speak of it to me,” the old houseman ended with certainty.
“Marjorie found Uncle Brooke’s notebook; the one he lost, and worried about losing.” Miss Hamilton held up the little black book, relating to Jonas in an excited voice the circumstances of the finding and the important information it contained concerning the “Honor Fund.”
Jonas’s fine old features registered marked surprise. “He talked to me about that honor fund, different times,” he said, an excited note in his own voice. “He must have put his idea through, or he wouldn’t have written that in the notebook.”
“Do you recall a lawyer in Hamilton by the name of Norris, Jonas?” Miss Susanna had fixed hopeful eyes on Jonas.
“No,” Jonas answered after due deliberation. “I never heard Mr. Brooke mention any such man, either. He must have lived there, though, or in some near-by town. Mr. Brooke said in the note you just read me that he was going to this man Norris’s office the next day to see him.”
“Yes,” the old lady nodded, “I wish you to go to Hamilton town this afternoon, Jonas, and see John Saxe. He knows everybody in the town and around it. Ask him to look up this man Norris, if he can, as soon as possible. It was his business to write me concerning this trust directly after Uncle Brooke’s death. Possibly he thought I knew the situation regarding it. Nevertheless, he should have communicated with me, at any rate. He must have been living then. If he had died before Uncle Brooke died Uncle would have made a new arrangement with another lawyer about the fund.”
“Perhaps he may have done so, and any data which might relate to the change of lawyers is in the secret drawer, too,” Marjorie suggested.