"Again I say, Watson, I am very sorry; I can't say more."
"And now there is something else I want to say to you," added the Captain, as he folded up the will; "and I would ask you to give very serious attention to what I am about to tell you. My father informed me, the day before he died, that he had addressed a letter to me, and had put it in the safe in his bedroom with his will. That letter I have never received. The envelope was there, addressed in my father's handwriting, but when I opened it, it contained nothing but a blank sheet of paper. Now I am convinced that that envelope has been tampered with by some one. I am certain that it has been opened, that the paper my father expected me to find there has been removed, and that the blank sheet has been inserted in its place, and I want you to help me to discover how and when this was done, and by whose hands. Elkington, do you know where my father kept the keys of his safe?"
"The old master always had them about him, sir, day and night, as you might say. He carried them in his pocket by day, and at night they were either under his pillow or on the table by his bed. Did you ever know him leave them about, or forget them?"
"Never, sir, never once. He were as careful of these keys, and kept them as well within his reach as a cat does a mouse she has caught; he seemed always to have an eye on them."
"Well, then, we come to the day of his sudden seizure when the telegram was brought in. Where were his keys then?"
"In his pocket, sir. I know he had them, for the post-bag was brought up from the lodge a few minutes before, and I took it to him, and he brought the keys out of his pocket to open it."
"And put them back again?"
"Oh yes, sir, he never forgot to do that."
"Well, then the doctor came, and what happened next?"
"He was carried upstairs, sir. Dr. Cholmondeley helped us, and then we got him into bed."