“It may be a forgery.”
“Put in the bedroom by some one else?”
“Exactly.”
“That would have been possible, perhaps, if a conspiracy existed,” Nick allowed tentatively.
“Conspiracy—that’s just the word,” said the lawyer. “I think that Cyrus Darling was the victim of a dastardly conspiracy, Nick, carried out with infernal cleverness.”
“And that his fortune was the incentive to the crime?”
“Precisely,” said Clayton. “I don’t know how it was framed up, of course, nor who are involved. I do believe that Darling was terribly jockeyed in some way, however, and either persuaded, or forced, to turn all of his bonds and securities into cash. I know positively that he did so,[Pg 13] for all of the brokers with whom he dealt are well acquainted with him and absolutely sure of his identity at the time. He certainly is the man who made the sales and received the money. There is no question about that.”
“Admitting that,” said Nick; “what more do you suspect?”
“I think that Darling was bunkoed out of it by some means and later lured to the boathouse and killed, the rascals covering their tracks by setting fire to the house, and contriving to leave a forged letter, pointing to suicide. Either that is the case, Nick, or else he got in wrong and lost all of his money, and then really committed suicide.”
“You think either theory is tenable?” questioned Nick, smiling a bit oddly.