“I’m my own attorney!” snapped Jarvis. “I have been a lawyer long enough to know my rights.”
“Your knowledge of law may be fairly good—very good,” returned the detective. “But the action of law must be based on sound facts, and it seems as if you have overlooked them. I tell you that Howard Milmarsh is here to claim his inheritance.”
“You mean that man at the table?” barked Jarvis. “He is not Howard Milmarsh.”
“You’re wrong,” interposed Louden Powers. “That’s just who he is.”
Billings had been gazing curiously at the man Powers pointed to, and who still sat with bent head, taking no part in the proceedings, and seeming hardly to know that he was there.
Nick Carter understood what was passing in the big truckman’s mind.
“There are things that seem to you contradictory, Billings,” said Nick, as their eyes met for a moment. “I will explain to you later. You will find that I told you the truth.”
Bonesy Billings shook his head in an embarrassed way, as he answered hastily:
“I hadn’t no thought of nothing else, Mr. Carter. But I saw that gentleman over there, and I didn’t know what it meant.”
“Now, that is all I have to say,” interrupted Jarvis. “This is my house, and I should like to have it to myself. In the absence of any other legal heir, I am the owner. The property passes all to me, as next of kin. My son would have inherited it had he lived. But he died.”