“But I tell you I have searched the desk throughout,” he said.
“Yes,” replied Nick, “but you must remember that you were looking for a place where he might have hidden it. He did not hide it. He simply put it one side, and, as it was a document that he did not mean should be read by any chance caller, he simply placed it under his blotting-pad.”
As Nick spoke with that confidence for which he was noted when he believed he had solved a problem, he removed a large dictionary that lay on one side of the large blotting-pad, and, lifting the blotters from the leather corners, disclosed a paper which had been pushed under them.
“I think you will find that that is the will for which you are looking,” said the detective calmly, rising and pointing to the desk.
In amazement the lawyer dropped into the chair which Nick vacated, and, seizing the paper, glanced hurriedly at it.
“It is the lost will,” he cried. “Mr. Carter, you are a wonder. Your detective instincts are simply remarkable.”
“Not at all,” replied Nick modestly. “Most apparently tough problems are simple when they are solved. The obvious is almost always to be depended on to clear up nine mysteries out of ten. Some gentlemen of my craft are too prone to look at the involved and most unlikely side of a case as a means for discovering a solution.”
“Is there any way in which I can recompense you for your trouble, Mr. Carter?” asked the lawyer, in some embarrassment, as he felt that as a friend of Northrup and while a guest in his home the detective would not consider that he had been acting professionally, so far as reward went. And yet, the finding of the will was an important matter to the estate, which was amply able to pay well.
“Yes, you can,” was Nick’s unexpected reply. “Let me look over the will.”
“With pleasure,” said the lawyer, handing the document to Nick.