“It seems to me I’ve heard of it. But a gift of books a quarter of a century in the future isn’t apt to excite the officials of the force.”
Vance, to all appearances, was smoking with indolent unconcern; but the precise way he held his cigarette told me that some unusual speculation was absorbing his mind.
“The will of Mrs. Greene,” Markham went on, “touches more definitely on present conditions, though personally I see nothing helpful in it. She has been mathematically impartial in doling out the estate. The five children—Julia, Chester, Sibella, Rex, and Ada—receive equal amounts under its terms—that is, each gets a fifth of the entire estate.”
“That part of it don’t interest me,” put in the Sergeant. “What I want to know is, who gets all this money in case the others pass outa the picture?”
“The provision covering that point is quite simple,” explained Markham. “Should any of the children die before a new will is drawn, their share of the inheritance is distributed equally among the remaining beneficiaries.”
“Then when any one of ’em passes out, all the others benefit. And if all of ’em, except one, should die, that one would get everything—huh?”
“Yes.”
“So, as it stands now, Sibella and Ada would get everything—fifty-fifty—provided the old lady croaked.”
“That’s correct, Sergeant.”
“But suppose both Sibella and Ada, as well as the old lady, should die: what would become of the money?”