The main cause of the letter received by Mrs. Stafford was a scheming little attorney named Jacobs, who just managed to keep within the pale of the law, and over whom Hall held powerful influence. At the end of the second week's advertising Hall consulted Jacobs pretty freely in regard to his affairs, telling him that important papers, including a will bequeathing considerable property to the lady to whom he was engaged to be married, had been stolen from him; that he had offered every inducement for the return of the stolen property without avail, and did not expect that they would ever come to light; that as a matter of fact the receptacle in which the papers were concealed would not be apt to reveal their presence, and the thief or thieves had probably thrown it away as worthless.
Mr. Jacobs inquired how his client had arrived at this conclusion, and was informed that five times the value of the articles taken had been offered for their return.
Mr. Hall did not, of course, tell Jacobs all he knew. They would have been on equal footing had he done so, and could hang each other; but when he had finished as much as he cared to tell, Mr. Jacobs assured him that the loss of the papers, under the circumstances, would make no great difference. It would cause more trouble and expense—not a great deal—but as Hall knew almost the exact wording of it (the will) and as one of the witnesses, a man who made his mark instead of writing his name, was still alive there would be no trouble in proving a similar will which he (Jacobs) could get up—of course for a moderate consideration.
Jacobs talked plausibly—in fact almost the exact truth, and finally Hall wrote the letter mentioned in the last chapter.
Immediately on receipt of Mrs. Stafford's answer, written by Carden as though at her dictation, Hall proceeded to prepare for his wedding—his first act by way of preparation being to direct Jacobs to go ahead and prepare the will, giving him a pencil draft, with names and places blank.
The time fixed for the wedding was but ten days off, and Hall's second act of preparation was in the way of retrenchment. He discharged his valet—who immediately reported the fact to Blount—and then instructed Messrs. Jones & Jones to close out his interest in the Hanley Hall mortgages for whatever they would bring, deducting six months' interest. He held just two, amounting together to £5,000, and the Messrs. Jones found a purchaser in short order at two-thirds of the face value—themselves.
He was now in possession of considerable ready money, the prospect ahead looked bright, and it only required fairly good luck for a few days and he would be sharer in, if not sole possessor of, immense wealth. The plain blunt letter from Carden reassured him as to the intentions of the Staffords, and he became once more the calm, elegant gentleman that he was at the time of his first appearance at Hanley Hall.
He was beginning to believe that the stolen papers would not come to light again, as he had told Jacobs, and there was nothing to bother him but the loss of his money—for it may as well be stated that Hall had lost a very large sum in notes, together with a large draft, on the night of the robbery. The draft was now overdue and Hall had managed to find out that it had not been presented for payment. For obvious reasons he had not attempted to stop payment, but the fact that it had not been presented did much to strengthen his belief that the draft, together with the papers with which it was hidden, were lost or destroyed.
True, he had ugly thoughts and ugly dreams at times, and had at all times a vague idea of being dogged; but now the excitement of the big game he was playing kept his thoughts pretty well engaged during the day, and whiskey ensured relief from them at night. The strain was a heavy one, however, and his nerves were by no means as steady as when he was introduced to the reader. Neither whiskey nor crimes make good nerve food.
Three days before that set for the wedding Hall's shattered nerves received a severe shock. He was in a restaurant which he frequented evenings, and overheard the following conversation:—