"Ah!" said Gordon. "Like many robust scoundrels, I think that Mr. Prado was a bit of a fatalist. Although apparently he'd got off so neatly, I believe he had some sort of feeling that his days were numbered. He practically hints as much in his will, which he tells Horsfall he had drawn up in case 'all his excellent precautions should prove useless.' It's quite a simple document. He leaves you everything, 'in the improbable event,' as he puts it, 'of your surviving him,' Failing that, the property goes to charity."
"And Maurice gets nothing?"
"Not a bean," answered Gordon cheerfully. "If he finds himself hard up, the testator advises him to communicate with San Luca. I should think it was the only joke Prado ever made."
"But will it hold good in law?" I asked.
Gordon shrugged his shoulders. "I think so," he said. "It's a little irregular, of course, but there's no one to fight it except Furnivall, and unless he's a fool, he'll lie devilish quiet. I've quite enough evidence to ask for his arrest for conspiring to murder you at Woodford. That reminds me, by the way. You're not likely to be troubled with your South American friends again for a little while—they got away on the New York City this morning. I can have them collared the other side, if we want them, of course; but, on the whole, I thought it best to let them go."
I nodded my approval. "We shall miss them," I said, "shan't we, Billy? Still, the best of friends must part."
"They must," agreed Gordon, pulling out his watch. "I'm due to speak in the House at five forty-five, and it's ten to six now."
He hastily picked up his hat and gloves. "Good-bye," he added, shaking hands all round. "Come and see me at my chambers at ten-thirty to-morrow, and we'll straighten things out a little. Till then,"—his eyes twinkled,—"well, try and keep out of mischief as much as possible."
"Fifty thousand pounds!" exclaimed Billy, as the door closed behind him. "Good Lord! Give me some more tea; I feel quite giddy."
Mercia poured him out another cup, which he gulped down in silence.