It was equally clear that if it were still
in existence, it must be found in that room, for the valet declared
that his master had not left the library after the execution of the
document.
"I was on the watch and on the listen all night, you see, gentlemen,"
said Joseph Millard; "for I was very uneasy about master, knowing what
trouble had come upon him, and how he'd never been to bed all the night
before. I thought he might call me at any minute, so I kept close at
hand. There's a little room next to this, and I sat in there with the
door open, and though I dropped off into a doze now and then, I never
was sound enough asleep not to have heard this door open, if it did
open. But I'll take my Bible oath that Sir Oswald never left this room
after me and Peterson witnessed the will."
"Then the will must be somewhere in the room, and it will be our
business to find it," answered Mr. Ashburne. "That will do, Millard;
you can go."
The valet retired.
Reginald recommenced the search for the will, assisted by the
magistrate and the lawyer, while the two doctors stood by the fire-
place, talking together in suppressed tones.
This time the search left no crevice unexamined. But all was done
without avail; and despair began to gain upon Reginald Eversleigh.
What if all the crime, the falsehood, the infamy of the past few days
had been committed for no result?
He was turning over the papers in the bureau for the third or fourth
time, with trembling hands, in the desperate hope that somehow or other
the missing will might have escaped former investigations, when he was
arrested by a sudden exclamation from Mr.
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