)
"Did you hear who asked for the Will?" I asked.
"Yes; the clerk had no hesitation in telling ME. Mr. Smalley, of the
firm of Skipp and Smalley, asked for it. The Will has not been copied
yet into the great Folio Registers. So there was no alternative but to
depart from the usual course, and to let him see the original document.
He looked it over carefully, and made a note in his pocket-book. Have
you any idea of what he wanted with it?"
I shook my head. "I shall find out," I answered, "before I am a day
older." With that I went back at once to my own office.
If any other firm of solicitors had been concerned in this unaccountable
examination of my deceased client's Will, I might have found some
difficulty in making the necessary discovery. But I had a hold over
Skipp and Smalley which made my course in this matter a comparatively
easy one. My common-law clerk (a most competent and excellent man) was a
brother of Mr. Smalley's; and, owing to this sort of indirect connection
with me, Skipp and Smalley had, for some years past, picked up the
crumbs that fell from my table, in the shape of cases brought to my
office, which, for various reasons, I did not think it worth while
to undertake.
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