"You know how much I know about wills. All the same, argument was not to be thought of. To the laity, solicitor, lawyer, barrister, and attorney are synonymous terms. Moreover, they are all will-wrights. A judge is a sort of shop-steward.... "Well, I drew one. To tell you the truth, I don't think it was so bad. I attended the poor man. I took his instructions. And there and then in the sickroom I drew the will upon a sheet of notepaper. He signed it in my presence and that of the priest. The latter then took charge of it, with a view to getting it stamped next morning at the British Consulate. We both had some hazy idea that that was desirable. "I left Rome the same night. "Gradually--we've all had a lot to think about in the last seven years--I forgot the whole incident. Then, some two months ago, when I was at Brooch, a fellow gives evidence before me in a burglary case. A footman called Anthony Lyveden. For a long time I couldn't imagine where I'd heard the names before. Then something--I'll tell you what in the smoking-room--brought it all back. Anthony Lyveden was the nephew of the man whose will I made, and he was named as the sole legatee. "In a way it's no affair of mine, and yet I feel concerned. I'll tell you why. That footman was a gentleman born. Moreover, he was down on his luck. He didn't look like a fellow who'd run through money, and I think the old testator was pretty rich. He gave that impression. And for a will made in such circumstances to go astray it would be easy enough--obviously. The devil of it is, except for the name of Lyveden, I can remember nothing else." The solicitor sipped his port. Then-- "A search at Somerset House," he said slowly, "should give us the maiden surname of Anthony Lyveden's mother. If she had a brother...." Sir Giles Molehill raised his eyes and sighed. "And it never occurred to me," he said. "It's high time I went to the Court of Appeal." Two days later his lordship received a letter informing him that a search at Somerset House had revealed the fact that a son named Anthony had been born upon the fourteenth of January, 1891, to a Mrs. Katharine Lyveden, formerly _Roach_. As he read it, the Judge exclaimed audibly. The note which he wrote there and then shall speak for itself. _DEAR BLITHE,_ _Roach was the surname of the testator. Please go on. When you can submit a Christian name to my memory, please do so. I am not sure that it will respond, but we can try._ _Yours sincerely, GILES MOLEHILL._ * * * * *