"You don't know that. My brother Phil can do anything. It would be as easy for him to persuade her to maintain secrecy about the transaction as to persuade her to make the will. Do you suppose _he_ shrinks from multiplying lies and forgeries and hypocrisies? Do you suppose anything in that small way comes amiss to the man who has once brought his mind to murder? Why, look at the Scotch play of that fellow Shakespeare's. At the beginning, your Macbeth is a respectable trustworthy sort of person, anxious to get on in life, and so on, and that's all; but no sooner has he made an end of poor old Duncan, than he lays about him right and left--Banquo, Fleance, anybody and everybody that happens to be in his way. It was lucky for that Tartar of a wife of his that _she_ hook'd it, or he'd soon have put a stop to her sleep-walking. There's no such wide difference between a man and a tiger, after all. The tiger's a decent fellow enough till he has tasted human blood; but when once he _has_, Lord save the country-side from the jaws of the man-eater!" "For Heaven's sake let us waste no time in talk!" Valentine cried, impetuously. "I am to meet Burkham in Burlington Row directly I have got your advice." "What for?" "To see Dr. Jedd, and take him down to Hastings, if possible." "That won't do." "Why not?" "Because Jedd's appearance would give Phil the office. Jedd gave evidence on the Fryar trial, and must be a marked man to him. All Jedd can tell you is that Charlotte is being poisoned. You know that already. Of course she'll want medical treatment, and so on, to bring her round; but she can't get that under my brother's roof. What you have to do is to get her away from that house." "You do not know how ill she is. I doubt if she could bear the removal." "Anything is better than to remain. _That_ is certain death." "But your brother would surely dispute her removal." "He would, and oppose it inch by inch. We must get him away, before we attempt to remove her." "How?" "I will find the means for that. I know something of his business relations, and can invent some false cry for luring him off the trail. We _must_ get him away. The poor girl was not in actual danger when you left her, was she?" "No, thank God, there was no appearance of immediate danger. But she was very ill. And that man holds her life in his hand. He knows that I have come to London in search of a doctor. What if--" "Keep yourself quiet, Hawkehurst. He will not hasten her death unless he is desperate; for a death occurring immediately after your first expression of alarm would seem sudden. He'll avoid any appearance of suddenness, if he can, depend upon it. The first thing is to get him away. But the question is, how to do it? There must be a bait. What bait? Don't talk to me, Hawkehurst. Let me think it out, if I can."