Mr. Halfpenny went back to his own office, astonished and marvelling. What on earth were these revelations which Barthorpe hinted at--these unpleasant truths which would so wound and hurt Peggie Wynne? Could it be possible that there really was some mystery about that will of which only Barthorpe knew the secret? It was incomprehensible to Mr. Halfpenny that any man could be so cool, so apparently cocksure about matters as Barthorpe was unless he felt absolutely certain of his own case. What that case could be, Mr. Halfpenny could not imagine--the only thing really certain was that Barthorpe seemed resolved on laying it bare when Friday came. "God bless me!--it's a most extraordinary complication altogether!" mused Mr. Halfpenny, once more alone in his own office. "It's very evident to me that Barthorpe Herapath is absolutely ignorant that he's suspected, and that the police are at work on him! What a surprise for him if the thing comes to a definite head, and--but let us see what Friday morning brings." Friday morning brought Barthorpe to Mr. Halfpenny's offices in good time. He came alone; a few minutes after his arrival Peggie Wynne, nervous and frightened, came, attended by Mr. Tertius and Professor Cox-Raythwaite. All these people were at once ushered into Mr. Halfpenny's private room, where polite, if constrained, greetings passed. At five minutes past ten o'clock Mr. Halfpenny looked at Barthorpe. "We're only waiting for Mr. Burchill," he remarked. "I wrote to him after seeing you, and I received a reply from him in which he promised to be here at ten this morning. It's now----" But at that moment the door opened to admit Mr. Frank Burchill, who, all unconscious of the fact that more than one pair of sharp eyes had followed him from his flat to Mr. Halfpenny's office, and that their owners were now in the immediate vicinity, came in full of polite self-assurance, and executed formal bows while he gracefully apologised to Mr. Halfpenny for being late. "It's all right, all right, Mr. Burchill," said the old lawyer, a little testy under the last-comer's polite phrases, all of which he thought unnecessary. "Five or ten minutes won't make any great difference. Take a seat, pray: I think if we all sit around this centre table of mine it will be more convenient. We can begin at once now, Mr. Barthorpe Herapath--I have already given strict instructions that we are not to be disturbed, on any account. My dear--perhaps you will sit here by me?--Mr. Tertius, you sit next to Miss Wynne--Professor----" Mr. Halfpenny's dispositions of his guests placed Peggie and her two companions on one side of a round table; Barthorpe and Burchill at the other--Mr. Halfpenny himself sat at the head. And as soon as he had taken his own seat, he looked at Barthorpe.