"It's all of a piece!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle. "All of a piece with Ashton's visit to Marketstoke--all of a piece with the facts that Avice was a favourite name with the Cave-Gray family, and that one of the holders of the title married a Wickham. Viner, there's no doubt whatever--in my mind--that either Ashton was Lord Marketstoke or that he knew the man who was!" "You remember what Armitstead told us," remarked Viner. "That Ashton told him, in Paris, that he, Ashton, hailed from Lancashire?" "Then--he knew the missing man, and got these papers from him!" declared the old lawyer. "But why? Ah!--now I have an idea! It may be that Marketstoke, dying out there in Australia, handed these things to Ashton and asked him to give them to some members of the Cave-Gray family--perhaps an aunt, or a cousin, or so on--and that Ashton went down to Marketstoke to find out what relations were still in existence. That may be it--that would solve the problem!" "No!" said Viner with sudden emphasis. He made sure that the door of the little room was closed, and then went up to the old lawyer's elbow. "Is that really all you can think of?" he asked, with a keen glance. "As for me--why, I'm thinking of something that seems absolutely--obvious!" "What, then?" demanded Mr. Pawle. "Tell me!" Viner pointed towards the door. "Haven't we heard already, that a man named Wickham handed over his daughter Avice to Ashton's care and guardianship?" he asked. "Doesn't that seem to be an established fact?" "No doubt of it!" assented Mr. Pawle. "Well?" "In my opinion," said Viner, quietly, "Wickham was the missing Lord of Marketstoke!" Mr. Pawle, who was still turning over the letters, examining their dates, let them slip out of his hands and gasped. "By George!" he exclaimed in a wondering voice. "It may be--possibly is! Then, in that case, that girl outside there--" "Well?" asked Viner, after a pause. Mr. Pawle made a puzzled gesture and shook his head, as if in amazement. "In that case, if Wickham was the missing Lord Marketstoke, and this girl is his daughter, she's--" He broke off, and became still more puzzled. "Upon my honour," he exclaimed, "I don't know who she is!" "What do you mean?" asked Viner. "She's his daughter, of course--Wickham's. Only, in that case--I mean, if he was really Lord Marketstoke--her proper name, I suppose, is Cave-Gray." Mr. Pawle looked his young assistant over with an amused expression. "You haven't the old practitioner's _flair_, Viner, my boy!" he said. "When one's got to my age, and seen a number of queer things and happenings, one's quick to see possible cases. Look here!--if Wickham was really Lord Marketstoke, and that girl across the hall is his daughter, she's probably--I say probably, for I don't know if the succession in this case goes with the female line--Countess of Ellingham, in her own right!" Viner looked his surprise. "Is that really so--would it be so?" he asked.