The Doctor examined the locket as carefully as his colleague, while Saul looked on with an intense interest as he waited for the next remark, and the claimant of the estate chirruped carelessly to the dog. "As far as I can recollect them," said Doctor Lawrence, at length, "I should say these are the miniatures of Mr and Mrs George Harrington, but I only saw them once." "Well," said the young man, smiling, as he held out his hand for the locket, "satisfactory?" "Quite, sir," said the old lawyer, handing back the locket. "Looks girlish," said its recipient, "but I always wear it round my neck. Shouldn't like to lose that. Now, gentlemen, any more questions to ask?" "One more, sir," said the old lawyer. "My dear Gertrude Bellwood, may I ask you to leave us for a few minutes. You may have some orders to give." Gertrude started to her feet, and was making for the door, when Saul rose to open it, but his rival was quicker, darting before him, and smiling at the girl as she passed out, more agitated and excited than she had ever felt before. "Now, gentlemen, what's the next piece of cross-examination which this culprit is to bear?" "I have--we have--but one more question to ask, sir," said the old lawyer. "It is in our instructions, drawn out by my old and esteemed client, a year before his death. If you can answer that to our satisfaction, I for one shall be perfectly satisfied." "And I," said the doctor; then to himself, "as far as your being the right man is concerned." "Very good, gentlemen," was the smiling reply; "let's see if I can oblige you." The words were light, but there was a peculiar intensity in the speaker's eyes, and a slight twitching about the corners of his lips, which a close observer would have detected. "Have you not some birth-mark about you?" said Doctor Lawrence. "No, sir, as far as I am aware--none." "No peculiar marks about your person?" "I have the scar of a bullet-wound in the shoulder--the entrance and exit. I believe it went through my scalp." "Scapular," said the doctor, smiling. "Yes--the blade-bone." "Anything else?" "An ugly seam or ridge on the skull where I had a chop from an Indian axe; and a knot here in my right arm, where it was broken and mended again." "Is that all, sir?" "No; one other mark--a trifle done some time or another--here on my breast. Like to see it, gentlemen?" "Ha!" ejaculated the old lawyer. "If you are Mr George Harrington, sir, you have the figure of a heart tattooed upon your breast--a heart transfixed by an arrow." "That anything like it, gentlemen?" said the young man, unbuttoning his vest, and throwing open the flannel shirt he wore, to show, plainly marked upon his white skin, the figure described. "Like it, sir?--yes," said the old lawyer. "Mr George Harrington, welcome home, sir, and I hope we may be the best of friends."