Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-08-12

utorshiD. and also with q desire to
find out if possible the relations the old
lady had been so anxious to cut off, |
inserted a notice of her death in most
of the leading newspapers in the king
dom. This had the desired effect; for
in the course Of a few days [ was wait
ed upon by a young gentleman, Ed
ward Howard, who informed me he
was a nephew of the late Miss How
ard, and had called upon me, having
got my name and address from the Of
flee of one of the newspapers to which
I had sent the advertisement. During
| my interview with Mr.. Howard, was
much impressed with his bearing on
| my telling him the position Of affairs,
as he was much more concerned at his
| aunt's death than at the purpose OF
her will. He told me that five years
ago he had married against his aunt's
wishes; she had refused to recognize
| his wife; and though he had written
her several letters, he had never heard
from her in reply. He thanked me for
my information, and said he would
| likely see me again, as he was coming
into town to situation he had just
| been offered.
Some weeks after this, as [ was re-
tn ming home in the evening from a
consultation, my attention was ar
rested by the figure of a woman III
front of me. She was hurrying along
as if trying to escape observation;
but there was something in her style
and the limp which she had that struck
me as familiar, though l could not re-
member where l had seen her. Just
as she was passing a lighted part OF
the street, she happened to look
round, and the face | saw at once ex-
planned to me the familiarity of her
| tigure-both face and figure being an
exact counterpart of my late clients,
Miss Howard. Somehow or other
suspicion flashed across my mind; my
! instinct told me something was
wrong, and determined to follow her
and see where she went to. Pushing
my hat well over my brow and pulling
the collar Of my coat well up, | fol
| lowed through two or three streets,
and was almost at her heels when she
suddenly turned into a public house,
when, so close had [ followed her,
heard the attendant say In answer to
an inquiry by her, Number thirteen,
ma am" and I saw her disappear into
| the back premises. [ Immediately fol-
lowed, heard the door of number thir-
teen shut, and glancing at the num-
| bers, quietly opened number twelve,
and after giving an order for some
slight refreshments to the attendant,
who had followed me, [ took q hasty
look around theroom.
I found it was divided from the next
one only by a wooden partition, which
did not reach the ceiling, and that, by
remaining perfectly quiet, [ could hear
that whispered conversation was be-
ing carried on in the next room. The
entrance Of the attendant with my or
der disturbed my Investigations; but
on his departure, and regardless OF the
old saying that listeners seldom hear
anything to their own advantage, |
did my best to make out the converse
ton. I distinguished the voices to be
those Of two men and one woman.
The latter [ at once recognized, or at
least my imagination led me to be-
lieve, to be the voice of the person who
had called on me year ago to make
her will. The voice of one of the men
was strange to me; but after the dis
covery [ had already made, [ was not
greatly astonished at recognizing the
voice OF the other man to be that of
Simpson, the legatee in the will. The
whole thing flashed upon me at once,
and | saw | had been made the inno-
cent machinery for carrying through a
clever and daring piece Of imposture.
|, however, listened attentively to the
conversation, in order to fathom the
whole affair.
The first sentence I made out came
from the stranger: ~ told you young
Sinclair was the very man to do the
work for you. These young lawyers
never ask any questions as long as
they get the business"
''Well, we'll, said Simpson, "that is
all right now. But the present ques-
ton is, what is to be done in the way
Of hurrying him up with liberalization
of the estate without exciting suspi-
cion? The sooner we all get away from
this the better. I am glad that young
fellow Howard didn't ask any ques-
tions. But one things certain-we
must get the old woman away from
this Immediately, or she's sure to get
recognized. She's been keeping pretty
close lately, but I dare say she's get
ting tired of it. Aren't you, old lady? ?"
"Indeed,' was the reply, II would be
glad to get away from this place to-
morrow if I could. I'm sure [ only
wish you could have been content
with half the estate with Mr.. Edward,
instead Of burning the will when you
found it was to be divided between you
and him, and getting me to do what [
did. I'm sure it's a wonder my mis-
tress doesn't rise from her grave and
denounce us all.
''Keep that cant for another occa-
sion, old woman; it. no use gettingre-
ligious now. But I'll tell you what
I've got an idea"
Here the conversation got so low
that [ could not catch more than an
occasional word, and what that idea
was / never found out, as he never got
the chance to try it on me, for [ had
heard enough to know that next door
to me were three OF the most daring
conspirators / had ever come across,