Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-02

property to his niece, to the entire exclusion
of his own children. This will, though very
short, was in proper form, and was written
bv nobody knew whom. The servants
stated that the testator, before signing II,
was perfectly acquainted with Its contents,
for the niece had made him repeat them In
their presence. They also declared, how
ever, that he seemed in a terrible fright
and said twice, "It's behind me; it's behind
mer'
Within an hour of the signing of the will
the testatcr was found dead, apparently
from the effects of fear, but the niece was
not in the room at the time of death. The
only other remarkable circumstance IN the
case was that the disreputable lover OF the
niece had been seen hanging about the house
at dusk, the testator having died at 10 o'clock
at night. There was also further fact.
The son, or receiving message from the
niece that his father was seriously worse,
had hurried with extraordinary speed to the
house, passing someone or something-he
could not tell what-that seemed to be run
ming, apparently from the window of the
sick mans room, which was on the ground
floor, and beneath which footmarks were
afterward found Of these footmarks two
casts had been taken, of which photographs
were forwarded with the brief. They had
been made by naked feet of small size,
and in each case the little joint of the
third toe of the right foot seemed to be
missing. But all attempts to find the
feet that made them had hitherto failed.
The will was contested by the next
of kin, for whom Godfrey was one of the
counsel, upon the usual grounds Of undue
influence and fraud, but, as it seemed at
present, with small prospect OF success, for,
though the circumstances were suspicious
enough, there was not the slightest evidence
OF either This curious case, OF which the
outlines are here written, is briefly set out,
because 1t proved to be the foundation of
Geofrey's enormous practice and reputation
at the bar.
He read the brief through twice, thought
it over we'll, and could make little of it. It
was perfectly obvious to him that there had
been foul play somewhere, but he found
himself quite unable to form workable hy-
pothesis. Was the person-if it was a per-
son-who had been seen running away,
concerned in the matter !? If so, was he
the author of the footprints ? Of course,
the ex-lawyer's clerk had something to do
with it; but what?
1--WE shall lose this" he said aloud in de-
spair; suspicious circumstances are not
enough to upset a will, >" and then, address,
ing Beatrice, who was sitting at the table,
working: Here, Miss Granger, you have
smattering of law, see if you can make
ANYTHING of this" and he pushed the heavy
brief toward her.
Beatrice took it with laugh, and for the
next three-quarters of an hour her fair brow
was puckered up in way quaint to sea At
last she finished and shut the brief up.
Let me look at the photographs" she
said.
Geoffrey handed them to her. She very
carefully examined first one and then the
other, and as she did so light of intelli-
gence broke out upon her face.
well, Portia, have you got it?" he
asked.
81 have got something" she answered.
81 do not know if it is right. Don't you
see, the old man was superstitious; they
frightened him first of all by a ghostlv voice
or some such thing into signing the will,
and then to death after he had signed it.
The lawyers clerk prepared the will-he
would know how to do it. Then he was
smuggled into the room under the bed, or
somewhere, dressed up as ghost perhaps.
The sending for the son by the niece was
blind. The thing that was seen running
away was boy-those footprints were made
by boy. 1 have seen SO many thousands
on the sands here that could swear to it.
He was attracted to the house from the
road, which was quite near, by catching
sight of something unusual through the
blind; the brief says there were no curtains
or shutters. Now look at the photographs
of tine footprints. See in No. 1, found out
side the window, the toes are pressed down
deeply into the mud. The owner of the feet
was standing on tiptoe to get better view.
But in No. 2, which was found near where
the son thought he saw person
running, the toes are spread out
quite wide. That is the footprint of
someone who was in great hurry. Now
it is not probable that a boy had anything to
do with the testator's doath. Why, then, was
the boy running so hard? will tell you: be-
cause he was frightened at something he had
seen through the blind. So frightened was