Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-27

tence on the part of his client, it would
have been unnecessary, for as the problem
grew more difficult, the more determined
did he become to solve it
Such was the nature of the man, such the
foundation of his success, until his obliga-
tion was fulfilled he was a slave, bound
hand and foot by the golden links of the re.
tainer which he had accepted.
One evening Abel Burgess set hard at
work at his desk. Before him were the
notes OF private inquiries which his agents
had made, goodly number, but under the
Wlnnowing OF his acumen there was an
abundance of chat and but little grain,
The facts seemed about as follows: Young
Oscar Battin had lived the life of an idle,
d1ssolute man OF the world, frequenting
clubs, cafes and greenrooms, and in these
resorts well-known and liked for good ma
ture and liberalitY. But all reports con-
CURED that for the past year he had aban-
doned his ordinary pursuits and avocations
His acqusintances joked about mysteri-
GUS attachment, and said that Oscar had
been caught and strung There had been
glimpses of him driving and dining in the
metropolis; but these glimpses told nothing
OF his companion, who had been persistent
and succeeded in her incognito. Some, in
deed, asserted that she was young and
pretty, but these were evidently moved
more by reasoning than by knowledge. As
Tor the firm of Marston & Wilson, the in
formation was even more scant. They had
been highly respectable, old-fashioned
practitioners, devoted to the passive rather
than the active side OF the law. Both were
now dead, and fire had swept away the
building containing their office and with it
their books and papers
Their confidential CLERK, who had served
| them Nuoc ino I'D i
away from town, seeking health in dist
1 ant sanitarium. One agent, however, had
found young man who had served as office
boy for the attorneys about the time of the
making of the Battin will, but his memory
| was more acute of acts of truaucv than of
duty. He did recall, though, and this was
the most significant fact CLEANED, that old
Mr.. Marston gave the engrosslng of all i'm
portant papers to a young woman whose
style was acceptable to him. Being closely
questioned, he further stated that she al
ways came to the Office in the company of
an elderly female in black, and that her ap-
pearance was ety."
"Oho!" chuckled Abel Burgess, as he ex-
hausted the memoranda, ''my first impres-
/ sions were correct. Cherchez la femme"
This, then, was the manner of his deduc-
t1ons and conclusions: OF the persons who
could have been cognizant of the purport
OF Oscar @. Battin's will two were dead,
and they the ones most likely to preserve
its secrecy Their old clerk, whose career
was an assurance against suspicion, was an
Invalid occupied by the hopeless pursuit
of health The Office boy had been too
young and giddy to merit the slightest con-
sideration. Who therefore remained? The
copyist, familiar with the handwriting of
her employer and skilled in the use of the
pen.
AS from mountain, the trained percep-
tions of the lawyer grasped every detail of
the history; the meeting of Oscar and this
young woman; their mutual infatuation;
their desire for wealth that they might seek
pleasure together throughout the wide
world; her revelation of the contents of the
will and his despair; her suggestion that
she cold initiate, could forge, and his ac-
quiescence; and the unfolding of a plot
whose last scene might have been mur-
derl
- ''If I only could get q specimen of her
natural handwriting and identity it."
mused the lawyer But would this be suf-
icient? Yes; should old Mr.. Battin recog-
nize it as that of the body of his will, then,
the person being known and her active par
ticipation proved, how quickly could q
thousand little circumstances be woven into
the meshes of the law.
"But how can get it?" grumbled Abel.
"Confound those old drones Had they
been in active practice they might be fifty
papers in her hand on file in this very
oficer'
Had he ever had case with Marston &
Wilson, No, be had scarcely known
them. And yet there was something con-