the man franklin paused again for a few moments then, in response to my repeated question, said?—

“to the boy charles old mr. burrell gave the name of wooton, the present-day corruption of wollerton, and he was brought up by a farmer’s wife at sutton bridge for the first ten years of his life, being afterwards sent to school at hythe, in kent. at the time i discovered all these facts dorothy wollerton, who is, of course, unaware of her real name, was twenty-two, and her brother charles a year and three months younger—a smart young man, who had entered the office of a ship-broker in leadenhall street. having obtained this information in secret, together with the whereabouts of both of them, i gave it to my companions, whereupon they at once set to work upon an ingenious plan.

“miss drummond—as she believed herself to be—was informed by letter from me as a solicitor that in future she would be under the guardianship of mr. charles purvis, of st. peter’s square, hammersmith, a gentleman who had been appointed by the late mr. burrell before his death, while at the same time bennett got on friendly terms with charles wooton. thus, for the second time in their lives, brother and sister met at purvis’ house, and, being unaware of their relationship, fell in love with each other.”

the man paused for a moment, regarding the astonishment upon the faces of all of us. then he went on, saying?—

“it must be borne in mind that charles wooton, being the youngest, was heir to the estate of bartholomew da schorno. he was a shrewd young fellow, however, and appears very soon to have entertained suspicions of bennett and the others, while having made inquiries regarding purvis, he found him to be scarcely the sort of man who should be guardian to dorothy. he therefore refused to associate with us, and for some weeks we saw nothing of him. bennett and purvis, however, prevailed upon dorothy to invite him one evening to the house at kilburn, which, by the way, bennett had taken furnished. he went there on an invitation to supper, and—well, you know the rest. he was stabbed to the heart by bennett, while i, not knowing what was intended, escorted dorothy to the house, where the others compelled her to touch the dead man’s face, after which bennett and purvis pointed out to her that she had acted as accessory of the crime.”

“the fiends!” i cried. “and the body—how was it disposed of?”

“it was taken in one of those zinc-lined air-tight travelling chests and left in the cloak-room at euston, where, i believe, it will still be found. of course, the assassination of charles served two distinct purposes, first to conceal certain ugly facts which he had learnt about both purvis and bennett, and secondly his death made dorothy heiress. it was the idea of my three companions that if the treasure were discovered purvis should at once marry her under threats of exposure and thus obtain the money, distributing a certain portion to each of us.”

“an amazingly ingenious conspiracy!” i said, utterly bewildered at the strange story he had related. “then to this moment dorothy is unaware that charles was her brother?”

“after his death bennett told her, but she is in entire ignorance that her real name is wollerton, or that she is heiress to the italian treasure.”

a silence fell between us, but it was broken by franklin, who, continuing, declared?—

“all that i have told you is absolutely the truth. knowing that you will keep faith with me i have attempted to conceal nothing. purvis is aware that you are dorothy’s lover, and he and his friends also know that you carry in your pocket the decipher of the document in the record office. hence their conspiracy to kill you and obtain it. be warned,” he urged. “do not keep any appointment with dorothy, otherwise it may prove fatal to you.”

“bennett is, i suppose, unaware that i am the man he marooned ten years ago?” remarked usher.

“i believe so. he does not know your name,” was franklin’s response.

whereat my companion smiled grimly at thought of the revenge that was to be ours ere many days.

martin franklin, although an unscrupulous man, nevertheless kept his word. probably it was because he feared lest we should give information to the police, and he believed it best to be on the side of the victors rather than the vanquished.

before we had allowed him to go he gave us his solemn promise to hold no communication with bennett or the others, so that they would not know of our success or of how we had been forewarned of the fresh conspiracy against me.

leaving reilly and usher to guard the treasure i walked with the scoundrelly lawyer to the edge of the wood, where, with a show of politeness that i knew was feigned, he bade me good-day and left, not, however, before i had warned him in a few plain words of the consequence of any betrayal of our secret. if what he had told us were actually true, then we had now no fear of the seizure of the gold as treasure-trove. the story, however, seemed to us so romantic as to be hardly credible.

however, the removal of the chests and bags was our next consideration, and with that object i walked into tickencote village, and there obtained a cart and drove on to stamford. there i purchased a quantity of rope and coarse packing-canvas, conveying them to the spot where my two companions still sat on the oak stump smoking, awaiting me. together we worked on during the whole afternoon packing both chests and bags in the canvas so that their antique nature should attract no attention.

then, in accordance with an arrangement i had made in stamford, a railway trolley met us on the high road at four o’clock, and we conducted its driver around the wood until we came to a drift by which the woodmen were evidently in the habit of entering with their drags. at first the man seemed rather surprised at the nature of his load, but a crisp five-pound note in his palm effectually closed his mouth, and in an hour we had the satisfaction of getting the whole mounted on the trolley, reilly riding to stamford railway station beside the carter. we had sealed the knots of the cords of each packet with black sealing-wax, which i had bought with the packing materials, therefore at the station we ordered a closed truck, saw them stowed inside for london, and, as we declared the freight to be valuable, the key was handed to me.