CHAPTER XII

A LOSING FIGHT

It was as if a thunderbolt had fallen from a clear sky. Margaret dropped back like one shot. Judge Kirtley and the attorney looked after the disappearing figure and then at each other.

Before they had time to recover from their astonishment Margaret started up in a quiver of excitement.

"Where has he gone? Is he after Philip?"

Before they could remonstrate she was out of the room and hurrying up the stairs.

"Had you any knowledge, sir, of the stand Mr. De Jarnette was going to take?" demanded Judge Kirtley, sternly.

"Not the slightest. It is as much of a surprise to me as to you."

"Did he know the nature of this will before coming here?"

"I think not. He certainly did not know it from me, and I have reason to think that he did not see his brother after it was made until the day he returned, which was the day of his death, I believe."

"It was."

"I was out of the city at the time and did not see Victor De Jarnette after this codicil was added, April thirtieth. I wish to God I had! I think perhaps I could have persuaded him then to alter it. He had had a good many months in which to cool down. He was a hot-headed fellow, you know."

"You say you tried to argue him out of doing it in the first place?"

"I used every effort in my power, but he would listen to nothing. I never saw a man so carried away by passion."

"Well, by the Lord, sir!" said the Judge, bringing his fist down upon the table, "I believe I should have refused to draw up that will!"

The attorney flushed.

"I did so at first," he returned quietly, "but he insisted that if I would not do it he could get somebody that would--which, of course, I knew was true. I thought that when he had had time to think it over he would feel ashamed of it and want to change it, and I felt that if it were between us two I should be in a better position to try to bring this about than if it had gone entirely out of my hands."

"There is something in that," admitted the Judge.

"I hadn't the least idea that he was going off. I wrote to him when I found out where he was, and urged him to make a new will over there, but he replied that he would attend to it when he got home. I really think he intended to do it, but you know how he was cut off."

"Yes, that's it. We never have the warning we suppose we will have. We know that other people drop dead but we never expect to do it ourselves ... I hope you are right, for it is rather hard for me to forgive Victor De Jarnette. Living he made her life wretched, and from the grave he has reached up to strike her. He could not have given a crueler blow than this. And the other one,--I tell you, Jarvis, that man is going to give us trouble. Weren't you amazed at the stand he took?"

"Astounded. I cannot fathom his motive."

"Nor I," returned the Judge, helplessly. "But as sure as you are a living man he means business. I wouldn't tell Margaret so, but I don't believe there will be any back-down from this. We'll have to fight it out in the courts.... Poor child! she has had trouble enough to break the spirit of an ordinary woman."

"Do you know the De Jarnettes intimately?" asked Mr. Jarvis. "I was wondering what would be the best way to reach him."

"I know them well," said the Judge, energetically. "Better than I wish I