No hanky panky with them. When old Leonides put through a doubtful deal? he never put it through with Gaitskill?

Callum amp; Gaitskill. He had half a dozen different firms of solicitors who acted for him. Oh, he was a twister!"

"And never more so than when making his will," said my father.

"We were fools," said Taverner. "When you come to think of it, the only person who could have played tricks with that will was the old boy himself. It just never occurred to us that he could want to!"

I remembered Josephine's superior smile as she had said:

"Aren't the police stupid?"

But Josephine had not been present on the occasion of the will. And even if she had been listening outside the door (which I was fully prepared to believe!) she could hardly have guessed what her grandfather was doing. Why, then, the superior air?

What did she know that made her say the police were stupid? Or was it, again, just showing off?

Struck by the silence in the room I looked up sharply - both my father and Taverner were watching me. I don't know what there was in their manner that compelled me to blurt out defiantly:

"Sophia knew nothing about this! Noth|ing at all."

"No?" said my father.

I didn't quite know whether it was an agreement or a question.

"She'll be absolutely astounded!"

"Yes?"

"Astounded!"

There was a pause. Then, with what seemed sudden harshness the telephone on my father's desk rang.;

"Yes?" He lifted the receiver - listened, and then said, "Put her through."

He looked at me.

"It's your young woman," he said. "She wants to speak to us. It's urgent."

I took the receiver from him.

"Sophia?"

"Charles? Is that you? It's - Josephine!"

Her voice broke slightly.

"What about Josephine?"

"She's been hit on the head. Concussion.

She's - she's pretty bad… They say she may not recover…"

I turned to the other two. c "Josephine's been knocked out," I said.

My father took the receiver from me. He said sharply as he did so: t "I told you to keep an eye on that child…"