died on the 2Oth of April. Chadborn arrived
just in time, on that very day.

Then, indeed, curiosity and speculation were
at their height. The town was on the tiptoe of
expectation. But soon it was known that he
had died leaving about a million in the stocks.
An old bureau stood in the lobby, facing his
room door, and from this was brought down a
sealed envelope, which was solemnly opened in
presence of the London alderman, Mr. Chadborn,
and the two clerks. It was found to contain a
will bequeathing all his property to these four
gentlemen as executors, subject to debts and
legacies. The former were little, and of the
latter there were none. It gave them nearly
a quarter of a million apiece. The fortunate
alderman returned to London, and not an hour
was lost in taking out probate. In fact, the
proctor received instructions almost on the day
of the decease. A kind of feeble caveat was
entered, which was supported with such
indecision that the probate was all but granted. It
seemed to be put forward in the hope of something
turning up. Long after, the judge stated
that probate must have been granted, but for
a mysterious occurrence.

One of the disappointed had been a Mr.
Helps of Cheapside; and one morning in June
the threepenny post brought him a letter and
an enclosure. The letter was in pencil.

"The enclosed is a paper saved out of many
burned by parties I could hang: they pretend it
is not Wood's hand; many swear to it: they
want to swindle me: let the rest know."

The enclosure was a piece of paper scorched
at one corner, and torn right across the name
signed to it. It ran:

"In a codicil to my will I give the
corporation of Gloucester one hundred and forty
thousand pounds. In this I wish my executors
would give sixty thousand pounds to them for
the same purpose as I have before named. I
would also give to my friend Mr. Phillpotts
fifty thousand pounds, to Mr. George Connell
ten thousand pounds, to Mr. John Thomas
Helps, Cheapside, London, thirty thousand
pounds, to Mrs. Goodlake, mother of Mr. Surman,
and to Thomas Wood, Smith-street,
Chelsea, each twenty thousand pounds, and
Samuel Wood fourteen thousand pounds, and
the latter gentleman's family six thousand
pounds; and I confirm all other bequests, and
give the rest of my property to the executors
for their own interest.

"JAMES WOOD.
"Gloucester City Old Bank,
July, 1835."

The recipient of this strange communication,
which seemed thus to drop from the clouds,
was a connexion of the deceased. It seemed
almost too apropos—too much after the pattern
of the finding of a lost paper in a melodrama.
But it was at once placed in proper hands, and
then business really began. The Court of
Probate stayed its hand; real substantial
claimants rushed to the front, and the decks
wore cleared for the fray. The fund would
most probably have to furnish costs; so the
best lawyers were engaged, and what was to
be a five years' battle began.

Even with regard to the old will, some local
rumours were beginning to get abroad. This
instrument, when produced to the court,
appeared to be a sort of compound document,
consisting of two papers carefully wafered
together. The first was instructions for a will,
named the four executors, was in Chadborn's
handwriting, and was duly signed by "Jemmy
Wood." But there were no signatures of
witnesses, so taken by itself it was worth nothing.
The other paper was duly signed and attested,
and gave all his property to his executors,
subject to certain legacies and dispositions he
should hereafter make. But the executors were
not named. Thus each paper was deficient;
the first wanted legal force, the second was
"uncertain," as it named no one. Still each
supplied the other's imperfection, and taken
together they seemed to make a good will.
The wafering together showed that such was
the testator's intention.

But now it was said in Gloucester that only
one paper had been put away in the bureau,
and that when the will was produced, after
the old man's death, there had been only a
single sheet taken out of the bureau. To the
amazement of the court the executors now
admitted that such was the case, and Mr. Chadborn
owned that he had gone home for the
first paper, the "instructions," had wafered
the two together, and placing them in the
envelope, had sealed it up with Mr. Wood's own
seal, which happened to be lying there
"accidentally," he said. The envelope was
then placed in the bureau.

Of this questionable transaction the four
executors seemed to have all more or less
knowledge. In their statement they declared
what was the perfect truth, though not the
whole truth that the two papers when taken
out of the envelope were together, which indeed
they were, on the last occasion. In the two
being attached together consisted the whole
force of the will. Separate, even in two distinct
drawers of the same bureau, and the executors
lost their prize. It was too tempting.

Still it might be said this was a mere technical
device; and as the intentions of the testator
were manifest, it would be hard that they
should be frustrated by an accident of this
nature. Flesh and blood could hardly stand
being defrauded of a million sterling, when a
couple of wafers was all that was wanting
to secure it, and when it was conceded that
they, and no others, were the executors meant.

But the newly-found codicil pointed at some
other matters. It spoke of a regular will, in
which the Gloucester corporation received one
hundred and forty thousand pounds, and which,
taken with the second paper, made everything
clear. But where was this will?

The fatuous corporation, who had made game
of the testator during his life, and played their
stupid jests on him, now became keenly alive
to their own interests. A notice appeared