Pawle
proceeded, and he turned on the old lawyer at the end with a stare of
amazement.
"You really think that!" he exclaimed.
"I shall be very much surprised if I'm not right!" declared Mr. Pawle.
"But what papers?" asked Lord Ellingham. "And what--how could this Mr.
Ashton, who, you say, came from Australia, be in possession of papers
relating to my family? I never heard of him."
"Your lordship," said Mr. Pawle, "is doubtless well aware that some years
ago there was a very strange--shall we call it romance?--in your family.
A very remarkable episode, anyway, a most unusual--"
"You mean the strange disappearance of my uncle--this Lord Marketstoke?"
interrupted Lord Ellingham with a smile. "Oh, of course, I know all
about that."
"Very well, my lord," continued Mr. Pawle. "Then your lordship is
aware that Lord Marketstoke was believed to have gone to the
Colonies--Australia or New Zealand--and was--lost there. His death was
presumed. Now, Ashton came from Australia, and as I say, we believe him
to have brought with him certain highly important papers relative to Lord
Marketstoke, whom we think to have been well known to him at one time.
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