Methley here--which papers, Ashton alleged, were intrusted to
him by Lord Marketstoke on his deathbed. Ashton, according to Mr.
Perkwite, took particular care of these papers, and always carried them
about with him in a pocketbook."
Mr. Cave appeared to be much exercised in thought on hearing this.
"It is, of course, absurd to say that Lord Marketstoke
--myself!--intrusted papers to any one on his deathbed, since I am very
much alive," he said. "But it is, equally of course, quite possible that
Ashton had my papers. Who was Ashton?"
"A man who had lived in Australia for some thirty-five or forty years at
least," replied Mr. Carless, "and who recently returned to England and
settled down in London, in this very square. He lived chiefly in
Melbourne, but we have heard that for some four or five years he was
somewhere up country. You never heard of him out there? He was evidently
well known in Melbourne."
"No, I never heard of him," replied Mr. Cave. "But I don't know
Melbourne very well; I know Sydney and Brisbane better. However, an idea
strikes me--Ashton may have had something to do with the purloining of
my letters and effects at Wirra-Worra, when I met with the accident I
told you of.
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