"
"So far as we are aware," remarked Mr. Carless, "Ashton was an eminently
respectable man!"
"So far as you know!" said Mr. Cave. "There is a good deal in the saving
clause, I think. I have known a good many men in Australia who were
highly respectable in the last stages of life who had been anything but
that in their earlier ones! Of what class was this Ashton?"
"I met him, occasionally," said Methley, "though I never knew who he was
until after his death. He was a very pleasant, kindly, good-humoured
man--but," he added, "I should say, from his speech and manners, a man
who had risen from a somewhat humble position of life. I remember
noticing his hands--they were the hands of a man who at some period had
done hard manual labour."
Mr. Cave smiled knowingly.
"There you are!" he said. "He had probably been a miner! Taking
everything into consideration, I am inclined to believe that he was
most likely one of the men, or the man, who stole my papers thirty-two
years ago."
"There may be something in this," remarked Mr. Pawle, glancing uneasily
at Mr. Carless. "It is a fact that the packet of letters to which Mr.
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