For a moment a silence held, fraught with mute astonishment; then exclamations of amazement fell from every one of that little company, and Ross Duggan was just about to speak when Lady Paula broke hurriedly in.
"And my brother?--my poor unfortunate brother?" cried she in a wrung voice. "He had no share in the crime, I'll swear it, Mr. Cleek. Even your magic cannot prove that."
"Not in the crime actually, Lady Paula, but in--other things," he replied a trifle grimly, glancing again at the flushed face of the prisoner. "For as a blackmailer I fancy he is something of an artist. That fact you already know--to your cost, I fancy. And I think I'm not wrong in saying that it was he who suggested to you the stealing of the will and----"
"I begged him not to, Mr. Cleek! I implored. I did-- I swear it. And I never stole the will, that I can promise!" she broke in distractedly, beating her hands together. "Antoni suggested--yes--he wished to destroy it, so that my share of the estate might be greater as widow than that which had been apportioned to me, and of course he would have a portion of that, too. But I implored him not--that is true, is it not, Antoni? You can answer to that? I begged you, and you promised! And he threatened me even with exposure if I did not agree to the preposterous idea! I complied, only upon the promise that it should not be destroyed. But who took it I do not know."
"But I think I can pretty well guess," responded Cleek serenely, with a quick look at Cyril's suddenly flushed face. "Your son, Lady Paula, has much of his uncle's blood in his veins. And he acted, no doubt, upon _forceful_ advice, and carried the thing through quite successfully. Perhaps he will tell us just when he decided to steal his own father's will--at the instigation of an unscrupulous relation."
Came a slight pause in the telling, meanwhile a startled exclamation broke from Ross Duggan's lips, while every eye in that little assembly fastened upon the unfortunate boy. He broke into quiet sobbing, darting his eyes here and there for possible sympathy.
"Yes, I took it, sir--when Uncle Antoni told me," he broke out between sobs. "It was--just after it had happened. I heard Mother's scream, and then she ran into my room and told me of--the dreadful thing that had happened! About half an hour afterward Uncle Antoni appeared at the balcony which opens out from my bedroom window, and told me I must steal the will for him. I was terrified--oh, I was!--but he threatened me with--with a pistol----"