LEX REX.
Stupefaction is a weak word to express the feelings of Saul Aronson when
a messenger awakened him at 1 o'clock Thursday morning with a request
from Shagarach that he would come to police station No. 5 at once. The
attorney's assistant was never a sluggard, but the celerity with which
on this occasion he scrambled into his street clothes would have done
credit to a lightning-change artist.
The police captain received him courteously, explaining, as he conducted
him to Shagarach's cell, his hesitancy about discharging the lawyer
without permission from McCausland, who had maliciously disappeared.
Both he and Shagarach were agreed that the most judicious course was to
accept a temporary release on bail, and later to secure a quashing of
the charge by an explanation to the district attorney. So Aronson set
out again to secure bail, and at 4 o'clock had the joy of seeing his
master pass down the station steps with his bondsman.
It was fortunate that the affair turned out so well, for the very next
day had been set down for the hearing in the Probate court on the
settlement of Benjamin Arnold's estate.
Hodgkins Hodgkins, Esq., flanked by the other two members of the firm of
Hodgkins, Hodgkins & Hodgkins--namely, his brother and his nephew--was
already on his feet to address the court when Shagarach, as
representative of Robert Floyd's interest, arrived and pushed to the
front. Except for the fact that he was Prof. Arnold's oldest
acquaintance in the city, it was hard to understand the selection of
Hodgkins for the responsible position of executor over a property of
$10,000,000.
A tall, withered specimen of nearly 70, thin-whiskered and jejune of
speech, you would have looked instinctively for the green bag at his
side if you had met him on the street. "Whereas" and "aforesaid" and a
dozen other legal barbarisms disfigured his rhetoric and the trick of
buttoning his coat with an important air over documents mysteriously
shuffled into his breast pocket was as natural to him as crossed legs to
a tailor.
But all this pomp, ridiculous as it was, gave no promise of the
disloyalty that was to follow. From the first words of his address it
became evident that Hodgkins Hodgkins, Esq., was there not to execute
the will of his friend but to oppose its execution. Like many another
intrusted with the same office, he had transferred his allegiance from
the forgotten dead to the living who had bounty to bestow. Mrs. Arnold,
sitting among the spectators, alone, might well congratulate herself
upon a clever stroke in engaging the services of the quondam executor
for her son.
"As counsel for the petitioner, Mr. Harry Arnold," said Hodgkins,
ahemming huskily, "I desire to explain to the court briefly my relation
to the case. As your honor has been informed, I enjoyed the privilege of
the testator's--or, more properly, the intestate's--acquaintance during
a period of nearly fifty years. During that period nothing, I believe,
ever occurred to mar our mutual trust and confidence. Up to six weeks
ago the deceased had never expressed any desire to alter the natural
distribution of his property after his death. Up to that time, although
approaching his seventy-ninth birthday, my honored friend had been
entirely satisfied, entirely satisfied, I repeat, with the prospects of
a division of his estate according to the laws of descent in this
commonwealth."
"A statement which we deny," broke in Shagarach, sotto voce. Hodgkins
was a little nonplussed.
"Am I to understand that Brother Shagarach, representing, I presume,
the interests of the other nephew, refers to some previously existing
testament?"
"Not at all. I refer, your honor, to oral expressions of an intention to
will his entire property to the nephew who lived with him, Mr. Robert
Floyd."
"There was a will drawn, which is not extant, I believe?" inquired the
judge.
"There was a will drawn," answered Shagarach, "but since unfortunately
destroyed, by which Floyd was disinherited."
"I opine, then"--Mr. Hodgkins frequently opined--"that Brother Shagarach
concedes the destruction of the document and is here----"
"To argue for its upholding."
The whole firm of Hodgkins, Hodgkins & Hodgkins looked as if a
thunderbolt had struck them at this announcement. Shagarach was throwing
away Robert's share, amounting to $5,000,000.
"We were not aware of this intention," said the senior member, after a
consultation, "and as to the alleged oral expressions of a purpose to
leave the--the accused nephew sole legatee--er--er in any case we should
have contested such a will on the ground of undue influence. Six weeks
ago," Hodgkins was now frowning as formidably as possible, "I received a
letter from my honored friend, informing me that he had made a will and
requesting me to assume the function of sole executor--a request which I
felt it a duty, as well as an honor, to accept."
"May I see the testator's letter?" said Shagarach, breaking in.
"I trust the court will accept my assurance----"
"It is no question of your word. I desire to see the terms of your
appointment as executor, and request that the letter be read."
"As the first step toward establishing the existence of a will," said
the judge, "upon which, I believe, both parties, all parties"--there
were several other lawyers present--"are agreed----"
Hodgkins and Shagarach bowed.
"The letter had best be read in evidence."
There was a great diving into green bags for awhile among the Hodgkins
firm, at the end of which the senior member read the following letter:
"Friend Hodgkins: You are the only one of your cursed tribe to whom
I ever got nearer than swearing distance, and our intimacy began
before you were admitted to the vulpine crew. Here I am, a
youngster of 78, anticipating death by thirty years at least and
indulging in the folly of will-making. Can you conceive anything
more absurd? I might as well think of getting insured so early in
life. But I was always excessively cautious, you know--hence my
odium advocatorum, I suppose. Can you superintend the job? Most of
my hoard goes elsewhere, but there will be some for the executor to
distribute, and you will find legal pickings in it that will pay
you. Write at once.
"BENJAMIN ARNOLD."
This eccentric epistle raised a smile among the lawyers, but Shagarach
was busily occupied drafting a verbatim copy while Hodgkins continued
his plea.
"I was remarking," he repeated, one of his favorite introductory
formulae, "that upon receiving this request I made haste to indite a
favorable response, as I felt bound in duty and honor----"
"And the prospect of pickings," added Shagarach, sotto voce, still
copying the letter. The senior member glared.
"It is needless to relate the unfortunate circumstance, in which Brother
Shagarach's client is so deeply implicated, which has relieved me of
this welcome if laborious trust. The will under which I was to serve in
the capacity of executor has been destroyed--destroyed, presumably, by
the party whose hopes of a fortune is cut off, and we stand here to-day
facing the same status which existed up to six weeks ago. I say the
same--I am in error. There is an important, a melancholy difference. Six
weeks ago my friend's nephew was not an accused and all but a convicted
murderer."
Hodgkins paused, as if expecting a rejoinder from Shagarach, but the
latter appeared profoundly absorbed in a telegram which Jacob had just
brought him.
"The property now stands in no man's name. There is no person to whom
its dividends, its rents, its interest, constantly becoming due, can
safely be paid. Under the laws of descent its title vests equally in the
heirs-at-law, the nephews of the deceased. But there is need of an
administration, in order that the two shares may be apportioned in a
satisfactory manner. I need not again allude to the circumstance which
renders a joint administration improper and impossible, the circumstance
which explains the absence of Brother Shagarach's client----"
"I do not see Brother Hodgkins' client in the courtroom," Shagarach
retorted to this sarcasm. As he spoke his eye fell on Mrs. Arnold's
haughty face.
"It is certain, however, that he is not occupying a felon's cell,"
answered Hodgkins. "Briefly, your honor, there is only one course open.
An administrator is urgently needed for this immense estate. In the
absence of a will, the heirs-at-law, being of age, would naturally be
selected, but under the circumstances I respectfully suggest that the
younger of the two nephews is debarred and that your honor's choice
should fall upon the elder, a college graduate, a young man who moves in
the highest social circles, and who has not, I believe, the honor of an
acquaintance with the inmates and turnkeys of the state prison."
Hodgkins had hardly sat down after this acrid peroration when Shagarach
was on his feet.
"I have only a few words to say at present. The case is by no means so
simple as my learned brother imagines. My learned brother assumes that
the physical destruction of the will has involved the extinction of its
contents. So mature an advocate does not need to be reminded that parol
proof of the contents of a will, of its accuracy in technical form, and
of its existence unrevoked at the time of the testator's death, are
equivalent in law to the presentation of the document itself.
"We have in the court-room today a number of witnesses who will testify
to the contents of the will. We have the witnesses who signed it to
prove its compliance with statutory requirements as to form; and I do
not understand that Brother Hodgkins denies that the paper was in
existence until destroyed at the Arnold fire."
"You object, then, to the issuance of administration papers to Mr. Harry
Arnold?" asked the judge.
"Emphatically. We desire to uphold the will. Brother Hodgkins has
introduced evidence as to the making of a will in the letter which he
read. I should like to put in evidence now the testimony of the three
witnesses to the signature."
When the three witnesses had sworn to Prof. Arnold's acknowledgment in
their presence of the will, to their own attestation of his signature,
and to the date, June 7, of these occurrences, another lawyer, who
appeared to act in concert with Shagarach, briefly announced his
guardianship of the interests of the heirs of Ellen Greeley, a legatee
in the sum of $1,000. After recounting the long and meritorious services
of the dead domestic, he called upon her sister to testify to several
conversations in which she had referred to the professor's generous
remembrance of her in his will.
"It is proper to state at this point," said Shagarach, "that the other
servant, Bertha Lund, is not represented here by counsel, but there is
evidence to show that she was remembered in the same manner as her
colleague."
Mrs. Christenson was thereupon called and deposed, exactly as Ellen
Greeley's sister had done, to the several conversations in which Bertha
had referred to her employer's liberality.
"Until yesterday evening," said Shagarach, "Bertha Lund was employed in
the country house of Mrs. Arnold at Hillsborough. A telegram, however,
sent to the station-master at that place, brings the answer that Miss
Lund took the outward-bound train at 5:21 this morning, being alone and
accoutred with a large baggage trunk. I doubt, therefore, if this
important witness as to the contents of the will can readily be found."
While he made this statement Shagarach searched Mrs. Arnold's face. Her
gaze shifted and she perceptibly whitened. Then the rise of still
another lawyer, also seeming to act in concert with Shagarach, drew
attention to the court. The new attorney represented, as he immediately
informed the judge, certain charitable institutions which had been
remembered under the clauses of the will--namely, the Duxborough
institution for the blind, of which the professor, who had himself been
operated on for cataract, had been throughout his life a conspicuous
supporter; the Woodlawn home for consumptives, the dipsomaniac hospital,
the Magdalen reformatory, the asylum for idiots and the Christian
orphanage. Letters were read from Prof. Arnold to the superintendents of
each of these institutions, requesting them to accept legacies of
$20,000 each under the will which he had just drawn. The letters were
couched in a stereotyped form and all dated alike.
But the most significant testimony of the day was contained in the last
document which this attorney presented--a letter.
"Dr. Silsby himself," he explained, "is detained from attendance at this
hearing by important scientific labors in the west."
The mention of Dr. Jonas Silsby's name caused the eyebrows of the
Hodgkins firm to elevate themselves unanimously in a manner which
amusingly accented the facial resemblance of the members. Jonas Silsby
had been a pupil of Prof. Arnold and was at present the most
distinguished arboreal botanist in the country. Along with some of his
master's eccentricities, such as vegetarianism, he had imbibed much of
his independence and noble honor. He was, moreover, Robert Floyd's most
intimate friend, bridging, as it were, by the full vigor of his
fifty-odd years, the great gap of half a century which separated the
boyish nephew from his octogenarian uncle.
Mrs. Arnold's quick smoothing with her finger of an imaginary loose
lock--the characteristic feminine gesture of embarrassment--did not
escape Shagarach's lustrous glance. The letter was worded as quaintly as
the other:
"My Dear Jonas: Rob has gone back on me, God bless him, the rogue,
and you've got to take my dollars. I know you don't want them, but
I'm going to commit inverse larceny just the same. I'll grab you by
the throat and stuff your pockets with gold, though you bellow
like an ox. You know what it's all about. We've talked it over
often enough. And I want it called the 'Arnold academia,' too. If
agriculture stops going to the dogs in this country through the
preaching of the dons my hoard keeps in shoe leather, then I want
the credit of it for my ghost downstairs. It'll need some comfort,
Jonas. But don't suppose I dream of quitting you yet, my boy, and
don't expect all of the pudding I've baked. There will be some
plums for the asylums, and some for the servants, and Rob, the
young rogue, has got to be provided for, willy-nilly. This is only
a hint, but verbum sap. We'll talk it over when you come east
again, with your pouches full of seeds. Here's good luck to you,
Jonas. It is God's world, anyway, and not the devil's. Your old
friend,
"BENJAMIN ARNOLD."
"Dr. Silsby explains," added the lawyer, "that the allusion in the text
to an academia refers to a cherished project for elevating the position
of the American farmer. The idea was to establish a great agricultural
university. It had been a frequent subject of discussion between them,
and nothing could be more natural than that Dr. Silsby should be
selected as president of the institution."
"And trustee of its funds," added Shagarach, looking at the senior
member of the bewildered firm of Hodgkins, Hodgkins & Hodgkins. Then the
court adjourned for lunch.