Certainly, this was a most remarkable development. I listened without
comment.
Yet when Faulkner had given me, at the luncheon table, all the details
by way of "explanation," as he put it, the tangle seemed even greater
than before he had begun.
The will, dated three years previously, had been drawn up by a
well-known firm of London lawyers. It was quite in order, and the
testator's name was Whichelo, Samuel Whichelo, formerly of Mexico City,
merchant, but then resident at Wimbledon Common. The testator, who had
been unmarried, left a few legacies to friends and servants, but
practically the whole of his fortune he bequeathed entirely to Frank
Faulkner, "in return for the considerable service he once rendered me."
Faulkner had handed me a copy of the will--it was quite a short will.
When I came to this sentence I naturally looked up.
"Ah!" I said, "then there is a method in the testator's madness. But I
thought you told me you had never even heard his name."
"Until yesterday I never had heard it."
"Then what was this `considerable service' he says you rendered him?"
"Well, I'll tell you," he said. "Years ago, when I was knocking about
the world--I was then about twenty--I chanced to find myself, one night,
in the China Town of San Francisco. I had a friend with me, about my
own age. Foolishly, we were exploring at night, alone--that is, without
an interpreter or guide of any sort, which is about as risky a thing as
any ordinary unarmed European can do in San Francisco, where you may
still, I believe, find the scum of all the nations. Suddenly we heard a
cry. A man was calling, `_Au secours! Au secours_!' Without stopping
to think, I rushed in the direction whence the cry came. It was
repeated. It was in a house which I recognised, at a glance, as an
establishment of doubtful repute. I must tell you that when I was
twenty I was considered a first-rate boxer, and it may have been the
confidence I felt in my ability to defend myself that made me rush,
without hesitation, into that Chinese den. Cards and chits were
scattered about the tables and on the floor, and nine or ten Chinamen
were in the room, struggling furiously with a tall, dark man of powerful
build, who was being rapidly overcome owing to the number of his
assailants. Chinese oaths were flying about freely, and I saw a
knife-blade flash suddenly into the air."