Page:Fletcher - The Mortover Grange Affair.pdf/124

 He pointed to the last few lines of the Mortover pedigree:

"That is worth something—to me!" he repeated. "Splendid link in the chain!"

"I don't follow," said the inspector. "You know more, of course. What is it?"

"That entry about Matthew! Married one Louisa Patello! Now, there's a girl of that name, Patello—uncommon name, too, that—now staying at Mortover Grange. But of course you don't know what I've done, seen, heard down there. We'd better go into that at once."

He spent the next hour in detailing his discoveries and experiences to the inspector, from his arrival at Netherwell to his departure from it, and at the end put a direct question to him.

"What do you make of it?"

"I make this of it, Wedgwood," replied his companion promptly. "Wraypoole found out that the real owner of that Mortover property is this girl Avice, Matthew's daughter. Somebody found out that he knew, and that he'd put his grounds in this manuscript, which, in all