“In the event of my dying without discovering the surviving members of the Roussel family, or of the cousin of the three sisters, I request my friend Don Luis Perenna to make all the necessary investigations.  With this object, I hereby appoint him the executor of my will in so far as concerns the European portion of my estate, and I beg him to undertake the conduct of the events that may arise after my death or in consequence of my death to consider himself my representative and to act in all things for the benefit of my memory and the accomplishment of my wishes.  In gratitude for this service and in memory of the two occasions on which he saved my life, I give and bequeath to the said Don Luis Perenna the sum of one million francs.”

The Prefect stopped for a few seconds.  Don Luis murmured: 

“Poor Cosmo! ...  I should not have needed that inducement to carry out his last wishes.”

M. Desmalions continued his reading: 

“Furthermore, if, within three months of my death, the investigations made by Don Luis Perenna and by Maitre Lepertuis have led to no result; if no heir and no survivor of the Roussel family have come forward to receive the bequest, then the whole hundred million francs shall definitely, all later claims notwithstanding, accrue to my friend Don Luis Perenna.  I know him well enough to feel assured that he will employ this fortune in a manner which shall accord with the loftiness of his schemes and the greatness of the plans which he described to me so enthusiastically in our tent in Morocco.”

M. Desmalions stopped once more and raised his eyes to Don Luis, who remained silent and impassive, though a tear glistened on his lashes.  Comte d’Astrignac said: 

“My congratulations, Perenna.”

“Let me remind you, Major,” he answered, “that this legacy is subject to a condition.  And I swear that, if it depends on me, the survivors of the Roussel family shall be found.”

“I’m sure of it,” said the officer.  “I know you.”

“In any case,” asked the Prefect of Police of Don Luis, “you do not refuse this conditional legacy?”

“Well, no,” said Perenna, with a laugh.  “There are things which one can’t refuse.”

“My question,” said the Prefect, “was prompted by the last paragraph of the will:  ’If, for any reason, my friend Perenna should refuse this legacy, or if he should have died before the date fixed for its payment, I request the Ambassador of the United States and the Prefect of Police for the time being to consult as to the means of building and maintaining in Paris a university confined to students and artists of American nationality and to devote the money to this purpose.  And I hereby authorize the Prefect of Police in any case to receive a sum of three hundred thousand francs out of my estate for the benefit of the Paris Police Fund.’”

M. Desmalions folded the paper and took up another.