“A few weeks later, the child was privately christened in a small church on the outskirts of Melbourne and the event duly recorded upon the church records.  He was given his father’s name in full, Harold Scott Mainwaring, but until his twenty-first birthday was known among our acquaintances as Harry Scott, the same name by which he has been known in your city while acting as private secretary to Hugh Mainwaring.”

“Are you familiar with the letter written by Harold Mainwaring to his son?”

“Perfectly so; he gave it into my keeping on the day of the christening, to be given to his son when he should have reached his majority, if he himself had not, before that time, claimed him as his child.”

“You can then vouch for its genuineness?”

“I can.”

“How long a time elapsed between the birth of this child and the death of Harold Mainwaring, the father?”

“About five years.  He left his wife soon after the birth of this child and spent the greater part of his time at the mines.  He finally decided to go to the gold fields of Africa, and a few months after his departure, we received tidings of the wreck of the vessel in which he sailed, with the particulars of his death at sea.”

“Mr. Scott, did you ever hear of the existence of this will?”

“Not until the boy, Harold, learned of it, soon after he entered Oxford.”

“Do you know how he first heard of it?”

“He heard of it from Wilson, one of the old servants on the Mainwaring estate, who recognized in him a resemblance to Ralph Maxwell Mainwaring, and, learning of his identity, told him the history of the will.”

“You have been kept informed of his search for the will and of its final discovery?”

“From the first; and though the boy has a good bit of money in his own name, I will back him in getting his rights to the very last pound in my possession, and that,” he added, while his dark eyes flashed ominously, “will outlast the bank-roll of any that can go against him.”

“Have you any further direct evidence which you can produce in support of the identity of the claimant?”

“I have,” the witness replied, and having taken from his pocket a large memorandum book and extracted therefrom a paper, he continued, with great deliberation, —

“I have here a certified copy of the record of the christening, at the church of St. Bartholomew, on June 24, 18-, of Harold Scott Mainwaring, the first-born son of Harold Scott and Eleanor Houghton Mainwaring.”

A piercing shriek suddenly rang out through the hushed court-room, and the crowd, turning involuntarily at the familiar name of Eleanor Houghton Mainwaring towards the seat occupied by Mrs. LaGrange, saw that wretched woman sink, with a low, despairing moan, unconscious to the floor.  As several sprang to the assistance of the unfortunate woman, Mr. Scott, turning swiftly towards the judge, exclaimed,-