Chapter 45 Summary

"About my Grandfathers Chest"

When the Atkinson trunk is unlocked by Tom Crick and Dick after the death of Freddie Parr, the trunk is found to contain 11 bottles, 10 full, and one which Dick used to first intoxicate, and then kill, Freddie Parr at the river, which Dick returned to the chest.

Tom finds a letter addressed to Dick in the trunk, which Dick asks him to read aloud. The letter is from Ernest Atkinson, who reveals to Dick that he is actually Dick's father, not his grandfather.

In the midst of this recitation, Tom tells Dick that he and not Dick was the father of Mary's aborted baby.

Later that day, Tom Crick relates how his father Henry now knew that Dick knew of his actual parentage; there is the suggestion that Henry was aware of the fact that he was not Dick's...