The Teeth of the Tiger | Page 5

to my
method, you will soon realize that the whole thing is very simple and
very natural. I will be as brief as I can."
He spread before him the bundle of documents prepared for him by his
secretary and, consulting his notes as he spoke, continued:
"Over fifty years ago, in 1860, three sisters, three orphans, Ermeline,
Elizabeth, and Armande Roussel, aged twenty-two, twenty, and
eighteen respectively, were living at Saint-Etienne with a cousin named
Victor, who was a few years younger. The eldest, Ermeline, was the

first to leave Saint-Etienne. She went to London, where she married an
Englishman of the name Mornington, by whom she had a son, who was
christened Cosmo.
"The family was very poor and went through hard times. Ermeline
repeatedly wrote to her sisters to ask for a little assistance. Receiving
no reply, she broke off the correspondence altogether. In 1870 Mr. and
Mrs. Mornington left England for America. Five years later they were
rich. Mr. Mornington died in 1878; but his widow continued to
administer the fortune bequeathed to her and, as she had a genius for
business and speculation, she increased this fortune until it attained a
colossal figure. At her decease, in 1900, she left her son the sum of four
hundred million francs."
The amount seemed to make an impression on the Prefect's hearers. He
saw the major and Don Luis Perenna exchange a glance and asked:
"You knew Cosmo Mornington, did you not?"
"Yes, Monsieur le Préfet," replied Comte d'Astrignac. "He was in
Morocco when Perenna and I were fighting there."
"Just so," said M. Desmalions. "Cosmo Mornington had begun to travel
about the world. He took up the practise of medicine, from what I hear,
and, when occasion offered, treated the sick with great skill and, of
course, without charge. He lived first in Egypt and then in Algiers and
Morocco. Last year he settled down in Paris, where he died four weeks
ago as the result of a most stupid accident."
"A carelessly administered hypodermic injection, was it not, Monsieur
le Préfet?" asked the secretary of the American Embassy. "It was
mentioned in the papers and reported to us at the embassy."
"Yes," said Desmalions. "To assist his recovery from a long attack of
influenza which had kept him in bed all the winter, Mr. Mornington, by
his doctor's orders, used to give himself injections of glycero-phosphate
of soda. He must have omitted the necessary precautions on the last
occasion when he did so, for the wound was poisoned, inflammation

set in with lightning rapidity, and Mr. Mornington was dead in a few
hours."
The Prefect of Police turned to the solicitor and asked:
"Have I summed up the facts correctly, Maître Lepertuis?"
"Absolutely, Monsieur le Préfet."
M. Desmalions continued:
"The next morning, Maître Lepertuis called here and, for reasons which
you will understand when you have heard the document read, showed
me Cosmo Mornington's will, which had been placed in his hands."
While the Prefect was looking through the papers, Maître Lepertuis
added:
"I may be allowed to say that I saw my client only once before I was
summoned to his death-bed; and that was on the day when he sent for
me to come to his room in the hotel to hand me the will which he had
just made. This was at the beginning of his influenza. In the course of
conversation he told me that he had been making some inquiries with a
view to tracing his mother's family, and that he intended to pursue these
inquiries seriously after his recovery. Circumstances, as it turned out,
prevented his fulfilling his purpose."
Meanwhile, the Prefect of Police had taken from among the documents
an open envelope containing two sheets of paper. He unfolded the
larger of the two and said:
"This is the will. I will ask you to listen attentively while I read it and
also the document attached to it."
The others settled themselves in their chairs; and the Prefect read out:
"The last will and testament of me, Cosmo Mornington, eldest son of
Hubert Mornington and Ermeline Roussel, his wife, a naturalized
citizen of the United States of America. I give and bequeath to my

adopted country three fourths of my estate, to be employed on works of
charity in accordance with the instructions, written in my hand, which
Maitre Lepertuis will be good enough to forward to the Ambassador of
the United States. The remainder of my property, to the value of about
one hundred million francs, consisting of deposits in various Paris and
London banks, a list of which is in the keeping of Maitre Lepertuis, I
give and bequeath, in memory of my dear mother, to her favourite
sister Elizabeth Roussel or her direct heirs; or, in default of