MARTIN HEWITT, INVESTIGATOR.




I.


THE LENTON CROFT ROBBERIES.

Those who retain any memory of the great law cases of fifteen or twenty
years back will remember, at least, the title of that extraordinary will
case, "Bartley _v_. Bartley and others," which occupied the Probate Court
for some weeks on end, and caused an amount of public interest rarely
accorded to any but the cases considered in the other division of the same
court. The case itself was noted for the large quantity of remarkable and
unusual evidence presented by the plaintiff's side--evidence that took the
other party completely by surprise, and overthrew their case like a house
of cards. The affair will, perhaps, be more readily recalled as the
occasion of the sudden rise to eminence in their profession of Messrs.
Crellan, Hunt & Crellan, solicitors for the plaintiff--a result due
entirely to the wonderful ability shown in this case of building up,
apparently out of nothing, a smashing weight of irresistible evidence.
That the firm has since maintained--indeed enhanced--the position it then
won for itself need scarcely be said here; its name is familiar to
everybody. But there are not many of the outside public who know that the
credit of the whole performance was primarily due to a young clerk in the
employ of Messrs. Crellan, who had been given charge of the seemingly
desperate task of collecting evidence in the case.