"The deuce we do!"

"Yes."

"How long's he been dead?"

"About five weeks or less. I sailed as soon as I could after he was
buried. I'd arranged before to come. I daresay I ought to have stayed a
bit longer, as I'm the executor under the will, but I wanted to come,
and I've got a very good lawyer over there--and over here too. I landed
this morning, and here I am. Strictly speaking I suppose I should have
cabled you. But it seemed to me that I could explain better by word of
mouth."

"I wish you would explain," said Mr. Prohack. "You say he's been rich a
long time, but he didn't pay his debt to me, and yet he goes and makes a
will leaving me a third of his fortune. Wants some explaining, doesn't
it?"

Mr. Bishop replied:

"It does and it doesn't. You knew he was a champion postponer, poor old
chap. Profoundly unbusinesslike. It's astonishing how unbusinesslike
successful men are! He was always meaning to come to England to see you;
but he never found time. He constantly talked of you--"

"But do you know," Mr. Prohack intervened, "that from that day to this
I've never heard one single word from him? Not even a picture-postcard.
And what's more I've never heard a single word _of_ him."