"What the deuce is this, I wonder?" Joe took this out and looked at it
suspiciously. "Can he be going to give her all his money before he
dies? Is he going to make her inherit it at once?" The thought was so
exasperating that he slipped the roll into his pocket. "At all
events," he said, "she sha'n't have them until I have read them first.
I dare say they won't be missed for a day or two."

He calculated that he could read and master the contents that night,
and put back the papers in the safe in the morning while James was
opening the shop.

"There's nothing, James," he whispered as he went out, the safe being
locked again. "There is nothing at all. Look here, my lad, you must
try another way of finding out where the money is."

"I wish I was sure that he hasn't carried off something in his
pocket," James murmured.

Joe spent the whole evening alone, contrary to his usual practice,
which was, as we have seen, to spend it at a certain music-hall. He
read the papers over and over again.

"I wish," he said at length, "I wish I had known this only two months
ago. I wish I had paid more attention to Iris. What a dreadful thing
it is to have a grandfather who keeps secrets from his grandson. What
a game we might have had over this job! What a game we might have
still if--"

And here he stopped, for the first germ or conception of a magnificent
coup dawned upon him, and fairly dazzled him so that his eyes saw a