"With no result?" asked Mr. Pawle.

"No result whatever, sir--I understand that the family solicitors never
had one single reply," answered Mrs. Summers. "I understand, too, that
for some time before the old Earl's death they'd been trying to trace
Lord Marketstoke from his last known movements. But that had failed too.
He had chambers in London, and he kept a manservant there; the manservant
could only say that on the night on which his young master left Ellingham
Park he returned to his chambers, went to bed--and had gone when he, the
manservant, rose in the morning. No, sir; all the efforts and
advertisements were no good whatever, and after some time--some
considerable time--the younger brother, the Honourable Charles
Cave-Gray--"

"Cave-Gray? Is that the family name?" interrupted Mr. Pawle.

"That's the family name, sir--Cave-Gray," replied Mrs. Summers. "One of
the oldest families in these parts, sir--the earldom dates from Queen
Anne. Well, the Honourable Charles Cave-Gray, and his solicitors, of
course, came to the conclusion that Lord Marketstoke was dead, and so--I
don't understand the legal niceties, gentlemen, but they went to the
courts to get something done which presumed his death and let Mr.
Charles come into the title and estates. And in the end that had been
done, and Mr. Charles became the eighth Earl of Ellingham."

"I remember it now," muttered Mr. Pawle. "Yes--curious case. But it was
proved to the court, I recollect, that everything possible had been done
to find the missing heir--and without result."

"Just so, sir, and so Mr. Charles succeeded," asserted Mrs. Summers. "He