47998 'Well, Sir Henry, your uncle had a letter that morning.
47999 He had usually a great many letters, for he was a public man and well known for his kind heart, so that everyone who was in trouble was glad to turn to him.
48000 But that morning, as it chanced, there was only this one letter, so I took the more notice of it.
48001 It was from Coombe Tracey, and it was addressed in a woman's hand.'
48002 'Well?'
48003 'Well, sir, I thought no more of the matter, and never would have done had it not been for my wife.
48004 Only a few weeks ago she was cleaning out Sir Charles's study - it had never been touched since his death - and she found the ashes of a burned letter in the back of the grate.
48005 The greater part of it was charred to pieces, but one little slip, the end of a page, hung together, and the writing could still be read, though it was grey on a black ground.
48006 It seemed to us to be a postscript at the end of the letter, and it said:
48007 "Please, please, as you are a gentleman, burn this letter, and be at the gate by ten o'clock."
48008 Beneath it were signed the initials L.L.'
48009 'Have you got that slip?'
48010 'No, sir, it crumbled all to bits after we moved it.'
48011 'Had Sir Charles received any other letters in the same writing?'