"
"There's the question of how the document was obtained," remarked
Collingwood. "There may have been undue influence."
The two solicitors looked at each other. Then Eldrick rose from his
chair. "I'll tell you what I'll do," he said. "It's no affair of mine,
but we employed Pratt for years, and he'll confide in me. I'll go and
see him, and ask him what it's all about. Wait here a while, you two."
He went out of his office and across into Market Street, where the Atlas
Building, a modern range of offices and chambers, towered above the
older structures at its foot. In the entrance hall a man was gilding the
name of a new tenant on the address board--that name was Pratt's, and
Eldrick presently found himself ascending in the lift to Pratt's
quarters on the fifth floor. Within five minutes of leaving Collingwood
and Robson, he was closeted with Pratt in a well-furnished and appointed
little office of two rooms, the inner one of which was almost luxurious
in its fittings. And Pratt himself looked extremely well satisfied, and
confident--and quite at his ease. He wheeled forward an easy chair for
his visitor, and pushed a box of cigarettes towards him.
"Glad to see you, Mr. Eldrick," he said, with a cordial politeness which
suggested, however, somehow, that he and the solicitor were no longer
master and servant. "How do you like my little place of business?"
"You're making a comfortable nest of it, anyhow, Pratt," answered
Eldrick, looking round.
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