At the Right Time

A Lawyer's Story

The case pending before our court interested our people deeply. A few months previously Jacob Ames had died, leaving property to the amount of fifty to sixty thousand dollars, all of which was readily available. At first it was supposed that the old man—he was eighty-seven—had died without having made a will, as he had often been heard to remark that the making of a will seemed like a preparation for death, and as there could be no question about the inheritance of his property, he did not choose to make any such, to him, ghostly testament. His direct and only legitimate heirs were two orphans, both girls—children of his only daughter.  One of them was a cripple, requiring almost the undivided care and attention of the other, and both were beloved by all who knew them.

While people were feeling glad that the orphan sisters were to be thus grandly provided for, a man named James Arnold presented a will for probate, said to be the last will and testament of Jacob Ames, made several years before. This Arnold was a nephew-in-law of old Jacob, the child of his wife's sister, and for several years been employed as business agent of the deceased; and when he caused the will to be presented, he produced a number of witnesses who declared that they had heard old Ames say that he had made the only will he should ever make, and that James Arnold was his heir and, what seemed to make the matter sure, two witnesses to the will, former servants of the testator, swore point-blank to having seen Ames place his signature to the document, after which they signed their own names. Honest people shook their heads at this, for these two witnesses a man and his wife were not above suspicion. In fact, it was generally believed that a small sum of ready money would buy them, body and soul.

I entered the court late in the afternoon of the… Read More