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Let us take the
first case--that of voluntary disappearance. Obviously, its
improbability is extreme."
"Jellicoe doesn't think so," said I. "He thinks it quite on the cards
that John Bellingham is alive. He says that it is not a very unusual
thing for a man to disappear for a time."
"Then why is he applying for a presumption of death?"
"Just what I asked him. He says that it is the correct thing to do; that
the entire responsibility rests on the Court."
"That is all nonsense," said Thorndyke. "Jellicoe is the trustee for his
absent client, and, if he thinks that client is alive, it is his duty to
keep the estate intact; and he knows that perfectly well. We may take it
that Jellicoe is of the same opinion as I am: that John Bellingham is
dead."
"Still," I urged, "men do disappear from time to time, and turn up again
after years of absence."
"Yes, but for a definite reason. Either they are irresponsible vagabonds
who take this way of shuffling off their responsibilities, or they are
men who have been caught in a net of distasteful circumstances.


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