Patrick said that
he could arrange for the signing of such a letter and was willing to pay
Jones $250 for his help. Jones agreed.
Patrick now learned that Mr. Rice was living with no companion except
Jones; that he held little communication with the outside world; that
the valet was in his confidence and thoroughly familiar with his papers,
and that the will made in 1896 disinherited natural heirs in favor of an
educational institution which he had founded in Texas. He also learned
that while Mr. Rice was 84 years of age he was in possession of all his
faculties, conducted his own business, and might live for years.
Possessed of these facts Patrick's evil mind soon developed a conspiracy
with Jones to secure the whole estate.
Mr. Rice's pet charity was the William M. Rice Institute "for the
advance of science, art and literature," of Texas, which he had founded
in 1891. He had donated to it more than a million and a half dollars. By
the will of 1896 only small legacies were bequeathed to relatives, while
the bulk of his fortune was left to the Institute.
About a month after Patrick's first visit to the Berkshire Apartments,
that is, in December, 1899, while he and Jones were examining Rice's
private papers, they stumbled upon the will.
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