And those two wards of Ransford's, Mary and Richard Bewery, as they are called, are, in reality, Mary and Richard Brake--his children." "You've established that as a fact ?" asked Jettison, who was listening with close attention.

"It's not a surmise on your part ?" Bryce hesitated before replying to this question.

After all, he reflected, it was a surmise.

He could not positively prove his assertion.
"Well," he answered after a moment's thought, "I'll qualify that by saying that from the evidence I have, and from what I know, I believe it to be an indisputable fact.

What I do know of fact, hard, positive fact, is this:--John Brake married a Mary Bewery at the parish church of Braden Medworth, near Barthorpe, in Leicestershire: I've seen the entry in the register with my own eyes.