Directly the President had risen, Society streamed out into the great
hall of the Law Courts.
Innumerable motor broughams and private carriages were waiting in Fleet
Street, and despite the dullness of the afternoon the eager
photographers of the illustrated papers were waiting to get snap-shots
of celebrated people as they passed from the sordid theatre of Court No.
II. _en route_ for afternoon tea and scandal.
Henry Passhe had an engagement, and, saying good-bye to Colonel Adams,
hurried away. The other remained in the big central hall for a moment or
two looking round to see if he could find an acquaintance.
To him, as he stood there, came Lord Ellerdine and struck him on the
shoulder.
"Hullo, Adams!" he said, in a voice which was very subdued. "Thought I
saw you in court. Been watching this dreadful business?"
Colonel Adams nodded. "Yes, Ellerdine," he said. "Henry Passhe brought
me. He much wanted to come. I hesitated whether I should go or not, and
now I am very sorry I did. To see a charming little woman like Mrs.
Admaston tortured--that isn't very pleasant."
The other thrust his arm into the colonel's. "Damned dreadful, isn't
it?" he said in an agitated voice. "Well, look here, let's get out of
this. What are you going to do?"
"I have nothing particular to do at present; but why do you ask,
Ellerdine?"
"Look here," Lord Ellerdine replied--"we can't talk here, but I have got
an idea." His voice glowed with pride as he said it. "I haven't
mentioned it to a soul, and I don't want to mention it to any one
concerned in the case. Upon my soul, Adams, it is a godsend to have met
you. I want to hear what you think. Are you game to listen?"
Adams nodded. He liked Lord Ellerdine, as everybody did, though he had
no higher opinion of that gentleman's intelligence than the rest of the
world.
"Quite at your service, Ellerdine," he answered; "and if your idea is
one that may possibly help Mrs. Admaston, I shall be more pleased
still."
"Of course it is," Lord Ellerdine answered. "Well, let's go and talk it
over. It is impossible in this infernal rush."
"All right," Colonel Adams replied, "Come to the Cocoa Tree, or, if you
like, I will come with you to White's."
Lord Ellerdine shook his head. "We will have some tea," he said. "But I
don't want to go west now until I have talked this idea of mine over
with you. If you agree that there is anything in it, then we should only
have to come back to this part of the world again. Can't we get a cup of
tea somewhere about here?"
By this time the two men had walked outside the Law Courts and were
standing among the motley crowd which was pouring out of the great
central doorway and also the side approaches to the public galleries and
courts.
They looked around them. Both of them were absolutely at sea in this
part of London.
"Tell you what," Ellerdine said suddenly: "I have got another idea.
Let's go to an A.B.C.--what?"
"What do you mean?" Adams replied.
"Why," Lord Ellerdine answered, "the A.B.C. you know, where clerks and
people have tea. There are always lots of them in every street, I
believe."
They turned eastwards and began to walk slowly down Fleet Street.
"Ellerdine," Colonel Adams exclaimed bitterly, "look at this!"
The pavements were lined with news-venders displaying great contents
bills of the evening papers:
"MRS. ADMASTON ON THE RACk"; "SOCIETY LADY'S ADMISSIONS"; and in a
violently Radical sheet, "SOCIETY BUTTERFLY EXAMINED."
Lord Ellerdine saw the placards also. "Sickening, isn't it?" he said,
with a real note of pain in his voice. "Poor little Peggy! Poor little
girl! I would have done anything to stop it, Adams; and in half an
hour--these newspaper fellows are so damned clever--in half an hour
there'll be all about the last scene, the letter and all that. By the
time we get back to town"--Lord Ellerdine didn't imagine that he was
really in London at the moment,--"by the time we get back to town it
will be in all the clubs just as it has come over the tape machines for
the last two hours, only with further details--how Peggy looked and all
that. Sickening!"
Colonel Adams agreed. He did not in the least know what his rather
fatuous friend was about to propose or had in his mind; but he was, at
anyrate, glad of his companionship, weary and unhappy as he felt at the
terrible spectacle which he had found almost impossible to endure.
"I could kill that man Robert Fyffe," he said savagely as they walked
slowly eastwards. "Great, big, damned bully, I call him."
"Well, I know him," Ellerdine replied; "and really, Adams, he is quite
a decent chap in private life. It is his job, you know, and he has got
to do it as well as he can. I believe he gets about a hundred a day or
more for a case like this."
"Filthy cruelty, I call it," Adams answered, "whether he is a decent
chap or not. To be paid--to earn your living, by Gad!--to torture men
and women like that seems to me a low way of earning your
bread-and-butter."
"Perhaps it is," the other replied. "At the same time, Adams, it might
be said of your job too. That Afghan business, when there was no
quarter, that you were in: there were a whole lot of sentimentalists in
the Radical press that howled and held you up to execration as a sort of
Pontius Pilate with a flavour of Nero, at home. You were out there doing
the work. I was home and read the papers--you didn't. Bally monster,
they called you--what?"
"Damn all newspaper writers!" the old white-haired colonel growled. "But
I say, Ellerdine, what about this cup of tea?"
Lord Ellerdine looked round anxiously, and then his face lighted up.
"Here's an A.B.C.," he said, pointing to some adjacent windows covered
with letters in white enamel and displaying buns and pastry.
"How will this do, old chap?"
The soldier nodded, and together the two men entered the shop.
"What do we do now?" Ellerdine said, looking round him with some
perplexity. "By Jove! there's a pretty girl."
One of the waitresses, realising suddenly that the two gentlemen who had
just entered were quite unaccustomed to the ways of the establishment,
and having one of her tables vacant, hurried up to them.
"Tea?" she said engagingly.
"That's just it, my dear," said Lord Ellerdine, with a pleased smile.
"Now, you show us all the ropes, will you?"
"Come this way," said the pretty waitress, with an engaging little toss
of her head and a consciousness of something pleasantly unusual. She led
them to a little round-topped marble table where two cheap cane chairs
were waiting, upon which Lord Ellerdine and Colonel Adams seated
themselves.
"Tea, I think you said?" said the waitress to Lord Ellerdine, whom she
obviously found the most sympathetic of the pair.
The ex-diplomatist nodded. "But we must have something to eat--what?
Well, my dear, we will leave it to you. _Carte blanche_--what?"
"Now look here, Adams," Lord Ellerdine said, "what I want to tell you is
this. Of course, I am tremendously interested in this case. I am mixed
up in it considerably, and also I am a great friend of Peggy's--one of
her oldest friends. You know her too, though not as well as I do, and
you know what a charming little woman she is. I would do anything to
save her if I could, and I have got an idea! Now, some time ago," Lord
Ellerdine continued, "a silly Johnny--a secretary it was--forged my
name. It was on a cheque. There was considerable difficulty in finding
out who was the actual culprit, as owing to the circumstances there were
several people who might have done it. My solicitors told me that the
only way to really find out was to go to a handwriting expert. I didn't
know what that was until they explained, but it seems there are Johnnies
who make a regular profession of studying people's writing."
"Are there, by Jove!" said the colonel, much interested.
"Yes; and just at that time--it was some two years ago--the king and
skipper of the whole lot had come over from America and established a
branch in London. His name is William Q. Devereux."
"Is it, by Jove!" said the colonel again.
Ellerdine nodded. "Odd," he said, "but true, _parole d'honneur_. He
started an office in London to help all the commercial Johnnies in the
city, and so I went to him with my papers; and I am damned if the chap
didn't find out who forged my name in about an hour, and we had him
nailed that same evening. Cost me a tenner, that's all."
Colonel Adams nodded, looking with some trepidation at the pile of
rather too luscious-looking pastry which had by now been set upon the
table.
"I don't think I will venture," he said to himself; and then to
Ellerdine, "Well, go on, Ellerdine."
"Now, in my pocket," Lord Ellerdine continued, "I have got exact
photographs and tracings of the letters which have made such a fuss this
afternoon. My idea, Adams, is that you and I--if you have time, that
is--should go down into the City and see this expert chap and see if he
can throw some light on the situation. They have tried all the experts
in London on Peggy's case, but they don't seem to know about my American
friend. I believe in him. He is one of the most astute people going.
What do you say to trying him--for poor little Peggy's sake?"
"Excellent idea, by Jove!" the other answered. "You've got his address,
of course?"
"Oh yes," Lord Ellerdine replied; "it's in Coleman Street, E.C. Now, I
wonder if you would mind going down with me and seeing what he has got
to say?"
"Not in the least," Colonel Adams answered. "In fact, I shall be
tremendously interested. I'd do a good deal more than that, my dear
Ellerdine, if I could, to help Mrs. Admaston in any way."
"Very well, then," said the peer. "We'll just finish our tea, and pay
that pretty-looking girl and take a taxi at once."
In five minutes they had dismissed the cab and were being carried in a
lift to the third floor of a big block of buildings in Coleman Street.
The door of Mr. Devereux's office was marked "Enter," and the newcomers
found themselves in a small but comfortably furnished room. At a round
polished table, on which there was a typewriting machine, sat a young
lady, who was reading a novel of Miss Marie Corelli's.
"Mr. Devereux is in," she said in answer to their queries, "but he is
just about to leave. However, I will take your name and see if he can
see you."
Some people would have been annoyed at this fashion of greeting, but to
the two simple gentlemen in question it seemed quite right and proper
that such a rare bird as an American handwriting expert should be fenced
round with a certain ritual.
"Tell Mr. Devereux," said Lord Ellerdine, "that Lord Ellerdine is here.
Mr. Devereux knows me."
Unlike the young person in the cafe, the young lady in the office did
not seem at all impressed, but languidly sauntered through the door
which led to the inner room. She came back much more quickly than she
had entered. "Mr. Devereux begs that you will step in," she said, and
once more fell to her enthralling romance as the door closed behind the
visitors.
Mr. Devereux was a well-dressed, trim young American with a hard,
clean-shaved face. His manner was brisk, business-like, and deferential,
and his whole appearance suggested energy and capability.
Upon his large leather-covered writing-table were various appliances
used in his business.
One saw a microscope of some peculiar construction. There were a variety
of small lenses and reading-glasses, together with various instruments
of shining steel for measuring, with extreme accuracy, the length of a
letter or a line.
There was also an enlarging camera upon a shelf by the window, and a
door in one corner of the place was marked "Dark room."
"Glad to see you again, my lord," said Mr. Devereux. "Not a forgery case
this time, I hope?"
"Not a bit of it," Lord Ellerdine replied, shaking hands with the
expert. "Glad to see you, Mr. Devereux. No; it is something far more
important than a cheque for fifty pounds. It is to do with the Admaston
divorce case."
Mr. Devereux started. His face became almost ferret-like in its
intentness, while he said nasally, but with suppressed eagerness in his
voice, "I guess this is a bit of luck. I have just seen this evening's
paper, and of course I have followed the case with great interest from
first to last. I know without any possibility of doubt that all my
brother experts in London have been consulted. And from the first it has
rather hurt me that nobody had come to me, because I do claim----"
Lord Ellerdine interrupted him. "I know, I know," he said; "there is no
one that can touch you, Mr. Devereux. But probably, you see----" He
hesitated in his effort to soothe the somewhat wounded feelings of the
expert.
Colonel Adams came to the rescue. "Well, Mr. Devereux," he said, "here
we are, and we have got something very important on which to ask your
opinion."
The expert became all attention once more. "What is it?" he said
briefly.
Lord Ellerdine put his hand in the breast-pocket of his coat and
withdrew a long envelope full of papers.
"I have here," he said, "exact photographs and tracings--everything that
you will probably find needful, in fact--of the two letters which you
have just been reading about in the evening paper, and which have caused
such a tremendous sensation this afternoon. It seems at the moment that
Mrs. Admaston has absolutely lost her case. To all outward appearances
these letters have ruined her. At the same time, I am certain that she
knew nothing about them, and that Mr. Collingwood knew nothing about
them either. You follow me?"
Lord Ellerdine had never been so concise and explanatory before, but the
occasion had come, and he had risen to it.
"I follow you perfectly," said the expert.
"Very well, then," Lord Ellerdine said; "here are the letters, and I
want you to tell me what you think about them."
He gave the envelope to the expert, who withdrew the papers it contained
and spread them upon the table.
He began to study them with grave attention. The two men sat in the
comfortable chairs he had indicated to them.
"My lord," said the expert, looking up suddenly, "I guess you won't
realise the necessity of it, but I should very much like to be left
alone for say twenty minutes. I can think better when I am alone, and I
gather you want an immediate opinion?"
"We do," Lord Ellerdine replied. "All right; we will go, and come back
in half an hour or so."
The two gentlemen re-entered the waiting-room.
"Well, my dear," said Lord Ellerdine briskly to the young lady, "we are
put out here while Mr. Devereux examines some papers I have brought in;
and he tells us that we are to talk to you--what?"
The young lady put down her volume. "Frightfully cold," she said, "isn't
it?" And for the next half-hour Lord Ellerdine and Colonel Adams and
this very superior young lady conversed with a studied propriety which
certainly did not obtain in the drawing-rooms where the two gentlemen
were accustomed to visit.
At the end of that time the door opened and the keen-faced American came
out.
He was rubbing his hands briskly as though pleased with himself. "Guess
I have got something for you, at anyrate," he said, "if you will come in
here."
They re-entered the inner room, and Devereux began. "I can tell you one
thing," he said, "and one thing only."
Lord Ellerdine was trembling with excitement. "What is it?" he said
breathlessly. "Will it help?"
"It may," the expert replied; "but at anyrate it is this. Those two
letters were written by some one who can write with the left hand as
well as with the right. There is not the slightest doubt about it, and I
don't care what any of your darned English experts may say."
Lord Ellerdine's face fell. "With the left hand?" he asked vaguely.
The expert nodded. "I will explain to you," he said, pulling a large
book of manuscripts towards him; and illustrating his theory with swift,
decisive movements upon a blank sheet of paper, he showed the two men
exactly the reasons for his diagnosis.
"Now, my lord," he said, when he had finished and made certain that both
of them thoroughly understood--"now, my lord, all you have to do is to
find the person who writes with his or her left hand and could have
possibly been sufficiently acquainted with the facts to produce those
two letters. When that is done you will have the person."
Lord Ellerdine was considerably disappointed. He had imagined that by
some occult means the expert would have been immediately able to name
the writer of the letters. He strove to conceal what he felt, however;
and after paying Mr. Devereux's fee the two men left the building.
"It isn't much," Lord Ellerdine said, as they got into a cab and drove
rapidly towards the West End. "It isn't much, but it is something. I
will drop you at your club--Cocoa Tree, isn't it?--and then drive
straight to Collingwood's solicitors to find out where he is. It is not
much, but it is something," he repeated rather vaguely to himself; and
then both men became occupied with their own thoughts and were silent.