Cuthbert, on calling upon the head of the great firm of accountants, was
courteously received by him.
"Of course, I remember your name, Mr. Hartington, with reference to the
Abchester Bank failure. It seemed a particularly hard case, and I know
our Mr. Wanklyn, who had charge of the winding up, took particular
interest in it, and personally consulted me more than once about it,
though I cannot exactly recall the circumstances now. What is it that
you say you want to examine?"
"I want to have a look at the deed of mortgage that Mr. Brander, who
purchased the property, had upon it."
"Yes, I remember now, that was one of the points on which Mr. Wanklyn
consulted me. It struck him at first sight as being rather a remarkable
transaction, and he went into it carefully, but it was all proved to be
correct to his satisfaction. It is unfortunate that the system of
registering mortgages is not enforced everywhere as it is in London--it
would save a great deal of trouble in such cases as the present."
"Are the affairs of the bank quite wound up?"
"Dear me, no, Mr. Hartington. Why, it is but two years since the
failure. There are properties to be realized that cannot be forced on
the market without ruinous loss. There are assets which will not be
available until after death; it is not the assets of the bank, but the
assets of individual shareholders and debtors of the bank that have to
be collected. I should say it will be at least twenty years before the
last dividend will be divided. I am sure Mr. Wanklyn will be happy to
let you see any document you desire. I will take you to him."
Mr. Wanklyn had a room on the same floor with his principal, and Mr. Cox
took Cuthbert and introduced him to him.
"Mr. Hartington wants to have a look at the mortgage that Brander held
on the late Mr. Hartington's estate. You remember we had several talks
about it at the time, and you took a good deal of pains about the
matter. Mr. Hartington wrote to me about it from Paris, if you
recollect, and you replied to him in my name. I will leave him with you
to talk it over."
"Have you any particular reason for wanting to see the deed, Mr.
Hartington?" the accountant asked, when Mr. Cox had left the room. "I
only ask because I suppose the documents connected with the winding up
of the bank must weigh several tons, and it will take a considerable
time for a clerk to hunt out the one in question. If you have really any
motive for examining it I will get it looked out for you by to-morrow,
but it will put us to a great deal of trouble."
"I am really anxious to see it for a special purpose, Mr. Wanklyn. I
have reason to believe there was some irregularity in the matter."
"I am afraid it will make but little difference to you whether it was so
or not, Mr. Hartington. The creditors of the bank have been the
sufferers if there was any irregularity in it."
"Yes, I suppose so, and yet I assure you it is not a mere matter of
sentiment with me. Other questions might turn upon it."
"Then I will certainly have it ready for you by to-morrow--give me until
the afternoon. Will four o'clock suit you?"
"Very well. I will, with your permission, bring with me one of the
attesting witnesses to my father's signature. He was one of Mr.
Brander's clerks at the time."
Mr. Wanklyn looked up keenly.
"You can bring whom you like," he said, after a pause, "and I will put a
room at your disposal, but of course the document cannot be taken away."
"Certainly not, Mr. Wanklyn, and I am very much obliged to you for
granting my request."
Cuthbert called for James Harford at the hour at which he had said he
went out to lunch, and told him of the appointment he had made.
"I have been thinking it over, Mr. Hartington, and I should recommend
you to bring Cooper with you."
"Who is Cooper?"
"He is one of our greatest experts on handwriting. I don't know whether
you have any of your father's letters in your possession."
"Yes, I have several. I brought over the last two I had from him,
thinking they might be useful."
"Well, his opinion on the signatures may be valuable, though as a rule
experts differ so absolutely that their evidence is always taken with
considerable doubt, but it is part of his business to look out for
erasures and alterations. It is quite possible Brander may have removed
that blot, and that he has done it so well that neither you nor I could
detect it; but whether he did it with a knife or chemicals you may be
sure that Cooper will be able to spot it, whichever he used. I have very
little doubt that your suspicions are correct and those parchments were
really the pretended mortgage deeds. If you like I will go round and see
Cooper at once and arrange for him to meet us in Coleman Street
to-morrow at four o'clock."
"Thank you very much. The idea of the blot being erased had never struck
me."
The next day Cuthbert met James Harford and Mr. Cooper at the door of
the accountants, and after being introduced by the clerk to the expert
they went up together. On giving his name in the office a clerk came
across to him.
"If you will come with me, gentlemen, I will lead you to the room that
is ready for you. This is the document that you desire to see."
As soon as they were alone they sat down at the table, and opened the
deed.
"How is it for size?" Cuthbert asked.
"It is about the same size, but that is nothing. All deeds are on two or
three sizes of parchment. The last page is the thing."
Cuthbert turned to it. There were but four lines of writing at the top
of the page, and below these came the signatures.
"Of course I could not swear to it, Mr. Hartington, but it is precisely
in accordance with my recollection. There were either three, four, or
five lines at the top. Certainly not more than five, certainly not less
than three. As you see there is no blot to my signature. Now, Mr.
Cooper, will you be kind enough to compare the signatures of these two
letters with the same name there?"
Mr. Cooper took the letter and deed to a desk by the window, examined
them carefully, then took out a large magnifying glass from his pocket,
and again examined them.
"I should say they are certainly not by the same hand," he said,
decisively. "I do not call them even good imitations. They are nothing
like as good as would be made by any expert in signing other people's
names. The tail of the 'J' in James in these two letters runs up into
the 'a' but as you will notice the pen is taken off and the letter 'a'
starts afresh. Here on the contrary you see the pen has not been taken
off, but the upstroke of the 'J' runs on continuously into the 'a.' More
naturally it would be just the other way. In these two letters the
writer would be signing his name more hurriedly than to a formal deed,
and would be much more likely to run his letters into each other than
when making a formal signature on parchment.
"Looking through this glass you will observe also that although the
letters run on together there is a slight thickening in the upstroke
between each letter as if the writer had paused, though without taking
his pen off, to examine the exact method of making the next letter in a
copy lying before him. In the surname there are half a dozen points of
difference. To begin with, the whole writing slopes less than in the
other signatures. In both your father's letters the cross of the first
't' is much lower than usual and almost touches the top of the 'r' and
i.' The same peculiarity is shown in the second 't' in both letters,
while on the deed the 't's' are crossed a good deal higher. The whole
word is more cramped, the flourish at the end of the 'n' is longer but
less free. In the capital letter, the two downstrokes are a good deal
closer together. There has been the same pause between each letter as
those I pointed out in the Christian name, and indeed the glass shows
you the pen was altogether taken off the paper between the 'o' and the
'n,' as the writer studied that final flourish. My opinion is that it is
not only a forgery but a clumsy one, and would be detected at once by
anyone who had the original signatures before him. I will even go so far
as to say that I doubt if any bank clerk well acquainted with Mr.
Hartington's signature would pass it."
"And now for the blot," Cuthbert said. "There was a blot somewhere near
the signature of Mr. Harford."
"Don't tell me where it was, Mr. Harford. I would rather not know its
exact position."
With the aid of the magnifying glass the expert carefully examined the
parchment and then held it up to the light.
"The blot was in the middle of the signature and involved the letters
'a' and 'r.' Is that right?"
"That is right, Mr. Cooper; he used blotting paper to it at once, and it
did not show up very strongly."
"An eraser has been used and a chemical of some sort, and the two
letters involved in the blot have been re-written, or at any rate
touched up, but they have run a little. You can see it quite plainly
through this lens. The difference between their outline and that of the
other letters is quite distinct, and by holding the parchment so that
the light falls across it, you can see that, although it has been
rubbed, probably by the handle of a penknife to give it a gloss, the
difference between that gloss and the rest of the surface, is distinctly
visible."
"I see that," the clerk said, "and I should be quite prepared to swear
now, Mr. Hartington, that this is the document I signed some three weeks
after I signed as witness to the transfer."
"That is quite good enough, I think," Cuthbert said. "Thank you, Mr.
Cooper, you have quite settled the doubt I had in my mind. I do not
think I shall have occasion to ask you to go into court over this
matter, but should I have to do so I will, of course, give you due
notice."
After paying the expert's fee Cuthbert went into the office and handed
the document over to the clerk from whom he had received it.
"Would you kindly put it where it can be got at easily should it be
wanted again. It is of the highest importance."
After parting with Mr. Cooper at the door, Cuthbert walked westward with
Mr. Harford.
"So far you have proved that your suspicions are correct, sir, and I
have not the least doubt that your father's signature to the transfer
was, like this, a forgery. May I ask what step you propose to take next?
Of course if your object was not to prevent publicity your course would
be clear. You would first apply for a warrant for the arrest of Brander
on a charge of double forgery. When that was proved, you would have to
take steps to apply to have it declared that your father's name was
wrongfully placed among the shareholders of the bank, and then endeavor
to obtain a decree ordering the liquidator to reimburse the proceeds of
the sale of the estate and all other moneys received by him from your
father's executor. Lastly, you would apply to have the sale annulled,
not only on the ground of fraud on the part of Mr. Brander, but because
the liquidators could not give a title. Of course in all these steps you
would have to be guided by a firm of high standing, but as you
particularly wish to avoid publicity, I suppose your first step will be
to confront Brander with the proofs of his guilt. I suppose you would
wish me to go down with you. I shall be able to do so without
difficulty, for I took no holiday last year and can, therefore, get two
or three days whenever I choose to ask for them."
"Thank you, Mr. Harford. It will certainly be desirable that I should be
backed up by your presence. The first thing I shall do will be to go
down to Abchester to see Dr. Edwardes. I want to ascertain from him when
he first knew of my father having heart-disease. That he did know it
before his death I am aware, though, at my father's particular request,
he abstained from informing me of the fact. He may also know when
Brander first became acquainted with it. It will strengthen my case much
if I am in a position to show that it was after he had the knowledge
that my father's death might take place at any moment, that he committed
these frauds. As soon as I find this out, which will probably be in a
few hours after my arrival there, I will send you a telegram. I am
anxious to lose no time, because I do not want Brander to know of my
arrival in Abchester until I confront him. If I could find out what he
did with the £15,000 he proved to the liquidator that he had drawn out
on the day this mortgage was said to have been executed, I should have
the chain of evidence complete, but I don't see how that is to be got
at."
"It might be got at by advertisements, Mr. Hartington; £15,000 is a
large sum, and were you to advertise a reward of £100 for information as
to whom Mr. Brander paid the sum of £15,000 on the date named in the
mortgage, it is quite probable you might obtain the information."
"I might get it that way, but unless it is absolutely necessary I would
rather not do so. Were I to advertise before I see him, he might have
his attention drawn to it, and it would put him on his guard. I can but
resort to it afterwards if he refuses to come to terms."
Accordingly, the next day Cuthbert went down to Abchester, travelling by
a train that arrived there after dark, and taking a fly, drove to Dr.
Edwardes'.
The servant took in his name and the doctor at once hurried out into the
hall.
"Why, my dear Cuthbert, I am glad indeed to see you, though from your
letter I had hardly hoped to do so for some little time. Come in, come
in; my wife will be delighted to see you. Dinner is just on the table,
so you have arrived at precisely the right moment."
"Dear me, Mr. Hartington, you are looking terribly ill," Mrs. Edwardes
exclaimed, after the first greetings were over.
"I have been ill, but I am quite convalescent now. I did rather a
foolish thing, Doctor. I joined a corps of Franc-tireurs raised in the
schools and studios, and the Germans put a bullet through my body. It
was a very near squeak of it, but fortunately I was taken to the
American ambulance, which was far the best in Paris, and they pulled me
through. It is but ten days since I was discharged cured, but of course
it will be some little time before I quite get up my strength again."
"Where was it, Cuthbert? Then you were fortunate indeed," he went on, as
Cuthbert laid his finger on the spot; "the odds were twenty to one
against you. Did they get the bullet out?"
"It went out by itself, Doctor. We were at close quarters in the village
of Champigny when we made our sortie on the 1st of December, so the ball
went right through, and almost by a miracle, as the surgeon said,
without injuring anything vital. There is the dinner-bell, Doctor. I
will go into your surgery and wash my hands. I remember the ways of the
place, you see."
During dinner-time the talk was entirely of the siege. When the meal was
over, the doctor and Cuthbert went to the former's study, where the
doctor lighted a cigar and Cuthbert his pipe.
"How are they getting on at Fairclose?" Cuthbert asked, carelessly.
The doctor shrugged his shoulders.
"I should say they heartily regret having changed their quarters. Of
course it was her doing that they did so. She is a curious mixture of
cleverness and silliness. Her weak point is her ambition to be in county
society, and to drop the town altogether. She has always been hankering
for that. No doubt it is partly for the sake of the girls--at least she
always lays it to that. But when I used to attend them as babies, she
was always complaining to me that the air of the town did not suit her.
However, so far from gaining by the exchange, she has lost.
"As the leading solicitor here, and I may say the leading man in the
place, Brander went a good deal into the county. Of course his wife did
belong to a county family, and no doubt that helped open the doors of
many good houses to him. Well, he is in the county now, but he is not of
the county. There was naturally a lot of bad feeling about the smash of
that bank. A good many men besides yourself were absolutely ruined, and
as everyone banked there, there was scarce a gentleman in the county or
a tradesman in the town, who was not hit more or less severely. The idea
was that Brander, whose name had been a tower of strength to the bank,
had been grossly negligent in allowing its affairs to get into such a
state. I think they were wrong, for I imagine from what I heard, that
Brander was correct in saying that he was not in any way in the counsels
of the directors, but confined himself to strictly legal business, such
as investigating titles and drawing up mortgages, and that he was only
present at the Board meetings when he was consulted on some legal
questions.
"Still there is no stemming the tide of popular opinion. Abchester
demanded a scapegoat. Cumming had disappeared, the five directors were
ruined, and so they fell upon Brander. He could have got over
that--indeed he has got over it as far as the town is concerned--but his
purchase of Fairclose set the county against him. They considered that
he got it for £20,000 below its value, which was true enough; the other
estates that went into the market were all sold at an equal
depreciation, but it was felt somehow that he at least ought not to have
profited by the disaster, and altogether there was so strong a feeling
against him that the county turned its back on Fairclose."
"By the way, Doctor, can you tell me when and how you first became aware
of the state of my father? The loss was so recent that I asked but few
questions about it when I was here, though you told me that you had
known it for some little time."
"I can give you the exact date," the doctor said, stretching out his
hand for a book on his desk. "Yes, here it is; it was the 23rd of March.
His man rode down with the news that he had found him insensible. Of
course I went up as hard as my horse could carry me. He had recovered
consciousness when I got there, and his first request was that I should
say nothing about his illness. When I examined him, I found that his
heart was badly diseased, so badly that I told him frankly he had not
many weeks to live, and that, as the slightest shock might prove fatal,
I absolutely forbade him to ride. He said he hated to be made a fuss of.
I urged him at least to let me write to you, but he positively refused,
saying that you would be greatly cut up about it, and that he would much
rather go on as he was. The only exception he made was Brander. He was
the only soul to whom I spoke of it. I called in and told him directly I
got back here and he went that afternoon to Fairclose."
The date was conclusive to Cuthbert. The transfer had been ante-dated
some three weeks; and the two clerks, therefore, attested it on the 24th
or 25th of March; so Brander had lost no time in conceiving his plan and
carrying it into execution.
"By the way, Doctor," he said, after a pause, "I shall be glad if you
will not mention to anyone that I am here. I don't want people to be
coming to see me, and I would especially rather not see Brander. I never
did like the man from the time I was a boy, and I don't think I could
stand either his business manner or his hearty one. I thought I would
come down and have the pleasure of a chat with you again for a day or
two, but I don't mean to stir out while I am here."
The next morning Cuthbert obtained a telegraph form from the doctor and
sent his man with it to the post-office. It was directed to Harford, and
contained only the words, "Come down this evening if possible. Put up at
the George. Come round in the morning to Dr. Edwardes.'"
Cuthbert was really glad of the day's rest, and felt all the better for
it. On the following morning Harford's name was brought in just as
breakfast was over.
"It is the man who was Brander's clerk, Doctor," he said. "I met him in
town and he has come down to see me on a little matter of business."
"Take him into the consulting-room, Cuthbert, I am not likely to have
any patients come for the next half-hour."
"That settles it, sir," the clerk said, when he heard from Cuthbert of
the date which he had obtained from the doctor, "though I cannot swear
to a day."
"I hear that Brander comes to his office about eleven o'clock. He is
sure to be there, for I hear that Jackson has gone away for a few days.
I will go at half-past. If you will call here for me at that time we
will walk there together. I will go in by myself. I will get you to call
two or three minutes after me, so that I can call you into his private
room if necessary."
"You have soon done with him," the doctor said, as Cuthbert returned to
the breakfast-room.
"I have given him some instructions and he will call again presently,"
Cuthbert replied. "By the way, we were talking of Brander; how have his
two girls turned out? I mean the two younger ones; I met Mary in Paris
during the siege."
"Ah. I heard from Brander that she was shut up there, and I was
wondering whether you had run against her. He is very savage at what he
calls her vagaries. Did she get through the starvation all right?"
"Oh, yes, she was living in a French family, and like most of the middle
class they had laid in a fair stock of provisions when it became evident
the place was to be besieged, and though the supply of meat was stinted
I don't think there was any lack of other things."
"I liked Mary," the doctor said, warmly; "she was a straightforward,
sensible girl, till she got that craze about woman's rights in her mind;
in all other respects she was a very nice girl, and differed from the
rest of them as much as chalk from cheese."
"And what are the sisters like?"
"They are like their mother, vain and affected, only without her
cleverness. They feel bitterly their position at Fairclose, and make
matters worse by their querulous complainings. I never go into the house
unless I am sent for professionally, for their peevishness and bad
temper are intolerable. If things had gone differently, and they had
made good marriages, they might have turned out pleasant girls enough.
As it is they are as utterly disagreeable as any young women I ever came
across."
"Then Brander must have a very bad time of it."
"Yes, but from what I have seen when I have been there I don't thing
they show off before him much. I fancy Brander's temper has not
improved of late. Of course, in public, he is the same as ever, but I
think he lets himself loose at home, and I should say that the girls are
thoroughly afraid of him. I have noticed anyhow that when he is at home
when I call, they are on their best behavior, and there is not a word of
any unpleasantness or discontent from their lips. However, I suppose the
feeling against Brander will die out in time. I think it was unjust,
though I don't say it was not quite natural, but when the soreness wears
off a bit, people will begin to think they have been rather hard on
Brander. There's the surgery bell, now I must leave you to your own
devices."
At half-past eleven James Harford called, and Cuthbert at once went out
with him, and they walked towards Mr. Brander's office, which was but a
couple of hundred yards away.
"How do you do, Mr. Levison?" Cuthbert asked as he entered. "Is Mr.
Brander alone?"
"Yes, he is alone, Mr. Hartington. I am glad to see you again, sir."
With a nod Cuthbert walked to the door of the inner office, opened it,
and went in. Mr. Brander started, half rose from his chair with the
exclamation--
"My dear----!" then he stopped.
There was something in the expression of Cuthbert's face that checked
the words on his lips.
"We need not begin with any greetings, Mr. Brander," Cuthbert said,
coldly. "I have come to tell you a story."
"This is a very extraordinary manner of address, Mr. Hartington," the
lawyer said, in a blustering tone, though Cuthbert noticed his color had
paled, and that there was a nervous twitching about the corners of his
lips. Brander had felt there was danger, and the blow had come so
suddenly that he had not had time to brace himself to meet it. Without
paying any attention to the words, Cuthbert seated himself and
repeated--
"I have come to tell you a story, Mr. Brander. There was once a man who
was solicitor, agent, and friend of a certain land-owner. One day he had
heard from his client's doctor that he had had an attack of
heart-disease and that his life was only worth a few weeks' purchase;
also that the landowner desired that an absolute silence should be
observed as to his illness. Then, like another unjust steward, the
lawyer sat down to think how he could best turn an honest penny by the
news. It was rather a tough job; it would involve forgery among other
things, and there was a good deal of risk, but by playing a bold game it
might be managed."
"What do you mean by this?" the lawyer exclaimed, furiously.
"Calm yourself, Mr. Brander. There is no occasion for you to fit the cap
on to your own head yet. If you think there is anything in my story of a
libellous nature you are at liberty to call your two clerks in to listen
to it. Well, sir, the scheme this lawyer I am telling you about worked
out did credit to his genius--it was complicated, bold, and novel. It
happened he was solicitor to a bank. He knew the bank was hopelessly
involved, that it could last but a few weeks longer, and that its
failure would involve the whole of the shareholders in absolute ruin.
If, therefore, he were to contrive to place his client's name on the
register of shareholders that point would be achieved. Accordingly,
having forms by him he filled one up, forging the name of his client. It
would not have done to have had the date of the transfer later than the
seizure of that gentleman, for manifestly no man, aware that he had but
a few days or weeks to live, would have entered on a fresh investment.
He, therefore, ante-dated the transfer by some three weeks.
"As to the witnesses to the forged signature there was no difficulty. He
waited for a few days till his client called upon him, and then, after
his departure, called in his two clerks, who witnessed the signature as
a matter of course,--an irregular proceeding, doubtless, but not
altogether uncommon. That matter concluded he went to the bank. It was
above all things important that none of the directors should be
cognizant of his client having been put on the register, as being
friends of that gentleman they might have mentioned the matter to him
when they met him. Having the manager a good deal under his thumb, from
his knowledge of the state of affairs, he requested him to pass the
transfer with others at the next board meeting, in such a way that it
should be signed as a matter of routine without the names being noticed,
suggesting that the manager should transfer some of the shares he held.
This little business was satisfactorily performed and the name passed
unnoticed on to the register. There was one thing further to be done in
this direction, namely, that the bank should not fail before the death
of his client, and he therefore requested the manager to let him know
should there be any pressure imminent on the bank's resources, offering
to get some of the mortgages it held transferred, and so to bolster up
the bank for a considerable time. As a matter of fact he did raise
£20,000 in this manner, and so kept the bank going until after his
client's death, when he withdrew the offer, there being no longer any
occasion to keep it on its legs. You follow this, I hope, Mr. Brander.
It is interesting for ingenuity and boldness."
The lawyer made no reply. As Cuthbert spoke the ruddy color on his
cheeks had been replaced by a ghastly pallor. An expression of
bewilderment had come across his face, the perspiration stood out in big
drops on his forehead.
"Thus far you see, Mr. Brander," Cuthbert went on, "the first part of
the scheme had been ably carried out, but it still remained to reap the
benefit of this ingenuity. In the first place it was certain that the
estate of his client would, on the failure of the bank, come into the
market. Under such circumstances, and seeing there would be widespread
ruin in the county, the estate would fetch far under its value. It would
be advisable to get it cheaper still, and this could be managed by the
production of a mortgage upon it, and by the invention of a plausible
tale to account for that mortgage having been kept a secret even from
the dead man's son. As to the deed itself, the matter was easy enough;
the document would only have to be drawn up by himself, or in some
office in London, the signature of his client affixed as before and the
two clerks be called in to witness it.
"It would be necessary to satisfy the official liquidator, however, who
might make some inquiries concerning it. It happened that some time
before the lawyer had had occasion to pay over the sum of £15,000, as he
would be able to prove by his bank-book. Therefore, £15,000 was the sum
fixed upon for the mortgage, and the date of that document was made to
coincide with that of the payment of that amount. It was easy enough to
place among the dead man's papers receipts for the half-yearly payment
of this interest. It was not necessary to show that his client had paid
these sums by check, as they would, of course, have been deducted from
the amount to be handed over by him as agent to his client.
"The scheme worked admirably. After the death of his client, the bank
was allowed to break, the estate fell into the hands of the official
receiver of the bank, the mortgage was presented, and the proofs
considered satisfactory. The lawyer bought the estate for some £20,000
below its value, and this with the mortgage brought the purchase money
down from £70,000 to half that sum. The story is interesting, and if
anyone should doubt it I am in a position to prove it up to the hilt. I
have the sworn statement of the bank manager as to the particulars of
the interview with him, the injunction that the transfer should be
passed unnoticed, the offer to support the bank, and the partial
fulfilment of that offer. I have the opinion of an expert that the
signature is not only a forgery but an exceedingly clumsy one. I have
the statement of one of the clerks that the signature of both the
transfer and the mortgage was witnessed by him and his fellow-clerk in
obedience to the orders of the solicitor, but they did not see the
signature affixed.
"Lastly, I have a singular piece of evidence that the mortgage was
signed not on the date it purported but shortly after the seizure of the
client. The clerk might have had some difficulty in swearing that this
mortgage was the document that he signed, as the signatures were written
on the last sheet of the parchment, and he saw nothing of the contents.
But it happened that there were only four lines of writing on that page,
and there are four on the mortgage in the hands of the official
liquidator, but this is not the crucial point. The clerk, in making his
signature, dropped a blot of ink on the parchment. Now it was clear that
this blot of ink might prove the means o identifying this document and
of proving the time at which it was signed; therefore it was necesssary
that it should be erased. This the lawyer proceeded to do and so
cleverly that an unpracticed eye would not detect it. The expert,
however, though not knowing where the blot had fallen, detected the
erasure at once, and noticed that in erasing it two of the letters of
the name had been involved, and these had been retouched so as to make
them the same darkness as the rest. The chain of evidence is therefore
complete."
The last blow had proved too crushing. There was a sudden rush of blood
to his face, and, with a gasping sob, Mr. Brander fell back in his chair
insensible. Cuthbert ran to the door and opened it.
"Mr. Levison, your employer is taken ill. Send the other clerk to fetch
Dr. Edwardes at once, he will not have started on his rounds yet. Bring
some water in here."
With the assistance of the clerk, Cuthbert loosened the lawyer's necktie
and collar, swept the papers off the table, and laid him upon it,
folding up his great coat and placing it under his head.