CHAPTER XXXIII
Field stood in the office of the Inland Revenue at Wandsworth with afeeling that he had got on the right track at last. And yet thisdiscovery, which he had no reason to doubt, opened up the strangestpossibilities before him. He was face to face with a theory thatstaggered him so greatly that he could not speak for a moment. And yethe wondered why the idea had not occurred to him before.
"I suppose that you have not made any mistake?" he suggested.
The clerk was properly indignant. He was not there for the purpose ofmaking mistakes, besides, he had all the particulars entered in hisbooks.
"So that you can see for yourself," he said. "Look here, if you doubtme. The entries tally absolutely with the figures you have on that slipof paper. If there is anything wrong----"
"There is something very wrong indeed," Field admitted, "but that hasnothing to do with you. Do you do a large business in that kind ofstamped paper?"
"Well, rather, though not so large as we did. You see, those stampeddeeds are exclusively used by solicitors; practically, every legaldocument is a stamped paper. But, nowadays, a good many lawyers gettheir deeds engrossed on plain paper and send them to me to be forwardedto Somerset House for the stamping."
"I see," Field said, thoughtfully. "In that case, you would have lessdifficulty in recognizing anybody who purchased a parchment that wasalready stamped? I wonder if you recognized the man who bought the onewe are talking about?"
"Oh, yes," came the ready reply. "The man's name is Acton. He is a lawstationer who does odd jobs for the different firms here. He is quitebroken down and shabby now, but I should say that at one time he was agentleman. You will see his business card hanging in a shop window atthe corner of Preston Street--a little news-shop on the right."
"I am greatly obliged to you," Field said. "I see the stamp is a twopound ten one. Was it paid for in cash or in the form of a note?"
"A note--a L5 Bank of England note. I recollect getting Acton to endorseit."
Field smiled to himself. Everything seemed to be going in his favournow. He tendered five sovereigns across the counter and asked the favourof the L5 note in exchange, which was granted. The note had a blue stampon it to the effect that it had been issued by the Wandsworth Branch ofthe National and Counties Bank, and to that establishment Field wendedhis way.
There a further piece of information awaited him. The note had been paidout the day before to a messenger who had come from No. 100, AudleyPlace, with a cheque drawn in favour of "self" by Mr. Carl Sartoris.Field could not repress a chuckle. Everything was going on as smoothlyas he could expect.
"And now for Mr. Acton," he said to himself. "I wonder if I dare buildmy hopes upon the theory that Sir Charles is--but that is out of thequestion. Still, there is that doctor fellow with his marvellousknowledge of Eastern mysteries. Hang me if I don't start from thathypothesis when I've got this thing through."
It was an easy matter to trace Acton. Field found him in a dingybed-sitting-room, smoking vile tobacco and eagerly reading a sportingpaper. The occupant of the room turned colour when he caught sight ofhis visitor. The recognition was mutual, but Field did not commithimself beyond a faint smile.
"I--I hope there is nothing wrong," the occupant of the room stammered.
"That entirely depends upon you," Field replied. "So long as you tellthe truth----"
"I'll tell you nothing else," Acton said. He had risen now and wasstanding with his back to the fire, a tall man with a pale face andmournful eyes. "Look here, Field, there is no use playing with the factthat you and I have met before. I was in a very different position then.Now I am a broken man with no ambition beyond a wish to live honestlyand to keep out of sight of my friends. I write a good hand, as youknow. I have served my time for forgery. But since that I have neverdone anything that is in the least wrong."
The speaker's words carried conviction with them.
"I am quite prepared to believe it, Mr. Acton," Field said. "All I wantis a little information. Tell me, have you done more than one piece ofwork lately?"
"No. Only one. And that was just after ten o'clock to-day. A gentlemancame to me and said he was a lawyer who was just setting up here."
"What sort of man was he?" Field asked.
"Young and fair, with an easy assurance and manner. He had taken a housein Park Road--name of Walters. There is a kind of annex to the housethat at one time had been used for a billiard-room, and this was to behis office. I called upon the gentleman there by appointment. I didn'tgo into the house proper, but I saw that the blinds and curtains wereup. The gentleman gave me a L5 note and asked me to go to the InlandRevenue Office here and get a L2 10_s._ stamp on a skin of parchment.When I got back he dictated a deed to me which I copied down for him."
"Do you recollect what it was about?" Field asked.
"Well, sir, I don't, except that it was some kind of assignment. Thenames I quite forget. You see, one gets to be rather like a machinedoing that kind of work. The gentleman paid me seven shillings for mytrouble and asked me to call upon him again."
"And is that all you have to tell me?" Field asked.
"Everything, Mr. Field," Acton said. "I hope that you will not thinkthere is anything----"
"Not so far as you are concerned, certainly," Field hastened to say. "Ihave only one more question to ask. Try and polish up your memory. Wasthere any date inserted in that deed?"
"I can answer that question without the slightest hesitation. There wasno date inserted in the deed."
"'Um. The thing was so unusual that you were quite struck by the fact?"
"Not at all. Dates are never inserted in engrossed deeds. They are leftblank as to the day and the year. You see, there is so much delay in thelaw. Sometimes the deeds are not executed for months after they aresigned. If the date was filled in and a delay of two months took place,a new stamp would have to be purchased, and that means dead loss.Whereas if the date is not put in till the deed is signed, that expenseis saved."
Field nodded his head in the manner of a man who is getting satisfactionfor his trouble.
"Then the date was no doing of yours," he said. "I fancy I'll run aroundand see the young lawyer friend of yours. After that I may have to askyou to accompany me to town. There is nothing for you to do besidesidentifying your own handwriting. Don't go out till I come back."
Field hurried off to Park Road where at length he found the house thathe wanted. The curtains and blinds were up in the windows, but no amountof knocking seemed to arouse anybody inside. Not that Field wasdisappointed, for he had expected something like this. A few inquirieselicited the fact that the house was in the hands of Messrs. Porden &Co., down the street, and thither the inspector repaired. Nobody hadtaken the house, he gathered, though a few people had been after it.
"Have you had anybody to-day?" Field asked. "I mean early to-day? Atall, fair man with pleasant manners who gave the name of Walters?"
"Well, yes," the house-agent admitted. "He came and asked for the keys;he left a card on my table, and here it is. It was early when he came,and the boy was the only one in charge of the office, so that thegentleman had to go over the house by himself."
"He found that it did not suit him?" Field suggested drily.
"No, he said it was too big for his requirements. He brought the keysback two hours later."
"And didn't ask for any more, though you offered him the choice of manyhouses?" Field smiled. "But what about the blinds and curtains in thewindows?"
"Oh, they belonged to the previous tenant. You see, we had to put in anexecution there for rent. The landlord desired the fittings to remain."
Field went away rather impressed by the cunningness of the dodge. Thewhole thing was theatrical and a little overdone, but it was clever, allthe same. A short time later, and Field was on his way to London withActon for his companion.
Mr. Fleming was in the office disengaged and would see Inspector Fieldat once. He glanced at the latter's companion but said nothing.
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"I have been very successful," Field said without preamble. "I have madesome important discoveries. For instance, I have found the gentleman whoengrossed that deed. It was engrossed early this morning at a house inPark Road, Wandsworth, by my companion. If you will show him the deed hewill be able to identify it at once."
But Mr. Fleming did not do business in that way. He took two deeds andfolded them so that a portion of each could be seen. Then he laid themboth on the table and asked Acton to pick out the one that he had done.All law stationers' writing is very much alike, but Acton had not theslightest difficulty in picking out his.
"That is the one, sir," he said. "That is the one that I wrote to-day."
Fleming admitted that the choice was a correct one. He spread out thedeed now and proceeded to examine it gravely through his glasses. "Didyou put in the date?" he asked.
"No, sir," Acton replied. "There was no date. That is a forgery. It isnot badly done, but you can see that it does not quite tally with thebody of the deed. Besides, the ink is slightly darker. Look at that 'e,'too, in the word 'nine.' I never write that kind of 'e'--you will notfind one like it in the body of the deed."
Fleming was bound to admit that such was the case. Field thanked Actonfor the trouble he had taken, and dismissed him. Then he came back tothe office.
"Well, sir, are you quite satisfied now?" he asked. "Is there anyreasonable doubt that----"
"No doubt that the deed purporting to have been signed so long ago wasonly written to-day. So far as that is concerned, you have proved yourcase up to the hilt, Field. Nobody is going to gain anything by thepublication of that deed. But there is one thing that sticks, and Icannot get it down at all--the genuineness of that signature."
"It does look like a real signature," Field admitted. "But you want tosuggest that Sir Charles came back from the grave to-day to write it? Iwonder if there is something new in the way of forgery--some meanswhereby a genuine signature could be transformed from one paper toanother without injuring the ink in the slightest. They say they cantake all the paint off a picture and place it on a new canvas without somuch as injuring a brush mark. That being the case, why couldn't it bedone with a man's signature?"
Fleming bit the end of his pen thoughtfully.
"It may be possible that some cunning rascal has invented an entirelynew process," he said. "But anyway, I'm prepared to swear to thegenuineness of this signature. There is only one other way to accountfor the whole business, and as a sane man who has long come to years ofdiscretion, I am almost afraid to mention it to a business man likeyourself."
Field looked up quickly.
"I have a little hesitation also," he said, "because you may havelaughed at me. Is it possible, sir, that you and I have hit upon thesame theory?"
The two men looked at each other, and there was a long silence betweenthem.