No matter how it came there, it was his. A man's name can seldom be so skilfully forged that it can deceive the man himself. It may get by the cashier of the bank, but when it is referred back to the man who is supposed to have written it, that man knows instinctively whether he ever wrote it. Perhaps he cannot tell why he knows it, but he knows it just the same. So Joe _knew_ that it was his signature that was photographed on that contract. But he also knew another thing just as certainly. _He had never signed that contract!_ Both things contradictory. Yet both things true. Larry and Denton were watching him closely. Joe looked up and met their eyes. They were two of his oldest and warmest friends on the Giant team and had always been ready to back him through thick and thin. Confidence still was in their gaze, but with it was mixed bewilderment almost equal to Joe's own. Before anything further could be said, McRae and Robbie joined the group. "Well, Joe, there's the contract," said McRae. "It seems to be a contract all right," replied Joe. "I haven't had time to read what it says, but that doesn't matter anyway. The only important thing is that I never signed that contract." "That seems to be a pretty good imitation of your signature at the bottom there," chimed in Robbie. "It's even better than that," said Joe, taking the bull by the horns. "It isn't even an imitation. It's my own signature." Both Robbie and McRae looked at him as if they thought he was crazy. "I don't get you, Matson," said McRae, a little sternly. "And it seems to me it's hardly a time for joking. There's the contract. You say you didn't sign it, and yet you admit that the name at the bottom is your own signature. How do you explain it?" "I don't pretend to explain it," replied Joe. "There's crooked work somewhere that I've got to ferret out. Somehow or other my name, written by me, has gotten on the bottom of that contract. But I never put it there. Some rascal has, and when I find him, as I will, may Heaven have mercy on him, for I won't!" CHAPTER XXVIII WHIRLWIND PITCHING "A fellow who would do a thing like that is taking long chances," said McRae doubtfully. "And how could he do it?" put in Robbie. "The name would have to be cut from one piece of paper and pasted on another, wouldn't it?" "Even admitting that they might get your name from a check or letter, I don't see how a thing like that could stand inspection for a minute," chimed in Willis. "Even if it were so well done that an eye couldn't detect it, a microscope would give it away." "And you can bet that the reporters who hunted up this thing haven't overlooked any bets," said Brennan. "They knew that the signature was the nub of the whole thing and if there was anything phony about the paper they'd have got next at once."