"Explanations are useless here," said the expert, smilingly. "You can easily see for yourself all I could tell you. The three signatures which are alike are taken from a check, a letter and a bill. You will notice there isn't the slightest deviation in any of the lines from the fixed method Mr. Dalton had of signing his name. The odd-looking signature is the one affixed to the will. Here you will see that the loops, straight lines, curves and angles are all entirely unlike the original; the width of the lines and shading are different, and the angle at which the letters are set is not the same as that in the others." The Bradys saw all this and more, too. In fact, they had every evidence before them that the will was a base forgery and they were well satisfied. With this fact established, they went to the Central office. Here they encountered their chief. Old King Brady detailed to him all that transpired, and he listened very attentively until the detective finished. Then he pondered a moment, and said: "The whole thing is a big plot on Mason's part to get his uncle's money and daughter at one swoop." "We've clearly established Mason's guilt, sir." "Very true. He's a bad egg. Capture him and you may find out what he has done with Oliver Dalton." "I've become convinced of another fact since finding out what a villain that fellow is," said Old King Brady. "To what do you allude?" "Well, you recollect that when we began this case it was for the purpose of finding out who was stealing money from the broker's mail," said the detective. "I'm aware of that." "In view of all that happened, it begins to look as if Mason was the guilty party the Federal Government is after." "It wouldn't surprise me a bit if you brought home that crime to his door," said the chief. "If, as you say, he had such extensive control of the business, he must have handled all the mail. It would then have been an easy matter for him to purloin the contents of many of the envelopes without being detected." "The misfortune now is that he's gone so we cannot set a trap to catch him in the act," said Old King Brady. "If anything now is found out about the matter, it will only be learned from Mason himself making a clean breast of the crooked work." "Convict him of his other misdeeds," said the chief, lighting a cigar, "and you'll have evidence enough to send the villain to jail for a long time. If Mr. Dalton is dead, you can lay the crime at his door, for he was the only person in the world who hoped to be benefited by the demise of his benefactor." It was late when the Bradys took leave of the chief. On the following afternoon they were ready to depart from New York, and they each wore a clever disguise. While Old King Brady in boots and whiskers might have passed for a respectable old farmer, Harry had every appearance of being a typical Texan cowboy. They proceeded downtown by separate routes.