"Even Schickel!" repeated Dollar, with a sharp significance. "Are you suggesting that there's no love lost between him and Alt?" "I was not, indeed." Scarth seemed still astonished. "No. That never occurred to me for a moment." "Yet it's a small place, and you know what small places are. Would one man be likely to spread a thing like this against another if there were no bad blood between them?" Scarth could not say. The thing happened to be true, and it made such a justifiable sensation. He was none the less frankly interested in the suggestion. It was as though he had a tantalizing glimmer of the crime doctor's meaning. Their heads were closer together across the end of the table, their eyes joined in mutual probation. "Can I trust you with my own idea, Mr. Scarth?" "That's for you to decide, Doctor Dollar." "I shall not breathe it to another soul--not even to Alt himself--till I am sure." "You may trust me, doctor. I don't know what's coming, but I shan't give it away." "Then I shall trust you even to the extent of contradicting what I just said. I _am_ sure--between ourselves--that the prescription now in my hands is a clever forgery!" Scarth held out his hand for it. A less deliberate announcement might have given him a more satisfactory surprise; but he could not have looked more incredulous than he did, or subjected Dollar to a cooler scrutiny. "A forgery with what object, Doctor Dollar?" "That I don't pretend to say. I merely state the fact--in confidence. You have your eyes upon a flagrant forgery." Scarth raised them twinkling. "My dear Doctor Dollar, I saw him write it out myself!" "Are you quite sure?" "Absolutely, doctor! This lad, Jack Laverick, is a pretty handful; without a doctor to frighten him from time to time, I couldn't cope with him at all. His people are in despair about him--but that's another matter. I was only going to say that I took him to Doctor Alt myself, and this is the prescription they refused to make up. Schickel may have a spite against Alt, as you suggest, but if he's a forger I can only say he doesn't look the part." "The only looks I go by," said the crime doctor, "are those of the little document in your hand." "It's on Alt's paper." "Anybody could get hold of that." "But you suggest that Alt and Schickel have been on bad terms?" "That's a better point, Mr. Scarth, that's a much better point," said Dollar, smiling and then ceasing to smile as he produced a magnifying-lens. "Allow me to switch on the electric standard, and do me the favor of examining that handwriting with this loop; it's not very strong, but the best I could get here at the photographer's shop." "It's certainly not strong enough to show anything fishy, to my inexperience," said Scarth, on a sufficiently close inspection. "Now look at this one." Dollar had produced a second prescription from the same pocket as before. At first sight they seemed identical.