'You don't mean to say that this letter is a forgery?' asked Mr. Ellis. 'Why--then---- Oh! it is impossible. It must then be the beginning of a whole series of forgeries. It's quite impossible to credit it. The letter came from this office: the post-mark shows it was posted in this district: the answer was sent here. The transfers--consider--the transfers were posted to this office. They came back duly signed and witnessed--from this office. I forwarded the certificate made out in the name of Edmund Gray--to this office: and I got an acknowledgment--from this office. I sent the account of the transaction with my commission charges--to this office, and got a cheque for the latter--from this office. How can such a complicated business as this--only the first of these transactions--be a forgery? Why, you want a dozen confederates at least for such a job as this.' 'I do not quite understand yet,' said George, inexperienced in the transfer of stocks and shares. 'Well, I cannot sell stock without the owner's authority; he must sign a transfer. But if I receive a commission from a lawyer to transfer his stock to a client, it is not my business to ask whether he receives the money or not.' 'Yes--yes. And is there nothing to show for the sale of this 6,000_l_. worth of paper?' George asked Mr. Dering. 'Nothing at all. The letters and everything are a forgery.' 'And you, Mr. Ellis, received a cheque for your commission?' 'Certainly.' 'Get me the old cheques and the cheque-book,' said Mr. Dering. The cheque was drawn, as the letter was written, in Mr. Dering's handwriting, but with the slight difference he had pointed out in the signature. 'You are quite sure,' asked George, 'that you did not sign that cheque?' 'I am perfectly certain that I did not.' 'Then as for this Edmund Gray of 22 South Square, Gray's Inn--what do you know about him?' 'Nothing at all--absolutely nothing.' 'I know something,' said Checkley. 'But go on--go on.' 'He may be a non-existent person, for what you know.' 'Certainly. I know nothing about any Edmund Gray.' 'Wait a bit,' murmured Checkley. 'Well, but'--Mr. Ellis went on--'this was only a beginning. In March you wrote to me again; that is to say, I received a letter purporting to be from you. In this letter--here it is--you instructed me to transfer certain stock--the papers of which you enclosed--amounting to about 12,000_l_.--to Edmund Gray aforesaid. In the same way as before the transfer papers were sent to you for signature: in the same way as before they were signed and returned: and in the same way as before the commission was charged to you and paid by you. It was exactly the same transaction as before--only for double the sum involved in the February business.' Mr. Dering took the second letter and looked at it with a kind of patient resignation. 'I know nothing about it,' he said--'nothing at all.'