'Who could know about that old cheque book? Only one who had been about your office more than two years, or one who had had opportunities of examining the safe. Now, you sat there--I sat here'--he seated himself, only turning the chair round. 'How is it possible for a man sitting here to take anything out of that safe without your seeing him? How is it possible for him, without your knowledge, to examine slowly and carefully the contents of the safe?' 'Everything is possible,' said Mr. Dering, still coldly. 'Let us not argue on possibilities. We have certain facts before us. By the help of these, I shall hope to find out others.' 'At five o'clock every day I put the work in the drawer of this table and I go away.' He opened the drawer, as if to illustrate this unimportant fact. He saw in it two or three pieces of paper with writing on them. He took them out. 'Good Heavens!' he cried. 'They are imitations of your handwriting.' Checkley crossed the room swiftly, snatched them from him, and laid them before his master. 'Imitations of your handwriting,' he said, 'imitations--exercises in forgery--practice makes perfect. Found in the drawer. Now!' Mr. Dering looked at the papers and laid them beside the forged cheque. 'An additional fact,' he said. 'These are certainly imitations. The probable conclusion is that they were made by the same hand that forged this cheque.' 'Found in the drawer,' said Checkley, 'used by Mr. Arundel. Never by me. Ah! The only two, are we? These imitations will prove that I'm not in it.' 'The fact that these imitations are found in the drawer,' said Mr. Dering, 'is a fact which may or may not be important.' 'What?' cried the young man, flaring up. 'You think that I made those imitations?' 'I do not permit myself--yet--to make any conclusions at all. Everything, however, is possible.' Then this foolish young man lost his temper and his head. 'You have known me all my life,' he cried. 'You have known me and all my people. Yet at the first moment you are ready to believe that I have committed a most abominable forgery! You--my father's oldest friend--my mother's Trustee! My own Guardian! You!' 'Pardon me. There are certain facts in this case. I have laid them before you. I have shown----' 'To suspect me,' Arundel repeated, 'and all the time another man--that man--your clerk--who knows everything ever done in this office, is in and about the place all day long.' 'The imitations,' said Checkley quietly, 'were found in his own drawer--by himself.' 'Who put them there? Who made them? You--villain and scoundrel!' 'Stop, stop,' said Mr. Dering coldly. 'We go too fast. Let us first prove our facts. We will then proceed to conclusions.'