"Tattooed cross left arm. I alone know all. I alone can save you. If you wish to feel secure, meet me when and where you please." The second printed slip, dated 16th June: "Tattooed cross left arm. I wish to feel secure. Name time and place, and I shall be there." The cardboard star, painted red: [Illustration: Five pointed star with handwriting in arm viz.: "Tooleys," "Alley," "21 June," "6-7," "Hotel."] CHAPTER VI. A STARTLING INCIDENT. "Good!" said Fanks, surveying this documentary evidence with much satisfaction. "We have more than hearsay to go on now. The case is shaping better than I expected." "You were right about an appointment having been made," said Garth. "These slips and that star prove it." "Yes! He who runs may read--now; but you were not so confident of my foresight a few minutes ago. Well, we have made a step forward. Here is the slip asking for the appointment; here is your cousin's reply, leaving the question of the appointment to the first advertiser: and finally here is the ingenious pictorial information indicating the Red Star in Tooley's Alley, as the meeting-place. Sir Gregory disguised himself in the workman's clothes bought from Weeks and Co., on the day that the first notice appeared; kept the appointment between six and seven; and so walked blindfolded into the trap of the Red Star, where he met with his fate. The assassin laid his plans uncommonly well; but she made one mistake." "She! You don't mean to say that the murderer is a murderess?" "No! The negro killed Sir Gregory; that is beyond all doubt. But as I said before, it is my opinion that the negro was inspired by a third party. Can't you see that the address on that envelope is in female handwriting?" "Certainly I can. But that does not prove that a woman inspired the crime; you go too fast, Fanks." "Perhaps I do, and, after all, I may be mistaken. But that address is in no feigned hand; it was written by a woman. If a woman had nothing to do with this death why should she bait the trap to lure the man to his doom. And again, the directions on the cardboard star are in an angular female hand. Both address and directions are in the handwriting of an elderly woman." "Come now!" cried Garth, disbelievingly. "You can't tell the woman's age from her handwriting." "I can tell that she is elderly. These angular, spiky letters were formed by a woman who learned to write in early Victorian days. Female handwriting has altered of late, my friend. The new woman goes in for masculine handwriting, as well as for masculine dress. If a girl of the present day had written this address, it would have been in a bold and manly hand. As it is, I bet you five pounds that it was scribbled by a woman over fifty." "It may be so; but this is all deduction."