The stereoscopic microscope, which is of value in studying abrasions and alterations since it gives depth, in this case tells me that there has been nothing of that sort practised.My colour comparison microscope, which permits the comparison of the ink on two different documents or two places on one document at the same time, tells me something.This instrument with new and accurately coloured glasses enables me to measure the tints of the ink of these signatures with the greatest accuracy and I can do what was hitherto impossible -=20determine how long the writing has been on the paper.I should say it was all very recent, approximately within the last two months or six weeks, and I believe that whenever the stock may have been issued it at least was all forged at the same time.
"There isn't time now to go into the thing more deeply, but if it becomes necessary I can go back to it with the aid of the camera lucida and the microscopic enlarger, as well as this specially constructed document camera with lenses certified by the government.
If it comes to a show-down I suppose I shall have to prove my point with the micrometer measurements down to the fifty-thousandth part of an inch.
"There is certainly something very curious about these signatures,"he concluded."I don't know what measurements would show, but they are really too good.You know a forged signature may be of two kinds - too bad or too good.These are, I believe, tracings.If they were your signature and mine, Walter, I shouldn't hesitate to pronounce them tracings.But there is always some slight room for doubt in these special cases where a man sits down and is in the habit of writing his signature over and over again on one stock or bond after another.He may get so used to it that he does it automatically and his signatures may come pretty close to superimposing.If I had time, though, I think I could demonstrate that there are altogether too many points of similarity for these to be genuine signatures.But we've got to act quickly in this case or not at all, and I see that if I am to get to Atlantic City to-night I can't waste much more time here.I wish you would keep an eye on the Hotel Amsterdam while I am gone, Walter, and meet me here, to-morrow.I'll wire when I'll be back.Good-bye."It was well along in the afternoon when Kennedy took a train for the famous seaside resort, leaving me in New York with a roving commission to do nothing.All that I was able to learn at the Hotel Amsterdam was that a man with a Van Dyke beard had stung the office with a bogus check, although he had seemed to come well recommended.The description of the woman with him who seemed to be his wife might have fitted either Mrs.Dawson or Adele DeMott.
The only person who had called had been a man who said he represented the By-Products Company and was the treasurer.He had questioned the hotel people rather closely about the whereabouts of the couple who had paid their expenses with the worthless slip of paper.It was not difficult to infer that this man was Carroll who had been hot on the trail, especially as he said that he personally would see the check paid if the hotel people would keep a sharp watch for the return of the man who had swindled them.
Kennedy wired as he promised and returned by an early train the next day.
He seemed bursting with news."I think I'm on the trail," he cried, throwing his grip into a corner and not waiting for me to ask him what success he had had."I went directly to the Lorraine and began frankly by telling them that I represented the By-Products Company in New York and was authorised to investigate the bad check which they had received.They couldn't describe Dawson very well - at least their description would have fitted almost any one.
One thing I think I did learn and that was that his disguise must include a Van Dyke beard.He would scarcely have had time to grow one of his own and I believe when he was last seen in Chicago he was clean-shaven.""But," I objected, "men with Van Dyke beards are common enough."Then I related my experience at the Amsterdam.
"The same fellow," ejaculated Kennedy."The beard seems to have covered a multitude of sins, for while every one could recall that, no one had a word to say about his features.However, Walter, there's just one chance of making his identification sure, and a peculiar coincidence it is, too.It seems that one night this man and a lady who may have been the former Miss Sanderson, though the description of her like most amateur descriptions wasn't very accurate, were dining at the Lorraine.The Lorraine is getting up a new booklet about its accommodations and a photographer had been engaged to take a flashlight of the dining-room for the booklet.
"No sooner had the flash been lighted and the picture taken than a man with a Van Dyke beard - your friend of the Amsterdam, no doubt, Walter, - rushed up to the photographer and offered him fifty dollars for the plate.The photographer thought at first it was some sport who had reasons for not wishing to appear in print in Atlantic City, as many have.The man seemed to notice that the photographer was a little suspicious and he hastened to make some kind of excuse about wanting the home folks to see how swell he and his wife were dining in evening dress.It was a rather lame excuse, but the fifty dollars looked good to the photographer and he agreed to develop the plate and turn it over with some prints all ready for mailing the next day.The man seemed satisfied and the photographer took another flashlight, this time with one of the tables vacant.
