“Not that I know of.”

“Do you not think that it bears a marked resemblance to your own handwriting—carelessly disguised?”

“No, I do not think so.”

“I put it to you that it is your own handwriting!”

“No.”

“I put it to you that, anxious to prove an alibi, you conceived the idea of a fictitious and rather incredible appointment, and wrote this note yourself in order to bear out your statement!”

“No.”

“Is it not a fact that, at the time you claim to have been waiting about at a solitary and


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politely set chairs for every one. The Scotland Yard men were the cynosure of all eyes. I think that for the first time we realized that the thing was not a bad dream, but a tangible reality. We had read of such things—now we ourselves were actors in the drama. To-morrow the daily papers, all over England,


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