"Show him up at once."
In a moment or two more Lord Ellerdine, looking flurried and hot, entered the drawing-room.
His hat was in his hand, and he was wearing a light grey overcoat.
"My dear d.i.c.ky," Collingwood said, "what on earth brings you here?"
Collingwood had risen and strolled over to the big settee of blue linen.
He sat down upon it calmly.
"I wanted to ask you something," Lord Ellerdine said in a rather unsteady voice; "so I went round to your solicitors" office, and they told me that I should find you here."
"Well, what is it?" Collingwood asked imperturbably.
"I say, Colling--do you write with your left hand?"
The other made a movement of impatience. "My dear d.i.c.ky," he said irritably, "what the devil?..."
"But do you?" Ellerdine insisted.
"Of course I don"t," Collingwood answered shortly.
"I thought as much," said Lord Ellerdine, with a sigh of relief.
"You did, did you?" Collingwood replied, with a slight smile. "What is the game, d.i.c.ky?"
"It"s not a game, Colling; it"s dead serious," said the ex-diplomatist.
"Why, d.i.c.ky, what"s up?"
"You remember some time ago when some silly a.s.s forged my name on a cheque?" Lord Ellerdine asked, still flurried and ill at ease.
"Well?"
"Well, I got to know a handwriting expert--an American--a devilish smart fellow. When we left the court just now, and Peggy was thinking pretty rotten things about you, I thought I would go and have a word with him."
Collingwood"s languid manner entirely disappeared. He bent forward with a keen, searching look at his friend. "You found him?" he asked.
Ellerdine nodded.
"Well, what does he say?"
"I showed him the photos of the letters," Lord Ellerdine continued, "and then the originals, and he says that they are written by some one who writes easily and fluently with his left hand."
"Left hand! Great Scott! Is he sure?"
"As sure as an American expert can be of anything," the peer returned.
"That"s sure enough," Collingwood replied, shrugging his shoulders and rising up from the sofa.
He began to walk up and down the room. "That clears me, at anyrate," he said. "But what the devil can it all mean, Ellerdine?"
Lord Ellerdine had been looking at his friend, pathetically waiting for a word of praise. Now he ventured upon a little fishing remark:
"Mighty good thing I thought of that American chap--don"t you think so, Colling?"
Collingwood hardly seemed to hear him. His head was bent forward and he was deep in thought.
"Yes, d.i.c.ky, yes. Left hand, eh?"
"Yes," Lord Ellerdine answered, with a plaintive note in his voice. "I think, Colling, I"ve handled this business with some skill--what?"
"Left hand," the other repeated, in a brown study.
"With some skill, Colling--what? Skill--what?" Lord Ellerdine bleated.
Collingwood looked up at this note in the other"s voice. He suddenly realised that the poor gentleman was pining for praise, and began to administer it in the heartiest possible fashion.
He smacked him on the shoulder and his voice became absolutely jovial.
"Skill!" he said. "My dear d.i.c.ky, it"s splendid! Really, you missed your vocation. Diplomacy! Never! You"re a detective, d.i.c.ky! A sleuth-hound! A regular Sherlock Holmes, don"t you know!"
Lord Ellerdine was the happiest man in the three kingdoms at that moment. His little mouth twitched with pleasure. His face beamed like the rising sun. "I say, Colling, do you think so--do you really think so, Colling?"
"Think so!" Collingwood answered, laughing. "I"m sure of it, old chap"; and then, with a sudden, swift transition of manner, "d.i.c.ky, look here--have you told Admaston?"
"Not yet," Lord Ellerdine replied. "George Admaston is hard hit, devilish hard hit. He doesn"t believe Peggy"s guilty--he"d chuck the case if it wasn"t for Fyffe."
"Chuck the case!" Collingwood said eagerly.
"I honestly believe he would," Lord Ellerdine answered. "It"s the letter which sticks with Fyffe, and I don"t understand it--we come against the beastly thing all the time."
Collingwood nodded. "Yes," he said; "that letter"s h.e.l.l."
He suddenly raised his head. "Look here, d.i.c.ky," he said, "I think I hear Peggy coming; so off you go, please. Get your American expert to dine with us to-night at your place, at eight o"clock. Run along."
Ellerdine went to the door. "All right, old chap," he said; "that is what I"ll do. Eight o"clock. I"m so glad it wasn"t you, old chap--such a dirty business!"
He went out of the room, not noticing that he had left his hat and gloves upon the writing-table.
A moment afterwards Peggy entered, pulling aside the curtains of the terrace window. She started violently when she saw Collingwood. "You here!" she said, and there was an ugly note of apprehension and even of anger in her voice. "You----"
Collingwood went up to her. "Peggy!" he said.
"Wasn"t that d.i.c.ky I heard?"
"Yes."
Collingwood had hardly said it, and the two were looking at each other strangely enough, when the door leading into the hall opened and Lord Ellerdine came back. "Forgot my hat, old chap," he said, going up to the table. Then he saw Peggy.