Helen lifted up her hands and eyes in despair. "Where shall I find the truth?" said she. "The world is a quicksand."
"My dear young lady," said Mrs. Undercliff, "don"t you be discouraged.
There must be a correct report in some paper or other."
"I am not so sure of that," said Undercliff. "I believe the reporters trundle off to the nearest public-house together and light their pipes with their notes, and settle something or other by memory. Indeed they have reached a pitch of inaccuracy that could not be attained without co-operation. Independent liars contradict each other; but these chaps follow one another in falsehood, like geese toddling after one another across a common.
"Come, come," said Mrs. Undercliff, "if you can"t help us, don"t hurt us.
We don"t want a man to talk yellow jaundice to us. Miss Rolleston must employ somebody to read all the other papers, and compare the reports with these."
"I"ll employ n.o.body but myself," said Helen. "I"ll go to the British Museum directly."
"The Museum!" cried Mr. Undercliff, looking with surprise. "Why, they will be half an hour groping for a copy of the _Times._ No, no; go to Peele"s CoffeeHouse." He directed her where to find that place; and she was so eager to do something for Robert, however small, that she took up her bag directly, and put up the prayer-book, and was going to ask for her extracts, when she observed Mr. Undercliff was scrutinizing them with great interest, so she thought she would leave them with him; but, on looking more closely, she found that he was examining, not the reports, but the advertis.e.m.e.nts and miscellanea on the reverse side.
She waited out of politeness, but she colored and bit her lip. She could not help feeling hurt and indignant. "Any trash is more interesting to people than poor Robert"s case," she thought. And at last she said bitterly:
"Those _advertis.e.m.e.nts_ seem to interest you, sir; shall I leave _them_ with you?"
"If you please," said the expert, over whose head, bent in dogged scrutiny, this small thunderbolt of feminine wrath pa.s.sed unconscious.
Helen drove away to Peele"s Coffee House.
Mrs. Undercliff pondered over the facts that had been elicited in this conversation; the expert remained absorbed in the advertis.e.m.e.nts at the back of Helen"s reports.
When he had examined every one of them minutely, he held the entire extracts up to the light, and looked through them; then he stuck a double magnifier in his eye, and looked through them with that. Then he took two pieces of card, wrote on them Re Penfold, and looked about for his other materials, to put them all neatly together. Lo! the profile of Robert Penfold was gone.
"Now that is too bad," said he. "So much for her dove-like eyes, that you admired so. Miss Innocence has stolen that profile."
"Stolen! she bought it--of me."
"Why, she never said a word."
"No; but she looked a look. She asked me, with those sweet imploring eyes, might she have it; and I looked yes. Then she glanced toward you, and put down a note. Here it is."
"Why, you beat the telegraph, you two! Ten pounds for that thing! I must make it up to her somehow."
"I wish you could. Poor girl, she is a lady every inch. But she is in love with that Penfold. I"m afraid it is a hopeless case."
"I have seen a plainer. But hopeless it is not. However, you work your way, and I"ll work mine."
"But you can"t; you have no materials."
"No; but I have found a door that may lead to materials."
Having delivered himself thus myteriously, he shut himself up in obstinate silence until Helen Rolleston called again, two days afterward.
She brought a bag full of ma.n.u.script this time--to wit, copies in her own handwriting of eight reports, the Queen _v._ Penfold. She was in good spirits, and told Mrs. Undercliff that all the reports were somewhat more favorable than the two she had left; and she was beginning to tell Mr.
Undercliff he was quite right in his recollection, when he interrupted her, and said, "All that is secondary now. Have you any objection to answer me a question?"
She colored; but said, "Oh, no. Ask me anything you like;" then she blushed deeper.
"How did you become possessed of those two reports you left with me the other day?"
At this question, so different from what she feared, Helen cleared up and smiled, and said, "From a Mr. Hand, a clerk in Mr. Wardlaw"s office; they were sent me at my request."
The expert seemed pleased at this reply; his brow cleared, and he said: "Then I don"t mind telling you that those two reports will bring Penfold"s case within my province. To speak plainly, Miss Rolleston, your newspaper extracts--ARE FORGERIES."
CHAPTER LX.
"FORGERIES!" cried Helen, with innocent horror.
"RANK FORGERIES," repeated the expert coolly.
"Forgeries!" cried Helen. "Why, how can printed things be that?"
"That is what I should like to know," said the old lady.
"Why, what else can you call them?" said the expert. "They are got up to look like extracts from newspapers. But they were printed as they are, and were never in any journal. Shall I tell you how I found that out?"
"If you please, sir," said Helen.
"Well, then, I looked at the reverse side, and I found seven misprints in one slip, and five in the other. That was a great number to creep into printed slips of that length. The trial part did not show a single erratum. "Hullo!" said I to myself; "why, one side is printed more carefully than the other." And that was not natural. The printing of advertis.e.m.e.nts is looked after quite as sharply as any other part in a journal. Why, the advertisers themselves cry out if they are misprinted!"
"Oh, how shrewd!" cried Helen.
"Child"s play," said the expert. "Well, from that blot I went on. I looked at the edges, and they were cut too clean. A gentleman with a pair of scissors can"t cut slips out of a paper like this. They were cut in the printer"s office. Lastly, on holding them to the light, I found they had not been machined upon the plan now adopted by all newspapers; but worked by hand. In one word--forgeries!"
"Oh," said Helen, "to think I should have handled forgeries, and shown them to you for real. Ah! I"m so glad; for now I have committed the same crime as Robert Penfold; I have uttered a forged doc.u.ment. Take me up, and have me put in prison, for I am as guilty as ever he was." Her face shone with rapture at sharing Robert"s guilt.
The expert was a little puzzled by sentiments so high-flown and unpractical.
"I think," said he, "you are hardly aware what a valuable discovery this may prove to you. However, the next step is to get me a specimen of the person"s handwriting who furnished you with these. The chances are he is the writer of the forged note."
Helen uttered an exclamation that was almost a scream. The inference took her quite by surprise. She looked at Mrs. Undercliff.
"He is right, I think," said the old lady.
"Right or wrong," said the expert, "the next step in the inquiry is to do what I said. But that demands great caution. You must write a short civil note to Mr. Hand, and just ask him some question. Let me see. Ask him what newspapers his extracts are from, and whether he has got any more.
He will not tell you the truth; but no matter, we shall get hold of his handwriting."
"But, sir," said Helen, "there is no need for that. Mr. Hand sent me a note along with the extracts."
"The deuce he did. All the better. Any words in it that are in the forged note? Is Penfold in it, or Wardlaw?"
Helen reflected a moment, and then said she thought both those names were in it.
"Fetch me that note," said Undercliff, and his eyes sparkled. He was on a hot scent now.