onder if I dare build
my hopes upon the theory that Sir Charles is--but that is out of the
question. Still, there is that doctor fellow with his marvellous
knowledge of Eastern mysteries. Hang me if I don't start from that
hypothesis when I've got this thing through."

It was an easy matter to trace Acton. Field found him in a dingy
bed-sitting-room, smoking vile tobacco and eagerly reading a sporting
paper. The occupant of the room turned colour when he caught sight of
his visitor. The recognition was mutual, but Field did not commit
himself beyond a faint smile.

"I--I hope there is nothing wrong," the occupant of the room stammered.

"That entirely depends upon you," Field replied. "So long as you tell
the truth----"

"I'll tell you nothing else," Acton said. He had risen now and was
standing with his back to the fire, a tall man with a pale face and
mournful eyes. "Look here, Field, there is no use playing with the fact
that you and I have met before. I was in a very different position then.
Now I am a broken man with no ambition beyond a wish to live honestly
and to keep out of sight of my friends. I write a good hand, as you
know. I have served my time for forgery. But since that I have never
done anything that is in the least wrong."

The speaker's words carried conviction with them.

"I am quite prepared to believe it, Mr. Acton," Field said. "All I want
is a little information. Tell me, have you done more than one piece of
work lately?"

"No. Only one. And that was just after ten o'clock to-day. A gentleman
came to me and said he was a lawyer who was just setting up here."

"What sort of man was he?" Field asked.

"Young and fair, with an easy assurance and manner. He had taken a house
in Park Road--name of Walters. There is a kind of annex to the house
that at one time had been used for a billiard-room, and this was to be
his office. I called upon the gentleman there by appointment. I didn't
go into the house proper, but I saw that the blinds and curtains were
up. The gentleman gave me a L5 note and asked me to go to the Inland
Revenue Office here and get a L2 10_s._ stamp on a skin of parchment.
When I got back he dictated a deed to me which I copied down for him."

"Do you recollect what it was about?" Field asked.

"Well, sir, I don't, except that it was some kind of assignment. The
names I quite forget. You see, one gets to be rather like a machine
doing that kind of work. The gentleman paid m