ing to some extent, though I admit without
realizing the peril, that the bank was seriously involved, they might
have refused to register the transfer until they had privately
remonstrated with him, especially as I was the vendor, even had they
not done this one or other of them would almost certainly have alluded
to the subject the first time they met him. Brander might have intended
later on to re-transfer the shares to some bogus purchaser, but at any
rate, if he knew your father was in bad health he would have wanted to
keep the bank from putting up its shutters until after his death. You
will remark that he did assist in that way, while your father was alive,
and that almost immediately after his death, he declined to support the
bank farther. What his motive can have been in all this I own that I
cannot imagine, but, given a motive, my supposition appears to be
perfectly feasible. That the motive, whatever it was, must have been a
very strong one, I admit, for in the first place he was running the risk
of being detected of forgery, and in the second must have been three
hundred pounds out of pocket, for that was the amount of the check he
handed to me."

"It was his own check, then, and not my father's?"

"Yes, he said he had rents in hand and therefore paid it out of them,
which seemed natural enough. But how about the signatures of the two
clerks?"

"They may be forgeries too, or possibly, knowing your father's
signature, they may have signed as a matter of course without actually
seeing him affix it. You will admit that all this is possible."

"It seems possible enough," Cuthbert said, "but what motive could there
have been on Brander's part? He could never have run such a risk merely
to gratify any special fancy he may have had for Fairclose."

"Certainly not, Mr. Hartington. Jeremiah Brander has not a particle of
sentiment in his composition. Of course, as he was the solicitor of the
company, I made it my business to study the man pretty closely, and I
came to the conclusion that he was a rank humbug, but that he was a
humbug because it paid him to be one."

"That is quite my own idea of him, but that does not help us in the
slightest towards an explanation as to why he should risk everything
when he had nothing whatever to gain by it."

"No, I feel that difficulty myself," Cumming said, stroking his chin
thoughtfully, "I admit that beats me altogether. By the way," he said,
suddenly, "I saw in the of