"You are mistaken there."

"I have the strongest reason for saying that this forged document, on
which you so much rely, is no longer in your possession."

"I should like to know your reason," said Gilbert, struck by his
uncle's significant manner.

"Then I will tell you. It is not in your possession, because _it is
in mine_!"

"What do you mean, sir?" asked Gilbert, somewhat startled.

"Just what I say. I have obtained possession of the paper which you so
artfully concocted, and pretended to be the dying statement of Jacob
Morton."

"What, did Mr. Ferguson give it to you?" asked Gilbert, amazed.

"Mr. Ferguson? What had he to do with it?"

"It is in his safe. I deposited it there, the morning after my
interview with you."

"That is a lie!" exclaimed Mr. Grey, in excitement. "You placed it in
your trunk."

"Oh!" said Gilbert, as light dawned upon him, "I understand you, now.
Before carrying it to Mr. Ferguson, I made a copy for reference,
thinking, also, that you might want to look at it again. _That copy_ I
left in my trunk; but the original is in Mr. Ferguson's safe."

"I don't believe you," said James Grey, furiously.

"It is perfectly true. I suppose that the young man who I hear called
at my room one day in my absence, was your agent, and that he stole the
paper."

"Out of my room, you scoundrel!" roared James Grey, whose
disappointment was in proportion to his former exultation. "I defy
you!"

Gilbert saw that it would be of no use to prolong the discussion. He
bowed quietly, and left the room.

CHAPTER XXIV.

A SUDDEN DEPARTURE.

After James Grey's triumphant feeling that he had spiked the guns of
his young adversary, the revulsion and disappointment of defeat were
all the more disheartening. He would like to have believed his tale a
false one, but that was not easy. On a closer inspection of the paper
which Maurice Walton had brought to him, he discovered a water-mark in
the paper showing that it had only been manufactured the year previous.
As Gilbert had been in Cincinnati three years, this, of course, was
sufficient to show that the document could not be genuine.

"Who would have imagined the fellow so shrewd?" ejaculated his uncle,
pacing the room with hurried steps. "He lost no time in locking up the
paper. I'm afraid he's going to be a dangerous enemy."

Then, contemptuously:

"What a fool I am--a full-grown man, with fifty years' experience of
the world, to be afraid of