第60章

"H-m," mused Kennedy."I suppose Dawson was a man of exemplary habits? They almost always are.No speculating or fast living with him as with Brown?"Carroll paused in his nervous tread."That's another thing I've discovered.On the contrary, I think Dawson was a secret drug fiend.I found that out after he left.In his desk at the By-Products office we discovered hypodermic needles and a whole outfit - morphine, I think it was.You know how cunningly a real morphine fiend can cover up his tracks."Kennedy was now all attention.As the case unrolled it was assuming one new and surprising aspect after another.

"The lettergram would indicate that he had been stopping at the Lorraine in Atlantic City," remarked Kennedy.

"So I would infer, and at the Amsterdam in New York.But you can depend on it that he has not been going under his own name nor, Ibelieve as far as I can find out, even under his own face.I think the fellow has already assumed a disguise, for nowhere can I find any description that even I could recognise.""Strange," murmured Kennedy."I'll have to look into it.And only two days in which to do it, too.You will pardon me if I excuse myself now? There are certain aspects of the case that I hope Ishall be able to shed some light on by going at them at once.""You'll find Dawson clever, clever as he can be," said Carroll, not anxious to have Kennedy go as long as he would listen to the story which was bursting from his overwrought mind."He was able to cover up the checks by juggling the accounts.But that didn't satisfy him.He was after something big.So he started in to issue the treasury stock, forging the signatures of the president and the treasurer, that is, my signature.Of course that sort of game couldn't last forever.Some one was going to demand dividends on his stock, or transfer it, or ask to have it recorded on the books, or something that would give the whole scheme away.From each person to whom he sold stock I believe he demanded some kind of promise not to sell it within a certain period, and in that way we figure that he gave himself plenty of time to realise several hundred thousand dollars quietly.It may be that some of the forged checks represented fake interest payments.Anyhow, he's at the end of his rope now.We've had an exciting chase.I had followed down several false clues before the real significance of the hint about South America dawned on me.Now I have gone as far as I dare with it without calling in outside assistance.I think now we are up with him at last - with your help."Kennedy was anxious to go, but he paused long enough to ask another question."And the girl?" he broke in."She must be in the game or her letters to some of her friends would have betrayed their whereabouts.What was she like?""Miss Sanderson was very popular in a certain rather flashy set in Chicago.But her folks were bounders.They lived right up to the limit, just as Dawson did, in my opinion.Oh, you can be sure that if a proposition like this were put up to her she'd take a chance to get away with it.She runs no risks.She didn't do it anyhow, and as for her part, after the fact, why, a woman is always pretty safe - more sinned against than sinning, and all that.It's a queer sort of honeymoon, hey?""Have you any copies of the forged certificates?" asked Craig.

"Yes, plenty of them.Since the story has been told in print they have been pouring in.Here are several."He pulled several finely engraved certificates from his pocket and Kennedy scrutinised them minutely.

"I may keep these to study at my leisure?" he asked.

Certainly," replied Carroll, "and if you want any more I can wire to Chicago for them.""No, these will be sufficient for the present, thank you," said Craig."I shall keep in touch with you and let you know the moment anything develops.

Our ride uptown to the laboratory was completed in silence which Idid not interrupt, for I could see that Kennedy was thinking out a course of action.The quick pace at which he crossed the campus to the Chemistry Building told me that he had decided on something.

In the laboratory Craig hastily wrote a note, opened a drawer of his desk, and selected one from a bunch of special envelopes which he seemed to be saving for some purpose.He sealed it with some care, and gave it to me to post immediately.It was addressed to Dawson at the Hotel Amsterdam.On my return I found him deeply engrossed in the examination of the forged shares of stock.Having talked with him more or less in the past about handwriting I did not have to be told that he was using a microscope to discover any erasures and that photography both direct and by transmitted light might show something.

"I can't see anything wrong with these documents," he remarked at length."They show no erasures or alterations.On their face they look as good as the real article.Even if they are tracings they are remarkably line work.It certainly is a fact, however, that they superimpose.They might all have been made from the same pair of signatures of the president and treasurer.

"I need hardly to say to you, Walter, that the microscope in its various forms and with its various attachments is of great assistance to the document examiner.Even a low magnification frequently reveals a drawing, hesitating method of production, or patched and reinforced strokes as well as erasures by chemicals or by abrasion.