"
"Ah!" Rawlins exclaimed, suddenly. "Are you sure of this?"
"Certain. I heard it from a man who was with Van Sneck at the time, a man
called Merritt."
"James Merritt. Really, you have been in choice company, Miss Lee. Your
knowledge of the criminal classes is getting extensive and peculiar."
"Merritt told me this. And an answer came back."
"An answer from Mr. Steel?"
"Purporting to be an answer from Mr. Steel. A very clever forgery, as a
matter of fact. Of course that forgery was Henson's work, because we know
that Henson coolly ordered notepaper in Mr. Steel's name. He forgot to
pay the bill, and that is how the thing came out. Besides, the little wad
of papers on which the forgery was written is in Mr. Steel's hands. Now,
what do you make of that?"
Rawlins turned the matter over thoughtfully in his mind.
"Did Henson know that Mr. Steel would be from home that night?" he asked.
"Of course. He probably also knew where our meeting with Mr. Steel was to
take place."
"Then the matter is pretty obvious," said Rawlins. "Van Sneck, by some
means or other, gets an inkling of what is going on.
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