"I'm almost sure it was the same day. It may have been the next."
"But at all events within, say, forty-eight hours?"
"Yes."
"Perhaps your stenographer might remember? Or your clerk?"
"That clerk is dead," said Mr. Braden without noticeable regret. "My stenographer might or might not remember. But she could identify the papers as being written about the same time on the same machine."
"How?"
"Because I had only one machine in my office at that time, and that had certain peculiarities of type. I scrapped it soon after that, and got a new one. If you'll compare the deeds, you'll see they must have been written on the same machine."
"A very fair point," the judge admitted blandly. "You have an excellent memory for details. But even if you establish that they were written on the same machine, it would not prove that they were written on the same day. For that you would have to depend on your evidence and that of your stenographer."
"I don't have to prove when they were written," Mr. Braden stated. "The date of an instrument is prima facie evidence. I know a little law myself, Riley."
"A little law is a very dangerous thing to know," the judge commented.