"What sort of man was he?" Field asked.
"Young and fair, with an easy assurance and manner. He had taken a house in Park Road—name of Walters. There is a kind of annex to the house that at
one time had been used for a billiard-room, and this was to be his office. I called upon the gentleman there by appointment. I didn't go into the house proper, but I saw that the blinds and curtains were up. The gentleman gave me a £5 note and asked me to go to the Inland Revenue Office here and get a £2 10s. stamp on a skin of parchment. When I got back he dictated a deed to me which I copied down for him."
"Do you recollect what it was about?" Field asked.
"Well, sir, I don't, except that it was some kind of assignment. The names I quite forget. You see, one gets to be rather like a machine doing that kind of work. The gentleman paid me seven shillings for my trouble and asked me to call upon him again."
"And is that all you have to tell me?" Field asked.
"Everything, Mr. Field," Acton said. "I hope that you will not think there is anything——"
"Not so far as you are concerned, certainly," Field hastened to say. "I have only one more question to ask. Try and polish up your memory. Was there any date inserted in that deed?"
"I can answer that question without the slightest hesitation. There was no date inserted in the deed."
"'Um. The thing was so unusual that you were quite struck by the fact?"