"Is it, by Jove!" said the colonel again.
Ellerdine nodded. "Odd," he said, "but true, parole d'honneur. He started an office in London to help all the commercial Johnnies in the city, and so I went to him with my papers; and I am damned if the chap didn't find out who forged my name in about an hour, and we had him nailed that same evening. Cost me a tenner, that's all."
Colonel Adams nodded, looking with some trepidation at the pile of rather too luscious-looking pastry which had by now been set upon the table.
"I don't think I will venture," he said to himself; and then to Ellerdine, "Well, go on, Ellerdine."
"Now, in my pocket," Lord Ellerdine continued, "I have got exact photographs and tracings of the letters which have made such a fuss this afternoon. My idea, Adams, is that you and I—if you have time, that is—should go down into the City and see this expert chap and see if he can throw some light on the situation. They have tried all the experts in London on Peggy's case, but they don't seem to know about my American friend. I believe in him. He is one of the most astute people going. What do you say to trying him—for poor little Peggy's sake?"
"Excellent idea, by Jove!" the other answered. "You've got his address, of course?"
"Oh yes," Lord Ellerdine replied; "it's in Coleman Street, E.C. Now, I wonder if you would mind going down with me and seeing what he has got to say?"
"Not in the least," Colonel Adams answered. "In fact, I shall be tremendously interested. I'd do a good deal more than that, my dear Ellerdine, if I could, to help Mrs. Admaston in any way."
"Very well, then," said the peer. "We'll just finish our tea, and pay that pretty-looking girl and take a taxi at once."
In five minutes they had dismissed the cab and were being carried in a lift to the third floor of a big block of buildings in Coleman Street.