"We will now come to another matter," he said. "You were educated in Germany?"
John admitted the fact.
"Have you been in Germany since your boyhood?"
"Never, sir."
"What is your opinion of Captain Gilbert?"
"I took a great liking to him."
"You trusted him when he asked you to assume another man's identity?"
"Absolutely, sir."
"So do I," said Dacent Smith, suddenly changing his tone. "I trust him absolutely. I will only try your patience just one moment longer." He pushed a clean slip of paper towards John. "Would you mind writing on that these three words, 'Deceive,' 'parallel,' and 'nursery.' Just scribble them quickly, without care."
John wrote the words and handed them across the table. The elder man took the sheet and immediately compared it with Treves's incriminating letter, and a pile of other letters in Treves's handwriting, which lay beside him.