“Possibly, then——”
“Wait!” Nick again interrupted. “Here’s an important point. It convinces me that I am right.”
“Right in what?” came from Phelan.
“That Tilly Lancey did not write these words on the wall.”
“Great Scott! Is that so? What’s the point?”
Nick displayed the partly written letter found in the desk, then turned to the wall on which the incriminating words were inscribed.
“Notice the capital A in Gordon’s given name,” said he, pointing. “It has the proper form for the capital. Here, in this letter, are no less than three of the same capitals, and all of a different shape.”
“How different?”
“They are the enlarged form of the small letter, a form which many persons use when writing that capital,” said Nick. “If it appeared only once, it might be attributed to chance, but all three show plainly that Tilly Lancey habitually wrote the capital A in the form of the small letter. Here is the other form, however, in this writing on the wall. Don’t expect me to believe that this woman would, under such circumstances, have changed her habit of writing.”
“By Jove, that is important,” said Chick, eyes lighting.