“As sure as you are born,”—­without seeming to have heard my inquiry.

I proposed to state what could be proved, and the suspicions that were entertained of the cashier.  He objected, and said,—­

“I take my departure from these papers.  Mr. Temple is aged thirty-eight, a large, well-built man, full six feet high, strongly nerved, bold, proud, and fearless.  His mind is active, and in his day he has been professor in a college.  He fares well and is fashionably dressed.  I think he is not in any legitimate business.  He is a German by birth, though he has been in this country several years.  He is somewhat affected and immensely hypocritical.  I think he is a gambler and dealer in counterfeit money.  He certainly is not confined to one department of rascality.  This is not the name by which he was christened, if indeed he was ever christened at all.  He could not have written it in his youth, and must have assumed it within a year and a half.” (Exact in every known particular.)

“Mr. Conway I at first thought an attorney-at-law, but he is not.  I reckon he administers on estates, acts as guardian, and settles up the affairs of the unfortunate in trade as their assignee, in connection with his business of notary and note-shaver.  He is aged fifty-six, was born and educated in New England, and is probably a native of this city.  He is tall, lean, and bony.  His nerves are not steady, and he is easily excited.  He probably has the dyspepsia, but he would not lose the writing of a deed to be rid of it.  The remarkable feature of his character is stinginess.  His natural abilities being good and his mind strong, he must therefore be a man of means, and I think it matters little to his conscience how he comes by his wealth.  At the same time, he has considerable pride and caution, which, with his interest, keep him honest, as the world goes.  If he were not an old bachelor, I should think better of his heart, and he would be less miserly.

“The Jew’s signature is the most honest of the three.  Timidity is the marked character of the man.  He could not succeed in any department of roguery.  It is physically, as well as mentally and morally, impossible for him to have had any connection with the forgery.  He would be frightened out of his wits at the very suggestion of his complicity.”

“And so, Mr. Sidney,” said I, “you know all about these parties and the particulars of the forgery?”

“Nothing whatever,” he replied, “save by these specimens of their handwriting.  I never heard of the forgery, nor of these men, till this hour.”

To which I replied,—­

“I cannot believe that you can give such a perfectly accurate description of them (saving their moral characters, of which I know little) without other means of knowledge.  It must have been that you knew Temple to be a German, Conway to be the most penurious old bachelor in town, and the broker the most timid.  And how, in the name of all that is marvellous, could you have known Conway to be afflicted with dyspepsia?