Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary

Mr. Sadlier, Seymour's old dealer, calls on Cumberland and Maitland that morning. Sadlier claims the Seymours that the gallery is trying to sell are fakes. Cumberland calls in Merk and invites them both to a meeting.

Sadlier confronts Merk and tells him they had to be fakes because Seymour was too ill in his last days to have been so prolific and produce so many paintings. Merk shows him the canvass numbers that prove they belonged to Seymour and then shows him a painting that is at that moment hanging in Sadlier's own gallery. The painting has all the same identification marks as the one Sadlier has. It would not be possible to prove it is a fake except that Merk admits it and all the others he sold to Cumberland are fakes. Merk painted them himself and because he has...