Butifitwasnothe，itmusthavebeenAlecCunninghamhimself，forbythetimethattheoldmanhaddescendedseveralservantswereuponthescene。
Thepointisasimpleone，buttheInspectorhadoverlookeditbecausehehadstartedwiththesuppositionthatthesecountymagnateshadhadnothingtodowiththematter。Now，Imakeapintofneverhavinganyprejudices，andoffollowingdocilelywhereverfactmayleadme，andso，intheveryfirststageoftheinvestigation，IfoundmyselflookingalittleaskanceatthepartwhichhadbeenplayedbyMr。AlecCunningham。”AndnowImadeaverycarefulexaminationofthecornerofpaperwhichtheInspectorhadsubmittedtous。Itwasatoncecleartomethatitformedpartofaveryremarkabledocument。Hereitis。Doyounotnowobservedsomethingverysuggestiveaboutit?””Ithasaveryirregularlook，”saidtheColonel。”Mydearsir，”criedHolmes，”therecannotbetheleastdoubtintheworldthatithasbeenwrittenbytwopersonsdoingalternatewords。WhenIdrawyourattentiontothestrongt’sof’at’and’to’，andaskyoutocomparethemwiththeweakonesof’quarter’
and’twelve，’youwillinstantlyrecognizethefact。
Averybriefanalysisofthesefourwordswouldenableyoutosaywiththeutmostconfidencethatthe’learn’
andthe’maybe’arewritteninthestrongerhand，andthe’what’intheweaker。””ByJove，it’sasclearasday！”criedtheColonel。”Whyonearthshouldtwomenwritealetterinsuchafashion?””Obviouslythebusinesswasabadone，andoneofthemenwhodistrustedtheotherwasdeterminedthat，whateverwasdone，eachshouldhaveanequalhandinit。Now，ofthetwomen，itisclearthattheonewhowrotethe’at’and’to’wastheringleader。””Howdoyougetatthat?””Wemightdeduceitfromthemerecharacteroftheonehandascomparedwiththeother。Butwehavemoreassuredreasonsthanthatforsupposingit。Ifyouexaminethisscrapwithattentionyouwillcometotheconclusionthatthemanwiththestrongerhandwroteallhiswordsfirst，leavingblanksfortheothertofillup。Theseblankswerenotalwayssufficient，andyoucanseethatthesecondmanhadasqueezetofithis’quarter’inbetweenthe’at’andthe’to，’