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you," he asked, "telephone me at once, in the event there should be any question on the part of your handwriting expert?"
    Pawling nodded.
    Mason said, "I take it he will make a preliminary examination and then perhaps a more detailed examination. I should like to be kept advised."
    " I feel certain you are entitled to that courtesy."
    Mason, turning over the letter in his hand, said casually, "I'm not certain that you advised me as to whether there had been any other unusual activity on the part of Mrs. Allred's account lately."
    Pawling said, "This is the only withdrawal that has been made during a period-- well, of some time, Mr. Mason."
    Abruptly, Mason tilted the letter to one side so that light struck it from an angle. Then he slid the tips of his fingers over the signature.
    "Something?" the banker asked.
    Mason said, "I would say that we may now safely put two and two together. You'll notice a very slight indentation along the lines of this signature. Quite evidently, this was the signature from which the signature on the forged check was traced."
    "Dear, dear" Pawling said as though he had suffered some minor irritation such as breaking the point of a pencil.
    Mason regarded him quizzically. "A matter of some twenty-five hundred dollars," he said.
    Pawling positively bead, "Which the bank has not paid, of course."
    "That does not alter the seriousness of the crime," Mason said.
    "No, I suppose not."
    "Nor the fact that I feel something should be done about it."
    "Such as what, Counselor?' "Taking steps to see that no other forged checks are cashed"
    "That, of course, will be done, almost as a routine-- fancy a forged check being used to retain a lawyer to ask that the account be protected from further forgeries! One would almost think that…"
    "Yes, go on," Mason said as the banker hesitated.
    "That it had been planned that way."
    "Well, it wasn't," Mason snapped "No, no, of course not! I merely said one would almost think so."
    "Thank you," the lawyer said, "for stopping your thinking at the almost," and walked out.
    Mason handed his oblong parking ticket to the attendant of the lot next to the bank, said, "Were you on duty at ten o'clock?"
    The attendant nodded, said cautiously, "What's the trouble?"
    "No trouble," Mason said. "I wanted to get some information about someone who parked an automobile here for a few minutes."
    The man laughed and said, "Look, buddy, in order to keep this lot running, we have to handle hundreds of automobiles in the course of a day and…"
    "This young woman," Mason interrupted, "is one you probably would have noticed. She had a good figure, a tight-fitting blue suit, blue suede purse, a saucy little hat with red trim, on one side of her head, long dark eyelashes…"
    "Would I have noticed a number like that!" the man said with enthusiasm. "Just hearing you describe her makes my mouth water. What about her?"
    "Nothing, if you didn't notice her."
    "I don't think she parked her car here. You say it was this morning?"
    "Almost exactly at ten o'clock this morning."
    "I don't think so. We're not too busy at ten o'clock in the morning. It isn't until the streets begin to fill up that they start coming in here."
    Mason thanked him, paid for his car, circled around the block and drove into the parking station across the street from the bank.
    "You on duty at ten this morning?" he asked the attendant.
    The man hesitated before answering.
    Mason said, "You're eligible for a five dollar reward, if you were."
    "That's different! What's the reward for?"
    I am trying to find out something about a girl about twenty, twenty-one, or twenty-two years old, blue suit, nice figure, brunette, blue leather purse, blue gloves, a tricky little hat on one side of her head, who…"
    "What do you want to know about her?"
    "Anything I can find out. Do you remember her?"
    "I think I do. What about the five bucks?"
    "A little information about the make and model of the car she was driving, or anything of that