"Of course," assented the inspector, who was surprised at the
information, but was too experienced an official to show his feelings.
"And both hands disguised."

"Disguised to the extent of being printed in written characters,"
continued Crewe. "It is so seldom that a person writes printed characters
that any method in which they are written suggests disguise. The original
intention of the two persona who wrote this extraordinary note was for
each to write a single letter in turn. That system was carried as far as
'Sir Horace' or, perhaps, up to the 'B' in 'Fewbanks.' After that they
became weary of changing places and one of them wrote alternate letters
to the end, leaving blanks for the other to fill in. That much is to be
gathered from the variations in the spaces between the letters--sometimes
there was too much room for an intermediate letter, sometimes too little,
so the letter had to be cramped. Here and there are dots made with the
pen as the first of the two spelled out the words so as to know what
letters to write and what to leave blank. Look at the differences in the
letter 'U.' One of the writers makes it a firm downward and upward
stroke; the other makes the letter fainter and adds another downward
stroke, the letter being more like a small 'u' written larger than a
capital letter. The differences in the two hands are so pronounced
throughout the note that I am inclined to think that one of the writers
was a woman."

"Exactly what I thought," said Inspector Chippenfield, looking hard at
Crewe so that the latter should not question his good faith.

"Then there are sometimes slight differences in the alternate letters
written by the same hand. Look at the 'T' in 'last' and the 'T' in