and half way down the page were five queer blots with a pencil mark around them which made a little hand. It was less easy for him to read handwriting than print, but he spelled out the words written close about the hand: "He's been sitting in my lap, dear, while I wrote and he tipped over the ink bottle; when I started to write again, I found the prints of his five little fingers on the page, so I put his hand back the way it had been and marked around it for you."
Jeffrey drew Peewee back from the table. The man took the cards that he had made and put them close beside the letter and looked at them through a magnifying glass.
The clock, ticking very slowly indeed, became audible in the room. Jeffrey kept hold of Peewee; Walter walked nervously up and down; Beman sat still; Mrs. Markyn strained forward across the table.
What was it, Peewee wondered suspiciously, that was going on? The excitement in all of them was clear to him.
"There's three of them," the man remarked,
