Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/63

This page needs to be proofread.

CHAPTER IV

Trafford Gets an Assurance


Trafford sat in his room in the hotel at Bangor the next evening and studied the copy of Judge Parlin's statement.

"Her brilliancy of mind has carried her far," he said; "has aided her husband politically; and it was this influence that defeated him for the chief justiceship. It's so easy that I can't believe the solution. By George! I wonder if the old judge ever wrote that paper? I wish I'd examined the original more critically. If I'd been one of your inspired detectives, such as you find in novels, I'd probably have caught a forgery the first thing!"

None the less, he put himself to the task of untangling the threads of the statement, with a result that set him to deep thinking. Bangor was not the direction from which had come opposition to the judge's nomination. On the contrary, Judge Parlin had been rather a favourite than otherwise in