'Bije forged that certificate." "I'm afraid there is no doubt of it." "Dear! dear! dear! Why, they put folks in state's prison for that!" "Yes.

But a dead man is beyond prisons." "That's so.

Then I don't see--" "You will.

You don't grasp the full meaning of this affair even yet.

If the Bradley certificate is a forgery, a fraud from beginning to end, then the presumption is that there was never any such person as Bradley.
But _someone_ paid ten thousand dollars for one hundred Akrae shares when the company was formed.