Now, with every one of those suspicions fully on the alert, he felt the bits of paper with nervous, anxious fingers, while the imperturbable Russian calmly struck a match.
"'See here,' he said, pointing to one of the notes, 'the shape of that "w" in the signature of the chief cashier.

I am not an English police officer, but I could pick out that spurious "w" among a thousand genuine ones.

You see, I have seen a good many.' "Now, of course, poor young Schwarz had not seen very many Bank of England notes.

He could not have told whether one 'w' in Mr.Bowen's signature is better than another, but, though he did not speak English nearly as fluently as his pompous interlocutor, he understood every word of the appalling statement the latter had just made.
"'Then that Prince,' he said, 'at the hotel--' "'Is no more Prince than you and I, my dear sir,' concluded the gentleman of His Imperial Majesty's police calmly.
"'And the jewels?
Mr.Winslow's jewels ?' "'With the jewels there may be a chance--oh! a mere chance.

These forged bank-notes, which you accepted so trustingly, may prove the means of recovering your property.' "'How ?' "'The penalty of forging and circulating spurious bank-notes is very heavy.