Read Online Bland Beginning by Julian Symons - Free Book Online Page B

is?”
    “I think so.”
    Miss Cleverly said sharply, “You shouldn’t say that, Arthur. You can’t have any proof.”
    Still with that irritating smile, Jebb said, “I haven’t named anybody – yet.”
    Anthony was listening with a kind of bursting impatience. “But what about this?” He touched the little blue book.
    “I cannot say for certain – yet. I strongly suspect it of being a forgery. I should like you to leave it with me so that it can be subjected to scientific tests.”
    “But how can any scientific tests tell you when a book was produced?”
    The upper part of the cripple’s body rocked backwards and forwards in the wheel chair. The rug that covered his legs remained unmoved. “You are asking me my most intimate secrets,” he said in his high-pitched voice. Anthony became aware that it was hot in the room. “But I shall reveal them to you, Mr Shelton, because I like you. Ruth here knows something about them already. The application of these tests to various so-called first editions will be the subject of my forthcoming work of research – and it is upon this epoch-making work, Mr Shelton, that I have been engaged for the past five years.” He leaned forward in the wheel chair, and it occurred to Anthony to wonder, as he caught the wild stare behind those enormous glasses, if the little man was altogether sane. Perhaps something of his thought communicated itself to Jebb, for he dropped back in the chair and said, with a note of bitterness replacing the elation in his voice, “It will seem to you, perhaps, who are filled with the energy and the joy of youth, that this is a curious occupation for a grown man.” Anthony, slightly dazed, did not speak. Jebb put his fingertips together and looked up at the ceiling as he went on talking. He had, Anthony saw, extraordinarily hairy nostrils.
    “There are several lines of approach that can be used for testing the validity of books and pamphlets published in the nineteenth century.
    “First of all, you can compare the texts. Let us suppose that Martin Rawlings made some alterations to the poems in Passion and Repentance when the second edition appeared, and that the forger foolishly followed the later text. Then you would get the forgery showing a different text from that of the real first edition. That, of course, would be gross carelessness on the forger’s part, but it has been known. In this case it does not arise, because Martin Rawlings made no alterations in the text of his poems.
    “Then there is the evidence to be obtained from the publisher or the printer. Actually, in the forgeries I have in mind a publisher’s name was rarely used. The forger generally said ‘Privately Printed for the Author’, or something of that sort. And all of the forgeries I have found were produced a long time ago – when Victorian first editions were becoming valuable – and few printers or publishers have records going back so far. The publisher’s name doesn’t help in your case, because the firm no longer exists, and it’s going to be very difficult to trace the printer.”
    Miss Cleverly interrupted. “I suppose Basingstoke is right about the discrepancy in the publishers’ name? Can you check on that?”
    “Perfectly right,” Jebb piped. “I have just checked. He is an observant young man.”
    “And was the name of Letts and Ableton – or Letts and Willcox – used in any of the other forgeries you’ve traced?”
    “No.” Jebb jerked his head down and looked at them. “But that proves nothing,” he said almost fiercely. “It is one of those pieces of carelessness that I’ve just mentioned. Yes, he must be an observant young man, your friend Mr Basing-stoke.”
    Anthony grunted. He was equally annoyed to be called Basingstoke’s friend, and to hear him praised for acuteness.
    “There is another test – that of typography, and that is more fruitful in your case. In the nineteenth century there was a ‘ring’ of eight large firms of