Bangor, and his cause had received substantial aid. But the statement did not assert that Wing's mother had remained in Bangor, or that it was there that she aided her husband politically. The most hostile influence that Judge Parlin had encountered was popularly credited to an ex-Governor, Matthewson, an Eastern Maine man, who at present held no office, but without whose countenance few men ventured even to aspire to office.
"If it should prove that Matthewson's wife is a Bangor woman, 'twould be so easy as to be absurd," Trafford mused. "The old judge wasn't silly enough to believe that what he wrote could conceal her identity. Either he meant it should be known to Wing or Mrs. Parlin, or—but what possible object could there be in forging such a paper?"
Suddenly he sat bolt upright and stared at the document in blank amazement. Then, with a low whistle, he folded it into his pocketbook.
"I'll find Mrs. Matthewson Bangor-born, I'll bet ten cents to a leather button!" he declared.
Whatever had brought Trafford to this sudden conclusion, it proved absolutely correct, and the de-
