Hanaud compared it with the handwriting upon the card.
"Look!" he said at length, and the three men gathered behind him.

On the card the gummed fragments of paper revealed a sentence: "Je ne sais pas." "'I do not know,'" said Ricardo; "now this is very important." Beside the card Celia's letter to Wethermill was laid.
"What do you think ?" asked Hanaud.
Besnard, the Commissaire of Police, bent over Hanaud's shoulder.
"There are strong resemblances," he said guardedly.
Ricardo was on the look-out for deep mysteries.

Resemblances were not enough for him; they were inadequate to the artistic needs of the situation.
"Both were written by the same hand," he said definitely; "only in the sentence written upon the card the handwriting is carefully disguised." "Ah!" said the Commissaire, bending forward again.

"Here is an idea! Yes, yes, there are strong differences." Ricardo looked triumphant.
"Yes, there are differences," said Hanaud.

"Look how long the up stroke of the 'p' is, how it wavers! See how suddenly this 's' straggles off, as though some emotion made the hand shake.