Can't you see that there's violet upon it, while we always use the black pad!" I took it in my hand, and there, sure enough, I saw traces of violet ink upon itthe ink of the pad for the date-stamp upon the Consul's table.

And they got hold of some young man at the post-office who knew how to fix a date-stamp with a past date.

Things must be very wrong when they could get hold of a date-stamp and use it in that way.