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LI B RARY oft/78
OHIO STATE
UNIVERSITY


THE RED THUMB MARK


BY THE SAME AUTHOR
THE GOLDEN POOL:
A STORY OF A FORGOTTEN MINE.
SOME PRESS OPINIONS
Atkcmm.—“Here are the principal ingredients of a ood
rousing story, and the author handles them very eﬂ'ectivel . 5150,
he knows his West Coast ve well indeed. The reviewer spent
long enough between Sierra cone and Fernando P0 to know that
the local colouring has not been manufactured from works of
reference."
Outloak.—“ Written by a man who knows his subject well, whose
style is vividly communicative, and who is able to realise African
places and people in such a way that the reader cannot fail to
realise them as wel . . . ‘The Golden Pool’ at its best, rises
unusually high, and some of the sketches of native types are done
with a master hand. . . . A really brilliant piece ofwork."
War Oﬁicc Time:.—“An enthralling narrative. . . . There are
one or two excellent character sketches, and the writer has a gift of
realistic narration."
The Dublin Daily Ex)rc:.r.—“The local colour is extraordi-
narily wel] suggested, and the author seems to possess a very
profound knowledge of the people and the vegetation of that part
of Africa in which he has set his story.”
T/u Scotsman says :—“The story is told skilfully in that per-
suasive matter-of-facl manner which—witness Robinson Crusoe and
Lemuel Gulliver—is the best for a yarn of this sort."
The Dundee Courier says 1—“ An entrancing book, in which
the author exhibits his personal knowledge of the country with
ﬁne effect."
Tlu Newcastle C kronz'cle says :——“ Mr. Freeman’s well‘told tale
oes with a ﬁne swing, and never a halt from start to ﬁnish. A
better story of adventure we have not read for some time."


THE
RED THUMB MARK
BY
R. AUSTIN FREEMAN
AUTHOR or “Tu: GOLDEN POOL,” ETC.
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
WARWICK SQUARE, LONDON, EC.
1911


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PREFACE
IN writing the following story, the author has had
in view no purpose other than that of affording
entertainment to such readers as are interested in
problems of crime and their solutions ; and the story
itself differs in no respect from others of its class,
excepting in that an effort has been made to keep
within the probabilities of ordinary life, both in the
characters and in the incidents.
Nevertheless it may happen that the book may
serve a useful purpose in drawing attention to certain
popular misapprehensions on the subject of ﬁnger-
prints and their evidential value ; misapprehensions
the extent of which may be judged when we learn
from the newspapers that several Continental com-
mercial houses have actually substituted ﬁnger-prints
or signed initials.
The facts and ﬁgures contained in Mr. Singleton’s
evidence, including the very liberal estimate of the
population of the globe, are, of course, taken from
Mr. Galton’s great and important work on ﬁnger-
prints ; to which the reader who is interested in the
subject is referred for much curious and valuable
information.


vi PREFACE
In conclusion, the author desires to express his
thanks to his friend Mr. Bernard E. Bishop for the
assistance rendered to him in certain photographic
experiments, and to those oﬂicers of the Central
Criminal Court who very kindly furnished him with
details of the procedure in criminal trials.


CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
MY LEARNED BROTHER
CHAPTER II
THE SUSPECT
CHAPTER III
A LADY IN THE CAsE .
CHAPTER IV
CONFIDENOES
CHAPTER V
THE “ THUMBOGRAPH ” .
CHAPTER VI
COMMITTED FOR TRIAL .
CHAPTER VII
SHOALB AND QUICKSANDS
CHAPTER VIII
A Susmcwus ACCIDENT
PAGE
21
38
52
64
76
84
vii


viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER IX
THE Parsonna
CHAPTER X
POLTON Is Mrs'rrrmn .
CHAPTER XI
THE Amman
CHAPTER XII
Ir Mrou'r HAVE BEEN .
CHAPTER XIII
MURDER BY Pos'r .
CHAPTER XIV
A STARTLING DISCOVERY
CHAPTER XV
THE FINGER-PRINT EXPERTS .
CHAPTER XVI
Tnonnnrxn PLAYS ms CARD
CHAPTER XVII
AT LAST
PAG I1!
93
103
115
134
145
161
174
209
241


CHAPTER I
MY LEARNED BROTHER
“ CONFLAGRATAM An° 1677. Fabricatam An° 1698.
Richardo Powell Armiger Thesaurar.” The words,
set in four panels, which formed a frieze beneath the
pediment of a ﬁne brick portico, summarised the
history of one of the tall houses at the upper end
of King’s Bench Walk and as I, somewhat absently,
read over the inscription, my attention was divided
between admiration of the exquisitely ﬁnished carved
brickwork and the quiet dignity of the building, and an
effort to reconstitute the dead and gone Richard Powell,
and the stirring times in which he played his part.
I was about to turn away when the empty frame
of the portico became occupied by a ﬁgure, and one
so appropriate, in its wig and obsolete habiliments,
to the old-world surroundings that it seemed to
complete the picture, and I lingered idly to look at
it. The barrister had halted in the doorway to turn
over a sheaf of papers that he held in his hand, and,
as he replaced the red tape which bound them
together, he looked up and our eyes met. For a
moment We regarded one another with the incurious
gaze that casual strangers bestow on one another;
then there was a ﬂash of mutual recognition; the
impassive and rather severe face of the lawyer
softened into a genial smile, and the ﬁgure, detaching
itself from its frame, came down the steps with a
hand extended in cordial greeting.
n


2 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ My dear Jervis,” he exclaimed, as we clasped
hands warmly, “ this is a great and delightful
surprise. How often have I thought of my old
comrade and wondered if I should ever see him again,
and lo ! here he is, thrown up on the sounding beach
of the Inner Temple, like the proverbial bread cast
upon the waters.”
“ Your surprise, Thorndyke, is nothing to mine,”
I replied, “for yOur bread has at least returned as
bread; whereas I am in the position of a man who,
having cast his bread upon the waters, sees it return
in the form of a buttered mufﬁn or a Bath bun.
I left a respectable medical practitioner and I ﬁnd
him transformed into a bewigged and begowned limb
of the law.”
Thorndyke laughed at the comparison.
“ Liken not your old friend unto a Bath bun,”
said he. “ Say, rather, that you left him a chrysalis
and come back to ﬁnd him‘a butterﬂy. But the
change is not so great as you think. Hippocrates
is only hiding under the gown of Solon, as you will
understand when I explain my metamorphosis; and
that I will do this very evening, if you have no
engagement.”
“ I am one of the unemployed at present,” I said,
“ and quite at your service.”
“ Then come round to my chambers at seven,”
said Thorndyke, “ and we will have a chop and a
pint of claret together and exchange autobiographies.
I am due in court in a few minutes.”
“ Do you reside within that noble old portico ‘? ”
I asked.
“ No,” replied Thorndyke. “ I often wish I did.
It would add several inches to one’s stature to feel
that the mouth of one’s burrow was graced with a


MY LEARNED BROTHER 3
Latin inscription for admiring strangers to ponder
over. No; my chambers are some doors further
down—number 6A ”--and he turned to point out
the house as we crossed towards Crown Ofﬁce Row.
At the‘ top of Middle Temple Lane we parted,
Thorndyke taking his way with ﬂuttering gown
towards the Law Courts, while I directed my steps
westward towards Adam Street, the chosen haunt
of the medical agent.
The soft-voiced bell of the Temple clock was telling
out the hour of seven in mufﬂed accents (as though it
apologised for breaking the studious silence) as I
emerged from the archway of Mitre Court and turned
into King’s Bench Walk.
The paved footway was empty save for a single
ﬁgure, pacing slowly before the doorway of number
6A, in which, though the wig had now given place
to a felt hat and the gown to a jacket, I had no
diﬂiculty in recognising my friend.
“ Punctual to the moment, as of old,” said he,
'meeting me half-way. “ What a blessed virtue is
punctuality, even in small things. I have just been
taking the air in Fountain Court, and will now in-
troduce you to my chambers. Here is my humble
retreat.”
We passed in through the common entrance and
ascended the stone stairs to the ﬁrst ﬂoor, where we
were confronted by a massive door, above which my
friend’s name was written in white letters.
“ Rather a forbidding exterior,” remarked Thorn-
dyke, as he inserted the latchkey, “ but it is homely
enough inside.”
The heavy door swung outwards and disclosed a.
baize-covered inner door, which Thorndyke pushed
open and held for me to pass in.
B 2


4 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ You will ﬁnd my chambers an odd mixture,”
said Thorndyke, “for they combine the attractions
of an ofﬁce, a museum, a laboratory and a workshop.”
“ And a restaurant,” added a small, elderly man,
who was decanting a bottle of claret by means of
a glass syphon : “ you forgot that, sir.”
“ Yes, I forgot that, Polton,” said Thorndyke,
“ but I see you have not.” He glanced towards a
small table that had been placed near the ﬁre and
set out with the requisites for our meal.
“ Tell me,” said Thorndyke, as we made the initial
onslaught on the products of Polton’s culinary ex-
periments, “ what has been happening to you since
you left the hospital six years ago ? ”
“ My story is soon told,” I answered, somewhat
bitterly. “ It is not an uncommon one. My funds
ran out, as you know, rather unexpectedly. When I
had paid my examination and registration fees the
coffer was absolutely empty, and though, no doubt,
a medical diploma contains—to use Johnson’s phrase
—the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of
avarice, there is a vast difference in practice between
the potential and the actual. I have, in fact, been
earning a subsistence, sometimes as an assistant,
sometimes as a locum tenens. Just now I’ve got no
work to do, and so have entered my name on Turcival’s
list of eligibles.”
Thorndyke pursed up his lips and frowned.
“ It’s a wicked shame, Jervis,” said he presently,
“ that a man of your abilities and scientiﬁc acquire-
ments should be frittering away his time on odd jobs
like some half-qualiﬁed wastrel.”
“ It is,” I agreed. “ My merits are grossly under-
valued by a stiff-necked and obtuse generation.
But what would you have, my learned brother ?
0


MY LEARNED BROTHER 5
If poverty steps behind you and claps the occulting
bushel over your thirty thousand candle-power lumin-
ary, your brilliancy is apt to be obscured.”
“ Yes, I suppose that is so,” grunted Thorndyke,
and he remained for a time in deep thought.
“ And now,” said I, “let us have your promised
explanation. I am positively frizzling with curiosity
to know what chain of circumstances has converted
John Evelyn Thorndyke from a medical practitioner
into a luminary of the law.”
Thorndyke smiled indulgently.
“ The fact is,” said he, “ that no such transforma-
tion has occurred. John Evelyn Thorndyke is still
a medical practitioner.”
“ What, in a wig and gown ! ” I exclaimed.
“ Yes, a mere sheep in wolf’s clothing,” he replied.
“ I will tell you how it has come about. After you
left the hospital, six years ago, I stayed on, taking up
any small appointments that were going—assistant
demonstrator—or curatorships and such like—hung
about the chemical and physical laboratories, the
museum and post mortem room, and meanwhile took
my M.D. and D.Sc. Then I got called to the bar in
the hope of getting a coronership, but soon after this,
old Stedman retired unexpectedly—you remember
Stedman, the lecturer on medical jurisprudence—
and I put in for the vacant post. Rather to my
surprise, I was appointed lecturer, whereupon I
dismissed the coronership from my mind, took my
present chambers and sat down to wait for anything
that might come.”
“ And what has come ‘? ” I asked.
“ Why, a very curious assortment of miscellaneous
practice,” he replied. “ At ﬁrst I only got an oc-
casional analysis in a doubtful poisoning case, but,


MY LEARNED BROTHER 7
entered. They were both men—one middle-aged,
rather foxy in appearance and of a typically legal
aspect, and the other a ﬁne, handsome young fellow
of very prepossessing exterior, though at present
rather pale and wild-looking, and evidently in a
state of profound agitation.
“ I am afraid,” said the latter, with a glance at
me and the dinner table, “ that our visit—for which
I am alone responsible—is a most unseasonable one.
If we are really inconveniencing you, Dr. Thorndyke,
pray tell us, and my business must wait.”
Thorndyke had cast a keen and curious glance at
the young man, and he now replied in a much more
genial tone—
“ I take it that your business is of a kind that will
not wait, and as to inconveniencing us, why, my friend
and I are both doctors, and, as you are aware, no
doctor expects to call any part of the twenty-four
hours his own unreservedly.”
I had risen on the entrance of the two strangers,
and now proposed to take a walk on the Embankment
and return later, but the young man interrupted me.
“ Pray don’t go away on my account,” he said.
“ The facts that I am about to lay before Dr. Thorn-
dyke will be known to all the world by this time
to-morrow, so there is no occasion for any show of
secrecy.”
“ In that case,” said Thorndyke, “ let us draw our
chairs up to the ﬁre and'fall to business forthwith.
We had just ﬁnished our dinner and were waiting
for the coffee, which I hear my man bringing down
at this moment.”
We accordingly drew up our chairs, and when
Polton had set the coffee on the table and retired,
the lawyer plunged into the matter Without preamble.


8 THE RED THUMB MARK
CHAPTER II
THE SUSPECT
“ I HAD better,” said he, “ give you a general
outline of the case as it presents itself to the legal
mind, and then my client, Mr. Reuben Hornby, can
ﬁll in the details if necessary, and answer any questions
that you may wish to put to him.
“ Mr. Reuben occupies a position of trust in the
business of his uncle, John Hornby, who is a gold and
silver reﬁner and dealer in precious metals generally.
There is a certain amount of outside assay work
carried on in the establishment, but the main business
consists in the testing and reﬁning of samples of gold
sent from certain mines in South Africa.
“ About ﬁve years ago Mr. Reuben and his cousin
Walter—another nephew of John Hornby—left
school, and both were articled to their uncle, with the
view to their ultimately becoming partners in the
house; and they have remained with him ever since,
occupying, as I have said, positions of considerable
responsibility.
“ And now for a few words as to how business
is conducted in Mr. Hornby’s establishment. The
samples of gold are handed over at the docks to some
accredited representative of the ﬁrm—generally either
Mr. Reuben or Mr. Walter—who has been despatched
to meet the ship, and conveyed either to the bank
or to the works according to circumstances. Of
course every effort is made to have as little gold
as possible on the premises, and the bars are always
removed to the bank at the earliest opportunity; but
it happens unavoidably that samples of considerable


THE SUSPECT 9
value have often to remain on the premises all night,
and so the works are furnished with a large and power-
ful safe or strong room for their reception. This safe
is situated in the private ofﬁce under the eye of the
principal, and, as an additional precaution, the care-
taker, who acts as night-watchman, occupies a room
directly over the ofﬁce, and patrols the building
periodically through the night.
“ Now a very strange thing has occurred with regard
to this safe. It happens that one of Mr. Hornby’s
customers in South Africa is interested in a diamond
mine, and, although transactions in precious stones
form no part of the business of the house, he has,
from time to time, sent parcels of rough diamonds
addressed to Mr. Hornby, to be either deposited in
the bank or handed on to the diamond brokers.
“ A fortnight ago Mr. Hornby was advised that a
parcel of stones had been despatched by the Elmina
Castle, and it appeared that the parcel was an un-
usually large one and contained stones of exceptional
size and value. Under these circumstances Mr.
Reuben was sent down to the docks at an early hour
in the hope the ship might arrive in time for the
stones to be lodged in the bank at once. Unfortun-
ately, however, this was not the case, and the diamonds
had to be taken to the works and locked up in the
safe.”
“ Who placed them in the safe ? ” asked Thorndyke.
“ Mr. Hornby himself, to whom Mr. Reuben
delivered up the package on his return from the
docks.”
“ Yes,” said Thorndyke, “ and what happened
next ‘? ”
“ Well, on the following morning, when the safe
was opened, the diamonds had disappeared.”


10 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ Had the place been broken into ? ” asked Thorn-
dyke.
“ No. The place was all looked up as usual, and
the caretaker, who had made his accustomed rounds,
had heard nothing, and the safe was, outwardly,
quite undisturbed. It had evidently been opened
with keys and locked again after the stones were
removed.”
“ And in whose custody were the keys of the
safe ? ” inquired Thorndyke.
“ Mr. Hornby usually kept the keys himself, but,
on occasions, when he was absent from the ofﬁce,
he handed them over to one of his nephews—which-
ever happened to be in charge at the time. But on
this occasion the keys did not go out of his custody
from the time when he locked up the safe, after
depositing the diamonds in it, to the time when it
was opened by him on the following morning.”
“ And was there anything that tended to throw
suspicion upon anyone ? ” asked Thorndyke.
“Why, yes,” said Mr. Lawley, with an uncom-
fortable glance at his client, “ unfortunately there
was. It seemed that the person who abstracted the
diamonds must have cut or scratched his thumb or
ﬁnger in some way, for there were two drops of
blood on the bottom of the safe and one or two
bloody smears on a piece of paper, and, in addition,
a remarkably clear imprint of a thumb.”
“ Also in blood ? ” asked Thorndyke.
“ Yes. The thumb had apparently been put
down on one of the drops and then, while still wet
with blood, had been pressed on the paper in taking
hold of it or otherwise.”
“ Well, and what next ? ”
“ Well,” said the lawyer, ﬁdgeting in his chair, “ to


THE SUSPECT 11
make a long story short, the thumb-print has been
identiﬁed as that of Mr. Reuben Hornby.”
“ Ha! ” exclaimed Thorndyke. “ The plot thickens
with a vengeance. I had better jot down a few notes
before you proceed any further.”
He took from a drawer a small paper-covered
notebook, on the cover of which he wrote “ Reuben
Hornby,” and then, laying the book open on a
blotting-pad, which he rested on his knee, he made
a few brief notes.
“ Now,” he said, when he had ﬁnished, “ with
reference to this thumb-print. There is no doubt,
I suppose, as to the identiﬁcation ‘1’”
“ None whatever,” replied Mr. Lawley. “ The
Scotland Yard people, of course, took possession of
the paper, which was handed to the director of the
ﬁnger-print department for examination and com-
parison with those in their collection. The report
of the experts is that the thumb-print does not agree
with any of the thumb-prints of criminals in their
possession; that it is a very peculiar one, inasmuch
as the ridge-pattern on the bulb of the thumb—which
is a remarkably distinct and characteristic one—is
crossed by the scar of a deep cut, rendering identiﬁ-
cation easy and infallible; that it agrees in every
respect with the thumb-print of Mr. Reuben Hornby,
and is, in fact, his thumb-print beyond any possible
doubt.”
“ Is there any possibility,” asked Thorndyke,
“ that the paper bearing the thumb-print could have
been introduced by any person ? ”
“ No,” answered the lawyer. “ It is quite im-
possible. The paper on which the mark was found
was a leaf from Mr. Hornby’s memorandum block.
He had pencilled on it some particulars relating to


12 THE RED THUMB MARK
the diamonds, and laid it on the parcel before he
closed up the safe.”
“Was anyone present when Mr. Hornby opened
the safe in the morning ? ” asked Thorndyke.
“ No, he was alone,” answered the lawyer. “ He
saw at a glance that the diamonds were missing, and
then he observed the paper with the thumb-mark
on it, on which he closed and locked the safe and sent
for the police.”
“ Is it not rather odd that the thief did not notice
the thumb-mark, since it was so distinct and
conspicuous ? ”
“ No, I think not,” answered Mr. Lawley. “ The
paper was lying face downwards on the bottom of
the safe, and it was only when he picked it up and
turned it over that Mr. Hornby discovered the
thumb-print. Apparently the thief had taken hold
of the parcel, with the paper on it, and the paper
had afterwards dropped off and fallen with the marked
surface downwards—probably when the parcel was
transferred to the other hand.”
“ You mentioned,” said Thorndyke, “ that the
experts at Scotland Yard have identiﬁed this thumb-
mark as that of Mr. Reuben Hornby. May I ask how
they came to have the opportunity of making the
comparison ? ”
“ Ah ! ” said Mr. Lawley. “ Thereby hangs a very
curious tale of coincidences. The police, of course,
when they found that there was so simple a means
of identiﬁcation as a thumb-mark, wished to take
thumb-prints of all the employees in the works;
but this Mr. Hornby refused to sanction—rather
quixotically, as it seems to me—saying that he would
not allow his nephews to be subjected to such an
indignity. Now it was, naturally, these nephews in


THE SUSPECT 13
whom the police were chieﬂy interested, seeing that
they alone had had the handling of the keys, and
considerable pressure was brought to bear upon
Mr. Hornby to have the thumb-prints taken.
“ However, he was obdurate, scouting the idea of
any suspicion attaching to either of the gentlemen
in whom he had reposed such complete conﬁdence
and whom he had known all their lives, and so the
matter would probably have remained a mystery
but for a very odd circumstance.
“ You may have seen on the bookstalls and in
shop windows an appliance called a ‘ Thumbograph,’
or some such name, consisting of a small book of
blank paper for collecting the thumb-prints of one’s
friends, together with an inking pad.”
“ I have seen those devices of the Evil One,” said
Thorndyke, “ in fact, I have one, which I bought at
Charing Cross Station.”
“ Well, it seems that some months ago Mrs. Hornby,
the wife of John Hornby, purchased one of these
toys ”
“ As a matter of fact,” interrupted Reuben, “it
was my cousin Walter who bought the thing and gave
it to her.”
“Well, that is not material,” said Mr. Lawley
(though I observed that Thorndyke made a note of
the fact in his book); “at any rate, Mrs. Hornby
became possessed of one of these appliances and
proceeded to ﬁll it with the thumb-prints of her
friends, including her two nephews. Now it happened
that the detective in charge of this case called yester-
day at Mr. Hornby’s house when the latter was absent
from home, and took the opportunity of urging her
to induce her husband to consent to have the thumb-
prints of her nephews taken for the inspection of the


14 THE RED THUMB MARK
experts at Scotland Yard. He pointed out that
the procedure was really necessary, not only in the
interests of justice but in the interests of the young
men themselves, who were regarded with consider-
able suspicion by the police, which suspicion would
be completely removed if it could be shown by
actual comparison that the thumb-print could not
have been made by either of them. Moreover, it
seemed that both the young men had expressed
their willingness to have the test applied, but had
been forbidden by their uncle. Then Mrs. Hornby
had a brilliant idea. She suddenly remembered the
‘ Thumbograph,’ and thinking to set the question
at rest once for all, fetched the little book and
showed it to the detective. It contained the prints
of both thumbs of Mr. Reuben (among others), and,
as the detective had with him a photograph of
the incriminating mark, the comparison was made
then and there; and you may imagine Mrs. Hornby’s
horror and amazement when it was made clear that
the print of her nephew Reuben’s left thumb corre-
sponded in every particular with the thumb-print
that was found in the safe.
“ At this juncture Mr. Hornby arrived on the scene
and was, of course, overwhelmed with consternation
at the turn events had taken. He would have liked
to let the matter drop and make good the loss of
the diamonds out of his own funds, but, as that
would have amounted practically to compounding
a felony, he had no choice but to prosecute. As a
result, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Mr.
Reuben, and was executed this morning, and my
client was taken forthwith to Bow Street and charged
with the robbery.”
“ Was any evidence taken ? ” asked Thorndyke.


THE SUSPECT 15
“ No. Only evidence of arrest. The prisoner is
remanded for a week, bail having been accepted in
two sureties of ﬁve hundred pounds each.”
Thorndyke was silent for a space after the con-
clusion of the narrative. Like me, he was evidently
not agreeably impressed by the lawyer’s manner,
which seemed to take his client’s guilt for granted,
a position indeed not entirely without excuse having
regard to the circumstances of the case.
“What have you advised your client to do?”
Thorndyke asked presently.
“ I have recommended him to plead guilty and
throw himself on the clemency of the court as a ﬁrst
offender. You must see for yourself that there is,
no defence possible.”
The young man ﬂushed crimson, but made no
remark.
“ But let us be clear how we stand,” said Thorn-
dyke. “ Are we defending an innocent man or are
we endeavouring to obtain a light sentence for a
man who admits that he is guilty ? ”
Mr. Lawley shrugged his shoulders.
“ That question can be best answered by our client
himself,” said he.
Thorndyke directed an inquiring glance at Reuben
Hornby, remarking—
“ You are not called upon to incriminate yourself
in any way, Mr. Hornby, but I must know what
position you intend to adopt.”
Here I again proposed to withdraw, but Reuben
interrupted me.
“ There is no need for you to go away, Dr. Jervis,”
he said. “ My position is that I did not commit this
robbery and that I know nothing whatever about it
or about the thumb-print that was found in the safe.
1 <1
V,“
,3“; “ .' .


16 THE RED THUMB MARK
I do not, of course, expect you to believe me in the
face of the overwhelming evidence against me, but
I do, nevertheless, declare in the most solemn manner
before God, that I am absolutely innocent of this
crime and have no knowledge of it whatever.”
“ Then I take it that you did not plead ‘ guilty ’ ‘3 ”
said Thorndyke.
“ Certainly not; and I never will,” replied Reuben
hotly.
“ You would not be the ﬁrst innocent man, by
very many, who has entered that plea,” remarked
Mr. Lawley. “ It is often the best policy, when the
defence is hopelessly weak.”
“ It is a policy that will not be adopted by me,”
rejoined Reuben. “ I may be, and probably shall
be, convicted and sentenced, but I shall continue
to maintain my innocence, whatever happens. Do
you think,” he added, turning to Thorndyke, “ that
you can undertake my defence on that assumption ? ”
“ It is the only assumption on which I should
agree to undertake the case,” replied Thorndyke.
“ And—if I may ask the question—” pursued
Reuben anxiously, “ do, you ﬁnd it possible to
conceive that I may really be innocent ? ”
“ Certainly I do,” Thorndyke replied, on which I
observed Mr. Lawley’s eyebrows rise perceptibly.
“ I am a man of facts, not an advocate, and if I
found it impossible to entertain the hypothesis of
your innocence, I should not be willing to expend
time and energy in searching for evidence to prove
it. Nevertheless,” he continued, seeing the light of
hope break out on the face of the unfortunate young
man, “ I must impress upon you that the case presents
enormous difﬁculties and that we must be prepared to
ﬁnd them insuperable in spite of all our efforts.”


THE SUSPECT 17
“ I expect nothing but a conviction,” replied
Reuben in a calm and resolute voice, “ and can face
it like a man if only you do not take my guilt for
granted, but give me a chance, no matter how small,
of making a defence.”
“ Everything shall be done that I am capable of
doing,” said Thorndyke; “ that I can promise you.
The long odds against us are themselves a spur to
endeavour, as far as I am concerned. And now, let
me ask you, have you any cuts or scratches on your
ﬁngers ? ”
Reuben Hornby held out both his hands for my
colleague’s inspection, and I noticed that they were
powerful and shapely, like the hands of a skilled
craftsman, though faultlessly kept. Thorndyke set
on the table a large condenser such as is used for
microscopic work, and taking his client’s hand,
brought the bright spot of light to bear on each
ﬁnger in succession, examining their tips and the
parts around the nails with the aid of a pocket lens.
“ A ﬁne, capable hand, this,” said he, regarding
the member approvingly, as he ﬁnished his examina-
tion, “ but I don’t perceive any trace of a scar on
either the right or left. Will you go over them,
Jervis ? The robbery took place a fortnight ago, so
there has been time for a small cut or scratch to heal
and disappear entirely. Still, the matter is worth
noting.” "
He handed me the lens and I scrutinised every part
of each hand without being able to detect the faintest
trace of any recent wound.
“ There is one other matter that must be attended
to before you go,” said Thorndyke, pressing the
electric bell-push by his chair. “ I will take one or
two prints of the left thumb for my own information.”
C


18 THE RED THUMB MARK
In response to the summons, Polton made his
appearance from some lair unknown to me, but
presumably the laboratory, and, having received his
instructions, retired, and presently returned carrying
a box, which he laid on the table. From this re-
ceptacle Thorndyke drew forth a bright copper plate
mounted on a slab of hard wood, a small printer’s
roller, a tube of ﬁnger-print ink, and a number of
cards with very white and rather glazed surfaces.
“ Now, Mr. Hornby,” said he, “ your hands, I see,
are beyond criticism as to cleanliness, but we will,
nevertheless, give the thumb a ﬁnal polish.”
Accordingly he proceeded to brush the bulb of
the thumb with a well-soaked badger-hair nail-brush,
and, having rinsed it in water, dried it with a silk
handkerchief, and gave it a ﬁnal rub on a piece of
chamois leather. The thumb having been thus pre-
pared, he squeezedout a drop of the thick ink on
to the copper plate and spread it out with the roller,
testing the condition of the ﬁlm from time to time
by touching the plate with the tip of his ﬁnger and
taking an impression on one of the cards.
When the ink had been rolled out to the requisite
thinness, he took Reuben’s hand and pressed the
thumb lightly but ﬁrmly on to the inked plate;
then, transferring the thumb to one of the cards,
which he directed me to hold steady on the table,
he repeated the pressure, when there was left on the
card a beautifully sharp and clear impression of the
bulb of the thumb, the tiny papillary ridges being
shown with microscopic distinctness, and even the
mouths of the sweat glands, which appeared as rows
of little white dots on the black lines of the ridges.
This manoeuvre was repeated a dozen times on two
of the cards, each of which thus received six impres-


20 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ Not at all,” said Reuben, who was, I perceived,
in no way deceived by the lawyer’s pretence. “ Don’t
hurry on my account; my time is my own—at pre-
sent.” He held out his hand to Thorndyke, who
grasped it cordially.
“ Good-bye, Mr. Hornby,” said the latter. “ Do
not be unreasonably sanguine, but at the same time,
do not lose heart. Keep your wits about you and
let me know at once if anything occurs to you that
may have a bearing on the case.”
The young man then took his leave, and, as the
door closed after him, Mr. Lawley turned towards
Thorndyke.
“ I thought I had better have a word with you
alone,” he said, “ just to hear what line you propose
to take up, for I confess that your attitude has puzzled
me completely.”
“ What line would you propose?” asked Thorndyke.
“ Well,” said the lawyer, with a shrug of his
shoulders, “ the position seems to be this : our young
friend has stolen a parcel of diamonds and has been
found out; at least, that is how the matter presents
itself to me.”
“ That is not how it presents itself to me,” said
Thorndyke drily. “ He may have taken the diamonds
or he may not. I have no means of judging until I
have sifted the evidence and acquired a few more
facts. This I hope to do in the course of the next
day or two, and I suggest that we postpone the con-
sideration of our plan of campaign until I have seen
what line of defence it is possible to adopt.”
“ As you will,” replied the lawyer, taking up his
hat, “ but I am afraid you are encouraging the young
rogue to entertain hopes that will only make his fall
the harder—to say nothing of our own position.


A LADY IN THE CASE 21
We don’t want to make ourselves ridiculous in court,
you know.”
“ I don’t, certainly,’ agreed Thorndyke. “ How-
ever, I will look into the matter and communicate
with you in the course of a day or two.”
He stood holding the door open as the lawyer
descended the stairs, and when the footsteps at length
died away, he closed it sharply and turned to me with
an air of annoyance.
“ The ‘ young rogue,’ ” he remarked, “ does not
appear to me to have been very happy in his choice
of a solicitor. By the way, Jervis, I understandyou
are out of employment just now ? ”
“ That is so,” I answered.
“ Would you care to help me—as a matter of
business, of course—to work up this case? I have
a lot of other work on hand and your assistance
would be of great value to me.”
I said, with great truth, that I should be delighted.
“ Then,” said Thorndyke, “ come round to break-
fast to-morrow and we will settle the terms, and you
can commence your duties at once. And now let
us light our pipes and ﬁnish our yarns as though
agitated clients and thick-headed solicitors had no
existence.”
’
CHAPTER III
A LADY IN THE CASE
WHEN I arrived at Thorndyke’s chambers on the
following morning, I found my friend already hard
at work. Breakfast was laid at one end of the
table, while at the other stood a microscope of the


22 THE RED THUMB MARK
pattern used for examining plate-cultures of micro-
organisms, on the wide stage of which was one of
the cards bearing six thumb-prints in blood. A
condenser threw a bright spot of light on the card,
which Thorndyke had been examining when I
knocked, as I gathered from the position of the
chair, which he now pushed back against the wall.
“ I see you have commenced work on our problem,”
I remarked as, in response to a double ring of the
electric bell, Polton entered with the materials for
I our repast.
“ Yes,” answered Thorndyke. “ I have opened
the campaign, supported, as usual, by my trusty
chief-of-staff; eh! Polton ? ”
The little man, whose intellectual, reﬁned coun-
tenance and digniﬁed bearing seemed oddly out of
character with the tea-tray that he carried, smiled
proudly, and, with a glance of affectionate admiration
at my friend, replied—
“ Yes, sir. We haven’t been letting the grass grow
under our feet. There’s a beautiful negative washing
upstairs and a bromide enlargement too, which will
be mounted and dried by the time you have ﬁnished
your breakfast.”
“ A wonderful man that, Jervis,” my friend
observed as his assistant retired. “ Looks like a
rural dean or a chancery judge, and was obviously
intended by Nature to be a professor of physics. As
an actual fact he was ﬁrst a watchmaker, then a
maker of optical instruments, and now he is mechani-
cal factotum to a_medical jurist. He is my right-
hand, is Polton; takes an idea before you have
time to utter it—but you will make his more intimate
acquaintance by-and-by.”
“ Where did you pick him up ? ” I asked.


A LADY IN THE CASE 23
“ He was an in-patient at the hospital when I
ﬁrst met him, miserably ill and broken, a victim of
poverty and undeserved misfortune. I gave him
one or two little jobs, and when I found what class
of man he was I took him permanently into my
service. He is perfectly devoted to me, and his
gratitude is as boundless as it is uncalled for.”
“ What are the photographs he was referring to ‘? ”
I asked.
“ He is making an enlarged facsimile of one of the
thumb-prints on bromide paper and a negative of
the same size in case we want the print repeated.”
“ You evidently have some expectation of being
able to help poor Hornby,” said I, “ though I cannot
imagine how you propose to go to work. To me his
case seems as hopeless a one as it is possible to con-
ceive. One doesn’t like to condemn him, but yet his
innocence seems almost unthinkable.”
“ It does certainly look like a hopeless case,”
Thorndyke agreed, “ and I see no way out of it at
present. But I make it a rule, in all cases, to proceed
on the strictly classical lines of inductive inquiry—
collect facts, make hypotheses, test them and seek
for veriﬁcation. And I always endeavour to keep
a perfectly open mind.
“ Now, in the present case, assuming, as we must,
that the robbery has actually taken place, there are
four conceivable hypotheses: (1) that the robbery
was committed by Reuben Hornby; (2) that it was
committed by Walter Hornby ; (3) that it was
committed by John Hornby, or (4) that it was com-
mitted by some other person or persons.
“ The last hypothesis I propose to disregard for
the present and conﬁne myself to the examination of
the other three.”


24 THE RED THUMB MARK
“You don’t think it possible that Mr. Hornby
could have stolen the diamonds out of his own safe ? ”
I exclaimed.
“ I incline at present to no one theory of the
matter,” replied Thorndyke. “ I merely state the
hypotheses. John Hornby had access to the dia-
monds, therefore it is possible that he stole them.”
“ But surely he was responsible to the owners.”
“ Not in the absence of gross negligence, which the
owners would have diﬂiculty in proving. You see,
he was what is called a gratuitous bailee, and in such
a case no responsibility for loss lies with the bailee
unless there has been gross negligence.”
“ But the thumb-mark, my dear fellow ! ” I
exclaimed. “ How can you possibly get over that ? ”
“ I don’t know that I can,” answered Thorndyke
calmly; “ but I see you are taking the same view
as the police, who persist in regarding a ﬁnger-print
as a kind of magical touchstone, a ﬁnal proof, beyond
which inquiry need not go. Now, this is an entire
mistake. A ﬁnger-print is merely a fact—a very
important and signiﬁcant one, I admit—but still a
fact, which, like any other fact, requires to be weighed
and measured with reference to its evidential value.”
“ And what do you propose to do ﬁrst ? ”
“ I shall ﬁrst satisfy myself that the suspected
thumb-print is identical in character with that of
Reuben Hornby—of which, however, I have very
little doubt, for the ﬁnger-print experts may fairly
be trusted in their own speciality.”
“ And then ‘2 ”
“ I shall collect fresh facts, in which I look to you
for assistance, and, if we have ﬁnished breakfast, I
may as well induct you into your new duties.”
He rose and rang the bell, and then, fetching from


A LADY IN THE CASE 25
the ofﬁce four small, paper-covered notebooks, laid
them before me on the table.
“ One of these books,” said he, “ we will devote
to data concerning Reuben Hornby. You will ﬁnd
out anything you can—anything, mind, no matter
how trivial or apparently irrelevant—in any way
connected with him and enter it in this book.” He
wrote on the cover “ Reuben Hornby ” and passed
the book to me. “ In this second book you will,
in like manner, enter anything that you can learn
about Walter Hornby, and, in the third book, data
concerning John Hornby. As to the fourth book,
you will keep that for stray facts connected with
the case but not coming under either of the other
headings. And now let us look at the product of
Polton’s industry.”
He took from his assistant’s hand a photograph
ten inches long by eight broad, done on glazed
bromide paper and mounted ﬂatly on stiff card. It
showed a greatly magniﬁed facsimile of one of the
thumb-prints, in which all the minute details, such
as the oriﬁces of the sweat glands and triﬂing irregu-
larities in the ridges, which, in the original, could be
seen only with the aid of a lens, were plainly visible
to the naked eye. Moreover, the entire print was
covered by a network of ﬁne black lines, by which
it was divided into a multitude of small squares,
each square being distinguished by a number.
“ Excellent, Polton,” said Thorndyke approvingly;
‘ a most admirable enlargement. You see, Jervis,
we have photographed the thumb-print in contact
with a numbered micrometer divided into square
twelfths of an inch. The magniﬁcation is eight
diameters, so that the squares are here each two-
thirds of an inch in diameter. I have a number of
£


26 THE RED THUMB MARK
these micrometers of different scales, and I ﬁnd them
invaluable in examining cheques, doubtful signatures
and such like. I see you have packed up the camera
and the microscope, Polton; have you put in the
micrometer ‘3 ”
“ Yes, sir,” replied Polton, “and the six-inch
objective and the low-power eye-piece. Everything
is in the case; and I have put ‘ special rapid ’ plates
into the dark-slides in case the light should be bad.”
“ Then we will go forth and heard the Scotland
Yard lions in their den,” said Thorndyke, putting
on his hat and gloves.
“ But surely,” said I, “ you are not going to drag
that great microscope to Scotland Yard, when you
only want eight diameters. Haven’t you a dissecting
microscope or some other portable instrument ? ”
“ We have a most delightful instrument of the
dissecting type, of Polton’s own make—he shall
show it to you. But I may have need of a more
powerful instrument—and here let me give you a
word of warning: whatever you may see me do,
make no comments before the ofﬁcials. We are
seeking information, not giving it, you understand.”
At this moment the' little brass knocker on the inner
door—the outer oak being open—uttered a timid
and apologetic rat-tat.
“ Who the deuce can that be ? ” muttered Thorn-
dyke, replacing the microscope on the table. He
strode across to the door and opened it somewhat
brusquely, but immediately whisked his hat off, and
I then perceived a lady standing on the threshold.
“ Dr. Thorndyke ? ” she inquired, and as my
colleague bowed, she continued, “ I ought to have
written to ask for an appointment but the matter
is rather urgent—it concerns Mr. Reuben Hornby—-


A LADY IN THE CASE 27
and I only learned from him this morning that he
had consulted you.”
“ Pray come in,” said Thorndyke. “ Dr. Jervis
and I were just setting out for Scotland Yard on this
very business. Let me present you to my colleague,
who is working up the case with me.”
Our visitor, a tall handsome girl of twenty or
thereabouts, returned my bow and remarked with
perfect self-possession, “My name is Gibson—Miss
Juliet Gibson. My business is of a very simple
character and need not detain you many minutes.”
She seated herself in the chair that Thorndyke
placed for her, and continued in a brisk and business-
like manner—
“ I must tell you who I am in order to explain my
visit to you. For the last six years I have lived with
Mr. and Mrs. Hornby, although I am no relation to
them. I ﬁrst came to the house as a sort of com-
panion to Mrs. Hornby, though, as I was only ﬁfteen
at the time, I need hardly say that my duties were
not very onerous; in fact, I think Mrs. Hornby took
me because I was an orphan without the proper
means of getting a livelihood, and she had no children
of her own.
“ Three years ago I came into a little fortune
which rendered me independent; but I had been so
happy with my kind friends that I asked to be allowed
to remain with them, and there I have been ever since
in the position of an adopted daughter. Naturally,
I have seen a great deal of their nephews, who spend
' a good part of their time at the house, and I need not
tell you that the horrible charge against Reuben has
fallen upon us like a thunderbolt. Now, what I
have come to say to you is this: I do not believe
that Reuben stole those diamonds. It is entirely


A LADY IN THE CASE 29
said Miss Gibson, laughing and ﬂushing a little.
“ No, there have been no tender passages between
Reuben and me. We are merely old and intimate
friends; in fact, there is what I may call a tendency
in another direction—Walter Hornby.”
“ Do you mean that you are engaged to Mr.
Walter ? ”
“Oh, no,” she replied; “but he has asked me
to marry him—he has asked me, in fact, more than
once; and I really believe that he has a sincere
attachment to me.”
She made this latter statement with an odd air,
as though the thing asserted were curious and rather
incredible, and the tone was evidently noticed by
Thorndyke as well as me for he rejoined—
“ Of course he has. thy not ‘? ”
“Well, you see,” replied Miss Gibson, “ I have
some six hundred a year of my own and should not
be considered a bad match for a young man like
Walter, who has neither property nor expectations,
and one naturally takes that into account. But
still, as I have said, I believe he is quite sincere in his
professions and not merely attracted by my money.”
“ I do not ﬁnd your opinion at all incredible,” said
Thorndyke, with a smile, “ even if Mr. Walter were
quite a mercenary young man—which, I take it,
he is not.”
Miss Gibson ﬂushed very prettily as she replied-—
“ Oh, pray do not trouble to pay me compliments;
I assure you I am by no means insensible of my
merits. But with regard to Walter Hornby, I should
be sorry to apply the term ‘ mercenary ’ to him, and
yet—well, I have never met a young man who showed
a stronger appreciation of the value offmoney. He
means to succeed in life and I have no doubt he will.”


30 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ And do I understand that you refused him ? ”
“ Yes. My feelings towards him are quite friendly,
but not of such a nature as to allow me to contemplate
marrying him.”
“ And now, to return for a moment to Mr. Reuben.
You have known him for some years ? ”
“ I have known him intimately for six years,”
replied Miss Gibson.
“ And what sort of character do you give him ? ”
“ Speaking from my own observation of him,”
she replied, “ I can say that I have never known him
to tell an untruth or do a dishonourable deed. As
to theft, it is merely ridiculous. His habits have
always been inexpensive and frugal, he is unambiti-
ous to a fault, and in respect to the ‘ main chance ’
his indifference is as conspicuous as Walter’s keen-
ness. He is a generous man, too, although careful
and industrious.”
“ Thank you, Miss Gibson,” said Thorndyke.
“ We shall apply to you for further information as
the case progresses. I am sure that you will help
us if you can, and that you can help us if you will,
with your clear head and your admirable frankness.
If you will leave us your card, Dr. Jervis and I will
keep you informed of our prospects and ask for your
assistance whenever we need it.”
After our fair visitor had departed, Thorndyke stood
for a minute or more gazing dreamily into the ﬁre.
Then, with a quick glance at his watch, he resumed
his hat and, catching up the microscope, handed the
camera case to me and made for the door.
“ How the time goes ! ” he exclaimed, as we
descended the stairs; “ but it hasn’t been wasted,
Jervis, hey ‘Z ”
“ No, I suppose not,” I answered tentatively.


A LADY IN THE CASE 31
“ You suppose not!” he replied. “ Why here is
as pretty a little problem as you could desire—what
would be called in the jargon of the novels, a psycho-
logical problem—and it is your business to work it
out, too.” ,
“ You mean as to Miss Gibson’s relations with these
two young men ? ”
Thorndyke nodded.
“ Is it any concern of ours ? ” I asked.
“ Certainly it is,” he replied. “ Everything is a
concern of ours at this preliminary stage. We are
groping about for a clue and must let nothing pass
unscrutinised.”
“ Well, then, to begin with, she is not wildly
infatuated with Walter Hornby, I should say.”
“'No,” agreed Thorndyke, laughing softly; “we
may take it that the canny Walter has not inspired
a. grand passion.”
“ Then,” I resumed, “if I were a suitor for Miss
Gibson’s hand, I think I would sooner stand in
Reuben’s shoes than in Walter’s.”
“There again I am with you,” said Thorndyke.
“ Go on.”
“ Well,” I continued, “ our fair visitor conveyed
to me the impression that her evident admiration
of Reuben’s character was tempered by something
that she had heard from a third party. That expres-
sion of hers, ‘ speaking from my own observation,’
seemed to imply that her observations of him were
not in entire agreement with somebody else’s.”
“ Good man ! ” exclaimed Thorndyke, slapping
me on the back, to the undissembled surprise of a
policeman whom we were passing; “ that is what I
had hoped for in you—the capacity to perceive the
essential underneath the obvious. Yes; somebody


32 THE RED THUMB MARK
has been saying something about our client, and the
thing that we have to ﬁnd out is, what is it that
has been said and who has been saying it. We shall
have to make a pretext for another interview with
Miss Gibson.”
“ By the way, why didn’t you ask her what she
meant ‘? ” I asked foolishly.
Thorndyke grinned in my face. “ Why didn’t
you ? ” he retorted.
“ No,” I rejoined, “ I suppose it is not politic to
appear too discerning. Let me carry the microscope
for a time; it is making your arm ache, I see.”
“ Thanks,” said he, handing the case to me and
rubbing his ﬁngers; “ it is rather ponderous.”
“ I can’t make out what you want with this great
instrument,” I said. “ A common pocket lens would
do all that you require. Besides, a six-inch ob-
jective will not magnify more than two or three
diameters.”
“ Two, with the draw-tube closed,” replied Thorn-
dyke, “ and the low-power eye-piece brings it up to
four. Polton made them both for me for examining
cheques, bank-notes and other large objects. But
you will understand when you see me use the instru-
ment, and remember, you are to make no comments.”
We had by this time arrived at the entrance to
Scotland Yard, and were passing up the narrow
thoroughfare, when we encountered a uniformed
official who halted and saluted my colleague.
“ Ah, I thought we should see you here before
long, doctor," said he genially. “I heard this
morning that you have this thumb-print case in
hand.”
“Yes,” replied Thorndyke; “I am going to see
what can be done for the defence.”


A LADY IN THE CASE 33
“ Well,” said the ofﬁcer as he ushered us into the
building, “ you’ve given us a good many surprises,
but you’ll give us a bigger one if you can make any-
thing of this. It’s a foregone conclusion, I should
say.”
“ My dear fellow,” said Thorndyke, “ there is no
such thing. You mean that there is a prima. facie
case against the accused.”
“ Put it that way if you like,” replied the ofﬁcer,
with a sly smile, “ but I think you will ﬁnd this about
the hardest nut you ever tried your teeth on—and
they’re pretty strong teeth too, I’ll say that. You
had better come into Mr. Singleton’s office,” and
he conducted us along a corridor and into a large,
barely-furnished room, where we found a sedate-
looking gentleman seated at a large writing table.
“ How-d’ye-do, doctor?” said the latter, rising
and holding out his hand. “ I can guess what you’ve
come for. Want to see that thumb-print, eh ? ”
“ Quite right,” answered Thorndyke, and then,
having introduced me, he continued: “ We were
partners in the last game, but we are on opposite
sides of the board this time.”
“ Yes,” agreed Mr. Singleton; “ and we are going
to give you check-mate.”
He unlocked a drawer and drew forth a small
portfolio, from which he extracted a piece of paper
which he laid on the table. It appeared to be a
sheet torn from a perforated memorandum block,
and bore the pencilled inscription: “ Handed in by
Reuben at 7.3 p.m., 9.3.01. J. H.” At one end
was a dark, glossy blood-stain, made by the falling
of a good-sized drop, and this was smeared slightly,
apparently by a ﬁnger or thumb having been pressed
on it. Near to it were two or three smaller smears
D


A LADY IN THE CASE 35
points which are important for comparison, whereas
your squares or the intersections of the lines fall
arbitrarily on important or unimportant points
according to chance. Besides, we can’t let you mark
our original, you know, though, of course, we can
give you a photograph, which will do as well.”
“ I was going to ask you to let me take a photo-
graPh presently,” said Thorndyke.
“ Certainly,” replied Mr. Singleton, “if you would
rather have one of your own taking. I know you
don’t care to take anything on trust. And now I
must get on with my work, if you will excuse me.
Inspector Johnson will give you any assistance you
may require.”
- “ And see that I don’t pocket the original,” added
Thorndyke, with a smile at the inspector who had
shown us in.
“Oh, I’ll see to that,” said the latter, grinning;
and, as Mr. Singleton returned to his table, Thorn-
dyke'unlocked the microscope case and drew forth
the instrument.
“ What, are you going to put it under the micro-
scope ? ” exclaimed Mr. Singleton, looking round with
a broad smile.
“ Must do something for my fee, you know,” replied
Thorndyke, as he set up the microscope and screwed
on two extra objectives to the triple nose-piece.
“ You observe that there is no deception,” he added
to the inspector, as he took the paper from Mr. Single-
ton’s table and placed it between two slips of glass.
“ I’m watching you, sir,” replied the ofﬁcer, with
a chuckle; and he did watch, with close attention and
great interest, while Thorndyke laid the glass slips on
the microscope stage and proceeded to focus.
I also watched, and was a good deal exercised in my
D 2


40 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ What is that ‘I ” I asked.
“ The ‘ Thumbograph.’ I never ascertained whether
the police have it or whether it is still in the
possession of Mrs. Hornby.”
“ Does it matter ? ” I inquired.
“ Not much; only I must see it. And perhaps it
will furnish an excellent pretext for you to call on
Miss Gibson. As I am busy at the hospital this
afternoon and Polton has his hands full, it would be
a good plan for you to drop in at Endsley Gardens
——that is the address, I think—and if you can see
Miss Gibson, try to get a conﬁdential chat with her,
and extend your knowledge of the manners and
customs of the three Messieurs Hornby. Put on
your best bedside manner and keep your weather
eye lifting. Find out everything you can as to the
characters and habits of those three gentlemen,
regardless of all scruples of delicacy. Everything
is of importance to us, even to the names of their
tailors.”
“ And with regard to the ‘ Thumbograph ’ ‘? ”
“ Find out who has it, and, if it is still in Mrs.
Hornby’s possession, get her to lend it to us or—what
might, perhaps, be better—get her permission to
take a photograph of it.”
“ It shall be done according to your word,” said
I. “ I will furbish up my exterior, and this very
afternoon make my ﬁrst appearance in the character
of Paul Pry.”
About an hour later I found myself upon the door-
step of Mr. Hornby’s house in Endsley Gardens
listening to the jangling of the bell that I had just
set in motion.
“ Miss Gibson, sir ? ” repeated the parlourmaid
in response to my question. “ She was going out,


CONFIDENCES 41
but I am not sure whether she has gone yet. If you
will step in, I will go and see.”
I followed her into the drawing-room, and, thread-
ing my way amongst the litter of small tables and
miscellaneous furniture by which ladies nowadays
convert their special domain into the semblance of
a broker’s shop, let go my anchor in the vicinity of
the ﬁreplace to await the parlourmaid’s report.
I had not long to wait, for in less than a minute
Miss Gibson herself entered the room. She wore
her hat and gloves, and I congratulated myself on
my timely arrival. '
“I didn’t expect to see you again so soon, Dr.
Jervis,” she said, holding out her hand with a frank
and friendly manner, “ but you are very welcome
all the same. You have come to tell me something ? ”
“ On the contrary,” I replied, “ I have come to
ask you something.”
“ Well, that is better than nothing,” she said, with
a shade of disappointment. “ Won’t you sit down ‘Z ”
I seated myself with caution on a dwarf chair of
scrofulous aspect, and opened my business without
preamble.
“Do you remember a thing called a ‘Thumbo-
graph ’ ? ”
“ Indeed I do,” she replied with energy. “ It was
the cause of all this trouble.”
“ Do you know if the police took possession of it ? ”
“ The detective took it to Scotland Yard that the
ﬁnger-print experts might examine it and compare
the two thumb-prints; and they wanted to keep it,
but Mrs. Hornby was so distressed at the idea of its
being used in evidence that they let her have it back.
You see, they really had no further need of it, as they
could take a print for themselves when they had


42 THE RED THUMB MARK
Reuben in custody; in fact, he volunteered to have
a print taken at once, as soon as he was arrested, and
that was done.”
“ So the ‘ Thumbograph ’ is now in Mrs. Hornby’s
possession ‘? ”
“ Yes, unless she has destroyed it. She spoke of
doing so.”
“ I hope she has not,” said I, in some alarm, “ for
Dr. Thorndyke is extremely anxious, for some reason,
to examine it.”
“ Well, she will be down in a few minutes, and
then we shall know. I told her you were here. Have
you any idea what Dr. Thorndyke’s reason is for
wanting to see it ‘2 ”
“ None whatever,” I replied. “ Dr. Thorndyke
is as close as an oyster. He treats me as he treats
every one else—he listens attentively, observes closely,
and says nothing.”
“ It doesn’t sound very agreeable,” mused Miss Gib-
son; “ and yet he seemed very nice and sympathetic.”
“ He is very nice and sympathetic,” I retorted
with some emphasis, “ but he doesn’t make himself
agreeable by divulging his clients’ secrets.”
“ I suppose not; and I regard myself as very
effectively snubbed,” said she, smiling, but evidently
somewhat piqued by my not very tactful observation.
I was hastening to repair my error with apologies
and self-accusations, when the door opened and an
elderly lady entered the room. She was somewhat
stout, amiable and placid of mien, and impressed me
(to be entirely truthful) as looking rather foolish.
“ Here is Mrs. Hornby,” said Miss Gibson, present-
ing me to her hostess; and she continued, “ Dr. Jervis
has come to ask about the ‘ Thumbograph.’ You
haven’t destroyed it, I hope ‘2 ”


CONFIDENCES 43
,7
“ No, my dear, replied Mrs. Hornby. “ I have
it in my little bureau. What did Dr. Jervis wish
to know about it ? ”
Seeing that she was terriﬁed lest some new and
dreadful surprise should be sprung upon her, I
hastened to reassure her.
“ My colleague, Dr. Thorndyke, is anxious to
examine it. He is directing your nephew’s defence,
you know.”
“ Yes, yes,” said Mrs. Hornby. “ Juliet told me
about him. She says he is a dear. Do you agree
with her ? ”
Here I caught Miss Gibson’s eye, in which was a
mischievous twinkle, and noted a little deeper pink
in her cheeks.
“ Well,” I answered dubiously, “ I have never
considered my colleague in the capacity of a dear,
but I have a very high opinion of him in every
respect.”
“That, no doubt, is the masculine equivalent,”
said Miss Gibson, recovering from the momentary
embarrassment that Mrs. Hornby’s artless repetition
of her phrase had produced. “ I think the feminine
expression is more epigrammatic and comprehensive.
But to return to the object of Dr. Jervis’s visit.
Would you let him have the ‘ Thumbograph,’ aunt,
to show to Dr. Thorndyke ? ”
“ Oh, my dear Juliet,” replied Mrs. Hornby, “ I
would do anything—anything—to help our poor
boy. I will never believe that he could be guilty
of theft—common, vulgar theft. There has been
some dreadful mistake—I am convinced there has
—I told the detectives so. I assured them that
Reuben could not have committed the robbery, and
that they were totally mistaken in supposing him to


44 THE RED THUMB MARK
be capable of such an action. But they would not
listen to me, although I have known him since he
was a little child, and ought to be able to judge, if
anyone is. Diamonds, too! Now, I ask you, what
could Reuben want with diamonds ? and they were
not even cut.”
Here Mrs. Hornby drew forth a lace-edged hand-
kerchief and mopped her eyes.
“ I am sure Dr. Thorndyke will be very much
interested to see this little book of yours,” said I,
with a view to stemming the tide of her reﬂections.
“ Oh, the ‘ Thumbograph,’ ” she replied. “ Yes,
I will let him have it with the greatest pleasure. I
am so glad he wishes to see it; it makes one feel hope-
ful to know that he is taking so much interest in the
case. Would you believe it, Dr. Jervis, those detective
people actually wanted to keep it to bring up in
evidence against the poor boy. My ‘ Thumbograph,’
mind you. But I put my foot down there and they
had to return ,it. I was resolved that they should
not receive any assistance from me in their efforts
to involve my nephew in this horrible affair.”
“ Then, perhaps,” said Miss Gibson, “ you might
give Dr. Jervis the ‘ Thumbograph ’ and he can hand
it to Dr. Thorndyke.”
“ Of course I will,” said Mrs. Hornby; “ instantly;
and you need not return it, Dr. Jervis. When you
have ﬁnished with it, ﬂing it into the ﬁre. I wish
never to see it again.”
But I had been considering the matter, and had
come to the conclusion that it would be highly indis-
creet to take the book out of Mrs. Hornby’s custody,
and this I now proceeded to explain.
“ I have no idea,” I said, “ for what purpose Dr.
Thorndyke wishes to examine the ‘ Thumbograph,’


CONFIDENCES 45
but it occurs to me that he may desire to put it in
evidence, in which case it would be better that it
should not go out of your possession for the present.
He merely commissioned me to ask for your permis-
sion to take a photograph of it.”
“ Oh, if he wants a photograph,” said Mrs. Hornby,
“ I could get one done for him without any difﬁculty.
My nephew Walter would take one for us, I am sure,
if I asked him. He is so clever, you know—is he
not, Juliet, dear ‘? ”
“ Yes, aunt,” replied Miss Gibson quickly, “ but
I expect Dr. Thorndyke would rather take the photo-
graph himself.”
“ I am sure he would,” I agreed. “ In fact, a
photograph taken by another person would not be
of much use to him.”
“ Ah,” said Mrs. Hornby in a slightly injured tone,
“ you think Walter is just an ordinary amateur; but
if I were to show you some of the photographs he
has taken you would really be surprised. He is
remarkably clever, I assure you.” '
“ Would you like us to bring the book to Dr. Thorn-
dyke’s chambers ? ” asked Miss Gibson. “ That
would save time and trouble.”
“ It is excessively good of you ” I began.
“ Not at all. When shall we bring it? Would
you like to have it this evening ? ”
“ We should very much,” I replied. “ My colleague
could then examine it and decide what is to be done
with it. But it is giving you so much trouble.”
“ It is nothing of the kind,” said Miss Gibson.
“ You would not mind coming with me this evening,
would you, aunt ‘? ”
“ Certainlynot, my dear,” replied Mrs. Hornby,
and she was about to enlarge on the subject when


46 THE RED THUMB MARK
Miss Gibson rose and, looking at her watch, declared
that she must start on her errand at once. I also
rose to make my adieux, and she then remarked—
“ If you are walking in the same direction as I
am, Dr. Jervis, we might arrange the time of our
proposed visit as we go along.”
I was not slow to avail myself of this invitation,
and a few seconds later we left the house together,
leaving Mrs. Hornby smiling fatuously after us from
the open door.
“Will eight o’clock suit you, do you think ?”
Miss Gibson asked, as we walked up the street.
“ It will do excellently, I should say,” I answered.
“ If anything should render the meeting impossible
I will send you a telegram. I could wish that you
were coming alone, as ours is to be a business confer-
ence.”
Miss Gibson laughed softly—and a very pleasant
and musical laugh it was.
“ Yes,” she agreed. “ Dear Mrs. Hornby is a little
diffuse and difﬁcult to keep to one subject; but you
must be indulgent to her little failings; you would be
if you had experienced such kindness and generosity
from her as I have.”
“ I am sure I should,” I rejoined; “ in fact, I am.
After all, a little diffuseness of speech and haziness
of ideas are no great faults in a generous and amiable
woman of her age.”
Miss Gibson rewarded me for these highly correct
sentiments with a little smile of approval, and we
walked on for some time in silence. Presently she
turned to me with some suddenness and a very earnest
expression, and said—
“ I want to ask you a question, Dr. Jervis, and
please forgive me if I beg you to put aside your pro-


CONFIDENCES 47
fessional reserve just a little in my favour. I want
you to tell me if you think Dr. Thorndyke has any
kind of hope or expectation of being able to save poor
Reuben from the dreadful peril that threatens him.”
This was a rather pointed question, and I took some
time to consider it before replying.
“ I should like,” I replied at length, “ to tell you
as much as my duty to my colleague will allow me
to; but that is so little that it is hardly worth telling.
However, I may say this without breaking any conﬁd-
ence: Dr. Thorndyke has undertaken the case and
is working hard at it, and he would, most assuredly,
have done neither the one nor the other if he had
considered it a hopeless one.”
“ That is a very encouraging view of the matter,”
said she, “ which had, however, already occurred
to me. May I ask if anything came of your visit
to Scotland Yard ? Oh, please don’t think me
encroaching; I am so terribly anxious and troubled.”
“ I can tell you very little about the results of our
expedition, for I know very little; but I have an idea
that Dr. Thorndyke is not dissatisﬁed with his morn-
ing’s work. He certainly picked up some facts, though
I have no idea of their nature, and as soon as we
reached home he developed a sudden desire to examine
the ‘ Thumbograph.’ ”
“ Thank you, Dr. Jervis,” she said gratefully.
“ You have cheered me more than I can tell you, and
I won’t ask you any more questions. Are you sure
I am not bringing you out of the way ? ”
“ Not at all,” I answered hastily. “ The fact is,
I had hoped to have a little chat with you when we
had disposed of the ‘ Thumbograph,’ so I can regard
myself as combining a little business with a great
deal 0f pleasure if I am allowed to accompany you.”


48 THE RED THUMB MARK
She gave me a little ironical bow as she inquired——
“And, in short, I may take it that I am to be
pumped ? ”
“ Come, now,” I retorted. “ You have been plying
the pump handle pretty vigorously yourself. But
that is not my meaning at all. You see, we are
absolute strangers to all the parties concerned in
this case, which, of course, makes for an impartial
estimate of their characters. But, after all, know-
ledge is more useful to us than impartiality. There
is our client, for instance. He impressed us both
very favourably, I think; but he might have been
a plausible rascal with the blackest of records. Then
you come and tell us that he is a gentleman of stainless
character and we are at once on ﬁrmer ground.”
“ I see,” said Miss Gibson thoughtfully; “ and
suppose that I or some one else had told you things
that seemed to reﬂect on his character. Would
they have inﬂuenced you in your attitude towards
him ? ”
“ Only in this,” I replied; “ that we should have
made it our business to inquire into the truth of those
reports and ascertain their origin.”
“That is what one should always do, I suppose,”
said she, still with an air of deep thoughtfulness
which encouraged me to inquire—
“ May I ask if anyone to your knowledge has ever
said anything to Mr. Reuben’s disadvantage ? ”
She pondered for some time before replying, and
kept her eyes bent pensively on the ground. At
length she said, not without some hesitation of
manner—
“ It is a small thing and quite without any bearing
on this affair. But it has been a great trouble to
me since it has to some extent put a barrier between


CONFIDENCES 49
Reuben and me; and we used to be such close friends.
And I have blamed myself for letting it inﬂuence me
—perhaps unjustly—in my opinion of him. I will
tell you about it, though I eXpect you will think me
very foolish.
“ You must know, then, that Reuben and I used,
until about six months ago, to be very much together,
though we were only friends, you understand. But
we were on the footing of relatives, so there was
nothing out of the way in it. Reuben is a keen student
of ancient and mediaeval art, in which I also am much
interested, so we used to visit the museums and
galleries together and get a great deal of pleasure from
comparing our views and impressions of what we saw.
“ About six months ago, Walter took me aside one
day and, with a very serious face, asked me if there
was any kind of understanding between Reuben and
me. I thought it rather impertinent of him, but
nevertheless, I told him the truth, that Reuben and
I were just friends and nothing more.
“ ‘ If that is the case,’ said he, looking mighty
grave, ‘ I would advise you not to be seen about with
him quite so much.’
“ ‘ And why not ? ’ I asked very naturally.
“ ‘ Why, the fact is,’ said Walter, ‘ that Reuben
is a confounded fool. He has been chattering to
the men at the club and seems to have given them
the impression that a young lady of means and position
has been setting her cap at him very hard, but that
he, being a high-souled philosopher above the tempta-
tions that beset ordinary mortals, is superior both
to her blandishments and her pecuniary attractions.
I give you the hint for your own guidance,’ he con-
tinued, ‘ and I expect this to go no farther. You
mustn’t be annoyed with Reuben. The best of
E


50 THE RED THUMB MARK
young men will often behave like prigs and donkeys,
and I have no doubt the fellows have grossly exagger-
ated what he said; but I thought it right to put you
on your guard.’
“ Now this report, as you may suppose, made me
excessively angry, and I wanted to have it out with
Reuben then and there. But Walter refused to
sanction this—‘ there was no use in making a scene ’
he said—and he insisted that the caution was given
to me in strict conﬁdence; so what was I to do?
I tried to ignore it and treat Reuben as I always had
done, but this I found impossible; my womanly pride
was much too deeply hurt. And yet I felt it the lowest
depth of meanness to harbour such thoughts of him
without giving him the opportunity to defend himself.
And although it was most unlike Reuben in some
respects, it was very like him in others; for he has
always expressed the utmost contempt for men who
marry for a livelihood. So I have remained on the
horns of a dilemma and am there still. What do
you think I ought to have done ? ”
I rubbed my chin in some embarrassment at this
question. Needless to say, I was most disagreeably
impressed by Walter Hornby’s conduct, and not a
little disposed to blame my fair companion for giving
an ear to his secret disparagement of his cousin; but
I was obviously not in a position to pronounce, off-
hand, upon the merits of the case.
“ The position appears to be this,” I said, after a
pause, “ either Reuben has spoken most unworthily
and untruthfully of you, or Walter has lied deliberately
about him.”
“ Yes,” she agreed, “ that is the position; but
which of the two alternatives appears to you the more
probable ? ”


CONFIDENCES 51
“ That is very difficult to say,” I answered. “ There
is a certain kind of cad who is much given to boastful
rhodomontade concerning his conquests. We all
know him and can generally spot him at ﬁrst sight,
but I must say that Reuben Hornby did not strike
me as that kind of man at all. Then it is clear that
the proper course for Walter to have adopted, if
he had really heard such rumours, was to have had
the matter out with Reuben, instead of coming
secretly to you with whispered reports. That is my
feeling, Miss Gibson, but, of course, I may be quite
wrong. I gather that our two young friends are not
inseparable companions ‘3 ”
“ Oh, they are very good friends, but you see, their
interests and views of life are quite different. Reuben,
although an excellent worker in business hours, is
a student, or perhaps rather what one would call a
scholar, whereas Walter is more a practical man of
affairs—decidedly long-headed and shrewd. He is
undoubtedly very clever, as Mrs. Hornby said.”
“ He takes photographs, for instance,” I suggested.
“ Yes. But not ordinary amateur photographs;
his work is more technical and quite excellent of its
kind. For example, he did a most beautiful series
of micro-photographs of sections of metalliferous rocks
which he reproduced for publication by the collotype
process, and even printed off the plates himself.”
“ I see. He must be a very capable fellow.”
“ He is, very,” she assented, “ and very keen on
making a position; but I am afraid he is rather too
fond of money for its own sake, which is not a pleasant
feature in a young man’s character, is it ‘? ”
I agreed that it was not.
“ Excessive keenness in money affairs,” proceeded
Miss Gibson oracularly, “ is apt to lead a young man
E 2


52 THE RED THUMB MARK
into bad ways—oh, you need not smile, Dr. Jervis,
at my wise saws; it is perfectly true, and you know
it. The fact is, I sometimes have an uneasy feeling
that Walter’s desire to be rich inclines him to try
what looks like a quick and easy method of making
money. He had a friend—a Mr. Horton—who is
a dealer on the Stock Exchange and who ‘ operates ’
rather largely—‘ operate ’ I believe is the expression
used, although it seems to be nothing more than
common gambling—and I have more than once
suspected Walter of being concerned in what Mr.
Horton calls ‘ a little ﬂutter.’ ”
“ That doesn’t strike me as a. very long-headed
proceeding,” I remarked, with the impartial wisdom
of the impecunious, and therefore untempted.
“ No,” she agreed, “it isn’t. But your gambler
always thinks he is going to win—though you mustn’t
let me give you the impression that Walter is a gambler.
But here is my destination. Thank you for escorting
me so far, and I hope you are beginning to feel less
like a stranger to the Hornby family. We shall make
our appearance to-night at eight punctually.”
She gave me her hand with a frank smile and
tripped up the steps leading to the street door; and
when I glanced back, after crossing the road, she
gave me a little friendly nod as she turned to enter
the house. '
CHAPTER V
THE ‘ THUMBOGRAPH ’
“ So your net has been sweeping the quiet and
pleasant waters of feminine conversation,” remarked


THE ‘ THUMBOGRAPH ’ 53
Thorndyke when we met at the dinner table and I
gave him an outline of my afternoon’s adventures.
“ Yes,” I answered, “ and here is the catch cleaned
and ready for the consumer.”
I laid on the table two of my notebooks in which
I had entered such facts as I had been able to extract
from my talk with Miss Gibson.
“ You made your entries as soon as possible after
your return, I suppose ? ” said Thorndyke—“ while
the matter was still fresh ? ”
“ I wrote down my notes as I sat on a seat in
Kensington Gardens within ﬁve minutes after leaving
Miss Gibson.”
“ Good ! ” said Thorndyke. “ And now let us see
what you have collected.”
He glanced quickly through the entries in the two
books, referring back once or twice, and stood for
a few moments silent and abstracted. Then he laid
the little books down on the table with a satisﬁed
nod.
“ Our information, then,” he said, “ amounts to
this : Reuben is an industrious worker at his business
and, in his leisure, a student of ancient and mediaeval
art; possibly a babbling fool and a cad or, on the
other hand, a maligned and much-abused man.
“ Walter Hornby is obviously a sneak and possibly
a liar; a keen man of business, perhaps a ﬁutterer
round the ﬁnancial candle that burns in Throgmorton
Street; an expert photographer and a competent
worker of the collotype process. You have done a
very excellent day’s work, Jervis. I wonder if you
see the bearing of the facts that you have collected.”
“ I think I see the bearing of some of them,” I
answered; “ at least, I have formed certain opinions.”
“ Then keep them to yourself, man ami, so that


54 THE RED THUMB MARK
I need not feel as if I ought to unbosom myself of
my own views.”
“ I should be very much surprised if you did,
Thorndyke,” I replied, “ and should have none the
better opinion of you. I realise fully that your
opinions and theories are the property of your client
and not to be used for the entertainment of your
friends.”
Thorndyke patted me on the back playfully, but
he looked uncommonly pleased, and said, with evident
sincerity, “ I am really grateful to you for saying
that, for I have felt a little awkward in being so
reticent with you who know so much of this case.
But you are quite right, and I am delighted to ﬁnd
you so discerning and sympathetic. The least I
can do under the circumstances is to uncork a bottle
of Pommard, and drink the health of so loyal and
helpful a colleague. Ah! Praise the gods! here is
Polton, like a sacriﬁcial priest accompanied by a
sweet savour of roasted ﬂesh. Rump steak I ween,”
he added, snifﬁng, “ food meet for the mighty Shamash
(that pun was fortuitous, I need not say) or a ravenous
medical jurist. Can you explain to me, Polton, how
it is that your rump steak is better than any other
steak ? Is it that you have command of a special
brand of ox I? ”
The little man’s dry countenance wrinkled with
pleasure until it was as full of lines as a ground-plan
of Clapham Junction. ~
“ Perhaps it is the special treatment it gets, sir,”
he replied. “ I usually bruise it in the mortar before
cooking, without breaking up the ﬁbre too much,
and then I heat up the little cupel furnace to about
600 C., and put the steak in on a tripod.”
Thorndyke laughed outright. “ The cupel furnace,


56 THE RED THUMB MARK
one—especially since the efﬁciency of a police ofﬁcer is,
in consequence, apt to be estimated by the number
of convictions he has secured, and an inducement
is thus held out to him to obtain a conviction, if
possible; but it is of a piece with legislative procedure
in general. Lawyers are not engaged in academic
discussions or in the pursuit of truth, but each is
trying, by hook or by crook, to make out a particular
case without regard to its actual truth or even to
the lawyer’s OWII belief on the subject. That is what
produces so much friction between lawyers and
scientiﬁc witnesses; neither can understand the point
of view of the other. But we must not sit over the
table chattering like this; it has gone half-past seven,
and Polton will be wanting to make this room present-
able.”
“ I notice you don’t use your ofﬁce much,” I
remarked.
“ Hardly at all, excepting as a repository for docu-
ments and stationery. It is very cheerless to talk
in an ofﬁce, and nearly all my business is transacted
with solicitors and counsel who are knOWn to me,
so there is no need for such formalities. All right,
Polton; we shall be ready for you in ﬁve minutes.”
The Temple bell was striking eight as, at Thorn-
dyke’s request, I threw open the iron-bound “ oak ”;
and even as I did so the sound of footsteps came up
from the stairs below. I waited on the landing for
our two visitors, and led them into the room.
“ I am so glad to make your acquaintance,’ said
Mrs. Hornby, when I had done the honours of intro-
duction; “ I have heard so much about you from
Juliet ”
“ Really, my dear aunt,” protested Miss Gibson,
as she caught my eye with a look of comical alarm,
9


58 THE RED THUMB MARK
Juliet—no, it wasn’t Mrs. Moggridge, that was another
affair, it was Mrs.—Mrs.—dear me, how silly of me I—
now, what was her name ‘2 Can’t you help me,
Juliet ? You must surely remember the woman.
She used to visit a good deal at the Hawley-Johnsons’
—-I think it was the Hawley-Johnsons’, or else it was
those people, you know ”
“ Hadn’t you better give Dr. Thorndyke the
‘ Thumbograph ’ ? ” interrupted Miss Gibson.
“ Why, of course, Juliet, dear. What else did we
come here for ‘3 ” With a slightly injured expression,
Mrs. Hornby opened the little bag and commenced,
with the utmost deliberation, to turn out its contents
on to the table. These included a laced handkerchief,
a purse, a card-case, a visiting list, a packet of papier
poudré, and when she had laid the last-mentioned
article on the table, she paused abruptly and gazed
into Miss Gibson’s face with the air of one who has
made a startling discovery.
“ I remember the woman’s name,’ she said in an
impressive voice. “ It was Gudge—Mrs. Gudge, the
sister-in-law o ”
Here Miss Gibson made an unceremonious dive
into the open bag and ﬁshed out a tiny parcel wrapped
in notepaper and secured with a silk thread.
“ Thank you,” said Thorndyke, taking it from her
hand just as Mrs. Hornby was reaching out to inter-
cept it. He cut the thread and drew from its wrap-
pings a little book bound in red cloth, with the word
“ Thumbograph ” stamped upon the cover, and was
beginning to inspect it when Mrs. Hornby rose and
stood beside him.
“ That,” said she, as she opened the book at the
ﬁrst page, “is the thumb-mark of a Miss Colley.
he is no connection of ours. You see it is a little

,


THE ‘ THUMBOGRAPH ’ 59
smeared—she said Reuben jogged her elbow, but I
don’t think he did; at any rate he assured me he did
not, and, you know ”
“ Ah ! Here is one we are looking for,” interrupted
Thorndyke, who had been turning the leaves of the
book regardless of Mrs. Hornby’s rambling comments;
“ a very good impression, too, considering the rather
rough method of producing it.”
He reached out for the reading lens that hung from
its nail above the mantelpiece, and I could tell by
the eagerness with which he peered through it at the
thumb-print that he was looking for something. A
moment later I felt sure that he had found that some-
thing which he had sought, for, though he replaced
the lens upon its nail with a quiet and composed air
and made no remark, there was a sparkle of the eye
and a scarcely perceptible ﬂush of suppressed excite-
ment and triumph which I had begun to recognise
beneath the impassive mask that he presented to
the world.
“ I shall ask you to leave this little book with me,
Mrs. Hornby,” he said, breaking in upon that lady’s
inconsequent babblings, “ and, as I may possibly
put it in evidence, it would be a wise precaution for
you and Miss Gibson to sign your names—as small
as possible—on the page which bears Mr. Reuben’s
thumb-mark. That will anticipate any suggestion
that the book has been tampered with after leaving
your hands.” .
“ It would be a great impertinence for anyone to
make any such suggestion,” Mrs. Hornby began; but
on Thorndyke’s placing his fountain pen in her hand,
she wrote her signature in the place indicated and
handed the pen to Miss Gibson, who signed underneath.
“And now,” said Thorndyke, “we will take an


60 THE RED THUMB MARK
enlarged photograph of this page with the thumb-
mark; not that it is necessary that it should be done
now, as you are leaving the book in my possession;
but the photograph will be wanted, and as my man
is expecting us and has the apparatus ready, we may
as well despatch the business at once.”
To this both the ladies readily agreed (being, in
fact, devoured by curiosity with regard to my col-
league’s premises), and we accordingly proceeded
to invade the set of rooms on the ﬂoor above, over
which the ingenious Polton was accustomed to reign
in solitary grandeur.
It was my ﬁrst visit to these mysterious regions,
and I looked about me with as much curiosity as
did the two ladies. The ﬁrst room that we entered
was apparently the workshop, for it contained a
small woodworker’s bench, a lathe, a bench for metal
work and a number of mechanical appliances which
I was not then able to examine; but I noticed that
the entire place presented to the eye a most unwork-
manlike neatness, a circumstance that did not escape
Thorndyke’s observation, for his face relaxed into
a grim smile as his eye travelled over the bare benches
and the clean-swept ﬂoor.
From this room we entered the laboratory, a large
apartment, one side of which was given up to chemical
research, as was shown by the shelves of reagents
that covered the wall, and the ﬂasks, retorts and other
apparatus that were arranged on the bench, like orna-
ments on a drawing-room mantelpiece. On the
opposite side of the room was a large, massively-
constructed copying camera, the front of which,
carrying the lens, was ﬁxed, and an easel or copy-
holder travelled on parallel guides towards, or away,
from it, on a long stand.


THE ‘ THUMBOGRAPH ’ 61
This apparatus Thorndyke proceeded to explain
to our visitors while Polton was ﬁxing the “ Thumbo-
graph ” in a holder attached to the easel.
“ You see,” he said, in answer to a question from
Miss Gibson, “ I have a good deal to do with signatures,
cheques and disputed documents of various kinds.
Now a skilled eye, aided by a pocket-lens, can make
out very minute details on a cheque or bank-note;
but it is not possible to lend one’s skilled eye to a judge
or juryman, so that it is often very convenient to
be able to hand them a photograph in which the
magniﬁcation is already done, which they can compare
with the original. Small things, when magniﬁed,
develop quite unexpected characters; for instance, you
have handled a good many postage stamps, I suppose,
but have you ever noticed the little white spots in the
upper corner of a penny stamp, or even the difference
in the foliage on the two sides of the wreath ‘3 ”
Miss Gibson admitted that she had not.
“ Very few people have, I suppose, excepting
stamp-collectors,” continued Thorndyke; “ but now
just glance at this and you will ﬁnd these unnoticed
details forced upon your attention.” As he spoke,
he handed her a photograph, which he had taken
from a drawer, showing a penny stamp enlarged to a
length of eight inches.
While the ladies were marvelling over this produc-
tion, Polton proceeded with his work. The “ Thumbo-
graph ” having been ﬁxed in position, the light from
a powerful incandescent gas lamp, ﬁtted with a
parabolic reﬂector, was concentrated on it, and the
camera racked out to its proper distance.
“ What are those ﬁgures intended to show ‘? ”
inquired Miss Gibson, indicating the graduation on
the side of one of the guides.


62 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ They show the amount of magniﬁcation or reduc-
tion,” Thorndyke explained. “ When the pointer is
opposite 0, the photograph is the same size as the
object photographed; when it points to, say, x 4,
the photograph will be four times the width and
length of the object, while if it should point to,
say, -3- 4, the photograph will be one-fourth the length
of the object. It is now, you see, pointing to x 8,
so the photograph will be eight times the diameter
of the original thumb-mar .”
By this time Polton had brought the camera to
an accurate focus and, when we had all been gratiﬁed
by a glimpse of the enlarged image on the focussing
screen, we withdrew to a smaller room which was
devoted to bacteriology and microscopical research,
while the exposure was made and the plate developed.
Here, after an interval, we were joined by Polton,
who bore with inﬁnite tenderness the dripping negative
on which could be seen the grotesque transparency
of a colossal thumb-mark. ' /
This Thorndyke scrutinised eagerly, and having
pronounced it satisfactory, informed Mrs. Hornby
that the object of her visit was attained, and thanked
her for the trouble she had taken.
“ I am very glad we came,” said Miss Gibson to
me, as a little later we walked slowly up Mitre Court
in the wake of Mrs. Hornby and Thorndyke; “ and
I am glad to have seen these wonderful instruments,
too. It has made me realise that something is being
done and that Dr. Thorndyke really has some object
in view. It has really encouraged me immensely.”
“ And very properly so,” I replied. “ I', too,
although I really know nothing of what my colleague I
is doing, feel very strongly that he would not take
all this trouble and give up so much valuable time


THE ‘ THUMBOGRAPH ’ 63
if he had not some very deﬁnite purpose and some
substantial reasons for taking a hopeful view.”
“ Thank you for saying that,” she rejoined warmly;
“ and you will let me have a crumb of comfort when
you can, won’t you ? ” She looked in my face so
wistfully as she made this appeal that I was quite
moved; and, indeed, I am not sure that my state of
mind at that moment did not fully justify my col-
league’s reticence towards me.
However, I, fortunately, had nothing to tell, and
so, when we emerged into Fleet Street to ﬁnd Mrs.
Hornby already ensconced in a hansom, I could only
promise, as I grasped the hand that she offered to me,
to see her again at the earliest opportunity—a promise
which my inner consciousness assured me would be
strictly fulﬁlled.
“ You seem to be on quite conﬁdential terms with
our fair friend,” Thorndyke remarked, as we strolled
back towards his chambers. “ You are an insinuating
dog, Jervis.”
“ She is very frank and easy to get on with,” I
replied. '
“ Yes. A good girl and a clever girl, and comely
to look upon withal. I suppose it would be super-
ﬂuous for me to suggest that you mind your eye ? ”
“ I shouldn’t, in any case, try to cut out a man
who is under a cloud,” I replied sulkily.
“ Of course you wouldn’t; hence the need of
attention to the ophthalmic member. Have you
ascertained what Miss Gibson’s actual relation is to
Reuben Hornby ? ”
“ No,” I answered.
“ It might be worth while to ﬁnd out,” said Thorn-
dyke; and then he relapsed into silence.


64. THE RED THUMB MARK
CHAPTER VI
COMMITTED FOR TRIAL
THORNDYKE’s hint as to the possible danger
foreshadowed by my growing intimacy with Juliet
Gibson had come upon me as a complete sur-
prise, and had, indeed, been resented by me as
somewhat of an impertinence. Nevertheless, it gave
me considerable food for meditation, and I presently
began to suspect that the watchful eyes of my 0b-
servant friend might have detected something in
my manner towards Miss Gibson suggestive of
sentiments that had been unsuspected by myself.
Of course it would be absurd to suppose that any
real feeling could have been engendered by so ridicu-
lously brief an acquaintance. I had only met the
girl three times, and even now, excepting for business
relations, was hardly entitled to more than a bow of
recognition. But yet, when I considered the matter
impartially and examined my own consciousness,
I could not but recognise that she had aroused in
me an interest which bore no‘ relation to the part
that she had played in the drama that was so slowly
unfolding. She was undeniably a very handsome
girl, and her beauty was of a type that specially
appealed to me—full of dignity and character that
gave promise of a splendid middle age. And her
personality was in other ways not “less attractive,
for she was frank and open, sprightly and intelligent,
and though evidently quite self-reliant, was in nowise
lacking in that womanly softness that so strongly
engages a man’s sympathy.
'In short, I realised that, had there been no such


COMMITTED FOR TRIAL 65
person as Reuben Hornby, I should have viewed
Miss Gibson with uncommon interest.
But, unfortunately, Reuben Hornby was a most
palpable reality, and, moreover, the extraordinary
difﬁculties of his position entitled him to very special
consideration by any man of honour. It was true
that Miss Gibson had repudiated any feelings towards
Reuben other than those of old-time friendship;
but young ladies are not always impartial judges of
their own feelings, and, as a man of the world, I
could not but have my own opinion on the matter
——which opinion I believed to be shared by Thorn-
dyke. The conclusions to which my cogitations at
length brought me were : ﬁrst, that I was an egotis-
tical donkey, and, second, that my relations with
Miss Gibson were of an exclusively business character
and must in future be conducted on that basis,
with the added consideration that I was the con-
ﬁdential agent, for the time being, of Reuben Hornby,
and in honour bound to regard his interests as
paramount.
“ I am hoping,” said Thorndyke, as he held out
his hand for my teacup, “ that these profound
reﬂections of yours are connected with the Hornby
affair; in which case‘ I should expect to hear that the
riddle is solved and the mystery made plain.”
“Why should you expect that?” I demanded,
reddening somewhat, I suspect, as I met his twinkling
eye. There was something rather disturbing in the
dry, quizzical smile that I encountered and the
reﬂection that I had been under observation, and I
felt as much embarrassed as I should suppose a self-
conscious water-ﬂea might feel on ﬁnding itself on the
illuminated stage of a binocular microscope. _
“ My dear fellow,” said Thorndyke, “ you have not
r


66 THE RED THUMB MARK
spoken a word for the last quarter of an hour; you
have devoured your food with the relentless regular-
ity of a sausage-machine, and you have, from time
to time, made the most damnable faces at the coffee-
pot—-though there I’ll wager the coffee-pot was even
with you, if I may judge by the presentment that
it offers of my own countenance.”
I roused myself from my reverie with a laugh at
Thorndyke’s quaint conceit and a glance at the
grotesquely distorted reﬂection of my face in the
polished silver.
“ I am afraid I have been a rather dull companion
this morning,” I admitted apologetically.
“ By no means,” replied Thorndyke, with a grin.
“ On the contrary, I have found you both amusing
and instructive, and I only spoke when I had ex-
hausted your potentialities as a silent entertainer.”
“ You are pleased to be facetious at my expense,”
said I.
“ Well, the expense was not a very heavy one,”
he retorted. “ I have been merely consuming a
by-product of your mental activity—‘— Hallo !
that’s Anstey already.”
A peculiar knock, apparently delivered with the
handle of a walking-stick on the outer door, was the
occasion of this exclamation, and as Thorndyke
sprang up and ﬂung the door open, a clear, musical
voice was borne in, the measured cadences of which
proclaimed at once the trained orator.
“ Hail, learned brother ! ” it exclaimed. “ Do I
disturb you untimely at your studies ? ” Here our
'visitor entered the room and looked round critically.
“ ’Tis even so,” he declared. “ Physiological chemis-
try and its practical applications appears to be the
subject. A physico-chemical inquiry into the pro-


COMMITTED FOR TRIAL 67
perties of streaky bacon and fried eggs. Do I see
another learned brother ‘3 ”‘
He peered keenly at me through his pince-nez,
and I gazed at him in some embarrassment.
“ This is my friend Jervis, of whom you have heard
me speak,” said Thorndyke. “ He is with us in this
case, you know.”
“ The echoes of your fame have reached me, sir,”
said Anstey, holding out his hand. “ I am proud to
know you. I should have recognised you instantly
from the portrait of your lamented uncle in Green-
wich Hospital.”
“ Anstey is a wag, you understand,” explained
Thorndyke, “ but he has lucid intervals. He’ll
have one presently if we are patient.”
“ Patient! ” snorted our eccentric visitor, “ it is I
who need to be patient when Iam dragged into police
courts and other sinks of iniquity to plead for common
thieves and robbers like a Kennington Lane advocate.”
“ You’ve been talking to Lawley, I see,” said
Thorndyke.
“ Yes, and he tells me that we haven’t a leg to
stand upon.”
“ No, we’ve got to stand on our heads, as men of
intellect should. But Lawley knows nothing about
the case.”
“ He thinks he knows it all,” said Anstey.
“ Most fools do,” retorted Thorndyke. “ They
arrive at their knowledge by intuition—a deuced
easy road and cheap travelling too. We reserve
our defence—I suppose you agree to that ? ”
“ I suppose so. The magistrate is sure to commit
unless you have an unquestionable alibi.”
“ We shall put in an alibi, but we are not depend-
ing on it.”
r 2


68 THE RED THUMB MARK
,
“ Then we had better reserve our defence,’ said
Anstey; “ and it is time that we wended on our
pilgrimage, for we are due at Lawley’s at half-past
ten. Is Jervis coming with us ? ”
“ Yes, you’d better come,” said Thorndyke. “ It’s
the adjourned hearing of poor Hornby’s case, you
know. There won’t be anything done on our side,
but we may be able to glean some hint from the
prosecution.”
“ I should like to hear what takes place, at any
rate,” I said, and we accordingly sallied forth together
in the direction of Lincoln’s Inn, on the north side
of which Mr. Lawley’s ofﬁce was situated.
“ Ah!” said the solicitor, as we entered, “ I am
glad you’ve come; I was getting anxious—it doesn’t
do to be late on these occasions, you know. Let me
see, do you know Mr. Walter Hornby ? I don’t
think you do.” He presented Thorndyke and me to
our client’s cousin, and as we shook hands, we viewed
one another with a good deal of mutual interest.
“ I have heard about you from my aunt,” said he,
addressing himself more particularly to me. “ She
appears to regard you as a kind of legal Maskelyne
and Cooke. I hope, for my cousin’s sake, that you
will be able to work the wonders that she anticipates.
Poor old fellow! He looks pretty bad, doesn’t
he ? ”
I glanced at Reuben, who was at the moment
talking to Thorndyke, and as he caught my eye he
held out his hand with a warmth that I found very
pathetic. He seemed to have aged since I had last
seen him, and was pale and rather thinner, but he
was composed in his manner and seemed to me to
be taking his trouble very well on the whole.
“ Cab’s at the door, sir,” a clerk announced.


COMMITTED FOR TRIAL 69
“ Cab,” repeated Mr. Lawley, looking dubiously
at me; “ we want an omnibus.”
“ Dr. Jervis and I can walk,” Walter Hornby
suggested. “ We shall probably get there as soon
as you, and it doesn’t matter if we don’t.”
“ Yes, that will do,” said Mr. Lawley; “ you two
walk down together. Now let us go.”
We trooped out on to the pavement, beside which
a four-wheeler was drawn up, and as the others
were entering the cab, Thorndyke stood close beside
me for a moment.
“ Don’t let him pump you,” he said in a low voice,
without looking at me; then he sprang into the cab
and slammed the door.
“ What an extraordinary affair this is,” Walter
Hornby remarked, after we had been walking in
silence for a minute or two; “ a most ghastly business.
I must confess that I can make neither head nor
tail of it.”
“ How is that ? ” I asked.
“ Why, do you see, there are apparently only two
possible theories of the crime, and each of them
seems to be unthinkable. On the one hand there is
Reuben, a man of the most scrupulous honour, as
far as my experience of him goes, committing a mean
and sordid theft for which no motive can be dis—
covered—for he is not poor, nor pecuniarin em-
barrassed nor in the smallest degree avaricious.
On the other hand, there is this thumb-print, which,
in the opinion of the experts, is tantamount to the
evidence of an eye-witness that he did commit the
theft. It is positively bewildering. Don’t you think
so ? ”
“ As you put it,” I answered, “ the case is extra-
ordinarily puzzling.”


70 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ But how else would you put it ? ” he demanded,
with ill-concealed eagerness.
“ I mean that, if Reuben is the man you believe
him to be, the thing is incomprehensible.”
“ Quite so,” he agreed, though he was evidently
disappointed at my colourless answer.
He walked on silently for a few minutes and then
said : “ I suppose it would not be fair to ask if you
see any way out of the difﬁculty ? We are all,
naturally, anxious about the upshot of the affair,
seeing what poor old Reuben’s position is.”
“ Naturally. But the fact is that I know no more
than you do, and as to Thorndyke, you might as
well cross-examine a Whitstable native as put
questions to him.”
“ Yes, so I gathered from Juliet. But I thought
you might have gleaned some notion of the line of
defence from your work in the laboratory—the
microscopical and photographic work I mean.”
“ I was never in the laboratory until last night,
when Thorndyke took me there with your aunt and
Miss Gibson; the work there is done by the laboratory
assistant, and his knowledge of the case, I should
say, is about as great as a type-founder’s knowledge
of the books that he is helping to produce. No;
Thorndyke is a man who plays a single-handed game
and no one knows what cards he holds until he lays
them on the table.”
My companion considered this statement in silence
while I congratulated myself on having parried, with
great adroitness, a rather inconvenient question.
But the time was not far distant when I should have
occasion to reproach myself bitterly for having been
so explicit and emphatic.
“ My uncle’s condition,” Walter resumed after a


COMMITTED FOR TRIAL 71
pause, “is a pretty miserable one at present, with this
horrible affair added to his own personal worries.”
“ Has he any special trouble besides this, then ? ”
I asked.
' “ Why, haven’t you heard ? I thought you knew
about it, or I shouldn’t have spoken—not that it is
in any way a secret, seeing that it is public property
in the city. The fact is that his ﬁnancial affairs are
a little entangled just now.”
“ Indeed! ” I exclaimed, considerably startled by
this new development.
“ Yes, things have taken a rather awkward turn,
though I think he will pull through all right. It is
the usual thing, you know—investments, or perhaps
one should say speculations. He appears to have
sunk a lot of capital in mines—thought he was ‘in
the know,’ not unnaturally; but it seems he wasn’t
after all, and the things have gone wrong, leaving
him with a deal more money than he can afford
locked up and the possibility of a dead loss if they
don’t revive. Then there are these infernal diamonds.
He is not morally responsible, we know; but it is
a question if he is not legally responsible, though the
lawyers think he is not. Anyhow, there is going
to be a meeting of the creditors to-morrow.”
“ And what do you think they will do ? ”
“ Oh, they will, most probably, let him go on for
the present; but, of course, if he is made accountable
for the diamonds there will be nothing for it but
to ‘ go through the hoop,’ as the sporting ﬁnancier
expresses it.”
“ The diamonds were of considerable value, then ? ”
“ From twenty-ﬁve to thirty thousand pounds’
worth vanished with that parcel.”
I whistled. This was a much bigger affair than


72 THE RED THUMB MARK
I had imagined, and I was wondering if Thorndyke
had realised the magnitude of the robbery, when we
arrived at the police court.
“ I suppose our friends have gone inside,” said
Walter. “ They must have got here before us.”
This supposition was conﬁrmed by a constable
of whom we made inquiry, and who directed us to
the entrance to the court. Passing down a passage
and elbowing our way through the throng of idlers,
we made for the solicitor’s box, where we had barely
taken our seats when the case was called. ,
Unspeakably dreary and depressing were the brief
proceedings that followed, and dreadfully suggestive
of the helplessness of even an innocent man on whom
the law has laid its hand and in whose behalf its
inexorable machinery has been set in motion.
The presiding magistrate, emotionless and dry,
dipped his pen while Reuben, who had surrendered
to his bail, was placed in the dock and the charge
read over to him. The counsel representing the
police gave an abstract of the case with the matter-
of-fact air of a house-agent describing an eligible
property. Then, when the plea of “ not guilty ”
had been entered, the witnesses were called. There
were only two, and when the name of the ﬁrst, John
Hornby, was called, I glanced towards the witness-
box with no little curiosity.
I had not hitherto met Mr. Hornby, and as he now
entered the box, I saw an elderly man, tall, ﬂorid,
and well-preserved, but strained and wild in expres-
sion and displaying his uncontrollable agitation by
continual nervous movements which contrasted curi-
ously with the composed demeanour of the accused
man. Nevertheless, he gave his evidence in a per-
fectly connected manner, recounting the events


COMMITTED FOR TRIAL 73
connected with the discovery of the crime in much
the same words as I had heard Mr. Lawley use, though,
indeed, he was a good deal more emphatic than that
gentleman had been in regard to the excellent char-
acter borne by the prisoner.
After him came Mr. Singleton, of the ﬁnger-print
department at Scotland Yard, to whose evidence
I listened with close attention. He produced the
paper which bore the thumb-print in blood (which had
previously been identiﬁed by Mr. Hornby) and a paper
bearing the print, taken by himself, of the prisoner’s
left thumb. These two thumb-prints, he stated,
were identical in every respect.
“ And you are of opinion that the mark on the paper
that was found in Mr. Hornby’s safe, was made by
the prisoner’s left thumb ? ” the magistrate asked
in dry and business-like tones.
“ I am certain of it.”
“ You are of opinion that no mistake is possible ? ”
“ No mistake is possible, your worship. It is a
certainty.”
The magistrate looked at Anstey inquiringly,
whereupon the barrister rose.
“ We reserve our defence, your worship.”
The magistrate then, in the same placid, business-
like manner, committed the prisoner for trial at the
Central Criminal Court, refusing to accept bail for
his appearance, and, as Reuben was led forth from
the dock, the next case was called.
By special favour of the authorities, Reuben was
to be allowed to make his journey to Holloway in
a cab, thus escaping the horrors of the ﬁlthy and
verminous prison van, and while this was being
procured, his friends were permitted to wish him
farewell.


74 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ This is a hard experience, Hornby,” said Thorn-
dyke, when we three were, for a few moments, left
apart from the others; and as he spoke the warmth of
a really sympathetic nature broke through his habitual
impassivity. “ But be of good cheer; I have con-
vinced myself of your innocence and have good hopes
of convincing the world—though this is for your
private car, you understand, to be mentioned to no
one.”
Reuben wrung the hand of this “ friend in need,”
but was unable, for the moment, to speak; and, as
his self-control was evidently strained to the breaking
point, Thorndyke, with a man’s natural instinct,
wished him a hasty good-bye, and passing his hand
through my arm, turned away.
“I wish it had been possible to save the poor
fellow from this delay, and especially from the
degradation of being locked up in a jail,” he exclaimed
regretfully as we walked down the street.
“ There is surely no degradation in being merely
accused of a crime,” I answered, without much con-
viction, however. “ It may happen to the best of
us; and he is still an innocent man in the eyes of the
law.”
“ That, my dear Jervis, you know, as well as I do,
to be mere casuistry,” he rejoined. “ The law pro-
fesses to regard the unconvicted man as innocent;
but how does it treat him? You heard how the
magistrate addressed our friend; outside the court
he would have called him Mr. Hornby. You know
what will happen to Reuben at Holloway. He will
be ordered about by warders, will have a number
label fastened on to his coat, he will be locked in
a cell with a spy-hole in the door, through which
any passing stranger may watch him; his food will


COMMITTED FOR TRIAL 75
be handed to him in a tin pan with a tin knife and
spoon; and he will be periodically called out of his
cell and driven round the exercise yard with a mob
composed, for the most part, of the sweepings of the
London slums. If he is acquitted, he will be turned
loose without a suggestion of compensation or apology
for these indignities or the losses he may have sus-
tained through his detention.”
“ Still I suppose these evils are unavoidable,”
I said.
“ That may or may not be,” he retorted. “My
point is that the presumption of innocence is a pure
ﬁction; that the treatment of an accused man, from
the moment of his arrest, is that of a criminal. How-
ever,” he concluded, hailing a passing hansom,
“this discussion must be adjourned or I shall be
late at the hospital. What are you going to do ? ”
“ I shall get some lunch and then call on Miss Gibson
to let her know the real position.”
“Yes, that will be kind, I think; baldly stated,
the news may seem rather alarming. I was tempted
to thrash the case out in the police court, but it would
not have been safe. He would almost certainly have
been committed for trial after all, and then we
should have shown our hand to the prosecution.”
He sprang into the hansom and was speedily
swallowed up in the trafﬁc, while I turned back
towards the police court to make certain inquiries
concerning the regulations as to visitors at Holloway
prison. At the door I met the friendly inspector
from Scotland Yard, who gave me the necessary
information, whereupon with a certain homely little
French restaurant in my mind I bent my steps in
the direction of Soho.


76 THE RED THUMB MARK
CHAPTER VII
SHOALS AND QUICKSANDS
WHEN I arrived at Endsley Gardens, Miss Gibson
was at home, and to my unspeakable relief, Mrs.
Hornby was not. My veneration for that lady’s
moral qualities was excessive, but her conversation
drove me to the verge of insanity—an insanity not
entirely free from homicidal tendencies.
“ It is good of you to come—though I thought
you would,” Miss Gibson said impulsively, as we
shook hands. “ You have been so sympathetic
and human—both you and Dr. Thorndyke—so free
from professional stiffness. My aunt went off to
see Mr. Lawley directly we got Walter’s telegram.”
“ I am sorry for her,” I said (and was on the point
of adding “ and him,” but fortunately a glimmer of
sense restrained me); “ she will ﬁnd him dry enough.”
“Yes; I dislike him extremely. Do you know
that he had the impudence to advise Reuben to plead
‘ ’ ? ,9
“ He told us he had done so, and got a well-deserved
snubbing from Thorndyke for his pains.”
“ I am so glad,” exclaimed Miss Gibson viciously.
“ But tell me what has happened. Walter simply
said ‘ Transferred to higher court,’ which we agreed
was to mean, ‘ Committed for trial.’ Has the defence
failed ? And where is Reuben ‘? ”
“The defence is reserved. Dr. Thorndyke con-
sidered it almost certain that the case would be sent
for trial, and that being so, decided that it was
essential to keep the prosecution in the dark as to
the line of defence. You see, if the police knew


SHOALS AND QUICKSANDS 77
what the defence was to be they could revise their
own plans accordingly.”
“ I see that,” said she dejectedly, “ but I am
dreadfully disappointed. I had hoped that Dr.
Thorndyke would get the case dismissed. What has
happened to Reuben ? ”
This was the question that I had dreaded, and
now that I had to answer it I cleared my throat and
bent my gaze nervously on the ﬂoor.
“ The magistrate refused bail,” I said after an
uncomfortable pause.
“ Well ‘? ”
“ Consequently Reuben has been—er—detained
in custody.”
“ You don’t mean to say that they have sent
him to prison ? ” she exclaimed breathlessly.
“ Not as a convicted prisoner, you know. He is
merely detained pending his trial.”
“ But in prison ‘3 ” I
“ Yes,” I was forced to admit; “in Holloway prison.”
She looked me stonily in the face for some seconds,
pale and wide-eyed, but silent; then, with a sudden
catch in her breath, she turned away, and, grasping
the edge of the mantel-shelf, laid her head upon her
arm and burst into a passion of sobbing.
Now I am not, in general, an emotional man, nor
even especially impulsive; but neither am I a stock
or a stone or an efﬁgy of wood; which I most surely
must have been if I could have looked without being
deeply moved on the grief, so natural and unselﬁsh,
of this strong, brave, loyal-hearted woman. In
effect, I moved to her side and, gently taking in mine
the hand that hung down, murmured some incoherent
words of consolation in a particularly husky voice.
Presently she recovered herself somewhat and softly


78 THE RED THUMB MARK
withdrew her hand, as she turned towards me drying
her eyes.
“ You must forgive me for distressing you, as I
fear I have,” she said; “for you are so kind, and
I feel that you are really my friend and Reuben’s.”
“ I am indeed, dear Miss Gibson,” I replied, “ and
so, I assure you, is my colleague.”
“ I am sure of it,” she rejoined. “ But I was so
unprepared for this—I cannot say why, excepting
that I trusted so entirely in Dr. Thorndyke—and it
is so horrible and, above all, so dreadfully suggestive
of what may happen. Up to now the whole thing
has seemed like a nightmare—terrifying, but yet
unreal. But now that he is actually in prison, it
has suddenly become a dreadful reality and I am
overwhelmed with terror. Oh! poor boy! What
will become of him ? For pity’s sake, Dr. Jervis,
tell me what is going to happen.”
What could I do ‘? I had heard Thorndyke’s
words of encouragement to Reuben and knew my
colleague well enough to feel sure that he meant all
he had said. Doubtless my proper course would have
been to keep my own counsel and put Miss Gibson
off with cautious ambiguities. But I could not; she
was worthy of more conﬁdence than that.
“ You must not be unduly alarmed about the
future,” I said. “ I have it from Dr. Thorndyke that
he is convinced of Reuben’s innocence, and is hopeful
of being able to make it clear to the world. But I
did not have this to repeat,” I added, with a slight
qualm of conscience.
“ I know,” she said softly, “ and I thank you from
my hea .”
“ And as to this present misfortune,” I continued,
“ you must not let it distress you too much. Try


SHOALS AND QUICKSANDS 79
to think of it as of a surgical operation, which is a
dreadful thing in itself, but is accepted in lieu of
something which is immeasurably more dreadful.”
“ I will try to do as you tell me,” she answered
meekly; “ but it is so shocking to think of a cultivated
gentleman like Reuben, herded with common thieves
and murderers, and locked in a cage like some wild
animal. Think of the ignominy and degradation!”
“ There is no ignominy in being wrongfully accused,”
I said—a little guiltily, I must own, for Thorndyke’s
words came back to me with all their force. But
regardless of this I went on : “ An acquittal will
restore him to his position with an unstained character,
and nothing but the recollection of a passing incon-
venience to look back upon.”
She gave her eyes a ﬁnal wipe, and resolutely put
away her handkerchief.
“ You have given me back my courage,” she said,
“ and chased away my terror. I cannot tell you how
I feel your goodness, nor have I any thank-offering
to make, except the promise to be brave and patient
henceforth, and trust in you entirely.”
She said this with such a grateful smile, and looked
withal so sweet and womanly that I was seized with
an overpowering impulse to take her in my arms.
Instead of this I said with conscious feebleness :
“ I am more than thankful to have been able to give
you any encouragement—which you must remember
comes from me second-hand, after all. It is to Dr.
Thorndyke that we all look for ultimate deliverance.”
“ I know. But it is you who came to comfort me
in my trouble, so, you see, the honours are divided—
and not divided quite equally, I fear, for women are
unreasoning creatures, as, no doubt, your experience
has informed you. I think I hear my aunt’s voice,


80 THE RED THUMB MARK
so you had better escape before your retreat is cut
off. But before you go, you must tell me how and
when I can see Reuben. I want to see him at the
earliest possible moment. Poor fellow! He must
not be allowed to feel that his friends have forgotten
him even for a single instant.”
“ You can see him to-morrow, if you like,” I said;
and, casting my good resolutions to the winds, I
added: “ I shall be going to see him myself, and
perhaps Dr. Thorndyke will go.”
“ Would you let me call at the Temple and go with
you ? Should I be much in the way ? It is rather
an alarming thing to go to a prison alone.”
“ It is not to be thought of,” I answered. “ If
you will call at the Temple—it is on the way—we can
drive to Holloway together. I suppose you are
resolved to go ? It will be rather unpleasant, as
you are probably aware.”
“ I am quite resolved. What time shall I come to
the Temple ? ”
“ About two o’clock, if that will suit you.”
“ Very well. I will be punctual; and now you must
go or you will be caught.”
She pushed me gently towards the door and, hold-
ing out her hand, said—
“ I haven’t thanked you half enough and I never
can. Good-bye ! ”
She was gone, and I stood alone in the street, up
which yellowish Wreaths of fog were beginning to roll.
It had been quite clear and bright when I entered the
house, but now the sky was settling down into a
colourless grey, the light was failing and the houses
dwindling into dim, unreal shapes that vanished at
half their height. Nevertheless I stepped out briskly
and strode along at a good pace, as a young man is


SHOALS AND QUICKSANDS 81
apt to do when his mind is in somewhat of a ferment.
In truth, I had a good deal to occupy my thOughts
and, as will often happen both to young men and old,
those matters that bore most directly upon my own
life and prospects were the ﬁrst to receive attention.
What sort of relations were growing up between
Juliet Gibson and me ? And what was my position ‘?
As to hers, it seemed plain enough; she was wrapped
up in Reuben Hornby and I was her very good friend
because I was his. But for myself, there was no
disguising the fact that I was beginning to take an
interest in her that boded ill for my peace of mind.
Never had I met a woman who so entirely realised
my conception of what a woman should be, nor one
who exercised so great a charm over me. Her strength
and dignity, her softness and dependency, to say
nothing of her beauty, ﬁtted her with the necessary
weapons for my complete and utter subjugation. And
utterly subjugated I was—there was no use in denying
the fact, even though I realised already that the time
would presently come when she would want me no
more and there would remain no remedy for me but
to go away and try to forget her.
But was I acting as a man of honour ? To this I
felt I could fairly answer “ yes,” for I was but doing
my duty, and could hardly act differently if I wished
to. Besides, I was jeopardising no one’s happiness
but my own, and a man may do as he pleases with
his own happiness. No; even Thorndyke could not
accuse me of dishonourable conduct.
Presently my thoughts took a fresh turn and I
began to reﬂect upon what I had heard concerning
Mr. Hornby. Here was a. startling development,
indeed, and I wondered what difference it would make
in Thorndyke’s hypothesis of the crime. What his
G


82 THE RED THUMB MARK
theory was I had never been able to guess, but as
I walked along through the thickening fog I tried
to ﬁt this new fact into our collection of data and
determine its bearings and signiﬁcance.
In this, for a time, I failed utterly. The red thumb-
mark ﬁlled my ﬁeld of vision to the exclusion of all
else. To me, as to everyone else but Thorndyke,
this fact was ﬁnal and pointed to a conclusion that
was unanswerable. But as I turned the story of
the crime over and over, there came to me presently
an idea that set in motion a new and very startling
train of thought.
Could Mr. Hornby himself be the thief? His
failure appeared sudden to the outside world, but
he must have seen difﬁculties coming. There, in-
deed, was the thumb-mark on the leaf which he had
torn from his pocket-block. Yes ! but who had seen
him tear it off ? No one. The fact rested on his
bare statement.
But the thumb-mark ? Well, it was possible
(though unlikely)—still possible—that the mark
might have been made accidentally on some previous
occasion and forgotten by Reuben, or even unnoticed.
Mr. Hornby had seen the “ Thumbograph,” in fact
his own mark was in it, and so would have had his
attention directed to the importance of ﬁnger-prints
in identiﬁcation. He might have kept the marked
paper for future use, and, on the occasion of the
robbery, pencilled a dated inscription on it, and slipped
it into the safe as a sure means of diverting suspicion.
All this was improbable in the highest degree, but
then so was every other explanation of the crime ;
and as to the unspeakable baseness of the deed,
what action is too base for a gambler in difﬁculties ?
I was so much excited and elated by my own


84 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ The Doctor said he should be home by ﬁve,”
he remarked, as he laid the tea-pot on the tray.
“ Then he is a defaulter,” I answered. “ We shall
have to water his tea.”
“ A wonderful punctual man, sir, is the Doctor,”
pursued Polton. “ Keeps his time to the minute,
as a rule, he does.”
“ You can’t keep your time to a minute in a
‘London Particular,’ ” I said a little impatiently,
for I wished to be alone that I might think over
matters, and Polton’s nervous ﬂutterings irritated
me somewhat. He was almost as bad as a female
housekeeper.
The little man evidently perceived my state of
mind, for he stole away silently, leaving me rather
penitent and ashamed, and, as I presently discovered
on looking out of the window, resumed his vigil on
the doorstep. From this coign of vantage he re-
turned after a time to take away the tea-things; and
thereafter, though it was now dark as well as foggy,
I could hear him softly ﬂitting up and down the stairs
with a gloomy stealthiness that at length reduced
me to a condition as nervously apprehensive as his
own.
CHAPTER VIII
A susrrcrous ACCIDENT
THE Temple clock had announced in soft and
conﬁdential tones that it was a quarter to seven,
in which statement it was stoutly supported by its
colleague on our mantelpiece, and still there was
no sign of Thorndyke. It was really a little strange,
for he was the soul of punctuality, and moreover,


A SUSPICIOUS ACCIDENT 85
his engagements were of such a kind as rendered
punctuality possible. I was burning with impatience
to impart my news to him, and this fact, together
with the ghostly proceedings of Polton, worked me
up to a state of nervous tension that rendered either
rest or thought equally impossible. I looked out of
the window at the lamp below, glaring redly through
the fog, and then, opening the door, went out on to
the landing to listen.
At this moment Polton made a silent appearance
on the stairs leading from the laboratory, giving me
quite a start; and I was about to retire into the room
when my ear caught the tinkle of a hansom approach-
ing from Paper Buildings.
The vehicle drew nearer, and at length stopped
opposite the house, on which Polton slid down the
stairs with the agility of a harlequin. A few moments
later I heard his voice ascending from the hall——
“ I do hope, sir, you’re not much hurt ? ”
I ran dowu the stairs and met Thorndyke coming
up slowly with his right hand on Polton’s shoulder.
His clothes were muddy, his left arm was in a sling,
and a black handkerchief under his hat evidently
concealed a bandage.
“ I am not really hurt at all,” Thorndyke replied
cheerily, “ though very disreputable to look at.
Just came a cropper in the mud, Jervis,” he added,
as he noted my dismayed expression. “ Dinner and
a clothes-brush are what I chieﬂy need.” Neverthe-
less, he looked very pale and shaken when he came
into the light on the landing, and he sank into his
easy-chair in the limp manner of a man either very ‘
weak or very fatigued.
“ How did it happen ? ” I asked when Polton had
crept away on tip-toe to make ready for dinner.


A SUSPICIOUS ACCIDENT 87
and then old Langdale insisted on my lying down for
an hour or so in case any symptoms of concussion
should appear. But I was only a triﬂe shaken and
confused. Still, it was a queer affair.”
“ You mean the man pushing you down in that
way ? ”
“ Yes; I can’t make out how his foot got in front
of mine.”
“ You don’t think it was intentional, surely?”
I said.
“ No, of course not,” he replied, but without much
conviction, as it seemed to me; and I was about to
pursue the matter when Polton reappeared, and my
friend abruptly changed the subject.
After dinner I recounted my conversation with
Walter Hornby, watching my colleague’s face with
some eagerness to see what effect this new information
would produce on him. The result was, on the whole,
disappointing. He was interested, keenly interested,
but showed no symptoms of excitement.
“ So John Hornby has been plunging in mines,
eh ? ” he said, when I had ﬁnished. “ He ought to
know better at his age. Did you learn how long he
had been in difﬁculties ? ”
“ No. But it can hardly have been quite sudden
and unforeseen.”
“I should think not,” Thorndyke agreed. “A
sudden slump often proves disastrous to the regular
Stock Exchange gambler who is paying differences
on large quantities of unpaid-for stock. But it looks
as if Hornby had actually bought and paid for these
mines, treating them as investments rather than
speculations, in which case the depreciation would
not have affected him in the same way. It would
be interesting to know for certain.”


88 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ It might have a considerable bearing on the
present case, might it not ? ”
“ Undoubtedly,” said Thorndyke. “ It might bear
- on the case in more ways than one. But you have
some special point in your mind, I think.”
“ Yes. I was thinking that if these embarrassments
had been growing up gradually for some time, they
might have already assumed an acute form at the
time of the robbery.”
“ That is well considered,” said my colleague.
“ But what is the special bearing on the case supposing
it was so ? ”
“ On the supposition,” I replied, “ that Mr. Hornby
was in actual pecuniary difﬁculties at the date of the
robbery, it seems to me possible to construct a
hypothesis as to the identity of the robber.”
“ I should like to hear that hypothesis stated,”
said Thorndyke, rousing himself and regarding me
with lively interest.
“ It is a highly improbable one,” I began with some
natural shyness at the idea of airing my wits before
this master of inductive method; “ in fact, it is almost
fantastic.”
“ Never mind that,” said he. “ A sound thinker
gives equal consideration to the probable and the
improbable.”
Thus encouraged, I proceeded to set forth the theory
of the crime as it had occurred to me on my way home
in the fog, and I was gratiﬁed to observe the close
attention with which Thorndyke listened, and his
little nods of approval at each point that I made.
When I had ﬁnished, he remained silent for some
time, looking thoughtfully into the ﬁre and evidently
considering how my theory and the new facts on
which it was based would ﬁt in with the rest of the


THE PRISONER 93
CHAPTER IX
THE PRISONER
ON the following morning, as I emerged from my
room, I met Polton coming up with a tray (our bed-
rooms were on the attic ﬂoor above the laboratory
and workshop), and I accordingly followed him into
my friend’s chamber.
“ I shan’t go out to-day,” said Thorndyke, “ though
I shall come down presently. It is very inconvenient,
but one must accept the inevitable. I have had a
knock on the head, and, although I feel none the
worse, I must take the proper precautions—rest and
a low diet—until I see that no results are going to
follow. You can attend to the scalp wound and send
round the necessary letters, can’t you ? ”
I expressed my willingness to do all that was
required and applauded my friend’s self-control and
good sense; indeed, I could not help contrasting the
conduct of this busy, indefatigable man, cheerfully
resigning himself to most distasteful inaction, with
the fussy behaviour of the ordinary patient who, with
nothing of importance to do, can hardly be prevailed
upon to rest, no matter how urgent the necessity.
Accordingly, I breakfasted alone, and spent the
morning in writing and despatching letters to the
various persons who were expecting visits from my
colleague.
Shortly after lunch (a very spare one, by the way,
for Polton appeared to include me in the scheme
of reduced diet) my expectant ear caught the tinkle
of a hansom approaching down Crown Office Row.
“ Here comes your fair companion,” said Thorn
dyke, whom I had acquainted with my arrangements


94 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ Tell Hornby, from me, to keep up his courage, and,
for yourself, hear my warning in mind. I should be
sorry indeed if you ever had cause to regret that
you had rendered me the very valuable services for
which I am now indebted to you. Good-bye; don’t
keep her waiting.”
I ran down the stairs and came out of the entry
just as the cabman had pulled up and ﬂung open
the doors.
“ Holloway Prison—main entrance,” I said, as
I stepped up on to the footboard.
“ There ain’t no back door there, sir,” the man
responded, with a grin; and I was glad that neither
the answer nor the grin was conveyed to my fellow-
passenger.
“You are very punctual, Miss Gibson,” I said.
“ It is not half-past one yet.”
“ Yes; I thought I should like to get there by two,
so as to have as long a time with him as is possible
without shortening your interview.”
I looked at my companion critically. She was
dressed with rather more than her usual care, and
looked, in fact, a very ﬁne lady indeed. This circum-
stance, which I noted at ﬁrst with surprise and then
with decided approbation, caused me some inward
discomfort, for I had in my mind a very distinct and
highly disagreeable picture of the visiting arrange-
ments at a local prison in one of the provinces, at
which I had acted temporarily as medical ofﬁcer.
“ I suppose,” I said at length, “it is of no use for
me to re-open the question of the advisability of this
visit on your part ? ”
“ Not the least,” she replied resolutely, “ though
I understand and appreciate your motive in wishing
to do so.”


THE PRISONER 95
“ Then,” said I, “ if you are really decided, it will
be as well for me to prepare you for the ordeal. I
am afraid it will give you a terrible shock.”
“ Indeed?” said she. “ Is it so bad ? Tell me
what it will be like.”
“ In the ﬁrst place,” I replied, “ you must keep
in your mind the purpose of a prison like Holloway.
We are going to see an innocent man—a cultivated
and honourable gentleman. But the ordinary in-
mates of Holloway are not innocent men; for the
most part, the remand cases on the male side are
professional criminals, while the women are either
petty offenders or chronic inebriates. Most of them
are regular customers at the prison—such is the
idiotic state of the law—who come into the reception-
room like travellers entering a familiar hostelry,
address the prison ofﬁcers by name and demand the
usual privileges and extra comforts—the ‘ drunks,’
for instance, generally ask for a dose of bromide to
steady their nerves and a light in the cell to keep away
the horrors. And such being the character of the
inmates, their friends who visit them are naturally
of the same type—the lowest outpourings of the
slums; and it is not surprising to ﬁnd that the arrange-
ments of the prison are made to ﬁt its ordinary in-
mates. The innocent man is a negligible quantity,
and no arrangements are made for him or his visitors.”
“ But shall we not be taken to Reuben’s cell?”
asked Miss Gibson.
“ Bless you ! no,” I answered; and, determined to
give her every inducement to change her mind, I
continued : “ I will describe the procedure as I have
seen it—and a very dreadful and shocking sight I
found it, I can tell you. It was while I was acting
as a prison doctor in the Midlands that I had this


96 THE RED THUMB MARK
experience. I was going my round one morning when,
passing along a passage, I became aware of a strange,
muffled roar from the other side of the wall.
“ ‘ What is that noise ‘3 ’ I asked the warder who was
with me.
“ ‘ Prisoners seeing their friends,’ he answered.
‘ Like to have a look at them, sir ‘? ’
“ He unlocked a small door and, as he threw it open,
the distant, mufﬂed sound swelled into a deafening
roar. I passed through the door and found myself
in a narrow alley at one end of which a warder was
sitting. The sides of the alley were formed by two
immense cages with stout wire bars, one for the
prisoners and the other for the visitors; and each cage
was lined with faces and hands, all in incessant move-
ment, the faces mouthing and grimacing, and the
hands clawing restlessly at the bars. The uproar
was so terriﬁc that no single voice could be distin-
guished, though every one present was shouting his
loudest to make himself heard above the universal
din. The result was a very strange and horrid
illusion, for it seemed as if no one was speaking at
all, but that the noise came from outside, and that
each one of the faces—low, vicious faces, mostly—
was silently grimacing and gibbering, snapping its
jaws and glaring furiously at the occupants of the
opposite cage. It was a frightful spectacle. I could
think of nothing but the monkey-house at the Zoo.
It seemed as if one ought to walk up the alley and
offer nuts and pieces of paper to be torn to pieces.”
“ Horrible!” exclaimed Miss Gibson. “And do
you mean to say that we shall be turned loose into
one of these cages with a herd of other visitors ? ”
“ No. You are not turned loose anywhere in a
prison. The arrangement is this : each cage is divided


98 THE RED THUMB MARK
we found ourselves part of a numerous and very
motley company, for a considerable assemblage of
the prisoners’ friends was awaiting the moment of
admission. I noticed that my companion was observ-
ing our fellow-visitors with a kind of horriﬁed
curiosity, which she strove, however, and not un-
successfully, to conceal; and certainly the appearance
of the majority furnished eloquent testimony to the
failure of crime as a means of worldly advancement.
Their present position was productive of very varied
emotions; some were silent and evidently stricken
with grief; a larger number were voluble and excited,
while a considerable proportion were quite cheerful
and even inclined to be facetious.
At length the great iron gate was unlocked and
our party taken in charge by a warder, who con-
ducted us to that part of the building known as “ the
wing ”; and, in the course of our progress, I could
not help observing the profound impression made
upon my companion by the circumstance that every
door had to be unlocked to admit us and was locked
again as soon as we had passed through.
“ It seems to me,” I said, as we neared our destina-
tion, “ that you had better let me see Reuben ﬁrst;
I have not much to say to him,v and shall not keep you
waiting long.”
“ Why do you think so ? ” she asked, with a shade
of suspicion.
“ Well,” I answered, “ I think you may be a little
upset by the interview, and I should like to see you
into your cab as soon as possible afterwards.”
“ Yes,” she said; “ perhaps you are right, and it
is kind 'of you to be so thoughtful on my account.”
A minute later, accordingly, I found myself shut
into a narrow box, like one of those which considerate


THE PRISONER v99
pawnbrokers provide for their more difﬁdent clients,
and in a similar, but more intense, degree, pervaded
by a subtle odour of uncleanness. The woodwork
was polished to an unctuous smoothness by the friction
of numberless dirty hands and soiled garments, and
the general appearance—taken in at a glance as I
entered—was such as to cause me to thrust my hands
into my pockets and studiously avoid contact with
any part of the structure but the ﬂoor. The end of
the box opposite the door was closed in by a strong
grating of wire—excepting the lower three feet, which
was of wood—and looking through this, I perceived,
behind a second grating, Reuben Hornby, standing
in a similar attitude to my own. He was dressed in
his usual clothes and with his customary neatness,
but his face was unshaven and he wore, suspended
from a button-hole, a circular label bearing the
characters “ B.31 ”; and these two changes in his
exterior carried with them a suggestiveness as subtle
as it was unpleasant, making me more than ever
regretful that Miss Gibson had insisted on coming.
“ It is exceedingly good of you, Dr. Jervis, to come
and see me,” he said heartily, making himself heard
quite easily, to my surprise, above the hubbub of
the adjoining boxes; “ but I didn’t expect you here.
I was told I could see my legal advisers in the
solicitor’s box.”
“ So you could,” I answered. “ But I came here by
choice because I have brought Miss Gibson with me.”
“ I am sorry for that,” he rejoined, with evident
disapproval; “ she oughtn’t to have come among
these riff-raff.”
“ I told her so, and that you wouldn’t like it, but
she insisted.”
“ I know,” said Reuben. “That’s the worst of
H 2


THE PRISONER 101
any case, I shall owe him an immense debt of gratitude
for having stood by me and believed in me when all
the world—except my aunt and J uliet—had con-
demned me.”
He then went on to give me a few particulars of his
prison life, and when he had chatted for a quarter of
an hour or so, I took my leave to make way for Miss
Gibson.
Her interview with him was not as long as I had
expected, though, to be sure, the conditions were not
very favourable either for the exchange of conﬁdences
or for utterances of a sentimental character. The
consciousness that one’s conversation could be over—
heard by the occupants of adjacent boxes destroyed
all sense of privacy, to say nothing of the disturbing
inﬂuence of the warder in the alley-way.
When she rejoined me, her manner was abstracted
and very depressed, a circumstance that gave me
considerable food for reﬂection as we made our way
in silence towards the main entrance. Had she found
Reuben as cool and matter-of-fact as I had? He
was assuredly a very calm and self-possessed lover,
and it was conceivable that his reception of the girl,
strung up, as she was, to an acute pitch of emotion,
might have been somewhat in the nature of an anti-
climax. And then, was it possible that the feeling
was on her side only ? Could it be that the priceless
pearl of her love was cast before—I was tempted to
use the colloquial singular and call him an “ unappre-
ciative swine ! ” The thing was almost unthinkable
to me, and yet I was tempted to dwell upon it; for
when a man is in love—and I could no longer disguise
my condition from myself-he is inclined to be humble
and to gather up thankfully the treasure that is
rejected of another.


102 THE RED THUMB MARK
I was brought up short in these reﬂections by the
clank of the lock in the great iron gate. We entered
together the gloomy vestibule, and a moment later
were let out through the wicket into the courtyard;
and as the lock clicked behind us, we gave a simul-
taneous sigh of relief to ﬁnd ourselves outside the
precincts of the prison, beyond the domain of bolts
and bars.
I had settled Miss Gibson in the cab and given her
address to the driver, when I noticed her looking at
me, as I thought, somewhat wistfully.
“ Can’t I put you down somewhere ? ” she said, in
response to a half-questioning glance from me.
I seized the opportunity with thankfulness and
replied—
“ You might set me down at King’s Cross if it is
not delaying you; ” and giving the word to the cab-
man, I took my place by her side, as the cab started
and a black-painted prison van turned into the
courtyard with its freight of squalid misery.
“ I don’t think Reuben was very pleased to see me,”
Miss Gibson remarked presently, “ but I shall come
again all the same. It is a duty I owe both to him
and to myself.”
I felt that I‘ ought to endeavour to dissuade her,
but the reﬂection that her visits must almost of
necessity involve my companionship, enfeebled my
will. I was fast approaching a state of infatuation.
“ I was so thankful,” she continued, “that you
prepared me. It was a horrible experience to see
the poor fellow caged like a wild beast, with that
dreadful label hanging from his coat; but it would
have been overwhelming if I had not known what
to expect.”
As we proceeded, her spirits revived somewhat,


104 THE RED THUMB MARK
He talked a good deal of Reuben, and I could see
that he was endeavouring to settle in his own mind
the vexed question of her relations with and senti-
ments towards our unfortunate client; but what
conclusions he arrived at I was unable to discover,
for he was by no means communicative after she had
left. Nor was there any repetition of the visit—
greatly to my regret—since, as I have said, he was
able, in a day or two, to resume his ordinary mode
of life.
The ﬁrst evidence I had of his renewed activity
appeared when I returned to the chambers at about
eleven o’clock in the morning, to ﬁnd Polton hovering
dejectedly about the sitting-room, apparently per-
petrating as near an approach to a “ spring clean ”
as could be permitted in a bachelor establishment.
“ Hallo, Polton l ” I exclaimed, “ have you con-
trived to tear yourself away from the laboratory for
an hour or two ? ”
“ No, sir,” he answered gloomily. “ The labora-
tory has torn itself away from me.”
“ What do you mean ‘? ” I asked. _
“ The Doctor has shut himself in and locked the
door, and he says I am not to disturb him. It will
be a cold lunch to-day.”
“ What is he doing in there ‘P ” I inquired.
“ Ah l ” said Polton, “ that’s just what I should
like to know. I’m fair eaten up with curiosity. He
is making some experiments in connection with some
of his cases, and when the Doctor locks himself in to
make experiments, something interesting generally
follows. I should like to know what it is this time.”
“ I suppose there is a keyhole in the laboratory
door ‘? ” I suggested, with a grin.
“ Sir!” he exclaimed indignantly. “ Dr. Jervis,


POLTON IS MYSTIFIED 105
I am surprised at you.” Then, perceiving my face-
tious intent, he smiled also and added : “ But there
is a keyhole if you’d like to try it, though I’ll wager
the Doctor would see more of you than you would
of him.”
“ You are mighty secret about your doings, you
and the Doctor,” I said.
“ Yes,” he answered. “ You see, it’s a queer trade
this of the Doctor’s, and there are some queer secrets
in it. Now, for instance, what do you make of
this ? ”
He produced from his pocket a leather case, whence
he took a piece of paper which he handed to me. On
it was a neatly executed drawing of what looked like
one of a set of chessmen, with the dimensions written
on the margin.
“ It looks like a pawn—one of the Staunton
pattern,” I said.
“ Just what I thought; but it isn’t. I’ve got to
make twenty-four of them, and what the Doctor
is going to do with them fairly beats me.”
“ Perhaps he has invented some new game,” I
suggested facetiously.
“ He is always inventing new games and playing
them mostly in courts of law, and then the other
players generally lose. But this is a puzzler, and no
mistake. Twenty-four of these to be turned up
in the best-seasoned boxwood! What can they be
for ? Something to do with the experiments he is
carrying on upstairs at this very moment, I expect.”
He shook his head, and, having carefully returned
the drawing to his pocket-book, said, in a solemn
tone—“ Sir, there are, times when the Doctor makes
me fairly dance with curiosity. And this is one of
them.”


106 THE RED THUMB MARK
Although not afflicted with a curiosity so acute
as that of Polton, I found myself speculating at
intervals on the nature of my colleague’s experiments
and the purpose of the singular little objects which
he had ordered to be made; but I was unacquainted
with any of the cases on which he was engaged,
excepting that of Reuben Hornby, and with the latter
I was quite unable to connect a set of twenty-four
boxwood chessmen. Moreover, on this day, I was to
accompany Juliet on her second visit to Holloway,
and that circumstance gave me abundant mental
occupation of another kind.
At lunch, Thorndyke was animated and talkative
but not communicative. He “ had some work in the
laboratory that he must do himself,” he said, but
gave no hint as to its nature; and as soon as our meal
\was ﬁnished, he returned to his labours, leaving me
to page up and down the walk, listening with ridicu-
lous eagerness for the sound of the hansom that was
to transport me to the regions of the blest, and—
incidentally—to Holloway Prison.
When I returned to the Temple, the sitting-room
was empty and hideously neat, as the result of
Polton’s spring-cleaning efforts. My colleague was
evidently still at work in the laboratory, and, from
the circumstance that the tea-things were set out on
the table and a kettle of water placed in readiness
on the gas-ring by the ﬁreplace, I gathered that
Polton also was full of business and anxious not to
be disturbed. -’ ’
Accordingly, I lit the gas and made my tea, enliven-
ing my solitude by turning over in my mind the events
of the afternoon.
Juliet had; been charming—as she always was—
frank, friendly and unaffectedly pleased to have my


POLTON IS MYSTIFIED 107
companionship. She evidently liked me and did not
disguise the fact—why should she indeed ?—but
treated me with a freedom, almost affectionate, as
though I had been a favourite brother; which was
very delightful, and would have been more so if I
could have accepted the relationship. As to her
feelings towards me, I had not the slightest misgiving,
and so my conscience was clear; for Juliet was as I
innocent as a child, with the innocence that belongs
to the direct, straightforward nature that neither.
does evil itself nor looks for evil motives in others.
For myself, I was past praying for. The thing was
done and I must pay the price hereafter, content
to reﬂect that I had trespassed against no one but
myself. It was a miserable affair, and many a
heartache did it promise me in the lonely days that
were to come, when I should have said “ good-bye ”
to the Temple and gone back to my old nomadic
life; and yet I would not have had it changed if I
could; would not have bartered the bitter-sweet
memories for dull forgetfulness.
But other matters had transpired in the course of
our drive than those that loomed so large to me in
the egotism of my love. We had spoken of Mr.
Hornby and his affairs, and from our talk there had
emerged certain facts of no little moment to the
inquiry on whiéh I was engaged.
“Misfortunes are proverbially sociable,” Juliet
had remarked, in reference to her adopted uncle.
“ As if this [trouble about Reuben Were not enough,
there are worries in the city. Perhaps you have
heard of them.” '
I ' I replied that Walter had mentioned the matter
to me. - ,
“ Yes,” said Juliet rather viciously; “ I am not
a.


POLTON IS MYSTIFIED 109
thought some horrible crime had been committed;
the envelopes and papers were all smeared with blood
and marked with the print of gory ﬁngers. I remem-
bered it afterwards, when Reuben’s thumb-mark was
identiﬁed, and thought that perhaps one of the papers
might have got into the safe by accident; but Mr.
Hornby told me that was impossible; he tore the
leaf off his memorandum block at the time when he
put away the diamonds.”
Such was the gist of our conversation as the cab
rattled through the streets on the way to the prison;
and certainly it contained matter sufﬁciently im-
portant to draw away my thoughts from other
subjects, more agreeable, but less relevant to the case.
With a sudden remembrance of my duty, I drew
forth my notebook, and was in the act of committing
the statements to writing, when Thorndyke entered
the room.
“ Don’t let me interrupt you, Jervis,” said he. “ I
will make myself a cup of tea while you ﬁnish your
writing, and then you shall exhibit the day’s catch
and hang your nets out to dry.”
I was not long in ﬁnishing my notes, for I was in
a fever of impatience to hear Thorndyke’s comments
on my latest addition to our store of information.
By the time the kettle was boiling my entries were
completed, and I proceeded forthwith to retail to
my colleague those extracts from my conversation
with Juliet that I have just recorded.
He listened, as usual, with deep and critical
attention.
“ This is very interesting and important,” he said,
when I had ﬁnished; “ really, Jervis, you are a most
invaluable coadjutor. It seems that information,
which Would be strictly withheld from the forbidding


110 THE RED THUMB MARK
Jorkins, trickles freely and unasked into the ear of
the genial Spenlow. Now, I suppose you regard
your hypothesis as having received very substantial
conﬁrmation ? ”
“ Certainly, I do.”
“ And very justiﬁably. You see now how com-
pletely you were in the right when you allowed
yourself to entertain this theory of the crime in spite
of its apparent improbability. By the light of these
new facts it has become quite a probable explanation
of the whole affair, and if it could only be shown that
Mr. Hornby’s memorandum block was among the
papers on the table, it would rise to a high degree of
probability. The obvious moral is, never disregard
the improbable. By the way, it is odd that Reuben
failed to recall this occurrence when I questioned him.
Of course, the bloody ﬁnger-marks were not dis-
covered until he had gone, but one would have
expected him to recall the circumstance when I asked
him, pointedly, if he had never left bloody ﬁnger-
prints on any papers.”
“ I must try to ﬁnd out if Mr. Hornby’s memoran-
dum block was on the table and among the marked
papers,” I said.
“ Yes, that would be wise,” he answered, “ though
I don’t suppose the information will be forthcoming.”
My colleague’s manner rather disappointed me.
He had heard my report with the greatest attention,
he had discussed it with animation, but yet he seemed
to attach to the new and—as they appeared to me—
highly important facts an interest that was academic
rather than practical. Of course, his calmness might
be assumed; but this did not seem likely, for John
Thorndyke was far too sincere and digniﬁed a char-
acter to cultivate in private life the artiﬁces of the


POLTON IS MYSTIFIED 111
actor. To strangers, indeed, he presented habitually
a calm and impassive exterior; but this was natural
to him, and was but the outward sign of his even
and judicial habit of mind.
No; there was no doubt that my startling news
had left him unmoved, and this must be for one of
two reasons: either he already knew all that I had
told him (which was perfectly possible), or he had
some other and better means of explaining the crime.
I was turning over these two alternatives, not unob-
served by my watchful colleague, when Polton
entered the room; a broad grin was on his face, and
a drawing-board, that he carried like a tray, bore
twenty-four neatly turned boxwood pieces. ‘
Thorndyke at once entered into the unspoken
jest that beamed from the countenance of his sub-
ordinate.
“ Here is Polton with a problem for you, Jervis,”
he said. “ He assumes that I have invented a new
parlour game, and has been trying to work out the
moves. Have you succeeded yet, Polton ? ”
“ No, sir, I haven’t; but I suspect that one of the
players will be a man in a wig and gown.”
“ Perhaps you are right,” said Thorndyke; “ but
that doesn’t take you very far. Let us hear what
Dr. Jervis has to say.”
“ I can make nothing of them,” I answered.
“ Polton showed me the drawing this morning, and
then was terriﬁed lest he had committed a breach of
conﬁdence, and I have been trying ever since, without
a glimmer of success, to guess what they can be for.”
“ H’m,” grunted Thorndyke, as he sauntered up
and down the room, teacup in hand, “to guess,
eh ? I like not that word ‘ guess ’ in the mouth of
a man of science. What do you mean by a ‘ guess ’ ? ”


114 THE RED THUMB MARK
poor physique and so cannot be a policeman. The
shop-walker or salesman is accustomed to move in
relatively conﬁned spaces, and so acquires a short,
brisk step, and his dress tends to rather exuberant
smartness; the station ofﬁcial patrols long plat-
forms, often at a rapid pace, and so tends to take
long strides, while his dress is digniﬁed and neat
rather than ﬂorid. The last-mentioned character-
istics, you see, appear in the subject of our analysis;
he agrees with the general description of a station-
master. But if we therefore conclude that he is a
stationmaster, we fall into the time-honoured fallacy
of the undistributed middle term—the fallacy that
haunts all brilliant guessers, including the detective,
not only of romance, but too often also of real life.
All that the observed facts justify us in inferring
is that this man is engaged in some mode of life that
necessitates a good deal of standing; the rest is mere
guess-work.”
“It’s wonderful,” said Polton, gazing at the now
distant ﬁgure; “ perfectly wonderful. I should never
have known he was a stationmaster.” With this
and a glance of deep admiration at his employer, he
took his departure.
“You will also observe,” said Thorndyke, with
a smile, “ that a fortunate guess often brings more
credit than a piece of sound reasoning with a less
striking result.”
“ Yes, that is unfortunately the case, and it is
certainly true in the present instance. Your reputa-
tion, as far as Polton is concerned, is now ﬁrmly
established even if it was not before. In his eyes
you are a wizard from whom nothing is hidden. But
to return to these little pieces, as I must call them,
for the lack of a better name. I can form no hypo-


THE AMBUSH 115
thesis as to their use. I seem to have no ‘ departure,’
as the nautical phrase goes, from which to start an
inquiry. I haven’t even the material for guess-work.
Ought I to be able to arrive at any opinion on the
subject ? ”
Thorndyke picked up one of the pieces, ﬁngering
it delicately and inspecting with a critical eye the
ﬂat base on which it stood, and reﬂected for a few
moments.
“ It is easy to trace a connection when one knows
all the facts,” he said at length, “ but it seems to me
that you have the materials from which to form a
conjecture. Perhaps I am wrong, but I think, when
you have had more experience, you will ﬁnd yourself
able to work out a problem of this kind. What is
required is constructive imagination and a rigorous
exactness in reasoning. Now, you are a good
reasoner, and you have recently shown me that you
have the necessary imagination; you merely lack
experience in the use of your faculties. When you
learn my purpose in having these things made—as
you will before long—you will probably be surprised
that their use did not occur to you. And now let
us go forth and take a brisk walk to refresh ourselves
(or perhaps I should say myself) after the day’s
labour.
CHAPTER XI
THE AMBUSH
“ I AM going to ask for your collaboration in
another case,” said Thorndyke, a day or two later.
“ It appears to be one of suicide, but the solicitors
I 2


116 THE RED THUMB MARK
to the ‘ Griffin ’ ofﬁce have asked me to go down to
the place, which is in the neighbourhood of Barnet,
and be present at the post-mortem and the inquest.
They have managed to arrange that the inquest
shall take place directly after the post-moriem, so
that we shall be able to do the whole business in a
single visit.”
“ Is the case one of any intricacy ? ” I asked.
“ I don’t think so,” he answered. “ It looks like
a common suicide; but you can never tell. The
importance of the case at present arises entirely from
the heavy insurance; a verdict of suicide will mean a
gain of ten thousand pounds to the ‘ Griﬁin,’ so,
naturally, the directors are anxious to get the case
settled and not inclined to boggle over a little
expense.”
“ Naturally. And when will the expedition take
place ? ” I asked.
“ The inquest is ﬁxed for to-morrow—what is the
matter ? Does that fall foul of any arrangement of
yours ? ”
“ Oh, nothing of any importance,” I replied hastily,
deeply ashamed of the momentary change of counte-
nance that my friend had been so quick to observe.
“ Well, what is it ? ” persisted Thorndyke. “ You
have got something on.”
“ It is nothing, I tell you, but what can be quite
easily arranged to suit your plans.”
“ Cherchez la—h’m ? ” queried Thorndyke, with
an exasperating grin.
“ Yes,” I answered, turning as red as a pickled
cabbage; “ since you are so beastly inquisitive.
Miss Gibson wrote, on behalf of Mrs. Hornby, asking
me to dine with them en famille to-morrow evening,
and I sent off an acceptance an hour ago.”


118 THE RED THUMB MARK
since you are going to help me in this case, I will set
you your task. The case, as I have said, appears to
be quite simple, but it never does to take the sim-
plicity for granted. Here is the letter from the
solicitors giving the facts as far as they are known at
present. On the shelves there you will ﬁnd Casper,
Taylor, Guy and F errier, and the other authorities
on medical jurisprudence, and I will put out one or
two other books that you may ﬁnd useful. I want you
to extract and make classiﬁed notes of everything
that may bear on such a case as the present one may
turn out to be. We must go prepared to meet any
contingency that may arise. This is my invariable
practice, and even if the case turns out to be quite
simple, the labour is never wasted, for it represents
so much experience gained.”
“ Casper and Taylor are pretty old, aren’t they ? ”
I objected.
“ So is suicide,” he retorted drily. “ It is a
capital mistake to neglect the old authorities. ‘ There
were strong men before Agamemnon,’ and some of
them were uncommonly strong, let me tell you.
Give your best attention to the venerable Casper and
the obsolete Taylor and you will not be without your
reward.”
As a result of these injunctions, I devoted the
remainder of the day to the consideration of the
various methods by which a man might contrive
to effect his exit from the stage of human activities.
And a very engrossing study I found it, and the more
interesting in view of the problem that awaited
solution on the morrow; but yet not so engrossing
but that I was able to ﬁnd time to write a long,
rather intimate and minutely explanatory letter to
Miss Gibson, in which I even mentioned the hour


THE AMBUSH 119
of our return as showing the impossibility of my
keeping my engagement. Not that I had the smallest
fear of her taking offence, for it is an evidence of
my respect and regard for her that I cancelled the
appointment without a momentary doubt that she
would approve of my action; but it was pleasant to
write to her at length and to feel the intimacy of
keeping her informed of the details of my life.
The case, when we came to inquire into it on the
spot, turned out to be a suicide of the most trans-
parent type; whereat both Thorndyke and I were,
I think, a little disappointed—he at having apparently
done so little for a very substantial fee, and I at
having no opportunity for applying my recently
augmented knowledge.
“ Yes,” said my colleague, as we rolled ourselves
up in our rugs in adjacent corners of the railway
carriage, “ it has been a ﬂat affair, and the whole thing
could have been managed by the local solicitor. But
it is not a waste of time after all, for, you see, I have
to do many a day’s work for which I get not a farthing
of payment, nor even any recognition, so that I do
not complain if I occasionally ﬁnd myself receiving
more payment than my actual services merit. And
as to you, I take it that you have acquired a good deal
of valuable knowledge on the subject of suicide, and
knowledge, as the late Lord Bacon remarked with
more truth than originality, is power.”
To this I made no reply, having just lit my pipe
and feeling uncommonly drowsy; and, my companion
having followed my example, we smoked in silence,
becoming more and more somnolent, until the train
drew up in the terminus and we turned out, yawning
and shivering, on to the platform.
“ Bah!” exclaimed Thorndyke, drawing his rug


120 THE RED THUMB MARK
round his shoulders; “ this is a cheerless hour—a
quarter past one. See how chilly and miserable
all these poor devils of passengers look. Shall we
cab it or walk ? ”
“ I think a sharp walk would rouse our circulation
after sitting huddled up in the carriage for so long,”
I answered.
“So do I,” said Thorndyke, “so let us away;
hark forward! and also Tally Ho! In fact one
might go so far as to say Yoicks! That gentleman
appears to favour the strenuous life, if one may
judge by the size of his sprocket-wheel.”
He pointed to a bicycle that was drawn up by the
kerb in the approach—a machine of the road-racer
type, with an enormous sprocket—wheel, indicating
a gear of, at least, ninety.
“ Some scorcher or amateur racer, probably,” I
said, “ who takes the opportunity of getting a spin
on the wood pavement when the streets are empty.”
I looked round to see if I could identify the owner,
but the machine appeared to be, for the moment,
taking care of itself.
King’s Cross is one of those districts of which the
inhabitants are slow in settling down for the night,
and even at a quarter past one in the morning its
streets are not entirely deserted. Here and there
the glimmer of a street lamp or the far-reaching ray
from a tall electric light reveals the form of some
nocturnal prowler creeping along with cat-like stealthi-
ness, or bursting, cat-like, into unmelodious song.
Not greatly desirous of the society of these roysterers,
we crossed quickly from the station into the Gray’s
Inn Road, now silent and excessively dismal in aspect,
and took our way along the western side. We had
turned the curve and were crossing Manchester


THE AMBUSH 121
Street, when a series of yelps from ahead announced
the presence of a party of merry-makers, whom we
were not yet able to see, however, for the night was
an exceptionally dark one; but the sounds of revelry
continued to increase in volume as we proceeded,
until, as we passed Sidmouth Street, we came in
sight of the revellers. They were some half-dozen
in number, all of them roughs of the hooligan type,
and they were evidently in boisterous spirits, for,
as they passed the entrance to the Royal Free Hospi-
tal, they halted and battered furiously at the gate.
Shortly after this exploit they crossed the road on to
our side, whereupon Thorndyke caught my arm and
slackened his pace.
“ Let them draw ahead,” said he. “ It is a wise
precaution to give all hooligan gangs a very wide
berth at this time of night. We had better turn
down Heathcote Street and cross Mecklenburgh
Square.”
We continued to walk on at reduced speed until
we reached Heathcote Street, into which we turned
and so entered Mecklenburgh Square, where we
mended our pace once more.
“ The hooligan,” pursued Thorndyke, as we walked
briskly across the silent square, “ covers a multitude
of sins, ranging from highway robbery with violence
and paid assassination (technically known as ‘ bash-
ing ’) down to the criminal folly of the philanthropic
magistrate, who seems to think that his function in
the economy of nature is to secure the survival of
the unﬁttest. There goes a cyclist along Guildford
Street. I wonder if that is our strenuous friend from
the station. If so, he has slipped past the hooligans.”
We were just entering Doughty Street, and, as
Thorndyke spoke, a man on a bicycle was visible


122 THE RED THUMB MARK
for an instant at the crossing of the two streets.
When we reached Guildford Street we both looked
down the long, lamp-lighted vista, but the cyclist
had vanished.
“ We had better go straight on into Theobald’s
Road,” said Thorndyke, and we accordingly pursued
our way up the ﬁne old-world street, from whose tall
houses our footfalls echoed, so that we seemed to be
accompanied by an invisible multitude, until we
reached that part where it unaccountably changes
its name and becomes John Street.
“ There always seems to me something very pathetic
about these old Bloomsbury streets,” said Thorndyke,
“ with their faded grandeur and digniﬁed seediness.
They remind me of some prim and aged gentlewoman
in reduced circumstances who—Hallo! What was
that ‘2 ”
A faint, sharp thud from behind had been followed
instantly by the shattering of a ground-ﬂoor window
in front.
We both stopped dead and remained, for a couple
of seconds, staring into the gloom, from whence the
ﬁrst sound had come ; then Thorndyke darted
diagonally across the road at a swift run and I
immediately followed. _ '
At the moment when the affair happened we
had gone about forty yards up John Street, that is,
from the place where it is crossed by Henry Street,
and we now raced across the road to the further
corner of the latter street. When we reached it,
however, the little thoroughfare was empty, and,
as we paused for a moment, no sound of retreating
footsteps broke the silence.
“ The shot certainly came from here! ” said
Thorndyke; “ come on,” and he again broke into a


THE AMBUSH 123
run. A few yards up the street a mews turns off
to the left, and into this my companion plunged,
motioning me to go straight on, which I accordingly
did, and in a few paces reached the top of the street.
Here a narrow thoroughfare, with a broad, smooth
pavement, bears off to the left, parallel with the
mews, and, as I arrived at the corner and glanced
up the little street, I saw a man on a bicycle gliding
swiftly and silently towards Little James’ Street.
With a mighty shout of “Stop thief!” I started
in hot pursuit, but, though the man’s feet were
moving in an apparently leisurely manner, he drew
ahead at an astonishing pace, in spite of my efforts
to overtake him; and it then dawned upon me that
the slow revolutions of his feet were due, in reality,
to the unusually high gear of the machine that he was
riding. As I realised this, and at the same moment
recalled the bicycle that we had seen in the station,
the fugitive swung round into Little James’ Street
and vanished.
The speed at which the man was travelling made
further pursuit utterly futile, so I turned and walked
back, panting and perspiring from the unwonted
exertion. As I re-entered Henry Street, Thorndyke
emerged from the mews and halted on seeing me.
“ Cyclist ? ” he asked laconically, as I came up.
“ Yes,” I answered; “ riding a machine geared
up to about ninety.”
“ Ah! he must have followed us from the station,”
said Thorndyke. “ Did you notice if he was carrying
anything ? ”
“ He had a walking-stick in his hand. I didn’t
see anything else.”
“ What sort of walking-stick ? ”
“ I couldn’t see very distinctly. It was a stoutish


124 THE RED THUMB MARK
stick—I should say a Malacca, probably—and it had
what looked like a horn handle. I could see that as
he passed a street lamp.”
“ What kind of lamp had he ? ”
“ I couldn’t see; but, as he turned the corner, I
noticed that it seemed to burn very dimly.”
“ A little vaseline, or even oil, smeared on the
outside of the glass will reduce the glare of a lamp
very appreciably,” my companion remarked, ‘ especi-
ally on a dusty road. Ha! here is the proprietor of
the broken window. He wants to know, you know.”
We had once more turned into John Street and
now perceived a man, standing on the wide doorstep
of the house with the shattered window, looking
anxiously up and down the street. '
“ Do either of you gents know anything about this
here ‘? ” he asked, pointing to the broken pane.
“ Yes,” said Thorndyke, “ we happened to be
passing when it was done; in fact,” he added, “ I
rather suspect that the missile, whatever it was,
was intended for our beneﬁt.”
“ Oh! ” said the man. “ Who done it ? ”
“ That I can’t say,” replied Thorndyke. “ Who-
ever he was, he made off on a bicycle and we were
unable to catch him.”
“ Oh ! ” said the man once more, regarding us
with growing suspicion. “ On a bicycle, hay ! Dam
funny, ain’t it ‘2 What did he do it with ? ”
“ That is what I should like to ﬁnd out,” said
Thorndyke. “ I see this house is empty.”
“ Yes, it’s empty—leastways it’s to let. I’m the
caretaker. But what’s that got to do with it ‘? ”
“ Merely this,” answered Thorndyke, “ that the
object—stone, bullet or whatever it may have been
—was aimed, I believe, at me, and I should like to


THE AMBUSH 125
ascertain its nature. Would you do me the favour
of permitting me to look for it ? ”
The caretaker was evidently inclined to refuse
this request, for he glanced suspiciously from my
companion to me once or twice before replying, but,
at length, he turned towards the open door and
grufﬂy invited us to enter.
A parafﬁn lamp was on the ﬂoor in a recess of the
hall, and this our conductor took up when he had
closed the street door.
“ This is the room,” he said, turning the key and
thrusting the door open; “ the library they call it,
but it’s the front parlour in plain English.” He
entered and, holding the lamp above his head, stared
balefully at the broken window.
Thorndyke glanced quickly along the ﬂoor in the
direction that the missile would have taken, and
then said—
“ Do you see any mark on the wall there ? ”
As he spoke, he indicated the wall opposite the
window, which obviously could not have been struck
by a projectile entering with such extreme obliquity;
and I was about to point out this fact when I fortu-
nately remembered the great virtue of silence.
Our friend approached the wall, still holding up
the lamp, and scrutinised the surface with close
attention; and while he was thus engaged, I observed
Thorndyke stoop quickly and pick up something,
which he deposited carefully, and without remark,
in his waistcoat pocket.
“ I don’t see no bruise anywhere,’
taker, sweeping his hand over the wall.
“ Perhaps the thing struck this wall,” suggested
Thorndyke, pointing to the one that was actually in
the line of ﬁre. “ Yes, of course,” he added, “it
,
said the care-


126 THE RED THUMB MARK
would be this one—the shot came from Henry
Street.”
The caretaker crossed the room and threw the light
of his lamp on the wall thus indicated.
“Ah! here we are!” he exclaimed, with gloomy
satisfaction, pointing to a small dent in which the
wall-paper was turned back and the plaster exposed;
“looks almost like a bullet mark, but you say you
didn’t hear no report.”
“ No,” said Thorndyke, “ there was no report; it
must have been a catapult.”
The caretaker set the lamp down on the ﬂoor and
proceeded to grope about for the projectile, in which
operation we both assisted; and I could not suppress
a faint smile as I noted the earnestness with which
Thorndyke peered about the ﬂoor in search of the mis-
sile that was quietly reposing in his waistcoat pocket. '
We were deep in our investigations when there was
heard an uncompromising double knock at the street
door, followed by the loud pealing of a bell in the
basement.
“ Bobby, I suppose,” growled the caretaker.
“ Here’s a blooming fuss about nothing.” He caught
up the lamp and went out, leaving us in the dark.
“ I picked it up, you know,” said Thorndyke,
when we were alone.
“ I saw you,” I answered.
“ Good; I applaud your discretion,” he rejoined.
The caretaker’s supposition was correct. When he
returned, he was accompanied by a burly constable,
who saluted us with a cheerful smile and glanced
facetiously round the empty room.
“ Our boys,” said he, nodding towards the broken
window; “ they’re playful lads, that they are. You
were passing when it happened, sir, I hear.”


THE AMBUSH 127
“ Yes,” answered Thorndyke; and he gave the
constable a brief account of the occurrence, which
the latter listened to, notebook in hand.
“ Well,” said he when the narrative was concluded,
“ if those hooligan boys are going to take to cata-
pults they’ll make things lively all round.”
“ You ought to run some of ’em in,” said the
caretaker.
“ Run ’em in ! ” exclaimed the constable in a tone
of disgust; “ yes! And then the magistrate will
tell ’em to be good boys and give ’em ﬁve shillings
out of the poor-box to buy illustrated Testaments.
I’d Testament them, the worthless varmints ! ”
He rammed his notebook ﬁercely into his pocket
and stalked out of the room into the street, whither
we followed.
“ You’ll ﬁnd that bullet or stone when you sweep
up the room,” he said, as he turned on to his beat;
“ and you’d better let us have it. Good night, sir.”
He strolled off towards Henry Street, while
Thorndyke and I resumed our journey southward.
“ Why were you so secret about that projectile ‘3 ”
I asked my friend as we walked up the street.
“ Partly to avoid discussion with the caretaker,”
he replied; “ but principally because I thought it
likely that a constable would pass the house and,
seeing the light, come in to make inquiries.”
“ And then? ”
“ Then I should have had to hand over the object
to him.” -
“ And why not ? Is the object a specially inter-
esting one ‘2 ”
“ It is highly interesting to me at the present
moment,” replied Thorndyke, with a chuckle, “ be-
cause I have not examined it. I have a theory_ as


128 THE RED THUMB MARK
to its nature, which theory I should like to test
before taking the police into my conﬁdence.”
“ Are you going to take me into your conﬁdence ? ”
I asked.
“ When we get home, if you are not too sleepy,”
he replied.
On our arrival at his chambers, Thorndyke desired
me to light up and clear one end of the table while
he went up to the workshop to fetch some tools. I
turned back the table cover, and, having adjusted
the gas so as to light this part of the table, waited
in some impatience for my colleague’s return. In a
few minutes he re-entered bearing a small vice, a
metal saw and a wide-mouthed bottle.
“ What have you got in that bottle ? ” I asked,
perceiving a metal object inside it.
“ That is the projectile, which I have thought ﬁt
to rinse in distilled water, for reasons that will pre-
sently appear.”
He agitated the bottle gently for a minute or so,
and then, with a pair of dissecting forceps, lifted out
the object and held it above the surface of the water
to drain, after which he laid it carefully on a piece
of blotting-paper.
I stooped over the projectile and examined it with
great curiosity, while Thorndyke stood by regarding
me with almost equal interest.
“ Well,” he said, after watching me in silence for
some time, “ what do you see ? ”
“ I see a small brass cylinder,” I answered, “ about
two inches long and rather thicker than an ordinary
lead pencil. One end is conical, and there is a small
hole at the apex which seems to contain a steel
point; the other end is ﬂat, but has in the centre a
small square projection such as might ﬁt a watch-


THE AMBUSH 129
key. I notice also a small hole in the side of the
cylinder close to the ﬂat end. The thing looks like
a miniature shell, and appears to be hollow.”
“ It is hollow,” said Thorndyke. “ You must have
observed that, when I held it up to drain, the water
trickled out through the hole at the pointed end.”
“ Yes, I noticed tha .”
“ Now take it up and shake it.”
I did so and felt some heavy object rattle inside it.
“ There is some loose body inside it,” I said,
“ which ﬁts it pretty closely, as it moves only in the
long diameter.”
“ Quite so; your description is excellent. And
now, what is the nature of this projectile ? ”
“ I should say it is a miniature shell or explosive
bullet.”
“ Wrong ! ” said Thorndyke. “ A very natural
inference, but a wrong one.”
“ Then what is the thing ? ” I demanded, my
' curiosity still further aroused.
“ I will show you,” he replied. “ It is something
much more subtle than an explosive bullet—which
would really be a rather crude appliance—admirably
thought out and thoroughly well executed. We
have to deal with a most ingenious and capable man.”
I was fain to laugh at his enthusiastic appreciation
of the methods of his would-be assassin, and the
humour of the situation then appeared to dawn on
him, for he said, with an apologetic smile—-
“ I am not expressing approval, you must under-
stand, but merely professional admiration. It is
this class of criminal that creates the necessity for
my services. He is my patron, so to speak; my ulti—
mate employer. For the common crook can be dealt
with quite efficiently by the common policeman! ”
K


THE AMBUSH 131
driven inside the bullet when the latter struck the
wall. Let us replace it in its original position.”
He laid the end of a small ﬂat ﬁle against the end
of the rod and pressed it ﬁrmly, when the rod slid
through the hole until it projected an inch beyond
the apex of the cone. Then he handed the projectile
back to me.
A single glance at the point of the steel rod made
the whole thing clear, and I gave a whistle of con-
sternation; for the “ rod ” was a ﬁne tube with a
sharply pointed end.
“ The infernal scoundrel ! ” I exclaimed; “it is
a hypodermic needle.”
“ Yes. A veterinary hypodermic, of extra large
bore. Now you see the subtlety and ingenuity of
the whole thing. If he had had a reasonable chance
he would certainly have succeeded.”
“You speak quite regretfully,” I said, laughing
again at the oddity of his attitude towards the
assassin.
“ Not at all,” he replied. “ I have the character
of a single-handed player, but even the most self-
reliant man can hardly make a post-mortem on him-
self. I am merely appreciating an admirable piece
of mechanical design most efﬁciently carried out.
Observe the completeness of the thing, and the way
in which all the necessities of the case are foreseen
and met. This projectile was discharged from a
powerful air-gun—the walking-stick form—provided
with a force-pump and key. The barrel of that gun
was riﬂed.”
“ How do you know that ? ” I asked.
“ Well, to begin with, it would be useless to ﬁt a
needle to the projectile unless the latter was made to
travel with the point forwards; but there is direct
x 2


132 THE RED THL'MB MARK
evidence that the barrel was riﬂed. You notice
the little square projection on the back surface of
the cylinder. That was evidently made to fit a
washer or wad—probably a thin plate of soft metal
which would be driven by the pressure from behind
into the grooves of the riﬁing and thus give a spinning
motion to the bullet. When the latter left the barrel,
the wad would drop 05, leaving it free.”
“ I see. I was wondering what the square projec-
tion was for. It is, as you say, extremely ingenious.”
“ Highly ingenious,” said Thorndyke, enthusias-
tically, “ and so is the whole device. See how
perfectly it would have worked but for a mere fluke
and for the complication of your presence. Sup-
posing that I had been alone, so that he could have
approached to a shorter distance. In that case he
would not have missed, and the thing would have
been done. You see how it was intended to be done,
I suppose ? ”
“ I think so,” I answered; “ but I should like to
hear your account of the process.”
“ Well, you see, he ﬁrst ﬁnds out that I am return-
ing by a late train—which he seems to have done—
and he waits for me at the terminus. Meanwhile
he ﬁlls the cylinder with a solution of a powerful
alkaloidal poison, which is easily done by dipping
the needle into the liquid and sucking at the small
hole near the back end, when the piston will be
drawn up and the liquid will follow it. You notice
that the upper side of the piston is covered with
vaseline—introduced through the hole, no doubt—
which would prevent the poison from coming out into
the mouth, and make the cylinder secure from
leakage. I On my arrival, he follows me on his bicycle
until I pass through a sufﬁciently secluded neigh-


THE AMBUSH 183
bourhood. Then he approaches me, or passes me and
waits round a corner, and shoots at pretty close
range. It doesn’t matter where he hits me; all
parts are equally vital, so he can aim at the middle
of my back. Then the bullet comes spinning through
the air point foremost; the needle passes through
the clothing and enters the ﬂesh, and, as the bullet
is suddenly stopped, the heavy piston ﬂies down
by its own great momentum and squirts out a jet of
the poison into the tissues. The bullet then dis-
engages itself and drops on to the ground.
“ Meanwhile, our friend has mounted his bicycle
and is off, and when I feel the prick of the needle, I
turn, and, without stopping to look for the bullet,
immediately give chase. I am, of course, not able
to overtake a man on a racing machine, but still I
follow him some distance. Then the poison begins
to take effect—the more rapidly from the violent
exercise—and presently I drop insensible. Later on,
my body is found. There are no marks of violence,
and probably the needle-puncture escapes observa-
tion at the post-mortem, in which case the verdict will
be death from heart-failure. Even if the poison
and the puncture are discovered, there is no clue.
The bullet lies some streets away, and is probably
picked up by some boy or passing stranger, who
cannot conjecture its use, and who would never
connect it with the man who was found dead. You
will admit that the whole plan has been worked out
with surprising completeness and foresight.”
“ Yes,” I answered; “ there is no doubt that the
fellow is a most infernally clever scoundrel. May I
ask if you have any idea who he is ‘? ”
“ Well,” Thorndyke replied, “ seeing that, as
Carlyle has unkindly pointed out, clever people are


134 THE RED THUMB MARK
not in an overwhelming majority, and that, of the
clever people whom I know, only a very few are
interested in my immediate demise, I am able to
form a fairly probable conjecture.”
“ And what do you mean to do ? ”
“ For the present I shall maintain an attitude of
masterly inactivity and avoid the night air.”
“ But, surely,” I exclaimed, “ you will take some
measures to protect yourself against attempts of this
kind. You can hardly doubt now that your accident
in the fog was really an attempted murder.”
“ I never did doubt it, as a matter of fact, although
I prevaricated at the time. But I have not enough
evidence against this man at present, and, conse-
quently, can do nothing but show that I suspect him,
which would be foolish. Whereas, if I lie low, one
of two things will happen; either the occasion for
my removal (which is only a'temporary one) will
pass, or he will commit himself—will put a deﬁnite
clue into my hands. Then we shall ﬁnd the air-cane,
the bicycle, perhaps a little stock of poison, and
certain other triﬂes that I have in my mind, which
will be good conﬁrmatory evidence, though insufﬁcient
in themselves. And now, I think, I must really
adjourn this meeting, or we shall be good for nothing
to-morrow.”
CHAPTER XII
1'r MIGHT HAVE BEEN
IT was now only a week from the date on which
the trial was to open. In eight days the mystery
wOuld almost certainly be solved (if it was capable


136 THE RED THUMB MARK
arise from my efforts to escape ? By all of which it
may be perceived that my disease had reached a
very advanced stage, and that I was unequal to those
tactics of concealment that are commonly attributed
to the ostrich.
A sharp rap of the knocker announced the arrival
of the disturber of my peace, and when I opened the
door Anstey walked in with the air of a man to whom
an hour more or less is of no consequence whatever.
He shook my hand with mock solemnity, and, seating
himself upon the edge of the table, proceeded to roll
a cigarette with exasperating deliberation.
“ I infer,” said he, “ that our learned brother is
practising parlour magic upstairs, or peradventure
he has gone on a journey ? ”
“ He has a consultation this morning,” I answered.
“ Was he expecting you ? ”
“ Evidently not, or he would have been here. No,
I just looked in to ask a question about the case of
your friend Hornby. You know it comes on for trial
next week ? ”
“ Yes; Thorndyke told me. What do you think
of Hornby’s prospects ? Is he going to be convicted,
or will he get an acquittal ? ”
“ He will be entirely passive,” replied Anstey,
“ but we ”—here he slapped his chest impressively—
“ are going to secure an acquittal. You will be
highly entertained, my learned friend, and Mr. The
Enemy will be excessively surprised.” He inspected
the newly-made cigarette with a critical air and
chuckled softly.
“.You seem pretty conﬁdent,” I remarked.
“ I am,” he answered, “ though Thorndyke con-
siders failure possible—which, of course, it is if the
jury-box should chance to be ﬁlled with microcephalic


IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN 137
idiots and the judge should prove incapable of under-
standing simple technical evidence. But we hope
that neither of these things will happen, and, if they
do not, we feel pretty safe. By the way, I hope I am
not divulging your principal’s secrets ? ”
“ Well,” I replied, with a smile, “ you have been
more explicit than Thorndyke ever has.”
“ Have I ? ” he exclaimed, with mock anxiety;
“ then I must swear you to secrecy. Thorndyke
is so very close——and he is quite right too. I never
cease admiring his tactics of allowing the enemy to
fortify and barricade the entrance that he does not
mean to attack. But I see you are wishing me at the
devil, so give me a cigar and I will go—though not to
that particular destination.”
“ Will you have one of Thorndyke’s special brand ‘? ”
I asked malignantly.
“ What ! those foul Trichinopolies ? Not while
brown paper is to be obtained at every stationer’s;
I’d sooner smoke my own wig.”
I tendered my own case, from which he selected a
cigar with anxious care and much snifﬁng; then he
bade me a ceremonious adieu and departed down the
stairs, blithely humming a melody from the latest
comic opera.
He had not left more than ﬁve minutes when a soft
and elaborate rat-tat from the little brass knocker
brought my heart into my mouth. I ran to the door
and ﬂung it open, revealing Juliet standing on the
threshold.
“ May I come in ? ” she asked. “ I want to have
a few words with you before we start.”
I looked at her with some anxiety, for she was
manifestly agitated, and the hand that she held out
to me trembled.


140 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ I know it should,” murmured Juliet remorsefully;
“ please forgive me for my want of faith.”
“ But,” I continued, “ I can quote you the words
of one to whose opinions you will attach more weight.
Mr. Anstey was here less than half-an-hour ago ”
“ Do you mean Reuben’s counsel ? ”
‘S Yes.’,
“And what did he say? Oh, do tell me what he said.”
“ He said, in brief, that he was quite conﬁdent of
obtaining an acquittal, and that the prosecution would
receive a great surprise. He seemed highly pleased
with his brief, and spoke with great admiration of
Thorndyke.”
“ Did he really say that—that he was conﬁdent of
an acquittal ? ” Her voice was breathless and un-
steady, and she was clearly, as she had said, quite
unstrung. “ What a relief it is,” she murmured
ineoherently; “ and so very, very kind of you ! ”
She wiped her eyes and laughed a queer, shaky little
laugh; then, quite suddenly, she burst into a passion
of sobbing.
Hardly conscious of what I did, I drew her gently
towards me, and rested her head on my shoulder
whilst I whispered into her ear I know not what words
of consolation; but I am sure that I called her “ dear
Juliet,” and probably used other expressions equally
improper and reprehensible. Presently she recovered
herself, and, having dried her eyes, regarded me
somewhat shamefacedly, blushing hotly, but smiling
very sweetly nevertheless.
- “ I am ashamed of myself,” she said, “ coming here
and weeping on your bosom like a great baby. It is
to be hoped that your other clients do not behave in
this way.”
Whereat we both laughed heartily, and, our


IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN 141
emotional equilibrium being thus restored, we began
to think of the object of our meeting.
“ I am afraid I have wasted a great deal of time,”
said Juliet, looking at her watch. “ Shall we be too
late, do you think ? ”
“ I hope not,” I replied, “ for Reuben will be look- '
ing for us; but we must hurry.”
I caught up my hat, and we went forth, closing the
oak behind us, and took our way up King’s Bench
Walk in silence, but with a new and delightful sense
of intimate comradeship. I glanced from time to
time at my companion, and noted that her cheek still
bore a rosy ﬂush, and when she looked at me there
was a sparkle in her eye, and a smiling softness in her
glance, that stirred my heart until I trembled with
the intensity of the passion that I must needs conceal.
And even while I was feeling that I must tell her all,
and have done with it, tell her that I was her abject
slave, and she my goddess, my queen; that in the
face of such a love as mine no man could have any
claim upon her; even then, there arose the still, small
voice that began to call me an unfaithful steward and
to remind me of a duty and trust that were sacred
even beyond love.
In Fleet Street I hailed a cab, and, as I took my
seat beside my fair companion, the voice began to
wax and speak in bolder and sterner accents.
“ Christopher Jervis,” it said, “ what is this
that you are doing ? Are you a man of honour or
nought but a mean, pitiful blackguard ‘f You, the
trusted agent of this poor, misused gentleman, are
you not planning in your black heart how you shall
rob him of that which, if he is a man at all, must be
more to him than his liberty, or even his honour ‘I
Shame on you for a miserable weakling I Have done


142 THE RED THUMB MARK
with these philanderings and keep your covenants
like a gentleman—or, at least, an honest man ! ”
At this point in my meditations Juliet turned to-
wards me with a coaxing smile.
“ My legal adviser seems to be revolving some deep
and weighty matter,” she said.
I pulled myself together and looked at her—at her
sparkling eyes and rosy, dimpling cheeks, so Winsome
and lovely and lovable.
“ Come,” I thought, “ I must put an end to this
at once, or I am lost.” But it cost me a very agony
of effort to do it—which agony, I trust, may be duly
set to my account by those who may sit in judgement
on me.
“ Your legal adviser, Miss Gibson,” I said (and at
that “ Miss Gibson ” I thought she looked at me a
little queerly), “ has been reﬂecting that he has acted
considerably beyond his jurisdiction.”
“ In what respect ‘2 ” she asked.
“ In passing on to you information which was given
to him in very strict conﬁdence, and, in fact, with an
implied promise of secrecy on his part.”
“ But the information was not of a very secret
character, was it ‘2 ”
“ More so than it appeared. You see, Thorndyke
thinks it so important not to let the prosecution
suspect that he has anything up his sleeve, that he
has kept even Mr. Lawley in the dark, and he has never
said as much to me as Anstey did this morning.”
“ And now you are sorry you told me; you think I
have led you into a breach of trust. Is it not so ‘2 ”
She spoke without a trace of petulance, and her tone of
digniﬁed self-accusation made me feel a veritable worm.
“ My dear Miss Gibson,” I expostulated, “ you
entirely misunderstand me. I am not in the least


IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN 143
sorry that I told you. How could I have done other-
wise under the circumstances ? But I want you to
understand that I have taken the responsibility of
communicating to you what is really a professional
secret, and that you are to consider it as such.”
“ That was how I understood it,” replied Juliet;
“ and you may rely upon me not to utter a syllable
on the subject to anyone.”
I thanked her for this promise, and then, by way
of making conversation, gave her an account in detail
of Anstey’s visit, not even omitting the incident of
the cigar.
“ And are Dr. Thorndyke’s cigars so extra-
ordinarily bad ? ” she asked.
“Not at all,” I replied; “ only they are not to
every man’s taste. The Trichinopoly cheroot is
Thorndyke’s one dissipation, and, I must say, he
takes it very temperately. Under ordinary circum-
stances he smokes a pipe; but after a specially
heavy day’s work, or on any occasion of festivity or
rejoicing, he indulges in a Trichinopoly, and he smokes
the very best that can be got.”
“ So even the greatest men have their weaknesses,”
Juliet moralised; “but I wish I had known Dr.
Thorndyke’s sooner, for Mr. Hornby had a large box
of Trichinopoly cheroots given to him, and I believe
they were exceptionally ﬁne ones. However, he
tried one and didn’t like it, so he transferred the whole
consignment to Walter, who smokes all sorts and
conditions of cigars.”
So we talked on from one commonplace to another,
'and each more conventional than the last. In my
nervousness, I overdid my part, and having broken
the ice, proceeded to smash it to impalpable fragments.
Endeavouring merely to be unemotional and to avoid


144 THE RED THUMB MARK
undue intimacy of manner, I swung to the opposite
extreme and became almost stiﬁ ; and perhaps the more
so since I was writhing with the agony of repression.
Meanwhile a corresponding change took place in
my companion. At ﬁrst her manner seemed doubt-
ful and bewildered; then she, too, grew more distant
and polite and less disposed for conversation. Perhaps
her conscience began to rebuke her, or it may be that
my coolness suggested to her that her conduct had not
been quite of the kind that would have commended
itself to Reuben. But however that may have been,
we continued to draw farther and farther apart; and
in that short half-hour we retraced the steps of our
growing friendship to such purpose that, when we
descended from the cab at the prison gate, we seemed
more like strangers than on the ﬁrst day that we met.
It was a miserable ending to all our delightful com-
radeship, and yet what other end could one expect
in this world of cross purposes and things that might
have been ? In the extremity of my wretchedness
I could have wept on the bosom of the portly warder
who opened the wicket, even as Juliet had wept upon
mine; and it was almost a relief to me, when our brief
visit was over, to ﬁnd that we should not return
together to King’s Cross as was our wont, but that
Juliet would go back by omnibus that she might do
some shopping in Oxford Street, leaving me to walk
home alone.
I saw her into her omnibus, and stood on the pave-
ment looking wistfully at the lumbering vehicle as it
dwindled in the distance. At last, with a sigh of
deepest despondency, I turned my face homeward,
and, walking like one in a dream, retraced the route
over which I had journeyed so often of late and with
such different sensations.


MURDER BY POST 145
CHAPTER XIII
MURDER BY POST
THE next few days were perhaps the most unhappy
that I have known. My life, indeed, since I had left
the hospital had been one of many disappointments
and much privation. Unfulﬁlled desires and ambi-
tions unrealised had combined with distaste for the
daily drudgery that had fallen to my lot to embitter
my poverty and cause me to look with gloomy dis-
trust upon the unpromising future. But no sorrow
that I had hitherto experienced could compare with
the grief that I now felt in contemplating the irre-
trievable ruin of what I knew to be the great passion
of my life. For to a man like myself, of few friends
and deep affections, one great emotional upheaval
exhausts the possibilities of nature; leaving only the
capacity for feeble and ineffective echoes. The ediﬁce
of love that is raised upon the ruins of a great passion
can compare with the original no more than can the
paltry mosque that perches upon the mound of Jonah
with the glories of the palace that lies entombed
beneath.
I had made a pretext to write to Juliet and had
received a reply quite frank and friendly in tone,
by which I knew that she had not—as some women
would have done—set the blame upon me for our
temporary outburst of emotion. And yet there was
a subtle difference from her previous manner of writ-
ing that only emphasised the ﬁnality of our separation.
I think Thorndyke perceived that something had
gone awry, though I was at great pains to maintain
a cheerful exterior and keep myself occupied, and
he probably formed a pretty shrewd guess at the
L


MURDER BY POST 147
of conscious attention. The observant man is, in
reality, the attentive man, and the so-called power
of observation is simply the capacity for continuous
attention. As a matter of fact, I have found in prac-
tice, that the habit is a useful one even in reference
to letters; more than once I have gleaned a hint from
the outside of a letter that has proved valuable when
applied to the contents. Here, for instance, is a letter
which has been opened after being fastened up—
apparently by the aid of steam. The envelope is
soiled and rubbed, and smells faintly of stale tobacco,
and has evidently been carried in a pocket along with
a well-used pipe. Why should it have been opened ?
On reading it I perceive that it should have reached
me two days ago, and that the date has been skil-
fully altered from the thirteenth to the ﬁfteenth.
The inference is that my correspondent has a highly
untrustworthy clerk.”
“ But the correspondent may have carried the letter
in his own pocket,” I objected.
“ Hardly,” replied Thorndyke“ “ He would not
have troubled to steam his own letter open and
close it again; he would have cut the envelope and
addressed a fresh one. This the clerk could not do,
because the letter was conﬁdential and was ad-
dressed in the principal’s handwriting. And the
principal would have almost certainly added a post-
script; and, moreover, he does not smoke. This,
however, is all very obvious; but here is something
rather more subtle which I have put aside for more
detailed examination. What do you make of it ? ”
He handed me a small parcel to which was attached
by string a typewritten address label, the back of
. which bore the printed inscription, “ James Bartlett
and Sons, Cigar Manufacturers, London and Havana.”
L i


148 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ I am afraid,” said I, after turning the little
packet over and examining every part of it minutely,
“ that this is rather too subtle for me. The only thing
that I observe is that the typewriter has bungled the
address considerably. Otherwise this seems to me
a very ordinary packet indeed.”
“ Well, you have observed one point of interest,
at any rate,” said Thorndyke, taking the packet
from me. “ But let us examine the thing systematic-
ally and note down what we see. In the ﬁrst place,
you will notice that the label is an ordinary luggage
label such as you may buy at any stationer’s, with its
own string attached. Now, manufacturers commonly
use a different and more substantial pattern, which
is attached by the string of the parcel. But that is
a small matter. What is much more striking is the
address on the label. It is typewritten and, as you
say, typed very badly. Do you .know anything
about typewriters ? ”
“ Very little.”
“ Then you do not recognise the machine ‘2 Well,
- this label was typed with ~a Blickensderfer—an
excellent machine, but not the form most commonly
selected for the rough work of a manufacturer’s
ofﬁce; but we, will let that pass. The important
point is this : the Blickensderfer Company make
several forms of machine, the smallest and lightest
of which is the literary, specially designed for the use
of journalists and men of letters. Now this label
was typed with the literary machine, or, at least,
with the literary typewheel; which is really a very
remarkable circumstance indeed.”
“ How do you know that ‘2 ” I asked.
“ By this asterisk, which has been written by
mistake, the inexpert operator having presSed dOWn


150 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ that these slips would, ordinarily, have been
trimmed by the printer to the correct size in his
machine, which would leave an absolutely true
edge; nor need I say that no sane business man
would adopt such a device as this. The slip of paper
has been cut with scissors to ﬁt the label, and it has
then been pasted on to the surface that it has been
made to ﬁt, when all this waste of time and trouble
—which, in practice, means money—could have been
saved by printing the name on the label itself.”
“ Yes, that is so; but I still do not see why the
fellow should not have thrown away this label and
typed another.”
“ Look at the slip again,” said Thorndyke. “ It
is faintly but evenly discoloured and, to me, has the
appearance of having been soaked in water. Let
us, for the moment, assume that it has been. That
would look as if it had been removed from some other
package, which again would suggest that the person
using it had only the one slip, which he had soaked
off the original package, dried, cut down and pasted
on the present label. If he pasted it on before
typing the address—which he would most probably
have done—he might well be unwilling to risk
destroying it by soaking it a second time.”
“ You think, then, there is a suspicion that the
package may have been tampered with ‘? ”
“ There is no need to jump to conclusions,” replied
Thorndyke. “ I merely gave this case as an in-
stance showing that careful examination of the out-
side of a package or letter may lead us to bestow a
little extra attention on the contents. Now let us
open it and see what those contents are.”
With a sharp knife he divided the outside cover,
revealing a stout cardboard box wrapped in a number


MURDER BY POST 151
of advertisement sheets. The box, when the lid was
raised, was seen to contain a single cigar—a large
cheroot—packed in cotton wool.
“ A ‘ Trichy,’ by Jove ! ” I exclaimed. “ Your own
special fancy, Thorndyke.”
“ Yes; and another anomaly, at once, you see,
which might have escaped our notice if we had not
been on the qui vine.”
“ As a matter of fact, I don’t see,” said I. “ You
will think me an awful blockhead, but I don’t per-
ceive anything singular in a cigar manufacturer
sending a sample cigar.”
“ You read the label, I think ‘2 ” replied Thorn-
dyke. “ However, let us look at one of these leaﬂets
and see what they say. Ah ! here we are : ‘ Messrs.
Bartlett and Sons, who own extensive plantations
on the island of Cuba, manufacture their cigars
exclusively from selected leaves grown by them—
selves.’ They would hardly make a Trichinopoly
cheroot from leaf grown in the West Indies, so we
have here a striking anomaly of an East Indian
cigar sent to us by a West Indian grower.”
“ And what do you infer from that ‘2 ”
“ Principally that this cigar—which, by the way,
is an uncommonly ﬁne specimen and which I would
not smoke for ten thousand pounds—is deserving
of very attentive examination.” He produced from
his pocket a powerful doublet lens, with the aid of
which he examined every part of the surface of the
cigar, and ﬁnally, both ends.
“ Look at the small end,” he said, handing me
the cigar and the lens, “ and tell me if you notice
anything.”
I focussed the lens on the ﬂush-cut surface of closely-
rolled leaf, and explored every part of it minutely.


152 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ It seems to me,” I said, “ that the leaf is opened
slightly in the centre, as if a fine wire had been passed
up it.”
“ So it appeared to me,” replied Thorndyke ; “ and,
as we are in agreement so far, we will carry our
investigations a step further.”
He laid the cigar down on the table, and, with the
keen, thin-bladed penknife, neatly divi'ded it length-
wise into two halves.
“ Ecce signum! ” exclaimed Thorndyke, as the two
parts fell asunder; and for a few moments we stood
silently regarding the dismembered cheroot. For,
about half an inch from the small end, there appeared
a little circular patch of white, chalky material
which, by the even manner in which it was diffused
among the leaf, had evidently been deposited from
a solution.
“ Our ingenious friend again, I surmise,” said
Thorndyke at length, taking up one of the halves
and examining the white patch through his lens.
“ A thoughtful soul, Jervis, and original too. I wish
his talents could be applied in some other direction.
I shall have to remonstrate with him if he becomes
troublesome.”
“ It is your duty to society, Thorndyke,” I ex-
claimed passionately, “ to have this infernal, cold-
blooded scoundrel arrested instantly. Such a .man
is a standing menace to the community. Do you
really know who sent this thing?”
“ I can form a pretty shrewd guess, which, how-
ever, is not quite the same thing. But, you see, he-
has not been quite so clever this time, for he has left
one or two traces by which his identity might be
ascertained.”
“ Indeed ! What traces has he left ‘? ”


154 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ Here, then, is our ﬁrst point. The sender of this
offering is probably a person concerning whom I
hold certain exclusive information.
“ But see, now, the interesting corollary that
follows from this. I, alone, suspect this person;
therefore I have not published my suspicions, or
others would suspect him too. Why, then, does he
suspect me of suspecting him, since I have not
spoken ‘2 Evidently, he too must be in possession
of exclusive information. In other words, my
suspicions are correct; for if they were not, he could
not be aware of their existence.
“ The next point is the selection of this rather
unusual type of cigar. Why should he have sent
a Trichinopoly instead of an ordinary Havana such
as Bartletts actually manufacture ‘2 It looks as if he
were aware of my peculiar predilection, and, by thus
consulting my personal tastes, had guarded against
the chance of my giving the cigar to some other
person. We may, therefore, infer that our friend
probably has some knowledge of my habits.
“ The third point is, What is the social standing
of this gentle stranger, whom we will call X ‘2 Now,
Bartletts do not send their advertisements and
samples to Thomas, Richard and Henry. They
send, chieﬂy, to members of the professions and men
of means and position. It is true that the original
package might have been annexed by a clerk, office
boy or domestic servant; but the probabilities are
that X received the package himself, and this is
borne out by the fact that he was able to obtain
access to a powerful alkaloidal poison—such as this
undoubtedly is.”
“ In that case he would probably be a medical
man or a chemist,” I suggested.


MURDER BY POST 157
of identifying the machine, should we ever meet
with it.”
He picked up the label and handed it to me,
together with his pocket lens.
“ Look closely at the ‘ e ’ that we have been dis-
cussing; it occurs ﬁve times; in ‘ Thorndyke,’ in
‘ Bench,’ in ‘ Inner,’ and in ‘ Temple.’ Now in each
case you will notice a minute break in the loop, just
at the summit. That break corresponds to a tiny
dent in the type—caused, probably, by its striking
some small, hard object.”
“ I can make it out quite distinctly,” I said, “ and
it should be a most valuable point for identiﬁcation.”
“ It should be almost conclusive,” Thorndyke
replied, “ especially when joined to other facts that
would be elicited by a search of his premises. And
now let us just recapitulate the facts which our friend
X has placed at our disposal.
“ First : X is a person concerning whom I possess
certain exclusive information.
“ Second : He has some knowledge of my personal
habits.
“ Third: He is a man of some means and social
position.
“ Fourth: He is a man of considerable knowledge,
ingenuity and mechanical skill.
“ Fifth: He has probably purchased, quite recently, a
second-hand ‘ Blick ’ ﬁtted with a literary typewheel.
“ Sixth: That machine, whether his own or some
other person’s property, can be identiﬁed by a
characteristic mark on the small ‘ e.’
“ If you will note down those six points and add
that X is probably an expert cyclist and a fairly good
shot with a riﬂe, you may possibly be able, presently,
to complete the equation, X = 2 ”


MURDER BY POST 159
“ that when I ﬁrst took these chambers I had practi-
cally nothing to do. I had invented a new variety
of medico-legal practice and had to build it up by
slow degrees, and the natural consequence was that,
for a long time, it yielded nothing but almost unlimited
leisure. Now, that leisure was by no means wasted,
for I employed it in considering the class of cases in
which I was likely to be employed, and in working
out theoretical examples; and seeing that crimes
against the person have nearly always a strong
medical interest, I gave them special attention.
For instance, I planned a series of murders, selecting
royal personages and great ministers as the victims,
and on each murder I brought to bear all the special
knowledge, skill and ingenuity at my command.
I inquired minutely into the habits of my hypothetical
victims; ascertained who were their associates,
friends, enemieséand servants; considered their diet,
their residences, their modes of conveyance, the source
of their clothing and, in fact, everything which it
was necessary to know in order to achieve their deaths
with certainty and with absolute safety to the
murderer.”
“ How deeply gratiﬁed and ﬂattered those great
personages would have felt,” I remarked, “if they
had known how much attention they were receiving.”
“ Yes; I suppose it would have been somewhat
startling, to the Prime Minister, for instance, to have
learned that he was being watched and studied by
an attentive observer and that the arrangements for
his decease had been completed down to the minutest
detail. But, of course, the application of the method
to a particular case was the essential thing, for it
brought into view all the incidental difﬁculties, in
meeting which all the really interesting and instruc-
I


160 THE RED THUMB MARK
tive details were involved. Well, the particulars of
these crimes I wrote out at length, in my private
shorthand, in a journal which I kept for the purpose—
and which, I need not say, I locked up securely in
my safe when I was not using it. After completing
each case, it was my custom to change sides and play
the game over again from the opposite side of the
board; that is to say, I added, as an appendix to
each case, an analysis with a complete scheme for
the detection of the crime. I have in my safe at
the present moment six volumes of cases, fully
indexed; and I can assure you that they are not only
highly instructive reading, but are really valuable as
works of reference.”
“ That I can readily believe,” I replied, laughing
heartily, nevertheless, at the grotesqueness of the
whole proceeding, “ though they might have proved
rather incriminating documents if they had passed
out of your possession.”
“They would never have been read,” rejoined
Thorndyke. “ My shorthand is, I think, quite
undecipherable; it has been so made intentionally
with a view to secrecy.”
“And have any of your theoretical cases ever
turned up in real life ‘2 ”
“ Several of them have, though very imperfectly
planned and carried out as a rule. The poisoned
cigar is one of them, though, of course I should never
have adopted such a conspicuous device for presenting
it; and the incident of the other night is a modiﬁca-
tion—for the worse—of another. In fact, most of
the intricate and artistic crimes with which I have
had to deal professionally have had their more com-
plete and elaborate prototypes in my journals.”
I was silent for some time, reﬂecting on the strange


A STARTLING DISCOVERY 161
personality of my gifted friend and the singular
ﬁtness that he presented for the part he had chosen
to play in the drama of social life; but presently my
thoughts returned to the peril that overshadowed
him, and I came back, once more, to my original
question.
“ And now, Thorndyke,” I said, “ that you have
penetrated both the motives and the disguise of this
villain, what are you going to do ? Is he to be put
safely under lock and key, or is he to be left in peace
and security to plan some other, and perhaps more
successful, scheme for your destruction ? ”
“ For the present,” replied Thorndyke, “ I am going
to put these things in'a place of safety. To-morrow
you shall come with me to the hospital and see me
place the ends of the cigar in the custody of Dr.
Chandler, who will make an analysis and report on
the nature of the poison. After that we shall act
in whatever way seems best.”
Unsatisfactory as this conclusion appeared, I
knew it was useless to raise further objections, and,
accordingly, when the cigar with its accompanying
papers and wrappings had been deposited in a drawer,
we dismissed it, if not from our thoughts, at least
from our conversation.
CHAPTER XIV
A STARTLING mscovnav
THE morning of the trial, so long looked forward
to, had at length arrived, and the train of events
which it has been my business to chronicle in this
narrative was now fast drawing to an end. To
11


162 THE RED THUMB MARK
me those events had been in many ways of the deepest
moment. Not only had they transported me from
a life of monotonous drudgery into one charged with
novelty and dramatic interest; not only had they
introduced me to a renascence of scientiﬁc culture
and revived under new conditions my intimacy with
the comrade of my student days; but, far more
momentous than any of these, they had given me the
vision—all too ﬂeeting—of happiness untold, with
the reality of sorrow and bitter regret that promised
to be all too enduring.
Whence it happened that on this morning my
thoughts were tinged with a certain greyness. A
chapter in my life that had been both bitter and
sweet was closing, and already I saw myself once
more an Ishmaelite and a wanderer among strangers.
This rather egotistical frame of mind, however,
was soon dispelled when I encountered Polton, for
the little man was in a veritable twitter of excite-
ment at the prospect of witnessing the clearing up
of the mysteries that had so severely tried his curi-
osity; and even Thorndyke, beneath his habitual
calm, showed a trace of expectancy and pleasurable
anticipation.
“ I have taken the liberty of making certain little
arrangements on your behalf,” he said, as we sat at
breakfast, “ of which I hope you will not disapprove.
I have written to Mrs. Hornby, who is one of the
witnesses, to say that you will meet her at Mr.
Lawley’s office and escort her and Miss Gibson to
the court. Walter Hornby may be with them, and,
if he is, you had better leave him, if possible, to come
on with Lawley.”
“ You will not come to the ofﬁce, then ? ”
“ No. I shall go straight to the court with Anstey.


A STARTLING DISCOVERY 163
Besides, I am expecting Superintendent Miller from
Scotland Yard, who will probably walk down with
us.”
“ I am glad to hear that,” I said ; “ for I have been
rather uneasy at the thought of your mixing in the
crowd without some kind of protection.”
“ Well, you see that I am taking precautions
against the assaults of the too-ingenious X, and, to
tell the truth—and also to commit a ﬂagrant bull—
I should never forgive myself if I allowed him to
kill me before I had completed Reuben Hornby’s
defence. Ah, here is Polton—that man is on wires
this morning; he has been wandering in and out
of the rooms ever since he came, like a cat in a new
house.”
“It’s quite true, sir,” said Polton, smiling and
unabashed, “ so it’s no use denying it. I have come
to ask what we are going to take with us to the court.”
“ You will ﬁnd a box and a portfolio on the table
in my room,” replied Thorndyke. “ We had better
also take a microscope and the micrometers, though
we are not likely to want them; that is all, I think.”
“ A box and a portfolio,” repeated Polton in a
speculative tone. “ Yes, sir, I will take them with
me.” He opened the door and was about to pass
out, when, perceiving a visitor ascending the stairs,
he turned back.
“ Here’s Mr. Miller, from Scotland Yard, sir; shall
I show him in ‘2 ”
“Yes, do.” He rose from his chair as a tall,
military-looking man entered the room and saluted,
casting, at the same time, an inquiring glance in
my direction.
“ Good morning, Doctor,” he said briskly. “I
got your letter and couldn’t make such of it, but I
n 2


164 THE RED THUMB MARK
have brought down a couple of plain-clothes men and
a uniform man, as you suggested. I understand
you want a house watched ? ”
“ Yes, and a man, too. I will give you the par-
ticulars presently—that is, if you think you can
agree to my conditions.”
“ That I act entirely on my own account and make
no communication to anybody ? Well, of course, I
would rather you gave me all the facts and let me
proceed in the regular way; but if you make condi-
tions I have no choice but to accept them, Seeing that
you hold the cards.”
Perceiving that the matter in hand was of a con-
ﬁdential nature, I thought it best to take my depar-
ture, which I accordingly did, as soon as I had
ascertained that it wanted yet half-an-hour to the
time at which Mrs. Hornby and Juliet were due at
the lawyer’s ofﬁce.
Mr. Lawley received me with stiffness that bordered
on hostility. He was evidently deeply offended at
the subordinate part that he had been compelled
to play in the case, and was at no great pains to
conceal the fact.
“ I am informed,” said he, in a frosty tone, when
I had explained my mission, “that Mrs. Hornby
and Miss Gibson are to meet you here. The arrange-
ment is none of my making; none of the arrange-
ments in this case are of my making. I have been
treated throughout with a lack of ceremony and
conﬁdence that is positively scandalous. Even now,
I—the solicitor for the defence—am completely in
the dark as to what defence is contemplated, though
I fully expect to be involved in some ridiculous
ﬁasco. I only trust that I may never again be
associated with any of your hybrid practitioners.


A STARTLING DISCOVERY 165
Ne sutor ultra crepidam, sir, is an excellent motto;
let the medical cobbler stick to his medical last.”
“ It remains to be seen what kind of boot he can
turn out on the legal last,” I retorted.
“ That is so,” he rejoined; “ but I hear Mrs.
Hornby’s voice in the outer ofﬁce, and as neither
you nor I have any time to waste in idle talk, I
suggest that you make your way to the court without
delay. I wish you good morning ! ”
Acting on this very plain hint, I retired to the
clerks’ ofﬁce, where I found Mrs. Hornby and Juliet,
the former undisguisedly tearful and terriﬁed, and
the latter calm, though pale and agitated.
“ We had better start at once,” I said, when we
had exchanged greetings. “ Shall we take a cab,
or walk ‘? ”
“ I think we will walk, if you don’t mind,” said
Juliet. “ Mrs. Hornby wants to have a few words
with you before we go into court. You see, she is
one of the witnesses, and she is terriﬁed lest she should
say something damaging to Reuben.”
“ By whom was the subpoena served ‘? ” I asked.
“ Mr. Lawley sent it,” replied Mrs. Hornby, “ and
I went to see him about it the very next day, but he
wouldn’t tell me anything—he didn’t seem to know
what I was wanted for, and he wasn’t at all nice—
not at all.”
“ I expect your evidence will relate to the
‘ Thumbograph,’ ” I said. “ There is really nothing
else in connection with the case that you have any
knowledge of.”
“ That is just what Walter said,” exclaimed Mrs.
Hornby. “ I went to his rooms to talk the matter
over with him. He is very upset about the whole
affair, and I am afraid he thinks very badly of poor
Reuben’s prospects. I only trust he may be wrong !


A STARTLING DISCOVERY 167
was nothing more than a coincidence; for there must
be hundreds of second-hand “ Blicks ” on the market,
and, as to Walter Hornby, he certainly could have no
quarrel with Thorndyke, but would rather be inter-
ested in his preservation on Reuben’s account.
These thoughts passed through my mind so rapidly
that by the time Mrs. Hornby had run her pocket
to earth I had quite recovered from the momentary
shock.
“Ah! here it is,” she exclaimed triumphantly,
producing an obese Morocco purse. “ I put it in
here for safety, knowing how liable one is to get
one’s pocket picked in these crowded London streets.”
She opened the bulky receptacle and drew it out
after the manner of a concertina, exhibiting multi-
tudinous partitions, all stuffed with pieces of paper,
coils of tape and sewing silk, buttons, samples of
dress materials and miscellaneous rubbish, mingled
indiscriminately with gold, silver, and copper coins.
“ Now just run your eye through that, Dr. Jervis,”
she said, handing me a folded paper, “ and give me
your advice on my answers.”
I opened the paper and read : “ The Committee of
the Society for the Protection of Paralysed Idiots,
in submitting this——”
“ Oh! that isn’t it; I have given you the wrong
paper. How silly of me! That is the appeal of—
you remember, Juliet, dear, that troublesome person—
I had, really, to be quite rude, you know, Dr. Jervis;
I had to tell him that charity begins at home,
although, thank Heaven! none of us are paralysed,
but we must consider our own, mustn’t we ? And
then—”
“ Do you think this is the one, dear ? ” interposed
Juliet, in whose pale cheek the ghost of a dimple
l."


168 THE RED THUMB MARK
had appeared. “ It looks cleaner than most of the
others.”
She selected a folded paper from the purse which
Mrs. Hornby was holding with both hands extended
to its utmost, as though she were about to produce a
burst of music, and, opening it, glanced at its contents.
“ Yes, this is your evidence,” she said, and passed
the paper to me.
I took the document from her hand and, in spite
of the conclusion at which I had arrived, examined it
with eager curiosity. And at the very ﬁrst glance
I felt my head swim and my heart throb violently.
For the paper was headed: “ Evidence respecting
the Thumbograph,” and in every one of the ﬁve
small “ e’s ” that occurred in that sentence I could
see plainly by the strong out-door light a small break
or interval in the summit of the loop.
I was thunderstruck.
One coincidence was quite possible and even
probable; but the two together, and the second one
of so remarkable a character, were beyond all
reasonable limits of probability. The identiﬁcation
did not seem to admit of a doubt, and yet
“ Our legal adviser appears to be somewhat pre-
occupied,” remarked Juliet, with something of her
old gaiety of manner; and, in fact, though I held the
paper in my hand, my gaze was ﬁxed unmeaningly
on an adjacent lamp-post. As she spoke, I pulled
myself together, and, scanning the paper hastily,
was fortunate enough to ﬁnd in the ﬁrst paragraph
matter requiring comment.
“ I observe, Mrs. Hornby,” I said, “ that in answer
to the ﬁrst question, ‘ Whence did you obtain the
“ Thumbograph ” ? ’ you say, ‘ I do not remember
clearly; I think I must have bought it at a railway


170 THE RED THUMB MARK
hitherto, no shadow of suspicion had appeared to
fall on him. And yet there was no denying that his
description tallied in a very remarkable manner with
that of the hypothetical X. He was a man of some
means and social position; he was a man of con-
siderable knowledge and mechanical skill, though as
to his ingenuity I could not judge. He had recently
bought a second-hand Blickensderfer which probably
had a literary typewheel, since it was purchased from
a literary man; and that machine showed the charac-
teristic mark on the small “ e.” The two remaining
points, indeed, were not so clear. Obviously I could
form no opinion as to whether or not Thorndyke
held any exclusive information concerning him, and,
with reference to his knowledge of my friend’s habits,
I was at ﬁrst inclined to be doubtful until I suddenly
recalled, with a pang of remorse and self-accusation,
the various details that I had communicated to Juliet
and that she might easily, in all innocence, have
handed on to Walter. I had, for instance, told her of
Thorndyke’s preference for the Trichinopoly cheroot,
and of this she might very naturally have spoken
to Walter, who possessed a supply of them. Again,
with regard to the time of our arrival at King’s
Cross, I had informed her of this in a letter which was
in no way conﬁdential, and again there was no reason
why the information should not have been passed
on to Walter, who was to have been one of the party
at the family dinner. The coincidence seemed
complete enough, in all truth; yet it was incredible
that Reuben’s cousin could be so blackhearted a
villain or could have any motive for these dastardly
crimes.
Suddenly a new idea struck me. Mrs. Hornby
had obtained access to this typewriting machine;


A STARTLING DISCOVERY 171
and if Mrs. Hornby could do so, why not John
Hornby ? The description would, for the most part,
ﬁt the elder man as well as the younger, though I had
no evidence of his possessing any special mechanical
skill; but my suspicions had already fastened upon
him, and I remembered that Thorndyke had by no
means rejected my theory which connected him with
the crime.
At this point, my reﬂections were broken in upon
by Mrs. Hornby, who grasped my arm and uttered
a deep groan. We had reached the corner of the Old
Bailey, and before us were the frowning walls of
Newgate. Within those walls, I knew—though I
did not mention the fact—that Reuben Hornby was
conﬁned with the other prisoners who were awaiting
their trial; and a glance at the massive masonry,
stained to a dingy grey by the grime of the city, put
an end to my speculations and brought me back to
the drama that was so nearly approaching its climax.
Down the old thoroughfare, crowded with so many
memories of hideous tragedy ; by the side of the
gloomy prison; past the debtor’s door with its for-
bidding spiked wicket; past the gallows gate with
its festoons of fetters; we walked in silence until we
reached the entrance to the Sessions House.
Here I was not a little relieved to ﬁnd Thorndyke
on the look-out for us, for Mrs. Hornby, in spite of
really heroic efforts to control her emotion, was in a
state of impending hysteria, while Juliet, though
outwardly calm and composed, showed by the waxen
pallor of her cheeks and a certain wildness of her eyes
that all her terror was reviving ; and I was glad that
they were spared the unpleasantness of contact with
the policemen who guarded the various entrances.
“ We must be brave,” said Thorndyke gently, as


172 THE RED THUMB MARK
he took Mrs. Hornby’s hand, “ and show a cheerful
face to our friend who has so much to bear and who
bears it so patiently. A few more hours, and I hope
we shall see restored, not only his liberty, but his
honour. Here is Mr. Anstey, who, we trust, will be
able to make his innocence apparent.”
Anstey, who, unlike Thorndyke, had already
donned his wig and gown, bowed gravely, and,
together, we passed through the mean and grimy
portals into a dark hall. Policemen in uniform and
unmistakable detectives stood about the various
entries, and little knots of people, evil-looking and
unclean for the most part, lurked in the background
or sat on benches and diffused through the stale,
musty air that distinctive but indescribable odour that
clings to police vans and prison reception rooms;
an odour that, in the present case, was pleasantly
mingled with the suggestive aroma of disinfectants.
Through the unsavoury throng we hurried, and up
a staircase to a landing from which several passages
diverged. Into one of these passages—a sort of
“ dark entry,” furnished with a cage-like gate of
iron bars—we passed to a black door, on which was
painted the inscription, “ Old Court. Counsel and
clerks.”
Anstey held the door open for us, and we passed -
through into the court, which at once struck me with
a sense of disappointment. It was smaller than I
had expected, and plain and mean to the point of
sordidness. The woodwork was poor, thinly disguised
by yellow graining, and slimy with dirt wherever a
dirty hand could reach it. The walls were dis-
tempered a pale, greenish grey; the ﬂoor was of bare
and dirty planking, and the only suggestions of dignity
or display were those offered by the canopy over the


176 THE RED THUMB MARK
grotesque, with an effect intermediate between that
of a religious rite and that of a comic opera. Above
the half-suppressed hum of conversation the clerk’s
voice arose at regular intervals, calling out the name
of one of the jurymen, and, as its owner stood up,
the court usher, black-gowned and sacerdotal of
aspect, advanced and proffered the book. Then,
as the juryman took the volume in his hand, the voice
of the usher resounded through the court like that
of a priest intoning some refrain or antiphon—an
effect that was increased by the rhythmical and
archaic character of the formula-—
“ Samuel Seppings ! ”
A stolid-looking working-man rose and, taking
the Testament in his hand, stood regarding the usher
while that ofﬁcial sang out in a solemn monotone—
“ You shall well and truly try and true deliverance
make between our Sovereign Lord the King and the
prisoner at the bar, whom you shall have in charge,
and a true verdict giVe according to the evidence.
So help you God! ”
“ James Piper! ” ‘Another juryman rose and was
given the Book to hold; and again the monotonous
sing-song arose—
“ You shall well and truly try and true deliverance
make, etc.”
“ I shall scream aloud if that horrible chant goes
on much longer,” Juliet whispered. “ Why don’t
they all swear at once and have done with it ? ”
“ That would not meet the requirements,” I an-
swered. “ However, there are only two more, so
you must have patience.” _
“ And you will have patience with me, too, won’t
you ? I am horribly frightened. It is all so solemn
and dreadful.”


THE FINGER-PRINT EXPERTS 177
“ You must try to keep up your courage until
Dr. Thorndyke has given his evidence,” I said.
“ Remember that, until he has spoken, everything
is against Reuben; so be prepared.”
“ I will try,” she answered meekly; “ but I can’t
help being terriﬁed.”
The last of the jurymen was at length sworn, and
when the clerk had once more called out the names one
by one, the usher counting loudly as each man
answered to his name, the latter ofﬁcer turned to
the Court and spectators, and proclaimed in solemn
tones—
“ If anyone can inform my Lords the King’s
justices, the King’s attorney-general, or the King’s
serjeant, ere this inquest be now taken between our
Sovereign Lord the King and the prisoner at the bar,
of any treason, murder, felony or misdemeanour,
committed or done by him, let him come forth and
he shall be heard; for the prisoner stands at the
bar upon his deliverance.”
This proclamation was followed by a profound
silence, and after a brief interval the Clerk of Arraigns
turned towards the jury and addressed them collec-
tively—
“ Gentlemen of the jury, the prisoner at the bar
stands indicted by the name of Reuben Hornby,
for that he, on the ninth or tenth of March, feloniously
did steal, take and carry away a parcel of diamonds
of the goods of John Hornby. To this indictment
he has pleaded that he is not guilty, and your charge
is to inquire whether he be guilty or not and to
hearken to the evidence.”
When he had ﬁnished his address the clerk sat‘
down, and the judge, a thin-faced, hollow-eyed
elderly man, with bushy grey eyebrows and a very
N


178 THE RED THUMB MARK
large nose, looked attentively at Reuben for some
moments over the tops of his gold-rimmed pince-
nez. Then he turned towards the counsel nearest
the bench and bowed slightly.
The barrister bowed in return and rose, and for
the ﬁrst time I obtained a complete view of Sir Hector
Trumpler, K.C., the counsel for the prosecution.
His appearance was not prepossessing nor—though
he was a large man and somewhat ﬂorid as to his
countenance—particularly striking, except for a
general air of untidiness. His gown was slipping
off one shoulder, his wig was perceptibly awry, and
his pince-nez threatened every moment to drop from
his nose.
“ The case that I have to present to you, my lord
and gentlemen of the jury,” he began in a clear,
though unmusical voice, “is one the like of which
is but too often met with in this court. It is one
in which we shall see unbounded trust met by treacher-
ous deceit, in which we shall see countless benefactions
rewarded by the basest ingratitude, and in which we
shall witness the deliberate renunciation of a life of
honourable effort in favour of the tortuous and pre-
carious ways of the criminal. The facts of the case
are brieﬂy as follows: The prosecutor in this case—
a most unwilling prosecutor, gentlemen—is Mr.
John Hornby, who is a metallurgist and dealer in
precious metals. Mr. Hornby has two nephews,
the orphan sons of his two elder brothers, and I may
tell you that since the decease of their parents he
has acted the part of a father to both of them.
One of these nephews is Mr. Walter Hornby, and the
other is Reuben Hornby, the prisoner at the bar. Both
of these nephews were received by Mr. Hornby into
his business with a view to their succeeding him when


180 THE RED THUMB MARK
his gown, while he took a leisurely survey of the jury,
as though he were estimating their impressionability.
At this moment I observed Walter Hornby enter the
court and take up a position at the end of our bench
nearest the door; and, immediately after, Super-
intendent Miller came in and seated himself on one
of the benches opposite.
“ The ﬁrst witness whom I shall call,” said Sir
Hector Trumpler, “is John Hornby.”
Mr. Hornby, looking wild and agitated, stepped
into the witness-box, and the usher, having handed
him the Testament, sang out—-
“ The evidence you shall give to the court and jury
sworn, between our Sovereign Lord the King and the
prisoner at the bar shall be the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth; so help you God ! ”
Mr. Hornby kissed the Book, and, casting a glance
of unutterable misery at his nephew, turned towards
the counsel.
“ Your name is John Hornby, is it not ‘2 ” asked
Sir Hector.
“ It is.”
“ And you occupy premises in St. Mary Axe ‘2 ”
“ Yes. I am a dealer in precious metals, but my
business consists principally in the assaying of samples
of ore and quartz and bars of silver and gold.”
“ Do you remember what happened on the ninth
of March last ‘1 ”
“ Perfectly. My nephew Reuben—the prisoner——
delivered to me a parcel of diamonds which he had
received from the purser of the Elmina Castle, to
whom I had sent him as my conﬁdential agent. I
had intended to deposit the diamonds with my banker,
but when the prisoner arrived at my ofﬁce, the banks
were already closed, so I had to put the parcel, for


THE FINGER-PRINT EXPERTS 181
the night, in my own safe. I may say that the
prisoner was not in any way responsible for the delay.”
“ You are not here to defend the prisoner,” said
Sir Hector. “ Answer my questions and make no
comments, if you please. Was anyone present
when you placed the diamonds in the safe ‘2 ”
“ No one was present but myself.”
“ I did not ask if you were present when you put
them in,” said Sir Hector (whereupon the spectators
sniggered and the judge smiled indulgently). “ What
else did you do ‘2 ”
“ I wrote in pencil on a leaf of my pocket memoran-
dum block, ‘ Handed in by Reuben at 7.3 p.m., 9.3.01,’
and initialled it. Then I tore the leaf from the block
and laid it on the parcel, after which I closed the
safe and locked it.”
“ How soon did you leave the premises after this 2 ”
“ Almost immediately. The prisoner was waiting
for me in the outer ofﬁce———”
“ Never mind where the prisoner was; conﬁne your
answers to what is asked. Did you take the keys
with you ‘2 ”
(G Yes.,’
“ When did you next open the safe ‘2 ”
“ On the following morning at ten o’clock.”
“ Was the safe locked or unlocked when you
arrived ‘2 ” _
“ It was locked. I unlocked it.”
“ Did you notice anything unusual about the safe? ”
66 N0.$7
“ Had the keys left your custody in the interval ‘2 ”
“ No. They were attached to a key-chain, which
I always wear.”
“ Are there any duplicates of those keys ?-—the
keys of the safe, I mean.”


182 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ No, there are no duplicates.”
“ Have the keys ever gone out of your possession ‘? ”
“ Yes. If I have had to be absent from the ofﬁce
for a considerable time, it has been my custom to
hand the keys to one of my nephews, whichever has
happened to be in charge at the time.”
“ And never to any other person ? ”
“ Never to any other person.”
“ What did you observe when you opened the safe?”
“ I observed that the parcel of diamonds had
disappeared.”
“ Did you notice anything else ? ”
“ Yes. I found the leaf from my memorandum
block lying at the bottom of the safe. I picked it
up and turned it over, and then saw that there were
smears of blood on it and what looked like the print
of a thumb in blood. The thumb-mark was on the
under-surface, as the paper lay at the bottom of the
safe.”
“ What did you do next ? ”
“ I closed and locked the safe, and sent a note to
the police station saying that a robbery .had been
committed on my premises.”
“ You have known the prisoner several years, I
believe ? ”
“ Yes; I have known him all his life. He is my
eldest brother’s son.”
“ Then you can tell us, no doubt, whether he is
left-handed or right-handed ? ”
“ I should say he was ambidextrous, but he uses
his left hand by preference.”
“ A ﬁne distinction, Mr. Hornby; a very ﬁne dis-
tinction. Now tell me, did you ascertain beyond
all doubt that the diamonds were really gone ? ”
_ “ Yes; I examined the safe thoroughly, ﬁrst by
\-


THE FINGER-PRINT EXPERTS 183
myself and afterwards with the police. There was
no doubt that the diamonds had really gone.”
“ When the detective suggested that you should
have the thumb-prints of your two nephews taken,
did you refuse ? ”
“ I refused.”
“ Why did you refuse ? ”
“ Because I did not choose to subject my nephews
to the indignity. Besides, I had no power to make
them submit to the proceeding.”
“ Had you any suspicions of either of them ? ”
“ I had no suspicions of anyone.”
“ Kindly examine this piece of paper, Mr. Hornby,”
said Sir Hector, passing across a small oblong slip,
“ and tell us if you recognise it.”
Mr. Hornby glanced at the paper for a moment,
and then said—
“ This is the memorandum slip that I found lying
at the bottom of the safe.”
“ How do you identify it ? ”
“ By the writing on it, which is in my own hand,
and bears my initials.”
“ Is it the memorandum that you placed on the
parcel of diamonds ? ”
‘S Yes-’9
“ Was there any thumb-mark or blood-smear on
it when you placed it in the safe ? ”
5‘ No.9,
“ Was it possible that there could have been any
such marks ? ”
“ Quite impossible. I tore it from my memorandum
block at the time I wrote upon it.”
“ Very well.” Sir Hector Trumpler sat down,
and Mr. Anstey stood up to cross-examine the witness.
“ You have told us, Mr. Hornby,” said he, that


184. THE RED THUMB MARK
you have known the prisoner all his life. Now what
estimate have you formed of his character ‘2 ”
“ I have always regarded him as a young man of
the highest character—honourable, truthful, and in
every way trustworthy. I have never, in all my
experience of him, known him to deviate a hair’s-
breadth from the strictest honour and honesty of
conduct.”
“ You regarded him as a man of irreproachable
character. Is that so ‘2 ”
“ That is so; and my opinion of him is unchanged.”
“ Has he, to your knowledge, any expensive or
extravagant habits ‘2 ”
“ No. His habits are simple and rather thrifty.”
“ Have you ever known him to bet, gamble, or
speculate ‘2 ”
“ Never.”
“ Has he ever seemed to be in want of money ‘2 ”
“ No. He has a small private income, apart from
his salary, which I know he does not spend, since
I have occasionally employed my broker to invest
his savings.”
“ Apart from the thumb-print which was found
in the safe, are you aware of any circumstances
that would lead you to suspect the prisoner of having
stolen the diamonds ‘2 ”
“ None whatever.”
Mr. Anstey sat down, and as Mr. Hornby left the
witness-box, mopping the perspiration from his
forehead, the next witness was called.
“ Inspector Sanderson ! ”
The dapper police oﬁ’icer stepped briskly into the
box, and having been duly sworn, faced the prosecut-
ing counsel with the air of a man who was prepared
for any contingency.


186 THE RED THUMB MARK
The next witness called was Sergeant Bates, of
the Criminal Investigation Department. He stepped
into the box with the same ready, business-like air
as the other ofﬁcer, and, having been sworn, pro-
ceeded to give his evidence with a ﬂuency that sug-
gested careful preparation, holding an open note-
book in his hand but making no references to it.
“ On the tenth of March, at 12.8 p.m., I received
instructions to proceed to St. Mary Axe to inquire
into a robbery that had taken place there. Inspector
Sanderson’s report was handed to me, and I read it
in the cab on my way to the premises. On arriving
at the premises at 12.30 p.m., I examined the safe
carefully. It was quite uninjured, and there were
no marks of any kind upon it. I tested the locks
and found them perfect; there were no marks or
indications of any picklock having been used. On
the bottom of the inside I observed two rather large
drops of a dark ﬂuid. I took up some of the ﬂuid
on a piece of paper and found it to be blood. I also
found, in the bottom of the safe, the burnt head of
a wax match, and, on searching the ﬂoor of the oﬂice,
I found, close by the safe, a used waX match from
which the head had fallen. I also found a slip of
paper which appeared to have been torn from a
perforated block. On it was written in pencil,
‘ Handed in by Reuben at 7.3 p.m. 9.3.01. J.H.’
There were two smears of blood on the paper and the
impression of a human thumb in blood. I took
possession of the paper in order that it might be ex-
amined by the experts. I inspected the ofﬁce doors
and the outer door of the premises, but found no
signs of forcible entrance on any of them. I ques-
tioned the housekeeper, but obtained no information
from him. I then returned to headquarters, made


188 THE RED THUMB MARK
refused very positively and forbade them to submit,
although I understood that they were both willing.
It then occurred to me to try if I could get any help
from Mrs. Hornby, and on the ﬁfteenth of March I
called at Mr. Hornby’s private house and saw her.
I explained to her what was wanted to clear her
nephews from the suspicion that rested on them,
and she then said that she could dispose of those
suspicions at once, for she could show me the thumb-
prints of the whole family: she had them all in a
‘ Thumbograph.’ ”
“A ‘ Thumbograph ’ ‘2 ” repeated the judge. '
“ What is a ‘ Thumbograph ’ ? ”
Anstey rose with the little red-covered volume in
his hand.
“A ‘Thumbograph,’ my lord,” said he, “is a
book, like this, in which foolish people collect the
thumb-prints of their more foolish acquaintances.”
He passed the volume up to the judge, who turned
over the leaves curiously and then nodded to the
witness.
“ Yes. She said she had them all in a ‘ Thumbo-
graph.’ ”
“ Then she fetched from a drawer a small red-
covered book which she showed to me. It contained
the thumb-prints of all the family and some of her
friends.”
“ Is this the book ‘? ” asked the judge, passing the
volume down to the witness.
The sergeant turned over the leaves until he came
to one which he apparently recognised, and said—
“ Yes, m’lord; this is the book. Mrs. Hornby
showed me the thumb-prints of various members of
the family, and then found those of the two nephews.
I compared them with the photograph that I had


THE FINGER-PRINT EXPERTS 189
with me and discovered that the print of the left thumb
of Reuben Hornby was in every respect identical with
the thumb-print shown in the photograph.”
“ What did you do then ? ”
“ I asked Mrs. Hornby to lend me the ‘ Thumbo-
graph ’ so that I might show it to the Chief of the
Finger-print Department, to which she consented.
I had not intended to tell her of my discovery, but, as
I was leaving, Mr. Hornby arrived home, and when
he heard of what had taken place, he asked me why
I wanted the book, and then I told him. He was
greatly astonished and horriﬁed, and wished me to
return the book at once. He proposed to let the
whole matter drop and take the loss of the diamonds
on himself; but I pointed out that this was impossible
as it would practically amount to compounding a
felony. Seeing that Mrs. Hornby was so distressed
at the idea of her book being used in evidence against
her nephew, I promised her that I would return it to
her if I could obtain a thumb-print in any other way.
“ I then took the ‘ Thumbograph ’ to Scotland
Yard and showed it to Mr. Singleton, who agreed that
the print of the left thumb of Reuben Hornby was
in every respect identical with the thumb-print on
the paper found in the safe. On this I applied for
a warrant for the arrest of Reuben Hornby, which
I executed on the following morning. I told the
prisoner what I had promised Mrs. Hornby, and he
then offered to allow me to take a print of his left
thumb so that his aunt’s book should not have to
be used in evidence.”
“ How is it, then,” asked the judge, “ that it has
been put in evidence ‘? ”
“ It has been put in by the defence, my lord,”
said Sir Hector Trumpler.


190 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ I see,” said the judge. “ ‘A hair of the dog
that bit him.’ The ‘ Thumbograph ’ is to be applied
as a remedy on the principle that similia similibus
curantur. Well ‘2 ”
“ When I arrested him, I administered the usual
caution, and the prisoner then said, ‘ I am innocent.
I know nothing about the robbery.’ ”
The counsel for the prosecution sat down, and
Anstey rose to cross-examine.
“ You have told us,” said he, in his clear musical
voice, “ that you found at the bottom of the safe
two rather large drops of a dark ﬂuid which you
considered to be blood. Now, what led you to be-
lieve that ﬂuid to be blood ‘2 ”
“ I took some of the ﬂuid up on a piece of white
paper, and it had the appearance and colour of blood.”
“ Was it examined microscopically or otherwise ‘2 ”
“ Not to my knowledge.”
“ Was it quite liquid ‘2 ”
“ Yes, I should say quite liquid.”
“ What appearance had it on paper ‘2 ”
“ It looked like a clear red liquid of the colour of
blood, and was rather thick and sticky.”
Anstey sat down, and the next witness, an elderly
man, answering to the name of Francis Simmons,
was called.
“ You are the housekeeper at Mr. Hornby’s
premises in St. Mary Axe ‘2 ” asked Sir Hector
Trumpler.
“ I am.”
“ Did you notice anything unusual on the night
of the ninth of March ‘2 ”
“ I did not.”
“ Did you make your usual rounds on that
occasion ‘2 ”


THE FINGER-PRINT EXPERTS 191
“__Yes. I went all over the premises several times
during the night, and the rest of the time I was in
a room over the private ofﬁce.”
“ Who arrived ﬁrst on the morning of the tenth ‘Z ”
“ Mr. Reuben. He arrived about twenty minutes
before anybody else.”
“ What part of the building did he go to ‘2 ”
“ He went into the private ofﬁce, which I opened
for him. He remained there until a few minutes
before Mr. Hornby arrived, when he went up to the
laboratory.”
“ Who came next ? ”
“ Mr. Hornby, and Mr. Walter came in just after
him.”
The counsel sat down, and Anstey proceeded to
cross-examine the witness.
“ Who was the last to leave the premises on the
evening of the ninth ? ”
“ I am not sure.”
“ Why are you not sure ‘3 ”
“ I had to take a note and a parcel to a ﬁrm in
Shoreditch. When I started, a clerk named Thomas
Holker was in the outer ofﬁce and Mr. Walter Hornby
was in the private ofﬁce. When I returned they had
both gone.”
“ Was the outer door locked ? ”
tt Yes.,’
“ Had Holker a key of the outer door ? ”
“ No. Mr. Hornby and his two nephews had each
a key, and I have one. No one else had a key ”
“ How long were you absent ‘? ”
“ About three-quarters of an hour.”
“ Who gave you the note and the parcel ? ”
“ Mr. Walter Hornby.”
“ When did he give them to you ? ”


THE FINGER-PRINT EXPERTS 195
same character. But these two chances, multiplied
into one another, yield an ultimate chance of about
one to four thousand trillions that the prisoner’s
left thumb will exactly resemble the print of some
other person’s thumb, both as to the pattern and
the scar which crosses the pattern; in other words
such a coincidence is an utter impossibility.”
Sir Hector Trumpler took off his glasses and looked
long and steadily at the jury as though he should say,
“ Come, my friends ; what do you think of that ? ”
Then he sat down with a jerk and turned towards
Anstey and Thorndyke with a look of triumph.
“ Do you propose to cross-examine the witness ? ”
inquired the judge, seeing that the counsel for the
defence made no sign.
“ No, my lord,” replied Anstey.
Thereupon Sir Hector Trumpler turned once more
towards the defending counsel, and his broad. red
face was illumined by a smile of deep satisfaction.
That smile was reﬂected on the face of Mr. Singleton
as he stepped from the box, and, as I glanced at
Thorndyke, I seemed to detect, for a single instant,
on his calm and immovable countenance, the faintest
shadow of a smile.
“ Herbert John Nash ! ”
A plump, middle-aged man, of keen, though
studious, aspect, stepped into the box, and Sir Hector
rose once more.
“ You are one of the chief assistants in the Finger-
print Department, I believe, Mr. Nash ? ”
‘6 I am.”
“ Have you heard the evidence of the last witness ? ”
“ I have.”
“ Do you agree with the statements made by that
witness ‘? ”
o 2


THE FINGER-PRINT EXPERTS 197
“ Then,” said I, “if he is innocent, there must be
some means of proving his innocence.”
“ Yes. I suppose so,” she rejoined in a dejected
whisper. “ At any rate we shall soon know now.”
At this moment the usher’s voice was heard calling
out the name of the ﬁrst witness for the defence.
“ Edmund Horford Rowe ! ”
A keen-looking, grey-haired man, with a shaven
face and close-cut side-whiskers, stepped into the
box and was sworn in due form.
“ You are a doctor of medicine, I believe,’ said
Anstey, addressing the witness, “ and lecturer on
Medical Jurisprudence at the South London Hospital?”
“ I am.”
“ Have you had occasion to study the properties
of blood ? ”
“ Yes. The properties of blood are of great
importance from a medico-legal point of view.”
“ Can you tell us what happens when a drop of
blood—say from a cut ﬁnger—falls upon a surface
such as the bottom of an iron safe ? ”
“ A drop of blood from a living body falling upon
any non-absorbent surface will, in the course of a
few minutes, solidify into a jelly which will, at ﬁrst,
have the same bulk and colour as the liquid blood.”
“ Will it undergo any further change ? ”
“ Yes. In a few minutes more the jelly will begin
to shrink and become more solid so that the blood
will become separated into two parts, the solid and
the liquid. The solid part will consist of a ﬁrm,
tough jelly of a deep red colour, and the liquid part
will consist of a pale yellow, clear, watery liquid.”
“ At the end, say, of two hours, what will be the
condition of the drop of blood ‘2 ”
“ It will consist of a drop of clear, nearly colourless
9


200 THE RED THUMB MARK
the liquid, and it shows minute details, such as the
mouths of the sweat glands, which are always obliter-
ated by the liquid.”
“ Look carefully at this paper, which was found
in the safe, and tell me what you see.”
The witness took the paper and examined it at-
tentively, ﬁrst with the naked eye and then with a
pocket-lens.
“ I see,” said he, “ two blood-marks and a print,
apparently of a thumb. Of the two marks, one is
a blot, smeared slightly by a ﬁnger or thumb; the
other is a smear only. Both were evidently pro-
duced with quite liquid blood. The thumb-print was
also made with liquid blood.”
“ You are quite sure that the thumb-print was
made with liquid blood ‘2 ”
“ Quite sure.”
“ Is there anything unusual about the thumb-print?”
“ Yes. It is extraordinarily clear and distinct.
I have made a great number of trials and have
endeavoured to obtain the clearest prints possible
with fresh blood; but none of my prints are nearly
as distinct as this one.”
Here the witness produced a number of sheets of
paper, each of which was covered with the prints of
bloody ﬁngers, and compared them with the memoran-
dum slip.
The papers were handed to the judge for his
inspection, and Anstey sat down, when Sir Hector
Trumpler rose, with a somewhat puzzled expression
on his face, to cross-examine.
“ You say that the blood found in the safe was
deﬁbrinated or artiﬁcially treated. What inference
do you draw from that fact ‘2 ”
“ I infer that it was not dropped from a bleeding
wound.”


THE FINGER-PRINT EXPERTS 203
For one moment Mrs. Hornby stared wildly at her
interrogator; then she snatched a paper from her
purse, unfolded it, gazed at it with an expression of
dismay, and crumpled it up in the palm of her hand.
“ You are asked a question,” said the judge.
“ Oh ! yes,” said Mrs. Hornby. “ The Committee
of the Society—no, that is the wrong one—I mean
Walter, you know—at least—”
“ I beg your pardon,” said Anstey, with polite
gravity.
“ You were speaking of the committee of some
society,” interposed ‘ the judge. “ What society
were you referring to ‘2 ”
Mrs. Hornby spread out the paper and, after
a glance at it, replied—
“ The Society of Paralysed Idiots, your worship,”
whereat a rumble of suppressed laughter arose from v
the gallery.
“ But what has that society to do with the
‘ Thumbograph ’ ‘2 ” inquired the judge.
“ Nothing, your worship. Nothing at all.”
“ Then why did you refer to it ‘2 ”
“I am sure I don’t know,” said Mrs. Hornby,
wiping her eyes with the paper and then hastily
exchanging it for her handkerchief.
The judge took off his glasses and gazed at Mrs.
Hornby with an expression of bewilderment. Then
he turned to the counsel and said in a weary voice—
“ Proceed, if you please, Mr. Anstey.”
“ Can you tell us, Mrs. Hornby, how the ‘ Thumbo-
graph ’ came into your possession ‘2 ” said the latter
in persuasive accents.
“ I thought it was Walter, and so did my niece,
but Walter says it was not, and he ought to know,
being young and having a most excellent memory,


204 ' THE RED THUMB MARK
as I had myself when I was his age, and really, you
know, it can’t possibly matter where I got the
thing ”
“ But it does matter,’ interrupted Anstey. “ We
wish particularly to know.”
“ If you mean that you wish to get one like it——”
“ We do not,” said Anstey. “ We wish to know
how that particular ‘ Thumbograph ’ came into
your possession. Did you, for instance, buy it
yourself, or was it given to you by someone ? ”
“ Walter says I bought it myself, but I thought he
gave it to me, but he says he did not, and you
see ”
“ Never mind what Walter says. What is your
own impression ? ”
“ Why I still think that he gave it to me, though,
of course, seeing that my memory is not what it
was ”
“ You think that Walter gave it to you ‘3 ”
“ Yes, in fact I feel sure he did, and so does my
niece.”
“ Walter is your nephew, Walter Hornby ? ”
“ Yes, of course. I thought you knew.”
“ Can you recall the occasion on which the
‘ Thumbograph ’ was given to you ‘P ”
“ Oh yes, quite distinctly. We had some people
to dinner—some people named Colley—not the
Dorsetshire Colleys, you know, although they are
exceedingly nice people, as I have no doubt the
other Colleys are, too, when you know them, but
we don’t. Well, after dinner we were a little dull
and rather at a loss, because Juliet, my niece, you
know, had cut her ﬁnger and couldn’t play the piano
excepting with the left hand, and that is so monoton-
ous as well as fatiguing, and the Colleys are not

9


206 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ Yes. You kept it in a drawer with your hand-
kerchief-bag.”
“ That was what I said. Well, when Mr. Hornby
was staying at Brighton he wrote to ask me to go
down for a week and bring Juliet—Miss Gibson,
'you know—with me. So we went, and, just as we
were starting, I sent Juliet to fetch my handkerchief—
bag from the drawer, and I said to her, ‘ Perhaps
we might take the thumb-book with us; it might
come in useful on a wet day.’ So she went, and
presently she came back and said that the ‘ Thumbo-
graph ’ was not in the drawer. Well, I was so
surprised that I went back with her and looked myself,
and sure enough the drawer was empty. Well, I
didn’t think much of it at the time, but when we came
home again, as soon as we got out of the cab, I gave
Juliet my handkerchief-bag to put away, and pre-
sently she came running to me in a great state of
excitement. ‘ Why, Auntie,’ she said, ‘ the “ Thumbo-
graph ” is in the drawer; somebody must have been
meddling with your writing table.’ I went with her
to the drawer, and there, sure enough, was the
‘ Thumbograph.’ Somebody must have taken it out
and put it back while we were away.”
“ Who could have had access to your writing
table ‘2 ”
“ Oh, anybody, because, you see, the drawers were
never locked. We thought it must have been one
of the servants.”
“ Had anyone been to the house during your
absence ‘2 ”
“ No. Nobody, except, of course, my two nephews;
and neither of them had touched it, because we asked
them, and they both said they had not.”
“ Thank you.” Anstey sat down, and Mrs. Hornby


THE FINGER-PRINT EXPERTS 207
having given another correcting twist to her bonnet,
was about to step down from the box when Sir
Hector rose and bestowed upon her an intimidating
stare.
“ You made some reference,” said he, “ to a society
—the Society of Paralysed Idiots, I think, whatever
that may be. Now what caused you to make that
reference ‘2 ”
“ It was a mistake; I was thinking of something
else.”
“ I know it was a mistake. You referred to a
paper that was in your hand.”
“ I did not refer to it, I merely looked at it. It is
a letter from the Society of Paralysed Idiots. It is
nothing to do with me really, you know; I don’t
belong to the society, or anything of that sort.”
“ Did you mistake that paper for some other paper?”
“ Yes, I took it for a paper with some notes on it
to assist my memory.”
“ What kind of notes ? ”
“ Oh, just the questions I was likely to be asked.”
“ Were the answers that you were to give to those
questions also written on the paper ? ”
“ Of course they were. The questions would not
have been any use without the answers.”
“ Have you been asked the questions that were
written on the paper ? ”
“ Yes ; at least, some of them.”
“ Have you given the answers that were written
down ? ”
“ I don’t think I have—in fact, I am sure I haven’t,
because, you see—”
“ Ah ! you don’t think you have.” Sir Hector
Trumpler smiled signiﬁcantly at the jury, and
continued—


208 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ Now who wrote down those questions and
answers ‘? ”
“ My nephew, Walter Hornby. He thought, you
know ”
“ Never mind what he thought. Who advised or
instructed him to write them down ‘3 ”
“ Nobody. It was entirely his own idea, and very
thoughtful of him, too, though Dr. Jervis took the
paper away from me and said I must rely on my
memory.”
Sir Hector was evidently rather taken aback
by this answer, and sat down suddenly, with a
distinctly chapfallen air.
“ Where is this paper on which the questions and
answers are written? ” asked the judge. In antici-
pation of this inquiry I had already handed it to
Thorndyke, and had noted by the signiﬁcant glance
that he bestowed on me that he had not failed to
observe the peculiarity in the type. Indeed the
matter was presently put beyond all doubt, for he
hastily passed to me a scrap of paper, on which I
found, when I opened it out, that he had written
“ X = W.H.”
As Anstey handed the rather questionable document
up to the judge, I glanced at Walter Hornby and
observed him to ﬂush angrily, though he strove to
appear calm and unconcerned, and the look that
he directed at his aunt was very much the reverse
of benevolent.
“ Is this the paper ? ” asked the judge, passing it
down to the witness.
“Yes, your worship,’ answered Mrs. Hornby, in
a tremulous voice; whereupon the document was
returned to the judge, who proceeded to compare
it with his notes.

’


210 THE - RED THUMB MARK
often noted the quiet strength of his face, its inﬁnite
intelligence, its attractiveness and magnetism; but
I had never before appreciated what now impressed
me most: that Thorndyke was actually the hand-
somest man I had ever seen. He was dressed simply,
his appearance unaided by the ﬂowing gown or awe-
inspiring wig, and yet his presence dominated the
court. Even the judge, despite his scarlet robe and
trappings of office, looked commonplace by com-
parison, while the jurymen, who turned to look
at him, seemed like beings of an inferior order. It
was not alone the distinction of the tall ﬁgure, erect
and digniﬁed, nor the power and massive composure
of his face, but the actual symmetry and comeliness
of the face itself that now arrested my attention; a
comeliness that made it akin rather to some classic
mask, wrought in the ivory-toned marble of Pentelicus,
than to the eager faces that move around us in the
hurry and bustle of a life at once strenuous and trivia].
“ You are attached to the medical school at St.
Margaret’s Hospital, I believe, Dr. Thorndyke ? ”
said Anstey.
“ Yes. I am the lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence
and Toxicology.”
“ Have you had much experience of medico-legal
inquiries ‘? ”
“ A great deal. I am engaged exclusively in
medico-legal work.”
“ You heard the evidence relating to the two
drops of blood found in the safe ‘? ”
“ I did.”
“ What is your opinion as to the condition of that
blood ? ”
“ I should say there is no doubt that it had been
artiﬁcially treated—probably by deﬁbrination.”


216 THE RED THUMB MARK
print could not be distinguished from the original.
Are you prepared to furnish proof that this is the
case ? ”
“ Yes. I am prepared to execute a counterfeit
of the prisoner’s thumb-print in the presence of the
Court.” '
“ And do you say that such a counterfeit would be
indistinguishable from the original, even by the
experts ? ”
6‘ I do’,’
Anstey turned towards the judge. “ Would your
lordship give your permission for a demonstration
such as the witness proposes? ”
“ Certainly,” replied the judge. “ The evidence
is highly material. How do you propose that the
comparison should be made ? ” he added, addressing
Thorndyke.
“ I have brought, for the purpose, my lord,”
answered Thorndyke, “ some sheets of paper, each
of which is ruled into twenty numbered squares. I
propose to make on ten of the squares counterfeits
of the prisoner’s thumb-mark, and to ﬁll the remain-
ing ten with real thumb-marks. I propose that the
experts should then examine the paper and tell the
Court which are the real thumb-prints and which
are the false.”
“ That seems a fair and efﬁcient test,” said his lord-
ship. “ Have you any objection to offer, Sir Hector? ”
Sir Hector Trumpler hastily consulted with the
two experts, who were sitting in the attorney’s bench,
and then replied, without much enthusiasm—
“ We have no objection to offer, my lord.”
“ Then, in that case, I shall direct the expert
witnesses to withdraw from the court while the
prints are being made.”


218 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ Are those all stamps ‘2 ” inquired the judge,
glancing curiously at the array of turned-wood
handles.
“They are all stamps, my lord,” replied Thorn-
dyke, “ and each is taken from a different impression
of the prisoner’s thumb.”
“ But why so many ‘2 ” asked the judge.
“ I have multiplied them,” answered Thorndyke,
as he squeezed out a drop of ﬁnger-print ink on to
the slab and proceeded to roll it out into a thin ﬁlm,
“ to avoid the tell-tale uniformity of a single stamp.
And I may say,” he added, “ that it is highly impor-
tant that the experts should not be informed that
more than one stamp has been used.”
“ Yes, I see that,” said the judge. “ You under-
stand that, Sir Hector,” he added, addressing the
counsel, who bowed stifﬁy, clearly regarding the
entire proceeding with extreme disfavour.
Thorndyke now inked one of the stamps and
handed it to the judge, who examined it curiously
and then pressed it on a piece of waste paper, on
which there immediately appeared a very distinct
impression of a human thumb.
“ Marvellous ! ” he exclaimed. “ Most ingenious !
Too ingenious ! ” He chuckled softly and added, as
he handed the stamp and the paper to the foreman
of the jury: “ It is well, Dr. Thorndyke, that you
are on the side of law and order, for I am afraid that,
if you were on the other side, you would be one too
many for the police. Now, if you are ready, we will
proceed. Will you, please, stamp an impression
in square number three.”
Thorndyke drew a stamp from its compartment,
inked it on the slab, and pressed it neatly on the square
indicated, leaving there a sharp, clear thumb-print.


THORNDYKE PLAYS HIS CARD 219
The process was repeated on nine other squares, a
different stamp being used for each impression. The
judge then marked the ten corresponding squares of
the other two sheets of paper, and having checked
them, directed the foreman to exhibit the sheet
bearing the false thumb-prints to the jury, together
with the marked sheet which they were to retain,
to enable them to check the statements of the expert
witnesses. When this was done, the prisoner was
brought from the dock and stood beside the table.
The judge looked with a curious and not unkindly
interest at the handsome, manly fellow who stood
charged with a crime so sordid and out of character
with his appearance, and I felt, as I noted the look,
that Reuben would, at least, be tried fairly on the
evidence, without prejudice or even with some pre-
possession in his favour.
With the remaining part of the operation Thorn-
dyke proceeded carefully and deliberately. The
inking-slab was rolled afresh for each impression, and,
after each, the thumb was cleansed with petrol and
thoroughly dried; and when the process was com-
pleted and the prisoner led back to the dock, the
twenty squares on the paper were occupied by
twenty thumb-prints, which, to my eye, at any
rate, were identical in character.
The judge sat for near upon a minute poring over
this singular document with an expression half-way
between a frown and a smile. At length, when we
had all returned to our places, he directed the usher
to bring in the Witnesses.
I was amused to observe the change that had come
over the experts in the short interval. The conﬁdent
smile, the triumphant air of laying down a trump
card, had vanished, and the expression of both was


220 THE RED THUMB MARK
one of anxiety, not unmixed with apprehension.
As Mr. Singleton advanced hesitatingly to the table,
I recalled the words that he had uttered in his room
at Scotland Yard; evidently his scheme of the game
that was to end in an easy checkmate, had not
included the move that had just been made.
“ Mr. Singleton,” said the judge, “ here is a paper
on which there are twenty thumb-prints. Ten of
them are genuine prints of the prisoner’s left thumb
and ten are forgeries. Please examine them and
note down in writing which are the true prints and
which are the forgeries. When you have made your
notes the paper will be handed to Mr. Nash.”
“ Is there any objection to my using the photo-
graph that I have with me for comparison, my lord ? ”
asked Mr. Singleton.
“ I think not,” replied the judge. “ What do you
say, Mr. Anstey ? ”
“No objection whatever, my lord,” answered Anstey.
Mr. Singleton accordingly drew from his pocket an
enlarged photograph of the thumb-print and a
magnifying glass, with the aid of which he explored
the bewildering array of prints on the paper before
him; and as he proceeded I remarked with satisfac-
tion that his expression became more and more
dubious and worried. From time to time he made
an entry on a memorandum slip beside him, and, as
the entries accumulated, his frown grew deeper and
his aspect more puzzled and gloomy.
At length he sat up, and taking the memorandum
slip in his hand, addressed the judge.
“ I have ﬁnished my examination, my lord.”
“ Very well. Mr. Nash, will you kindly examine
the paper and write down the results of your
examination ? ”


THORNDYKE PLAYS HIS CARD 223
his original conﬁdence restored. His selection of
the true and the false thumb-prints was practically
identical with that of Mr. Singleton, and his know-
ledge of this fact led him to state his conclusions with
an air that was authoritative and even dogmatic.
“ I am quite. satisﬁed of the correctness of my
statements,” he said, in reply to Anstey’s question,
“ and I am prepared to swear, and do swear, that
those thumb-prints which I have stated to be forgeries,
are forgeries, and that their detection presents no
difficulty to an observer who has an expert acquaint-
ance with ﬁnger-prints.”
“ There is one question that I should like to ask,”
said the judge, when the expert had left the box and
Thorndyke had re-entered it to continue his evidence.
“ The conclusions of the expert witnesses—mani-
festly bona ﬁde conclusions, arrived at by individual
judgement, without collusion or comparison of results
—are practically identical. They are virtually in
complete agreement. Now, the strange thing is
this : their conclusions are wrong in every instance ”
(here I nearly laughed aloud, for, as I glanced at
the two experts, the expression of smug satisfaction
on their countenances changed with lightning rapidity
to a ludicrous spasm of consternation); “ not some-
times wrong and sometimes right, as would have been
the case if they had made mere guesses, but wrong
every time. When they are quite certain, they are
quite wrong ; and when they are doubtful, they
incline to the wrong conclusion. This is a very
strange coincidence, Dr. Thorndyke. Can you ex-
plain it?”
Thorndyke’s face, which throughout the pro-
ceedings had been as expressionless as that of a
wooden ﬁgurehead, now relaxed into a dry smile.


224 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ I think I can, my lord,” he replied. “ The
object of a forger in executing a forgery is to produce
deception on those who shall examine the forgery.”
“ Ah ! ” said the judge; and his face relaxed into a
dry smile, while the jury broke out into unconcealed
grins.
“ It was evident to me,” continued Thorndyke,
“ that the experts would be unable to distinguish
the real from the forged thumb-prints, and, that
being so, that they would look for some collateral
evidence to guide them. I, therefore, supplied that
collateral evidence. Now, if ten prints are taken,
without special precautions, from a single ﬁnger, it
will probably happen that no two of them are exactly
alike; for the ﬁnger being a rounded object of which
only a small part touches the paper, the impressions
produced will show little variations according to the
part of the ﬁnger by which the print is made. But
a stamp such as I have used has a ﬂat surface like that
of a printer’s type, and, like a type, it always prints
the same impression. It does not reproduce the
ﬁnger-tip, but a particular print of the ﬁnger, and
so, if ten prints are made with a single stamp, each
print will be a mechanical repetition of the other
nine. Thus, on a sheet bearing twenty ﬁnger-prints,
of which ten were forgeries made with a single stamp,
it would be easy to pick out the ten forged prints
by the fact that they would all be mechanical repeti-
tions of one another; while the genuine prints could
be distinguished by the fact of their presenting
triﬂing variations in the position of the ﬁnger.
“ Anticipating this line of reasoning, I was careful
to make each print with a different stamp and each
stamp was made from a different thumb-print, and
I further selected thumb-prints which varied as


THORNDYKE PLAYS HIS CARD 225
widely as possible when I made the stamps. More-
over, when I made the real thumb-prints, I was
careful to put the thumb down in the same position
each time as far as I was able; and so it happened
that, on the sheet submitted to the experts, the real
thumb-prints were nearly all alike, while the forgeries
presented considerable variations. The instances
in which the witnesses were quite certain were those
in which I succeeded in making the genuine prints
repeat one another, and the doubtful cases were
those in which I partially failed.”
“ Thank you, that is quite clear,” said the judge,
with a smile of deep content, such as is apt to appear
on the judicial countenance when an expert witness
is knocked off his pedestal. “We may now proceed,
Mr. Anstey.”
“ You have told us,” resumed Anstey, “ and have
submitted proofs, that it is possible to forge a thumb-
print so that detection is impossible. You have also
stated that the thumb-print on the paper found in
Mr. Hornby’s safe is a forgery. Do you mean that
it may be a forgery, or that it actually is one ? ”
“ I mean that it actually is a forgery.”
“ When did you ﬁrst come to the conclusion that it
was a forgery ? ”
“When I saw it at Scotland Yard. There are
three facts which suggested this conclusion. In the
ﬁrst place the print was obviously produced with
liquid blood, and yet it was a beautifully clear and
distinct impression. But such an impression could not
be produced with liquid blood without the use of a
slab and roller, even if great care were used, and still
less could it have been produced by an accidental
smear.
“ In the second place, on measuring the print with
Q


226 THE RED THUMB MARK
a micrometer, I found that it did not agree in dimen-
sions with a genuine thumb-print of Reuben Hornby.
It was appreciably larger. I photographed the print
with the micrometer in contact and on comparing
this with a genuine thumb-print, also photographed
with the same micrometer in contact, I found that
the suspected print was larger by the fortieth of an
inch, from one given point on the ridge-pattern to
another given point. I have here enlargements of
the two photographs in which the disagreement in
size is clearly shown by the lines of the micrometer.
I have also the micrometer itself and a portable
microscope, if the Court wishes to verify the photo-
graphs.”
“ Thank you,” said the judge, with a bland smile;
“ we will accept your sworn testimony unless the
learned counsel for the prosecution demands veriﬁ-
cation.”
He received the photographs which Thorndyke
handed up and, having examined them with close
attention, passed. them on to the jury.
“ The third fact,” resumed Thorndyke, “is of
much more importance, since it not only proves the
print to be a forgery, but also furnishes a very
distinct clue to the origin of the forgery, and so to
the identity of the forger.” (Here the court became
hushed until the silence was so profound that the
ticking of the clock seemed a sensible interruption.
I glanced at Walter, who sat motionless and rigid
at the end of the bench, and perceived that a horrible
pallor had spread over his face, while his forehead
was covered with beads of perspiration.) “ On
looking at the print closely, I noticed at one part a
minute white mark or space. It was of the shape
of a capital S and had evidently been produced by a '


THORNDYKE PLAYS HIS CARD 231
with this case rests solely upon the police theory of
the infallibility of ﬁnger-prints. Apart from the
evidence of the thumb-print there is not, and there
never was, the faintest breath of suspicion against
him. You have heard him described as a man of
unsullied honour, as a man whose character is above
reproach; a man who is trusted implicitly by those
who have had dealings with him. And this character
was not given by a casual stranger, but by one who
has known him from childhood. His record is an
unbroken record of honourable conduct; his life has
been that of a clean-living, straightforward gentle-
man. And now he stands before you charged with
a miserable, paltry theft; charged With having robbed
that generous friend, the brother of his own father,
the guardian of his childhood and the benefactor
who has planned and striven for his well-being;
charged, in short, gentlemen, with a crime which
every circumstance connected with him and every
trait of his known character renders utterly incon-
ceivable. Now upon what grounds has this gentle-
man of irreproachable character been charged with
this mean and sordid crime? Baldly stated, the
grounds of the accusation are these: A certain
learned and eminent man of science has made a
statement, which the police have not merely accepted -
but have, in practice, extended beyond its original
meaning. That statement is as follows: ‘ A com-
plete, or nearly complete, accordance between two
prints of a single ﬁnger . . . affords evidence
requiring no corroboration, that the persons from
whom they were made are the same.’
“ That statement, gentlemen, is in the highest
degree misleading, and ought not to have been made
without due warning and qualiﬁcation So far is it


234 THE RED THUMB MARK
“ In the fourth place, the red thumb-print repro-
duces an accidental peculiarity of the ‘ Thumbo-
graph ’ print. Now, if the red thumb-print is a
forgery, it must have been made from the ‘ Thumbo-
graph ’ print, since there exists no other print from
which it could have been made. Hence we have
the striking fact that the red thumb-print is an exact
replica—including accidental peculiarities—of the
only print from which a forgery could have been
made. The accidental S-shaped mark in the ‘ Thumbo-
graph ’ print is accounted for by the condition of
the paper; the occurrence of this mark in the red
thumb-print is not accounted for by any peculiarity
of the paper, and can be accounted for in no way,
excepting by assuming the one to be a copy of the
other. The conclusion is thus inevitable that the
red thumb-print is a photo-mechanical reproduction
of the ‘ Thumbograph ’ print.
“ But there is yet another point. If the red thumb-
print is a forgery reproduced from the ‘ Thumbo-
graph ’ print, the forger must at some time have
had access to the ‘ Thumbograph.’ Now, you have
heard Mrs. Hornby’s remarkable story of the mys-
terious disappearance of the ‘ Thumbograph ’ and
its still more mysterious reappearance. That story
can have left no doubt in your minds that some
person had surreptitiously removed the ‘ Thumbo—
graph ’ and, after an unknown interval, secretly
replaced it. Thus the theory of forgery receives
conﬁrmation at every point, and is in agreement with
every known fact; Whereas the theory that the red
thumb-print was a genuine thumb-print, is based
upon a gratuitous assumption, and has not had a
single fact advanced in its support.
“ Accordingly, gentlemen, I assert that the pri—


240 THE RED THUMB MARK
The jurymen whispered together for a few moments
and then the foreman stood up.
“ We have agreed on our verdict, my lord,” he said.
The prisoner, who had just been led to the back
of the dock, was now brought back to the bar. The
grey-wigged clerk of the court stood up and addressed
the jury.
“ Are you all agreed upon your verdict, gentle-
inen ? ”
“ We are,” replied the foreman.
“ What do you say, gentlemen? Is the prisoner
guilty or not guilty ? ”
“ Not guilty,” replied the foreman, raising his
voice and glancing at Reuben.
A storm of applause burst from the gallery and was,
for the moment, disregarded by the judge. Mrs.
Hornby laughed aloud—a strange, unnatural laugh——
and then crammed her handkerchief into her mouth,
and so sat gazing at Reuben with the tears coursing
down her face, while Juliet laid her head upon the
desk and sobbed silently.
After a brief space the judge raised an admonitory
hand, and, when the commotion had subsided,
addressed the prisoner, who stood at the bar,
calm and self-possessed, though his face bore a
slight ﬂush—
“ Reuben Hornby, the jury, after duly weighing
the evidence in this case, have found you to be not
guilty of the crime With which you were charged.
With that verdict I most heartily agree. In view
of the evidence which has been given, I consider that
no other verdict was possible, and I venture to say
that you leave this court with your innocence fully
established, and without a stain upon your character.
In the distress which you have recently suffered, as
well as in your rejoicing at the verdict of the jury,


AT LAST 241
you have the sympathy of the Court, and of everyone
present, and that sympathy will not be diminished
by the consideration that, with a less capable defence,
the result might have been very different.
“ I desire to express my admiration at the manner
in which that defence was conducted, and I desire
especially to observe that not you alone, but the
public at large, are deeply indebted to Dr. Thorndyke,
who, by his insight, his knowledge and his ingenuity,
has probably averted a very serious miscarriage of
justice. The Court will now adjourn until half-
past two.”
The judge rose from his seat and everyone present
stood up; and, amidst the clamour of many feet
upon the gallery stairs, the door of the dock was
thrown open by a smiling police ofﬁcer and Reuben
came down the stairs into the body of the court.
CHAPTER XVII
AT LAST
“ We had better let the people clear off,” said
Thorndyke, when the ﬁrst greetings were over and
we stood around Reuben in the fast-emptying court.
We don’t want a demonstration as we go out.”
“ No; anything but that, just now,” replied Reuben.
He still held Mrs. Hornby’s hand, and one arm was
passed through that of his uncle, who wiped his eyes
at intervals, though his face glowed with delight.
“ I should like you to come and have a little quiet
luncheon with me at my chambers—all of us friends
together,” continued Thorndyke.
“ I should be delighted,” said Reuben, “ if the
programme would include a satisfactory wash.”
R


244 THE RED THUMB MARK
have made one other friend whom I am 10th to see fade
out of my life, as she seems likely to do.”
“ If you mean me,” said Juliet, “ I may say that it
will be your own fault if I fade out of your life. I can
never forget all that you have done for us, your
loyalty to Reuben, your enthusiasm in his cause, to
say nothing of your many kindnesses to me. And,
as to your having done your work badly, you wrong
yourself grievously. I recognised in the evidence by
which Reuben was cleared to-day how much you had
done, in ﬁlling in the details, towards making the
case complete and convincing. I shall always feel
that we owe you a debt of the deepest gratitude, and
so will Reuben, and so, perhaps, more than either of
us, will someone else.”
“ And who is that ? ” I asked, though with no great
interest. The gratitude of the family was a matter
of little consequence to me.
“ Well, it is no secret now,” replied Juliet. “ I
mean the girl whom Reuben is going to marry. What
is the matter, Dr. Jervis ? ” she added, in a tone of
surprise.
We were passing through the gate that leads from
the Embankment to Middle Temple Lane, and I had
stopped dead under the archway, laying a detaining
hand upon her arm and gazing at her in utter amaze-
ment.
“ The girl that Reuben is going to marry ! ” I
repeated. “ Why, I had always taken it for granted
that he was going to marry you.”
“ But I told you, most explicitly, that was not so ! ”
she exclaimed with some impatience.
“ I know you did,” I admitted ruefully; “ but I
thought—well, I imagined that things had, perhaps,
not gone quite smoothly an ”
“ Did you suppose that if I had cared for a man


246 THE RED THUMB MARK
betrothed wife; and then if you think of me as pro-
ceeding straightway, before I had known her twenty-
four hours, to fall hopelessly in love with her myself,
you will admit that I had something to reproach
myself with.”
She was still silent, rather pale and very thoughtful,
and she seemed to breathe more quickly than usual.
“ Of course,” I continued, “ you may say that it
was my own look-out, that I had only to keep my
own counsel, and no one would be any the worse.
But there’s the mischief of it. How can a man who is
thinking of a woman morning, noon and night; whose
heart leaps at the sound of her coming, whose existence
is a blank when she is away from him—a blank which
he tries to ﬁll by recalling, again and again, all that
she has said and the tones of her voice, and the look
that was in her eyes when she spoke—how can he help
letting her see, sooner or later, that he cares for her ?
And if he does, when he has no right to, there is an
end of duty and chivalry and even common honesty.”
“ Yes, I understand now,” said Juliet softly. “ Is
this the way ? ” She tripped up the steps leading
to Fountain Court and I followed cheerfully. Of
course it was not the way, and we both knew it, but
the place was silent and peaceful, and the plane-trees
cast a pleasant shade 0n the gravelled court. I
glanced at her as we walked slowly towards the
fountain. The roses were mantling in her cheeks
now and her eyes were cast down, but when she lifted
them to me for an instant, I saw that they were shining
and moist.
“ Did you never guess ? ” I asked.
“ Yes,” she replied in a low voice, “ I guessed; but
—but then,” she added shyly, “ I thought I had
guessed wrong.”
We walked on for some little time without speaking
r.