and commenting upon contemporary cases as reported in the papers
(always, of course, with a due regard to the legal and social
proprieties); and it was in this way that I first became introduced to
the astonishing series of events that was destined to exercise so great
an influence on my own life.

The lecture which had just been concluded had dealt with the rather
unsatisfactory subject of survivorship. Most of the students had left
the theater, and the remainder had gathered round the lecturer's table
to listen to the informal comments that Dr. Thorndyke was wont to
deliver on these occasions in an easy, conversational manner, leaning
against the edge of the table and apparently addressing his remarks to
a stick of blackboard chalk that he held in his fingers.

"The problem of survivorship," he was saying, in reply to a question
put by one of the students, "ordinarily occurs in cases where the
bodies of the parties are producible, or where, at any rate, the
occurrence of death and its approximate time are actually known. But
an analogous difficulty may arise in a case where the body of one of
the parties is not forthcoming, and the fact of death may have to be
assumed on collateral evidence.

"Here, of course, the vital question to be settled is, what is the
latest instant at which it is certain that this person was alive? And
the settlement of that question may turn on some circumstance of the
most trivial and insignificant kind. There is a case in this morning's
paper which illustrates this. A gentleman has disappeared rather
mysteriously. He was last seen by the servant of a relative at whose
house he had called. Now, if this gentleman should never reappear,
dead or alive, the question as to what was the latest moment at which
he was certainly alive will turn upon the further question: 'Was he or
was he not wearing a particular article of jewelry when he called at
the relative's house?'"

He paused with a reflective eye bent upon the stump of chalk he still
held; then, noting the expectant interest with which we were regarding
him, he resumed:

"The circumstances in this case are very curious; in fact, they are
highly mysterious; and if any legal issues should arise in respect of
them, they are likely to yield some very remarkable complications. The
gentleman who has disappeared, Mr. John Bellingham, is a man well known
in archeological circles. He recently returned from Egypt, bringing
with him a v