which it had been taken; and that he then went to
Manderson's room, placed Manderson's shoes outside the door, threw
Manderson's garments on a chair, placed the denture in the bowl by the
bedside, and selected a suit of clothes, a pair of shoes and a tie from
those in the bedroom.

Here I will pause in my statement of this man's proceedings to go into a
question for which the way is now sufficiently prepared.

_Who was the false Manderson?_

Reviewing what was known to me, or might almost with certainty be
surmised, about that person, I set down the following five conclusions:

(1) He had been in close relations with the dead man. In his acting
before Martin and his speaking to Mrs. Manderson he had made no mistake.

(2) He was of a build not unlike Manderson's, especially as to height
and breadth of shoulder, which mainly determine the character of the
back of a seated figure when the head is concealed and the body loosely
clothed. But his feet were larger, though not greatly larger, than
Manderson's.

(3) He had considerable aptitude for mimicry and acting--probably some
experience too.

(4) He had a minute acquaintance with the ways of the Manderson
household.

(5) He was under a vital necessity of creating the belief that Manderson
was alive and in that house until some time after midnight on the Sunday
night.

So much I took as either certain or next door to it. It was as far as I
could see. And it was far enough.

I proceed to give, in an order corresponding with the numbered
paragraphs above, such relevant facts as I was able to obtain about Mr.
John Marlowe, from himself and other sources.

(1) He had been Manderson's private secretary, upon a footing of great
intimacy, for nearly three years.

(2) The two men were nearly of the same height, about five feet, eleven
inches; both were powerfully built and heavy in the shoulder; Marlowe,
who was the younger by some twenty years, was slighter about the body,
though Manderson was a man in good physical condition. Marlowe's shoes
(of which I examined several pairs) were roughly about one shoemaker's
size longer and broader than Manderson's.

(3) In the afternoon of the first day of my investigation, after
arriving at the results already detailed, I sent a telegram to a
personal friend, a fellow of a college at Oxford, whom I knew to be
interested in theatrical matters, in these terms:

Please wire John Marlowe's record in connection with acting