on which he had scored some important point or solved
some unusually tough problem. Wherefore I watched him with lively
interest.

"It's a pity that the 'Trichy' is such a poisonous beast," he remarked,
taking up one of the cheroots and sniffing at it delicately. "There is
no other cigar like it, to a really abandoned smoker." He laid the cigar
back in the box and continued: "I think I shall treat myself to one
after dinner to celebrate the occasion."

"What occasion?" I asked.

"The completion of the Blackmore case. I am just going to write to
Marchmont advising him to enter a caveat."

"Do you mean to say that you have discovered a flaw in the will, after
all?"

"A flaw!" he exclaimed. "My dear Jervis, that second will is a forgery."

I stared at him in amazement; for his assertion sounded like nothing
more or less than arrant nonsense.

"But the thing is impossible, Thorndyke," I said. "Not only did the
witnesses recognize their own signatures and the painter's greasy
finger-marks, but they had both read the will and remembered its
contents."

"Yes; that is the interesting feature in the case. It is a very pretty
problem. I shall give you a last chance to solve it. To-morrow evening
we shall have to give a full explanation, so you have another
twenty-four hours in which to think it over. And, meanwhile, I am going
to take you to my club to dine. I think we shall be pretty safe there
from Mrs. Schallibaum."

He sat down and wrote a letter, which was apparently quite a short one,
and having addressed and stamped it, prepared to go out.

"Come," said he, "let us away to 'the gay and festive scenes and halls
of dazzling light.' We will lay the mine in the Fleet Street pillar box.
I should like to be in Marchmont's office when it explodes."

"I expect, for that matter," said I, "that the explosion will be felt
pretty distinctly in these chambers."

"I expect so, too," replied Thorndyke; "and that reminds me that I shall
be out all day to-morrow, so, if Marchmont calls, you must do all that
you can to persuade him to come round after dinner and bring Stephen
Blackmore, if possible. I am anxious to have Stephen here, as he will be
able to give us some further information and confirm certain matters of
fact."

I promised to exercise my utmost powers of persuasion on Mr. Marchmont
which I should certainly have done on my own account, being now on the
very tiptoe of curiosity to hear Thorndyke's explanation of