t, "that it would be better if you
would put us in possession of the new facts. Then, if the conclusions
that follow from them are not sufficiently obvious, we could hear the
argument. What do you say, Winwood?"

Mr. Winwood roused himself for an instant, barked out the one word
"Facts," and shut himself up again with a snap.

"You would like to have the new facts by themselves?" said Thorndyke.

"If you please. The facts only, in the first place, at any rate."

"Very well," said Thorndyke; and here I caught his eye with a
mischievous twinkle in it that I understood perfectly; for I had most of
the facts myself and realized how much these two lawyers were likely to
extract from them. Winwood was going to "have a run for his money," as
Thorndyke had promised.

My colleague, having placed on the table by his side a small cardboard
box and the sheets of notes from his file, glanced quickly at Mr.
Winwood and began:

"The first important new facts came into my possession on the day on
which you introduced the case to me. In the evening, after you left, I
availed myself of Mr. Stephen's kind invitation to look over his uncle's
chambers in New Inn. I wished to do so in order to ascertain, if
possible, what had been the habits of the deceased during his residence
there. When I arrived with Dr. Jervis, Mr. Stephen was in the chambers,
and I learned from him that his uncle was an Oriental scholar of some
position and that he had a very thorough acquaintance with the cuneiform
writing. Now, while I was talking with Mr. Stephen I made a very curious
discovery. On the wall over the fire-place hung a large framed
photograph of an ancient Persian inscription in the cuneiform character;
and that photograph was upside down."

"Upside down!" exclaimed Stephen. "But that is really very odd."

"Very odd indeed," agreed Thorndyke, "and very suggestive. The way in
which it came to be inverted is pretty obvious and also rather
suggestive. The photograph had evidently been in the frame some years
but had apparently never been hung up before."

"It had not," said Stephen, "though I don't know how you arrived at the
fact. It used to stand on the mantelpiece in his old rooms in Jermyn
Street."

"Well," continued Thorndyke, "the frame-maker had pasted his label on
the back of the frame, and as this label hung the right way up, it
appeared as if the person who fixed the photograph on the wall had
adopted it as a guide."

"It is very