kmore was with her at
the time!"

"Naturally," replied Thorndyke, "my suggestion implies that the person
who was with her was not Jeffrey Blackmore."

"But he was!" bawled Winwood. "The porter saw him!"

"The porter saw a person whom he believed to be Jeffrey Blackmore. I
suggest that the porter's belief was erroneous."

"Well," snapped Winwood, "perhaps you can prove that it was. I don't see
how you are going to; but perhaps you can."

He subsided once more into his chair and glared defiantly at Thorndyke.

"You seemed," said Stephen, "to suggest some connection between the sick
man, Graves, and my uncle. I noted it at the time, but put it aside as
impossible. Was I right. Did you mean to suggest any connection?"

"I suggest something more than a connection. I suggest identity. My
position is that the sick man, Graves, was your uncle."

"From Dr. Jervis's description," said Stephen, "this man must have been
very like my uncle. Both were blind in the right eye and had very poor
vision with the left; and my uncle certainly used brushes of the kind
that you have shown us, when writing in the Japanese character, for I
have watched him and admired his skill; but--"

"But," said Marchmont, "there is the insuperable objection that, at the
very time when this man was lying sick in Kennington Lane, Mr. Jeffrey
was living at New Inn."

"What evidence is there of that?" asked Thorndyke.

"Evidence!" Marchmont exclaimed impatiently. "Why, my dear sir--"

He paused suddenly, and, leaning forward, regarded Thorndyke with a new
and rather startled expression.

"You mean to suggest--" he began.

"I suggest that Jeffrey Blackmore never lived at New Inn at all."

For the moment, Marchmont seemed absolutely paralysed by astonishment.

"This is an amazing proposition!" he exclaimed, at length. "Yet the
thing is certainly not impossible, for, now that you recall the fact, I
realize that no one who had known him previously--excepting his brother,
John--ever saw him at the inn. The question of identity was never
raised."

"Excepting," said Mr. Winwood, "in regard to the body; which was
certainly that of Jeffrey Blackmore."

"Yes, yes. Of course," said Marchmont. "I had forgotten that for the
moment. The body was identified beyond doubt. You don't dispute the
identity of the body, do you?"

"Certainly not," replied Thorndyke.

Here Mr. Winwood grasped his hair with both hands and stuck his elbows
on his knees, while M