ly, it drops out of the little
tube in the skin called the root sheath, having been pushed out by the
young hair growing up underneath; the root end of such a shed hair shows
nothing but a small bulbous enlargement--the root bulb. But when a hair
is forcibly pulled out, its root drags out the root sheath with it, and
this can be plainly seen as a glistening mass on the end of the hair. If
Miriam Goldstein will pull out a hair and pass it to me, I will show you
the great difference between hair which is pulled out and hair which is
shed."

[Illustration: _A_, SHED HAIRS SHOWING THE NAKED BULB, MAGNIFIED 32
DIAMETERS.

_B_, HAIRS PLUCKED FROM SCALP, SHOWING THE ADHERENT ROOT-SHEATHS,
MAGNIFIED 20 DIAMETERS.]

The unfortunate Miriam needed no pressing. In a twinkling she had
tweaked out a dozen hairs, which a constable handed across to Thorndyke,
by whom they were at once fixed in a paper-clip. A second clip being
produced from the box, half a dozen hairs taken from the tress which had
been found in the dead woman's hand were fixed in it. Then Thorndyke
handed the two clips, together with a lens, to the coroner.

"Remarkable!" exclaimed the latter, "and most conclusive." He passed the
objects on to the foreman, and there was an interval of silence while
the jury examined them with breathless interest and much facial
contortion.

"The next question," resumed Thorndyke, "was, Whence did the murderer
obtain these hairs? I assumed that they had been taken from Miriam
Goldstein's hair-brush; but the sergeant's evidence makes it pretty
clear that they were obtained from the very bag of combings from which
he took a sample for comparison."

"I think, Doctor," remarked the coroner, "you have disposed of the hair
clue pretty completely. May I ask if you found anything that might throw
any light on the identity of the murderer?"

"Yes," replied Thorndyke, "I observed certain things which determine the
identity of the murderer quite conclusively." He turned a significant
glance on Superintendent Miller, who immediately rose, stepped quietly
to the door, and then returned, putting something into his pocket. "When
I entered the hall," Thorndyke continued, "I noted the following facts:
Behind the door was a shelf on which were two china candlesticks. Each
was fitted with a candle, and in one was a short candle-end, about an
inch long, lying in the tray. On the floor, close to the mat, was a spot
of candle-wax and some faint mar