yke.

"Mr. Hornby usually kept the keys himself, but, on occasions, when he
was absent from the office, he handed them over to one of his
nephews--whichever happened to be in charge at the time. But on this
occasion the keys did not go out of his custody from the time when he
locked up the safe, after depositing the diamonds in it, to the time
when it was opened by him on the following morning."

"And was there anything that tended to throw suspicion upon anyone?"
asked Thorndyke.

"Why, yes," said Mr. Lawley, with an uncomfortable glance at his client,
"unfortunately there was. It seemed that the person who abstracted the
diamonds must have cut or scratched his thumb or finger in some way, for
there were two drops of blood on the bottom of the safe and one or two
bloody smears on a piece of paper, and, in addition, a remarkably clear
imprint of a thumb." "Also in blood?" asked Thorndyke.

"Yes. The thumb had apparently been put down on one of the drops and
then, while still wet with blood, had been pressed on the paper in
taking hold of it or otherwise."

"Well, and what next?"

"Well," said the lawyer, fidgeting in his chair, "to make a long story
short, the thumb-print has been identified as that of Mr. Reuben
Hornby."

"Ha!" exclaimed Thorndyke. "The plot thickens with a vengeance. I had
better jot down a few notes before you proceed any further."

He took from a drawer a small paper-covered notebook, on the cover of
which he wrote "Reuben Hornby," and then, laying the book open on a
blotting-pad, which he rested on his knee, he made a few brief notes.

"Now," he said, when he had finished, "with reference to this
thumb-print. There is no doubt, I suppose, as to the identification?"

"None whatever," replied Mr. Lawley. "The Scotland Yard people, of
course, took possession of the paper, which was handed to the director
of the finger-print department for examination and comparison with those
in their collection. The report of the experts is that the thumb-print
does not agree with any of the thumb-prints of criminals in their
possession; that it is a very peculiar one, inasmuch as the
ridge-pattern on the bulb of the thumb--which is a remarkably distinct
and characteristic one--is crossed by the scar of a deep cut, rendering
identification easy and infallible; that it agrees in every respect with
the thumb-print of Mr. Reuben Hornby, and is, in fact, his thumb-print
beyond any possible doubt."

"Is the