blood-marks and a print, apparently of a thumb.
Of the two marks, one is a blot, smeared slightly by a finger or thumb;
the other is a smear only. Both were evidently produced with quite
liquid blood. The thumb-print was also made with liquid blood."

"You are quite sure that the thumb-print was made with liquid blood?"

"Quite sure."

"Is there anything unusual about the thumb-print?"

"Yes. It is extraordinarily clear and distinct. I have made a great
number of trials and have endeavoured to obtain the clearest prints
possible with fresh blood; but none of my prints are nearly as distinct
as this one."

Here the witness produced a number of sheets of paper, each of which was
covered with the prints of bloody fingers, and compared them with the
memorandum slip.

The papers were handed to the judge for his inspection, and Anstey sat
down, when Sir Hector Trumpler rose, with a somewhat puzzled expression
on his face, to cross-examine.

"You say that the blood found in the safe was defibrinated or
artificially treated. What inference do you draw from that fact?"

"I infer that it was not dropped from a bleeding wound."

"Can you form any idea how such blood should have got into the safe?"

"None whatever."

"You say that the thumb-print is a remarkably distinct one. What
conclusion do you draw from that?"

"I do not draw any conclusion. I cannot account for its distinctness at
all."

The learned counsel sat down with rather a baffled air, and I observed a
faint smile spread over the countenance of my colleague.

"Arabella Hornby."

A muffled whimpering from my neighbour on the left hand was accompanied
by a wild rustling of silk. Glancing at Mrs. Hornby, I saw her stagger
from the bench, shaking like a jelly, mopping her eyes with her
handkerchief and grasping her open purse. She entered the witness-box,
and, having gazed wildly round the court, began to search the
multitudinous compartments of her purse.

"The evidence you shall give," sang out the usher--whereat Mrs. Hornby
paused in her search and stared at him apprehensively--"to the court and
jury sworn, between our Sovereign Lord the King and the prisoner at the
bar shall be the truth,--"

"Certainly," said Mrs. Hornby stiffly, "I--"

"--the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; so help you God!"

He held out the Testament, which she took from him with a trembling hand
and forthwith dropped with a resounding bang on to the floor of the
wi