exhausted your potentialities as a silent entertainer."

"You are pleased to be facetious at my expense," said I.

"Well, the expense was not a very heavy one," he retorted. "I have been
merely consuming a by-product of your mental activity--Hallo! that's
Anstey already."

A peculiar knock, apparently delivered with the handle of a
walking-stick on the outer door, was the occasion of this exclamation,
and as Thorndyke sprang up and flung the door open, a clear, musical
voice was borne in, the measured cadences of which proclaimed at once
the trained orator.

"Hail, learned brother!" it exclaimed. "Do I disturb you untimely at
your studies?" Here our visitor entered the room and looked round
critically. "'Tis even so," he declared. "Physiological chemistry and
its practical applications appears to be the subject. A physico-chemical
inquiry into the properties of streaky bacon and fried eggs. Do I see
another learned brother?"

He peered keenly at me through his pince-nez, and I gazed at him in some
embarrassment.

"This is my friend Jervis, of whom you have heard me speak," said
Thorndyke. "He is with us in this case, you know."

"The echoes of your fame have reached me, sir," said Anstey, holding out
his hand. "I am proud to know you. I should have recognised you
instantly from the portrait of your lamented uncle in Greenwich