Marchmont turned over the bundle of papers and smiled grimly.

"My dear Thorndyke," he said, "none of this evidence has the slightest
bearing on the case. It is all perfectly irrelevant as far as the will
is concerned. But I know your little peculiarities and I am indulging
you, as you see, to the top of your bent. The next evidence is that of
the chief porter, a very worthy and intelligent man named Walker. This
is what he says, after the usual preliminaries.

"'I have viewed the body which forms the subject of this inquiry. It is
that of Mr. Jeffrey Blackmore, the tenant of a set of chambers on the
second floor of number thirty-one, New Inn. I have known the deceased
nearly six months, and during that time have seen and conversed with him
frequently. He took the chambers on the second of last October and came
into residence at once. Tenants at New Inn have to furnish two
references. The references that the deceased gave were his bankers and
his brother, Mr. John Blackmore. I may say that the deceased was very
well known to me. He was a quiet, pleasant-mannered gentleman, and it
was his habit to drop in occasionally at the lodge and have a chat with
me. I went into his chambers with him once or twice on some small
matters of business and I noticed that there were always a number of
books and papers on the table. I understood from him that he spent most
of his time indoors engaged in study and writing. I know very little
about his way of living. He had no laundress to look after his rooms, so
I suppose he did his own house-work and cooking; but he told me that he
took most of his meals outside, at restaurants or his club.

"'Deceased impressed me as a rather melancholy, low-spirited gentleman.
He was very much troubled about his eyesight and mentioned the matter to