masses of crumpled paper and brought into view an object which he picked
up with some eagerness. It was a portion of a pair of spectacles, which
had apparently been trodden on, for the side-bar was twisted and bent
and the glass was shattered into fragments.

"This ought to give us a hint," said he. "It will probably have belonged
either to Weiss or Graves, as Mrs. Schallibaum apparently did not wear
glasses. Let us see if we can find the remainder."

We both groped carefully with our sticks amongst the rubbish, spreading
it out on the hearth and removing the numerous pieces of crumpled paper.
Our search was rewarded by the discovery of the second eye-picce of the
spectacles, of which the glass was badly cracked but less shattered than
the other. I also picked up two tiny sticks at which Thorndyke looked
with deep interest before laying them on the mantelshelf.

"We will consider them presently," said he. "Let us finish with the
spectacles first. You see that the left eye-glass is a concave
cylindrical lens of some sort. We can make out that much from the
fragments that remain, and we can measure the curvature when we get them
home, although that will be easier if we can collect some more fragments
and stick them together. The right eye is plain glass; that is quite
evident. Then these will have belonged to your patient, Jervis. You said
that the tremulous iris was in the right eye, I think?"

"Yes," I replied. "These will be his spectacles, without doubt."

"They are peculiar frames," he continued. "If they were made in this
country, we might be able to discover the maker. But we must collect as
many fragments of glass as we can."