The Red Thumb Mark

o sign of Thorndyke. It was really a little strange, for he was the soul of punctuality, and moreover, his engagements were of such a kind as rendered punctuality possible. I was burning with impa

laring redly through the fog, and then, opening

e laboratory, giving me quite a start; and I was about to retire into the ro

on which Polton slid down the stairs with the agility of a harleq

ir, you're no

and on Polton's shoulder. His clothes were muddy, his left arm was in a s

added, as he noted my dismayed expression. "Dinner and a clothes-brush are what I chiefly need." Nevertheless, he looked very pale and shak

hen Polton had crept away on t

make sure that his hench

e kerb to see it safely past. Just as the horses emerged from the fog, a man came up behind and lurched violently against me and, strangely enough, at the same moment passed his foot in front of mine. Of course I went sprawling into the road right in front of the lorry. The horses came stamping and sliding straight on to me, and, before I could wriggle out of the way, the hoof of

sked, wishing I could have ha

olic apple-woman picked me up and escorted me back to the hospital. It must h

kept you there for

my lying down for an hour or so in case any symptoms of concussion should appe

n pushing you do

out how his foot go

it was intentiona

as it seemed to me; and I was about to pursue the matter when

me eagerness to see what effect this new information would produce on him. The result was, on the

, when I had finished. "He ought to know better at his a

ly have been quite s

on large quantities of unpaid-for stock. But it looks as if Hornby had actually bought and paid for these mines, treating them as investments ra

rable bearing on the pre

on the case in more ways than one. But you h

en growing up gradually for some time, they might have a

lleague. "But what is the special bea

cuniary difficulties at the date of the robbery, it seems to me po

stated," said Thorndyke, rousing himsel

l shyness at the idea of airing my wits before this maste

d thinker gives equal consideration

o me on my way home in the fog, and I was gratified to observe the close attention wit

vidently considering how my theory and the new facts on which it was based would fit in with th

the achievement, for the dullest mind can perceive the obvious-as, for instance, the importance of a finger-print. You have really done a great thing, and I congratulate you; for you have emancipated yourself, at least to some extent, from the great finger-print obsession, which has possessed the legal mind ever since Galton published his epoch-making monograph. In that work I remember he states that a finger-print affo

hardly go so far as th

the kind of syllogism th

ted by the person who

the person who mad

rime was committe

fectly good syllogis

ion, which is, 'Was the crime committed by the person who made

estigated without reference to the finger-p

ke our present case, for instance. Without the thumb-print, the robbery might have been committed by anybody; there is no clue wha

ry of John Hornby as the perpetrator o

st three hypotheses fail, we have left, Reuben, Walter, and John. But if we leave the thumb-print out of the question, the probabilities evidently point to John Hornby, since he, admittedly, had access to the diamonds, whereas there is nothing to show that the others had. The thumb-print, however, transfers the suspicion to Reuben; but yet, as your theory makes evi

ty that he stole the diamonds. But there is no evidence that he had access to them, and i

-made thumb-mark of Reuben, and may possibly have obta

there is no evidence that he had access either to the diamonds or to Mr. Hornby's me

ns of opening the safe, and whether Mr. Hornby ever did actually have the op

who failed to find any skeleton or duplicate keys; but this proves nothing, as he would probably have made away with them when he heard of the thumb-mark

Hornby's liability

ke. "He had undertaken no liability and there w

he defence was hopeless, for the court was not likely to accept his estimate of the evidential value of finger-prints. Yet he had given Reuben something like a positive assurance that there would be an adequate defence, and had expressed his own positive conviction of the accused man's innocence. But Thorndy