ooking man, a typical solicitor of the old school;
fresh-faced, precise, rather irascible, and conveying a not unpleasant
impression of taking a reasonable interest in his diet. The other man
was quite young, not more than five-and-twenty, and was a fine
athletic-looking fellow with a healthy, out-of-door complexion and an
intelligent and highly prepossessing face. I took a liking to him at the
first glance, and so, I saw, did Thorndyke.

"You two gentlemen," said Blackmore, addressing us, "seem to be quite
old acquaintances. I have heard so much about you from my friend, Reuben
Hornby."

"Ah!" exclaimed Marchmont, "that was a queer case--'The Case of the Red
Thumb Mark,' as the papers called it. It was an eye-opener to
old-fashioned lawyers like myself. We've had scientific witnesses
before--and bullied 'em properly, by Jove! when they wouldn't give the
evidence that we wanted. But the scientific lawyer is something new. His
appearance in court made us all sit up, I can assure you."

"I hope we shall make you sit up again," said Thorndyke.

"You won't this time," said Marchmont. "The issues in this case of my
friend Blackmore's are purely legal; or rather, there are no issues at
all. There is nothing in dispute. I tried to prevent Blackmore from
consulting you, but he wouldn't listen to reason. Here! Waiter! How much
longer are we to be waiters? We shall die of old age before we get our
victuals!"

The waiter smiled apologetically. "Yessir!" said he. "Coming now, sir."
And at this very moment there was borne into the room a Gargantuan
pudding in a great bucket of a basin, which being placed on a
three-legged stool was forthwith attacked ferociously by the
white-clothed, white-capped carver. We watched the process--as did every
one present--with an interest not entirely gluttonous, for it added a
pleasant touch to the picturesque old room, with its sanded floor, its
homely, pew-like boxes, its high-backed settles and the friendly
portrait of the "great lexicographer" that beamed down on us from the
wall.

"This is a very different affair from your great, glittering modern
restaurant," Mr. Marchmont remarked.

"It is indeed," said Blackmore, "and if this is the way in which our
ancestors lived, it would seem that they had a better idea of comfort
than we have."

There was a short pause, during which Mr. Marchmont glared hungrily at
the pudding; then Thorndyke said:

"So you refused to listen to reason, Mr. Bl