is difficulty
does not exist. To him, personation is easy; and, moreover, an actor is
precisely the person to whom the idea of disguise and impersonation
would occur.

"There is a small item bearing on this point, so small as to be hardly
worth calling evidence, but just worth noting. In the pocket of the
waistcoat taken from the body of Jeffrey I found the stump of a
'Contango' pencil; a pencil that is sold for the use of stock dealers
and brokers. Now John was an outside broker and might very probably have
used such a pencil, whereas Jeffrey had no connection with the stock
markets and there is no reason why he should have possessed a pencil of
this kind. But the fact is merely suggestive; it has no evidential
value.

"A more important inference is to be drawn from the collected
signatures. I have remarked that the change in the signature occurred
abruptly, with one or two alterations of manner, last September, and
that there are two distinct forms with no intermediate varieties. This
is, in itself, remarkable and suspicious. But a remark made by Mr.
Britton furnishes a really valuable piece of evidence on the point we
are now considering. He admitted that the character of the signature had
undergone a change, but observed that the change did not affect the
individual or personal character of the writing. This is very important;
for handwriting is, as it were, an extension of the personality of the
writer. And just as a man to some extent snares his personality with his
near blood-relations in the form of family resemblances, so his
handwriting often shows a subtle likeness to that of his near relatives.
You must have noticed, as I have, how commonly the handwriting of one
brother resembles that of another, and in just this peculiar and subtle
way. The inference, then, from Mr. Britton's statement is, that if the
signature of the will was forged, it was probably forged by a relative
of the deceased. But the only relative in question is his brother John.

"All the facts, therefore, pointed to John Blackmore as the person who
occupied these chambers, and I accordingly adopted that view as a
working hypothesis."

"But this was all pure speculation," objected Mr. Winwood.

"Not speculation," said Thorndyke. "Hypothesis. It was ordinary
inductive reasoning such as we employ in scientific research. I started
with the purely tentative hypothesis that the person who signed the will
was not Jeffrey Blackmore. I assumed t