. H. M. Brock's admirable
and sympathetic drawings, and the artist himself for the care with which
he has maintained strict fidelity to the text.

R. A. F.

Gravesend,
_September 21, 1909_.

CONTENTS

I. THE MAN WITH THE NAILED SHOES
II. THE STRANGER'S LATCHKEY
III. THE ANTHROPOLOGIST AT LARGE
IV. THE BLUE SEQUIN
V. THE MOABITE CIPHER
VI. THE MANDARIN'S PEARL
VII. THE ALUMINIUM DAGGER
VIII. A MESSAGE FROM THE DEEP SEA

ILLUSTRATIONS

PROFESSOR POPPLEBAUM IS ENLIGHTENED, _Frontispiece_
PLAN OF ST. BRIDGET'S BAY
THE SERGEANT'S SKETCH
FLUFF FROM KEY-BARREL
THE STRANGER IS RUN TO EARTH
TRANSVERSE SECTIONS OF HUMAN HAIR
THORNDYKE'S STRATEGY
THE DISCOVERY
THE MOABITE CIPHRE
THE PROFESSOR'S ANALYSIS
THE APPARITION IN THE MIRROR
THE ALUMINUM DAGGER
THE SAND FROM THE MURDERED WOMAN'S PILLOW
HUMAN HAIR, SHOWING ROOTS
SUPERINTENDENT MILLER RISES TO THE OCCASION

JOHN THORNDYKE'S CASES

I

THE MAN WITH THE NAILED SHOES

There are, I suppose, few places even on the East Coast of England more
lonely and remote than the village of Little Sundersley and the country
that surrounds it. Far from any railway, and some miles distant from any
considerable town, it remains an outpost of civilization, in which
primitive manners and customs and old-world tradition linger on into an
age that has elsewhere forgotten them. In the summer, it is true, a
small contingent of visitors, adventurous in spirit, though mostly of
sedate and solitary habits, make their appearance to swell its meagre
population, and impart to the wide stretches of smooth sand that fringe
its shores a fleeting air of life and sober gaiety; but in late
September--the season of the year in which I made its acquaintance--its
pasture-lands lie desolate, the rugged paths along the cliffs are seldom
trodden by human foot, and the sands are a desert waste on which, for
days together, no footprint appears save that left by some passing
sea-bird.

I had been assured by my medical agent, Mr. Turcival, that I should find
the practice of which I was now taking charge "an exceedingly soft
billet, and suitable for a studious man;" and certainly he had not
misled me, for the patients were, in fact, so few that I was quite
concerned for my principal, and rather dull for want of work. Hence,
when my friend John Thorndyke, the well-known medico-legal expert,
proposed to come down and stay with me for a weekend