d aside, and then suddenly
asked: "By the way, I suppose you do not by any chance understand
Yiddish?"

"Why do you ask?" the newcomer demanded gruffly.

"Because I have just had these two photographs of lettering given to
me. One is in Greek, I think, and one in Yiddish, but I have forgotten
which is which." He held out the two cards to the stranger, who took
them from him, and looked at them with scowling curiosity.

"This one is Yiddish," said he, raising his right hand, "and this other
is Russian, not Greek." He held out the two cards to Thorndyke, who took
them from him, holding them carefully by the edges as before.

"I am greatly obliged to you for your kind assistance," said Thorndyke;
but before he had time to finish his thanks, the man had entered, by
means of his latchkey, and slammed the door.

Thorndyke carefully slid the photographs back into their grooves,
replaced the box in his pocket, and made an entry in his notebook.

"That," said he, "finishes my labours, with the exception of a small
experiment which I can perform at home. By the way, I picked up a morsel
of evidence that Davidson had overlooked. He will be annoyed, and I am
not very fond of scoring off a colleague; but he is too uncivil for me
to communicate with."

* * * * *

The coroner's subpoena had named ten o'clock as the hour at which
Thorndyke was to attend to give evidence, but a consultation with a
well-known solicitor so far interfered with his plans that we were a
quarter of an hour late in starting from the Temple. My friend was
evidently in excellent spirits, though silent and preoccupied, from
which I inferred that he was satisfied with the results of his labours;
but, as I sat by his side in the hansom, I forbore to question him, not
from mere unselfishness, but rather from the desire to hear his
evidence for the first time in conjunction with that of the other
witnesses.

The room in which the inquest was held formed part of a school adjoining
the mortuary. Its vacant bareness was on this occasion enlivened by a
long, baize-covered table, at the head of which sat the coroner, while
one side was occupied by the jury; and I was glad to observe that the
latter consisted, for the most part, of genuine working men, instead of
the stolid-faced, truculent "professional jurymen" who so often grace
these tribunals.

A row of chairs accommodated the witnesses, a corner of the table was
allotted to