written the other will on the other side of the paper. The difficulty
was to tell which side he had written last.

Lawyer Higgins, Lawyer Burch, and Judge Mackinnon went over both sides
of the paper with a microscope. The same ink had been used on both
sides. O'Hara's writing was the same on both sides. Often, in writing
as many words as occupied both sides of the paper in question, a man's
hand grows involuntarily weary. There was nothing of this sort. There
seemed to be absolutely nothing on which the greatest penmanship
expert could base a plea that either side was, in fact, the _last_
will of Haddon O'Hara. Either might be the last.

Nothing was left untested by Higgins and Burch. The two sides of the
paper on which the wills were written were subjected to the minutest
scrutiny.

Each will was witnessed by the same pair of witnesses, and these were
Philo Gubb and Max Bilton. It was no trouble to get Philo Gubb to tell
about signing the will. Judge Mackinnon crossed the hall and brought
Philo Gubb to the office.

"Yes, sir," said Mr. Gubb. "I signed my signature onto that document
two times as requested so to do by the late deceased. He come over to
my official deteckative headquarters and asked me to step across and
do him the pleasure of a small favor and I done so. Yes, sir, that's
my signed signature. And that's my signed signature also likewise."

"Did he say anything, Mr. Gubb?" asked the Judge.

"He says, 'Gubb, this is my last will and testament, and I wish you to
sign your signature onto it as a witness.' So he put the paper in
front of me. 'Where'll I sign it?' I says. 'Sign it right here under
Mr. Bilton's name,' he says. So I signed my signature like he told
me."

"Yes," said the Judge, "and Mr. O'Hara blotted it with a piece of
blotting-paper, did he not?"

"He so done," said Mr. Gubb.

"And then what?"

"Then he turned the paper over," said Mr. Gubb, "and he says, 'Now,
please sign this one.' So I signed it."

"Under Mr. Bilton's name again?" said the Judge.

"Why, no," said the paper-hanger detective. "Not under it, because it
wasn't located nowhere to have an under to it. Mr. Bilton hadn't
signed on that side yet."

There was an instant sensation.

"Bilton hadn't signed that side?" said Mr. Higgins. "Which side hadn't
he signed?"

"The other side from the side he had signed," said Mr. Gubb.

"Did you notice which side he had not signed?" insisted Mr. Higgins.
"Was it this side t