udge, glancing curiously at the
array of turned-wood handles.

"They are all stamps, my lord," replied Thorndyke, "and each is taken
from a different impression of the prisoner's thumb."

"But why so many?" asked the judge.

"I have multiplied them," answered Thorndyke, as he squeezed out a drop
of finger-print ink on to the slab and proceeded to roll it out into a
thin film, "to avoid the tell-tale uniformity of a single stamp. And I
may say," he added, "that it is highly important that the experts should
not be informed that more than one stamp has been used."

"Yes, I see that," said the judge. "You understand that, Sir Hector," he
added, addressing the counsel, who bowed stiffly, clearly regarding the
entire proceeding with extreme disfavour.

Thorndyke now inked one of the stamps and handed it to the judge, who
examined it curiously and then pressed it on a piece of waste paper, on
which there immediately appeared a very distinct impression of a human
thumb. "Marvellous!" he exclaimed. "Most ingenious! Too ingenious!" He
chuckled softly and added, as he handed the stamp and the paper to the
foreman of the jury: "It is well, Dr. Thorndyke, that you are on the
side of law and order, for I am afraid that, if you were on the other
side, you would be one too many for the police. Now, if you are ready,
we will proceed. Will you, please, stamp an impression in square number
three."

Thorndyke drew a stamp from its compartment, inked it on the slab, and
pressed it neatly on the square indicated, leaving there a sharp, clear
thumb-print.

The process was repeated on nine other squares, a different stamp being
used for each impression. The judge then marked the ten corresponding
squares of the other two sheets of paper, and having checked them,
directed the foreman to exhibit the sheet bearing the false thumb-prints
to the jury, together with the marked sheet which they were to retain,
to enable them to check the statements of the expert witnesses. When
this was done, the prisoner was brought from the dock and stood beside
the table. The judge looked with a curious and not unkindly interest at
the handsome, manly fellow who stood charged with a crime so sordid and
out of character with his appearance, and I felt, as I noted the look,
that Reuben would, at least, be tried fairly on the evidence, without
prejudice or even with some prepossession in his favour.

With the remaining part of the operation Thorndyke proce