“Quite a reasonable conclusion and very clearly stated,” said Thorndyke.  “I don’t say that I entirely agree with you, or that you have exhausted the information that these signatures offer.  But you have started in the right direction.”

“I may be on the right road,” I said gloomily; “but I am stuck fast in one place and I see no chance of getting any farther.”

“But you have a quantity of data,” said Thorndyke.  “You have all the facts that I had to start with, from which I constructed the hypothesis that I am now busily engaged in verifying.  I have a few more data now, for ‘as money makes money’ so knowledge begets knowledge, and I put my original capital out to interest.  Shall we tabulate the facts that are in our joint possession and see what they suggest?”

I grasped eagerly at the offer, though I had conned over my notes again and again.

Thorndyke produced a slip of paper from a drawer, and, uncapping his fountain-pen, proceeded to write down the leading facts, reading each aloud as soon as it was written.

“1.  The second will was unnecessary since it contained no new matter, expressed no new intentions and met no new conditions, and the first will was quite clear and efficient.

“2.  The evident intention of the testator was to leave the bulk of his property to Stephen Blackmore.

“3.  The second will did not, under existing circumstances, give effect to this intention, whereas the first will did.

“4.  The signature of the second will differs slightly from that of the first, and also from what had hitherto been the testator’s ordinary signature.

“And now we come to a very curious group of dates, which I will advise you to consider with great attention.

“5.  Mrs. Wilson made her will at the beginning of September last year, without acquainting Jeffrey Blackmore, who seems to have been unaware of the existence of this will.

“6.  His own second will was dated the twelfth of November of last year.

“7.  Mrs. Wilson died of cancer on the twelfth of March this present year.

“8.  Jeffrey Blackmore was last seen alive on the fourteenth of March.

“9.  His body was discovered on the fifteenth of March.

“10.  The change in the character of his signature began about September last year and became permanent after the middle of October.

“You will find that collection of facts repay careful study, Jervis, especially when considered in relation to the further data: 

“11.  That we found in Blackmore’s chambers a framed inscription of large size, hung upside down, together with what appeared to be the remains of a watch-glass and a box of stearine candles and some other objects.”

He passed the paper to me and I pored over it intently, focusing my attention on the various items with all the power of my will.  But, struggle as I would, no general conclusion could be made to emerge from the mass of apparently disconnected facts.