“Yes,” said Thorndyke.  “But, on the other hand, Jeffrey’s remarks to the porter with reference to the cab do not quite agree with the account that we have just heard from Wilkins.  Which suggests—­as does Wilkins’s account generally—­some secrecy as to the lady’s visit to his chambers.”

“Do you know who the woman was?” I asked.

“No, I don’t know,” he replied.  “I have a rather strong suspicion that I can identify her, but I am waiting for some further facts.”

“Is your suspicion founded on some new matter that you have discovered, or is it deducible from facts that are known to me?”

“I think,” he replied, “that you know practically all that I know, although I have, in one instance, turned a very strong suspicion into a certainty by further inquiries.  But I think you ought to be able to form some idea as to who this lady probably was.”

“But no woman has been mentioned in the case at all.”

“No; but I think you should be able to give this lady a name, notwithstanding.”

“Should I?  Then I begin to suspect that I am not cut out for medico-legal practice, for I don’t see the faintest glimmer of a suggestion.”

Thorndyke smiled benevolently.  “Don’t be discouraged, Jervis,” said he.  “I expect that when you first began to go round the wards, you doubted whether you were cut out for medical practice.  I did.  For special work one needs special knowledge and an acquired faculty for making use of it.  What does a second year’s student make of a small thoracic aneurysm?  He knows the anatomy of the chest; he begins to know the normal heart sounds and areas of dullness; but he cannot yet fit his various items of knowledge together.  Then comes the experienced physician and perhaps makes a complete diagnosis without any examination at all, merely from hearing the patient speak or cough.  He has the same facts as the student, but he has acquired the faculty of instantly connecting an abnormality of function with its correleated anatomical change.  It is a matter of experience.  And, with your previous training, you will soon acquire the faculty.  Try to observe everything.  Let nothing escape you.  And try constantly to find some connection between facts and events that seem to be unconnected.  That is my advice to you; and with that we will put away the Blackmore case for the present and consider our day’s work at an end.”

Chapter XIV

Thorndyke Lays the Mine

The information supplied by Mr. Samuel Wilkins, so far from dispelling the cloud of mystery that hung over the Blackmore case, only enveloped it in deeper obscurity, so far as I was concerned.  The new problem that Thorndyke offered for solution was a tougher one than any of the others.  He proposed that I should identify and give a name to this mysterious woman.  But how could I?  No woman, excepting Mrs. Wilson, had been mentioned in connection with the case.  This new dramatis persona had appeared suddenly from nowhere and straightway vanished without leaving a trace, excepting the two or three beads that we had picked up in Jeffrey’s room.