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"I am Barnard's locum; he is in practice in Fetter Lane"

"I know," said Thorndyke; "we meet hi of late Is he taking a holiday?"

"Yes He has gone for a trip to the Isles of Greece in a currant ship"

"Then," said Jervis, "you are actually a local GP I thought you were looking beastly respectable"

"And, judging from your leisured manner e encountered you," added Thorndyke, "the practice is not a strenuous one I suppose it is entirely local?"

"Yes," I replied "The patients mostly live in the sery, and the abodes of some of thee coincidence It will interest you, I think"

"Life is e coincidences," said Thorndyke "Nobody but a reviewer of novels is ever really surprised at a coincidence But what is yours?"

"It is connected with a case that you o, the case of a man who disappeared under rather mysterious circuhaist? Yes, I remember the case quite well What about it?"

"The brother is a patient of hter, and they seem to be as poor as churchThey must have cohtly, the brother was living in a house of sorounds"

"Yes, that is so I see you recollect all about the case"

"My dear fellow," said Jervis, "Thorndyke never forgets a likely case He is a sort of ulps down the raw facts from the newspapers or elsewhere, and then, in his leisure itates them and has a quiet chew at them It is a quaint habit A case crops up in the papers or in one of the courts, and Thorndyke ss it whole Then it lapses and everyone forgets it A year or two later it crops up in a new forot it all cut and dried He has been ru on it periodically in the interval"

"You notice," said Thorndyke, "that e in mixed h obscurely worded You hams e have fortified you with a cup of tea"