But I suppose you will have to be humoured; and I imagine that the best way in which to give you the information you want will be to recite the circumstances surrounding the death of Jeffrey Blackmore.

Will that suit you ?" "Perfectly," replied Thorndyke; and thereupon Marchmont began: "The death of Jeffrey Blackmore was discovered at about eleven o'clock in the morning of the fifteenth of March.

It seems that a builder's man was ascending a ladder to examine a gutter on number 31, New Inn, when, on passing a second-floor window that was open at the top, he looked in and perceived a gentleman lying on a bed.

The gentleman was fully clothed and had apparently lain down on the bed to rest; at least so the builder thought at the time, for he was merely passing the window on his way up, and, very properly, did not make a minute examination.

But when, some ten minutes later, he came down and saw that the gentleman was still in the same position, he looked at him more attentively; and this is what he noticed--but perhaps we had better have it in his own words as he told the story at the inquest.
"'When I came to look at the gentleman a bit more closely, it struck me that he looked rather queer.