Wetmore Declamation Bureau (PWH); 20Nov58, R225365. BLACKMORE, C. A., comp.

SEE New Joy in service songs. BLACKMORE, CARL, ed.

AUSTEN, JOHN. Lorna Doone, a romance of Exmoor. SEE BLACKMORE, RICHARD DODDRIDGE.

SEE FROST, FRANCES. BLACKMORE, RICHARD DODDRIDGE. Lorna Doone, a romance of Exmoor, by R. D. Blackmore, illustrated by John Austen.

SEE FROST, FRANCES. BLACKMORE, RICHARD DODDRIDGE. Lorna Doone, a romance of Exmoor, by R. D. Blackmore, illustrated by John Austen.

SEE BLACKMORE, RICHARD DODDRIDGE.

Thorndyke handed him the key of the chambers, and, after a few sympathetic inquiries, about his healthwhich was obviously very indifferentsaid: "Let me see; you were one of the witnesses to Mr. Blackmore's will, I think?" "I was, sir," replied the porter.

The other witness read it, and, of course, Mr. Blackmore knew what was in it, seeing that it was in his own handwriting.

By the way, I have been wondering how Mr. Blackmore managed about his washing.

The laundry people used to deliver the basket here at the lodge, and Mr. Blackmore used to take it in with him when he happened to be passing.

Mr. Blackmore was a very studious gentleman and he didn't like to be disturbed.

"You have got the Blackmore case to attend to.

I shall give you my notes on the Blackmore case and the copies of the will and the depositions, from which you had better draw up a digest of the evidence with remarks as to the conclusions that it suggests.

Chapter XI The Blackmore Case Reviewed One of the conditions of medical practice is the capability of transferring one's attention at a moment's notice from one set of circumstances to another equally important but entirely unrelated.

My first morning's work on the Blackmore case showed me that the same faculty is demanded in legal practice; and it also showed me that I had yet to acquire it.

In truth, my interest in the Blackmore case was little more than academic, whereas in the Kennington case I was one of the parties and was personally concerned.

To me, John Blackmore was but a name, Jeffrey but a shadowy figure to which I could assign no definite personality, and Stephen himself but a casual stranger.

Although I had uttered no hint to Thorndyke, I lamented inwardly that I had not been given some workif there was any to doconnected with this case, in which I was so deeply interested, rather than with the dry, purely legal and utterly bewildering case of Jeffrey Blackmore's will.

In spite of Thorndyke's recommendation to study Marchmont's statement as it was summarized in those notes which I had copied, and of his hint that I should find in that statement something highly significant, I was borne irresistibly to one conclusion, and one onlyand the wrong one at that, as I suspected: that Jeffrey Blackmore's will was a perfectly regular, sound and valid document.

If it applied to any person in particular, that person could be none other than John Blackmore.

The only possible issue that could be raised was the validity or otherwise of Jeffrey Blackmore's will; and since the validity of that will was supported by positive evidence of the most incontestable kind, it seemed that nothing that we had observed could have any real bearing on the case at all.

But allowing that it had been fixed in its present position by some workman when the new tenant moved in, the fact remained that there it had hung, presumably for months, and that Jeffrey Blackmore, with his expert knowledge of the cuneiform character, had never noticed that it was upside down; or, if he had noticed it, that he had never taken the trouble to have it altered.

Yet something of this kind seemed to be in Thorndyke's mind, for now I recalled the question that he had put to the porter: "When you read the will over in Mr. Blackmore's presence, did you read it aloud?"

" "Excepting," said Mr. Winwood, "in regard to the body; which was certainly that of Jeffrey Blackmore.

It created the possibility that, in certain circumstances, not known to or anticipated by the testator, John Blackmore might become the principal beneficiary, contrary to the obvious wishes of the testator.