“I am glad you raised that question,” Thorndyke replied, “for that very difficulty presented itself to me at the beginning of the case. But on thinking it over, I decided that it was an imaginary difficulty, assuming, as we do, that there was a good deal of resemblance between the two men. Put yourself in the porter’s place and follow his mental processes. He is informed that a dead man is lying on the bed in Mr. Blackmore’s rooms. Naturally, he assumes that the dead man is Mr. Blackmore⁠—who, by the way, had hinted at suicide only the night before. With this idea he enters the chambers and sees a man a good deal like Mr. Blackmore and wearing Mr. Blackmore’s clothes, lying on Mr.

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