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up its ears. Apparently, in the actuarial world, bankruptcy followed by alleged suicide is a matter of daily occurrence, and they have their suspicions. That is why I say they are quite within their rights when they insist upon registering a man by his birth-marks before they insure him. It's an extraordinary thing about birth-marks; we really know nothing about them———"

"Nor want to," said Reeves, "for the time being. What happened?"

"I was just telling you. A man came down from the Insurance Company to identify the corpse; and my caddie heard about it from———"

"Heard what?"

"Why, that it is Brotherhood. They recognized him from the birth-mark."

"So that's that," said Mordaunt Reeves, a little bitterly. "Trust the Insurance people not to make a mistake. I confess that, after the handkerchief clue failed, I had begun to think it must be Brotherhood who was dead. I suppose your caddie didn't happen to mention whether it was suicide or murder?"

"He assumed it to be suicide; but not, I think, with any inside information. Of course, it was a foggy day. Did you know that, as a matter of statistics, there are more suicides in November than in any other month?"

"I will make a note of the fact," said Mordaunt Reeves.