world would have cleaned blood-marks—did any exist—from his paws in a hundredth part of the time that has elapsed.” 

 Again we were all silent; and again the silence was broken by Miss Trelawny: 

 “But now that I think of it, it could not have been poor Silvio that injured Father. My door was shut when I first heard the sound; and Father’s was shut when I listened at it. When I went in, the injury had been done; so that it must have been before Silvio could possibly have got in.”  This reasoning commended itself, especially to me as a barrister, for it was proof to satisfy a jury. It gave me a distinct pleasure to have Silvio acquitted of the crime—possibly because he was Miss Trelawny’s cat and was loved by her. Happy cat! Silvio’s mistress was manifestly pleased as I said: 

 “Verdict, ‘not guilty!’”  Doctor Winchester after a pause observed: 

 “My apologies to master Silvio on this occasion; but I am still puzzled to know why he is so keen against that mummy. Is he the same toward the other mummies in the house? There are, I suppose, a lot of them. I saw three in the hall as I came in.” 

 “There are lots of them,” she answered.  “I sometimes don’t know whether I am in a private house or the British Museum. But Silvio never concerns himself about any of them except that particular one. I suppose it must be because it is of an animal, not a man or a woman.” 

 “Perhaps it is of a cat!” said the Doctor as he started up and went across the room to look at the mummy more closely.  “Yes,” he went on, “it is the mummy of a cat; and a very fine one, too. If it hadn’t been a special favourite of some very special person it would never have received so much honour. See! A painted case and obsidian eyes—just like a human mummy. It is an extraordinary thing, that knowledge of kind to kind. Here is a dead cat—that is all; it is perhaps four or five thousand years old—and another cat of another breed, in what is practically another world, is ready to fly at it, just as it would if it were not dead. I should like to experiment a bit about that cat if you don’t mind, Miss Trelawny.”  She hesitated before replying: 

 “Of course, do anything you may think necessary or wise; but I hope it will not be anything to hurt or worry my poor Silvio.”  The Doctor smiled as he answered: 

 “Oh, Silvio would be all right:  it is the other one that my sympathies would be reserved for.” 

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