The judge was a somewhat singular-looking old gentleman, very short as
to his face and very long as to his mouth; which peculiarities, together
with a pair of large and bulging eyes (which he usually kept closed),
suggested a certain resemblance to a frog. And he had a curious
frog-like trick of flattening his eyelids--as if in the act of
swallowing a large beetle--which was the only outward and visible sign
of emotion that he ever displayed.
As soon as the swearing-in of the jury was completed Mr. Loram rose to
introduce the case; whereupon his lordship leaned back in his chair and
closed his eyes, as if bracing himself for a painful operation.
"The present proceedings," Mr. Loram explained, "are occasioned by the
unaccountable disappearance of Mr. John Bellingham, of 141 Queen Square,
Bloomsbury, which occurred about two years ago, or, to be more precise,
on the twenty-third of November, nineteen hundred and two. Since that
date nothing has been heard of Mr. Bellingham, and, as there are certain
substantial reasons for believing him to be dead, the principal
beneficiary under his will, Mr.
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