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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Vanishing Man, by R. Austin Freeman
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Vanishing Man
+
+Author: R. Austin Freeman
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2003  [eBook #10476]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANISHING MAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Steven desJardins and Project Gutenberg Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+THE VANISHING MAN
+
+A Detective Romance
+
+BY R. AUSTIN FREEMAN
+
+1911
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TO MY FRIEND
+
+A.E.B.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I THE VANISHING MAN
+   II THE EAVESDROPPER
+  III JOHN THORNDYKE
+   IV LEGAL COMPLICATIONS AND A JACKAL
+    V THE WATERCRESS-BED
+   VI SIDELIGHTS
+  VII JOHN BELLINGHAM'S WILL
+ VIII A MUSEUM IDYLL
+   IX THE SPHINX OF LINCOLN'S INN
+    X THE NEW ALLIANCE
+   XI THE EVIDENCE REVIEWED
+  XII A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
+ XIII THE CROWNER'S QUEST
+  XIV WHICH CARRIES THE READER INTO THE
+      PROBATE COURT
+   XV CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
+  XVI "O! ARTEMIDORUS, FAREWELL!"
+ XVII THE ACCUSING FINGER
+XVIII JOHN BELLINGHAM
+  XIX A STRANGE SYMPOSIUM
+   XX THE END OF THE CASE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE VANISHING MAN
+
+
+The school of St. Margaret's Hospital was fortunate in its lecturer on
+Medical Jurisprudence, or Forensic Medicine, as it is sometimes
+described. At some schools the lecturer on this subject is appointed
+apparently for the reason that he lacks the qualifications to lecture on
+any other. But with us it was very different: John Thorndyke was not
+only an enthusiast, a man of profound learning and great reputation, but
+he was an exceptional teacher, lively and fascinating in style and of
+endless resources. Every remarkable case that had ever been recorded he
+appeared to have at his fingers' ends; every fact--chemical, physical,
+biological, or even historical--that could in any way be twisted into a
+medico-legal significance, was pressed into his service; and his own
+varied and curious experiences seemed as inexhaustible as the widow's
+cruse. One of his favourite devices for giving life and interest to a
+rather dry subject was that of analysing and commenting upon
+contemporary cases as reported in the papers (always, of course, with a
+due regard to the legal and social proprieties); and it was in this way
+that I first became introduced to the astonishing series of events that
+was destined to exercise so great an influence on my own life.
+
+The lecture which had just been concluded had dealt with the rather
+unsatisfactory subject of survivorship. Most of the students had left
+the theatre, and the remainder had gathered round the lecturer's table
+to listen to the informal comments that Dr. Thorndyke was wont to
+deliver on these occasions in an easy, conversational manner, leaning
+against the edge of the table and apparently addressing his remarks to a
+stick of blackboard chalk that he held in his fingers.
+
+"The problem of survivorship," he was saying, in reply to a question put
+by one of the students, "ordinarily occurs in cases where the bodies of
+the parties are producible, or where, at any rate, the occurrence of
+death and its approximate time are actually known. But an analogous
+difficulty may arise in a case where the body of one of the parties is
+not forthcoming, and the fact of death may have to be assumed on
+collateral evidence.
+
+"Here, of course, the vital question to be settled is, what is the
+latest instant at which it is certain that this person was alive? And
+the settlement of that question may turn on some circumstance of the
+most trivial and insignificant kind. There is a case in this morning's
+paper which illustrates this. A gentleman has disappeared rather
+mysteriously. He was last seen by the servant of a relative at whose
+house he had called. Now, if this gentleman should never reappear, dead
+or alive, the question as to what was the latest moment at which he was
+certainly alive will turn upon the further question: 'Was he or was he
+not wearing a particular article of jewellery when he called at that
+relative's house?'"
+
+He paused with a reflective eye bent upon the stump of chalk that he
+still held; then, noting the expectant interest with which we were
+regarding him, he resumed:
+
+"The circumstances in this case are very curious; in fact, they are
+highly mysterious; and if any legal issues should arise in respect of
+them, they are likely to yield some very remarkable complications. The
+gentleman who has disappeared, Mr. John Bellingham, is a man well known
+in archaeological circles. He recently returned from Egypt, bringing
+with him a very fine collection of antiquities--some of which, by the
+way, he has presented to the British Museum, where they are now on
+view--and having made this presentation, he appears to have gone to
+Paris on business. I may mention that the gift consisted of a very fine
+mummy and a complete set of tomb-furniture. The latter, however, had not
+arrived from Egypt at the time when the missing man left for Paris, but
+the mummy was inspected on the fourteenth of October at Mr. Bellingham's
+house by Dr. Norbury of the British Museum, in the presence of the donor
+and his solicitor, and the latter was authorised to hand over the
+complete collection to the British Museum authorities when the
+tomb-furniture arrived; which he has since done.
+
+"From Paris he seems to have returned on the twenty-third of November,
+and to have gone direct from Charing Cross to the house of a relative, a
+Mr. Hurst, who is a bachelor and lives at Eltham. He appeared at the
+house at twenty minutes past five, and as Mr. Hurst had not yet come
+down from town and was not expected until a quarter to six, he explained
+who he was and said he would wait in the study and write some letters.
+The housemaid accordingly showed him into the study, furnished him with
+writing materials, and left him.
+
+"At a quarter to six Mr. Hurst let himself in with his latchkey, and
+before the housemaid had time to speak to him he had passed through into
+the study and shut the door.
+
+"At six o'clock, when the dinner bell was rung, Mr. Hurst entered the
+dining-room alone, and, observing that the table was laid for two, asked
+the reason.
+
+"'I thought Mr. Bellingham was staying to dinner, sir,' was 'The
+housemaid's' reply.
+
+"'Mr. Bellingham!' exclaimed the astonished host. 'I didn't know he was
+here. Why was I not told?'
+
+"'I thought he was in the study with you, sir,' said the housemaid.
+
+"On this a search was made for the visitor, with the result that he was
+nowhere to be found. He had disappeared without leaving a trace, and
+what made the incident more odd was that the housemaid was certain that
+he had not gone out by the front door. For since neither she nor the
+cook was acquainted with Mr. John Bellingham, she had remained the whole
+time either in the kitchen, which commanded a view of the front gate, or
+in the dining-room, which opened into the hall opposite the study door.
+The study itself has a French window opening on a narrow grass plot,
+across which is a side gate that opens into an alley; and it appears
+that Mr. Bellingham must have made his exit by this rather eccentric
+route. At any rate--and this is the important fact--he was not in the
+house, and no one had seen him leave it.
+
+"After a hasty meal Mr. Hurst returned to town and called at the office
+of Mr. Bellingham's solicitor and confidential agent, a Mr. Jellicoe,
+and mentioned the matter to him. Mr. Jellicoe knew nothing of his
+client's return from Paris, and the two men at once took the train down
+to Woodford, where the missing man's brother, Mr. Godfrey Bellingham,
+lives. The servant who admitted them said that Mr. Godfrey was not at
+home, but that his daughter was in the library, which is a detached
+building situated in a shrubbery beyond the garden at the back of the
+house. Here the two men found, not only Miss Bellingham, but also her
+father, who had come in by the back gate.
+
+"Mr. Godfrey and his daughter listened to Mr. Hurst's story with the
+greatest surprise, and assured him that they had neither seen nor heard
+anything of John Bellingham.
+
+"Presently the party left the library to walk up to the house; but only
+a few feet from the library door Mr. Jellicoe noticed an object lying in
+the grass and pointed it out to Mr. Godfrey.
+
+"The latter picked it up, and they all recognised it as a scarab which
+Mr. John Bellingham had been accustomed to wear suspended from his
+watch-chain. There was no mistaking it. It was a very fine scarab of the
+eighteenth dynasty fashioned of lapis lazuli and engraved with the
+cartouche of Amenhotep III. It had been suspended by a gold ring
+fastened to a wire which passed through the suspension hole, and the
+ring, though broken, was still in position.
+
+"This discovery, of course, only added to the mystery, which was still
+further increased when, on inquiry, a suit-case bearing the initials
+J.B. was found to be lying unclaimed in the cloak-room at Charing Cross.
+Reference to the counterfoil of the ticket-book showed that it had been
+deposited about the time of arrival of the Continental express on the
+twenty-third of November, so that its owner must have gone straight on
+to Eltham.
+
+"That is how the affair stands at present, and, should the missing man
+never reappear or should his body never be found, the question, as you
+see, which will be required to be settled is, 'What is the exact time
+and place, when and where, he was last known to be alive?' As to the
+place, the importance of the issues involved in that question are
+obvious and we need not consider them. But the question of time has
+another kind of significance. Cases have occurred, as I pointed out in
+the lecture, in which proof of survivorship by less than a minute has
+secured succession to property. Now, the missing man was last seen alive
+at Mr. Hurst's house at twenty minutes past five on the twenty-third of
+November. But he appears to have visited his brother's house at
+Woodford, and, since nobody saw him at that house, it is at present
+uncertain whether he went there before or after calling on Mr. Hurst. If
+he went there first, then twenty minutes past five on the evening of the
+twenty-third is the latest moment at which he is known to have been
+alive; but if he went there after, there would have to be added to this
+time the shortest possible time in which he could travel from the one
+house to the other.
+
+"But the question as to which house he visited first hinges on the
+scarab. If he was wearing the scarab when he arrived at Mr. Hurst's
+house, it would be certain that he went there first; but if it was not
+then on his watch-chain, a probability would be established that he
+went first to Woodford. Thus, you see, a question which may conceivably
+become of the most vital moment in determining the succession of
+property turns on the observation or non-observation by this housemaid
+of an apparently trivial and insignificant fact."
+
+"Has the servant made any statement on the subject, sir?" I ventured to
+inquire.
+
+"Apparently not," replied Dr. Thorndyke; "at any rate, there is no
+reference to any such statement in the newspaper report, though,
+otherwise, the case is reported in great detail; indeed, the wealth of
+detail, including plans of the two houses, is quite remarkable and well
+worth noting as being in itself a fact of considerable interest."
+
+"In what respect, sir, is it of interest?" one of the students asked.
+
+"Ah!" replied Dr. Thorndyke, "I think I must leave you to consider that
+question yourself. This is an untried case, and we mustn't make free
+with the actions and motives of individuals."
+
+"Does the paper give any description of the missing man, sir?" I asked.
+
+"Yes; quite an exhaustive description. Indeed, it is exhaustive to the
+verge of impropriety, considering that the man may possibly turn up
+alive and well at any moment. It seems that he has an old Pott's
+fracture of the left ankle, a linear, longitudinal scar on each
+knee--origin not stated, but easily guessed at--and that he has tattooed
+on his chest in vermilion a very finely and distinctly executed
+representation of the symbolical Eye of Osiris--or Horus or Ra, as the
+different authorities have it. There certainly ought to be no
+difficulty in identifying the body. But we will hope that it won't come
+to that.
+
+"And now I must really be running away, and so must you; but I would
+advise you all to get copies of the paper and file them when you have
+read the remarkably full details. It is a most curious case, and it is
+highly probable that we shall hear of it again. Good afternoon,
+gentlemen."
+
+Dr. Thorndyke's advice appealed to all who heard it, for medical
+jurisprudence was a live subject at St. Margaret's and all of us were
+keenly interested in it. As a result, we sallied forth in a body to the
+nearest newsvendor's, and, having each provided himself with a copy of
+the _Daily Telegraph_, adjourned together to the Common Room to devour
+the report and thereafter to discuss the bearings of the case,
+unhampered by those considerations of delicacy that afflicted our more
+squeamish and scrupulous teacher.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EAVESDROPPER
+
+
+It is one of the canons of correct conduct, scrupulously adhered to
+(when convenient) by all well-bred persons, that an acquaintance should
+be initiated by a proper introduction. To this salutary rule, which I
+have disregarded to the extent of an entire chapter, I now hasten to
+conform; and the more so inasmuch as nearly two years have passed since
+my first informal appearance.
+
+Permit me, then, to introduce Paul Berkeley, M.B., etc., recently--very
+recently--qualified, faultlessly attired in the professional frock-coat
+and tall hat, and, at the moment of introduction, navigating with
+anxious care a perilous strait between a row of well-filled coal-sacks
+and a colossal tray piled high with kidney potatoes.
+
+The passage of this strait landed me on the terra firma of Fleur-de-Lys
+Court, where I halted for a moment to consult my visiting list. There
+was only one more patient for me to see this morning, and he lived at 49
+Nevill's Court, wherever that might be. I turned for information to the
+presiding deity of the coal shop.
+
+"Can you direct me, Mrs. Jablett, to Nevill's Court?"
+
+She could and she did, grasping me confidentially by the arm (the mark
+remained on my sleeve for weeks) and pointing a shaking forefinger at
+the dead wall ahead. "Nevill's Court," said Mrs. Jablett, "is a alley,
+and you goes into it through a archway. It turns out of Fetter Lane on
+the right 'and as you goes up, oppersight Bream's Buildings."
+
+I thanked Mrs. Jablett and went on my way, glad that the morning round
+was nearly finished, and vaguely conscious of a growing appetite and of
+a desire to wash in hot water.
+
+The practice which I was conducting was not my own. It belonged to poor
+Dick Barnard, an old St. Margaret's man of irrepressible spirits and
+indifferent physique, who had started only the day before for a trip
+down the Mediterranean on board a tramp engaged in the currant trade;
+and this, my second morning's round, was in some sort a voyage of
+geographical discovery.
+
+I walked on briskly up Fetter Lane until a narrow, arched opening,
+bearing the superscription "Nevill's Court," arrested my steps, and here
+I turned to encounter one of those surprises that lie in wait for the
+wanderer in London byways. Expecting to find the grey squalor of the
+ordinary London court, I looked out from under the shadow of the arch
+past a row of decent little shops through a vista full of light and
+colour--a vista of ancient, warm-toned roofs and walls relieved by
+sunlit foliage. In the heart of London a tree is always a delightful
+surprise; but here were not only trees, but bushes and even flowers. The
+narrow footway was bordered by little gardens, which, with their wooden
+palings and well-kept shrubs, gave to the place an air of quaint and
+sober rusticity; and even as I entered a bevy of work-girls, with
+gaily-coloured blouses and hair aflame in the sunlight, brightened up
+the quiet background like the wild flowers that spangle a summer
+hedgerow.
+
+In one of the gardens I noticed that the little paths were paved with
+what looked like circular tiles, but which, on inspection, I found to be
+old-fashioned stone ink-bottles, buried bottom upwards; and I was
+meditating upon the quaint conceit of the forgotten scrivener who had
+thus adorned his habitation--a law-writer perhaps, or an author, or
+perchance even a poet--when I perceived the number that I was seeking
+inscribed on a shabby door in a high wall. There was no bell or knocker,
+so, lifting the latch, I pushed the door open and entered.
+
+But if the court itself had been a surprise, this was a positive wonder,
+a dream. Here, within earshot of the rumble of Fleet Street, I was in an
+old-fashioned garden enclosed by high walls and, now that the gate was
+shut, cut off from all sight and knowledge of the urban world that
+seethed without. I stood and gazed in delighted astonishment. Sun-gilded
+trees and flower-beds gay with blossom; lupins, snap-dragons,
+nasturtiums, spiry foxgloves, and mighty hollyhocks formed the
+foreground; over which a pair of sulphur-tinted butterflies flitted,
+unmindful of a buxom and miraculously clean white cat which pursued
+them, dancing across the borders and clapping her snowy paws fruitlessly
+in mid-air. And the background was no less wonderful: a grand old house,
+dark-eaved and venerable, that must have looked down on this garden when
+ruffled dandies were borne in sedan chairs through the court, and gentle
+Izaak Walton, stealing forth from his shop in Fleet Street, strolled up
+Fetter Lane to "go a-angling" at Temple Mills.
+
+So overpowered was I by this unexpected vision that my hand was on the
+bottom knob of a row of bell-pulls before I recollected myself; and it
+was not until a most infernal jangling from within recalled me to my
+business that I observed underneath it a small brass plate inscribed
+"Miss Oman."
+
+The door opened with some suddenness, and a short, middle-aged woman
+surveyed me hungrily.
+
+"Have I rung the wrong bell?" I asked--foolishly enough, I must admit.
+
+"How can I tell?" she demanded. "I expect you have. It's the sort of
+thing a man would do--ring the wrong bell and then say he's sorry."
+
+"I didn't go as far as that," I retorted. "It seems to have had the
+desired effect, and I've made your acquaintance into the bargain."
+
+"Whom do you want to see?" she asked.
+
+"Mr. Bellingham."
+
+"Are you the doctor?"
+
+"I am _a_ doctor."
+
+"Follow me upstairs," said Miss Oman, "and don't tread on the paint."
+
+I crossed the spacious hall, and, preceded by my conductress, ascended a
+noble oak staircase, treading carefully on a ribbon of matting that ran
+up the middle. On the first-floor landing Miss Oman opened a door and,
+pointing to the room, said: "Go in there and wait; I'll tell her you're
+here."
+
+"I said _Mr_. Bellingham--" I began; but the door slammed on me, and
+Miss Oman's footsteps retreated rapidly down the stairs.
+
+It was at once obvious to me that I was in a very awkward position. The
+room into which I had been shown communicated with another, and though
+the door of communication was shut, I was unpleasantly aware of a
+conversation that was taking place in the adjoining room. At first,
+indeed, only a vague mutter, with a few disjointed phrases, came through
+the door, but suddenly an angry voice rang out clear and painfully
+distinct:
+
+"Yes, I did! And I say it again. Bribery! Collusion! That's what it
+amounts to. You want to square me!"
+
+"Nothing of the kind, Godfrey," was the reply in a lower tone; but at
+this point I coughed emphatically and moved a chair, and the voices
+subsided once more into an indistinct murmur.
+
+To distract my attention from my unseen neighbours I glanced curiously
+about the room and speculated upon the personalities of its occupants. A
+very curious room it was, with its pathetic suggestion of decayed
+splendour and old-world dignity: a room full of interest and character
+and of contrasts and perplexing contradictions. For the most part it
+spoke of unmistakable though decent poverty. It was nearly bare of
+furniture, and what little there was was of the cheapest--a small
+kitchen table and three Windsor chairs (two of them with arms); a
+threadbare string carpet on the floor, and a cheap cotton cloth on the
+table; these, with a set of bookshelves, frankly constructed of grocer's
+boxes, formed the entire suite. And yet, despite its poverty, the place
+exhaled an air of homely if rather ascetic comfort, and the taste was
+irreproachable. The quiet russet of the tablecloth struck a pleasant
+harmony with the subdued bluish green of the worn carpet; the Windsor
+chairs and the legs of the table had been carefully denuded of their
+glaring varnish and stained a sober brown; and the austerity of the
+whole was relieved by a ginger-jar filled with fresh-cut flowers and set
+in the middle of the table.
+
+But the contrasts of which I have spoken were most singular and
+puzzling. There were the bookshelves, for instance, home-made and
+stained at the cost of a few pence, but filled with recent and costly
+works on archaeology and ancient art. There were the objects on the
+mantelpiece: a facsimile in bronze--not bronzed plaster--of the
+beautiful head of Hypnos and a pair of fine Ushabti figures. There were
+the decorations of the walls, a number of etchings--signed proofs, every
+one of them--of Oriental subjects, and a splendid facsimile reproduction
+of an Egyptian papyrus. It was incongruous in the extreme, this mingling
+of costly refinements with the barest and shabbiest necessaries of life,
+of fastidious culture with manifest poverty. I could make nothing of it.
+What manner of man, I wondered, was this new patient of mine? Was he a
+miser, hiding himself and his wealth in this obscure court? An eccentric
+savant? A philosopher? Or--more probably--a crank? But at this point my
+meditations were interrupted by the voice from the adjoining room, once
+more raised in anger.
+
+"But I say that you _are_ making an accusation! You are implying that I
+made away with him."
+
+"Not at all," was the reply; "but I repeat that it is your business to
+ascertain what has become of him. The responsibility rests upon you."
+
+"Upon me!" rejoined the first voice. "And what about you? Your position
+is a pretty fishy one if it comes to that."
+
+"What!" roared the other. "Do you insinuate that I murdered my own
+brother?"
+
+During this amazing colloquy I had stood gaping with sheer astonishment.
+Suddenly I recollected myself, and, dropping into a chair, set my elbows
+on my knees and slapped my hands over my ears; and thus I must have
+remained for a full minute when I became aware of the closing of a door
+behind me.
+
+I sprang to my feet and turned in some embarrassment (for I must have
+looked unspeakably ridiculous) to confront the sombre figure of a rather
+tall and strikingly handsome girl, who, as she stood with her hand on
+the knob of the door, saluted me with a formal bow. In an instantaneous
+glance I noted how perfectly she matched her strange surroundings.
+Black-robed, black-haired, with black-grey eyes and a grave, sad face of
+ivory pallor, she stood, like one of old Terborch's portraits, a harmony
+in tones so low as to be but a step removed from monochrome. Obviously a
+lady in spite of the worn and rusty dress, and something in the poise of
+the head and the set of the straight brows hinted at a spirit that
+adversity had hardened rather than broken.
+
+"I must ask you to forgive me for keeping you waiting," she said; and as
+she spoke a certain softening at the corners of the austere mouth
+reminded me of the absurd position in which she had found me.
+
+I murmured that the trifling delay was of no consequence whatever; that
+I had, in fact, been rather glad of the rest; and I was beginning
+somewhat vaguely to approach the subject of the invalid when the voice
+from the adjoining room again broke forth with hideous distinctness.
+
+"I tell you I'll do nothing of the kind! Why, confound you, it's
+nothing less than a conspiracy that you're proposing!"
+
+Miss Bellingham--as I assumed her to be--stepped quickly across the
+floor, flushing angrily, as well she might; but, as she reached the
+door, it flew open and a small, spruce, middle-aged man burst into the
+room.
+
+"Your father is mad, Ruth!" he exclaimed; "absolutely stark mad! And I
+refuse to hold any further communication with him."
+
+"The present interview was not of his seeking," Miss Bellingham replied
+coldly.
+
+"No, it was not," was the wrathful rejoinder; "it was my mistaken
+generosity. But there--what is the use of talking? I've done my best for
+you and I'll do no more. Don't trouble to let me out; I can find my way.
+Good morning." With a stiff bow and a quick glance at me, the speaker
+strode out of the room, banging the door after him.
+
+"I must apologise for this extraordinary reception," said Miss
+Bellingham; "but I believe medical men are not easily astonished. I will
+introduce you to your patient now." She opened the door and, as I
+followed her into the adjoining room, she said: "Here is another visitor
+for you, dear. Doctor--"
+
+"Berkeley," said I. "I am acting for my friend Doctor Barnard."
+
+The invalid, a fine-looking man of about fifty-five, who sat propped up
+in bed with a pile of pillows, held out an excessively shaky hand, which
+I grasped cordially, making a mental note of the tremor.
+
+"How do you do, sir?" said Mr. Bellingham. "I hope Doctor Barnard is not
+ill."
+
+"Oh, no," I answered; "he has gone for a trip down the Mediterranean on
+a currant ship. The chance occurred rather suddenly, and I bustled him
+off before he had time to change his mind. Hence my rather unceremonious
+appearance, which I hope you will forgive."
+
+"Not at all," was the hearty response. "I'm delighted to hear that you
+sent him off; he wanted a holiday, poor man. And I am delighted to make
+your acquaintance, too."
+
+"It is very good of you," I said; whereupon he bowed as gracefully as a
+man may who is propped up in bed with a heap of pillows; and having thus
+exchanged broadsides of civility, so to speak, we--or, at least,
+I--proceeded to business.
+
+"How long have you been laid up?" I asked cautiously, not wishing to
+make too evident the fact that my principal had given me no information
+respecting his case.
+
+"A week to-day," he replied. "The _fons et origo mali_ was a hansom-cab
+which upset me opposite the Law Courts--sent me sprawling in the middle
+of the road. My own fault, of course--at least, the cabby said so, and I
+suppose he knew. But that was no consolation to me."
+
+"Were you much hurt?"
+
+"No, not really; but the fall bruised my knee rather badly and gave me a
+deuce of a shake up. I'm too old for that sort of thing, you know."
+
+"Most people are," said I.
+
+"True; but you can take a cropper more gracefully at twenty than at
+fifty-five. However, the knee is getting on quite well--you shall see it
+presently--and you observe that I am giving it complete rest. But that
+isn't the whole of the trouble or the worst of it. It's my confounded
+nerves. I'm as irritable as the devil and as nervous as a cat, and I
+can't get a decent night's rest."
+
+I recalled the tremulous hand that he had offered me. He did not look
+like a drinker, but still--
+
+"Do you smoke much?" I inquired diplomatically.
+
+He looked at me slyly and chuckled. "That's a very delicate way to
+approach the subject, Doctor," he said. "No, I don't smoke much, and I
+don't crook my little finger. I saw you look at my shaky hand just
+now--oh, it's all right; I'm not offended. It's a doctor's business to
+keep his eyelids lifting. But my hand is steady enough as a rule, when
+I'm not upset, but the least excitement sets me shaking like a jelly.
+And the fact is that I have just had a deucedly unpleasant interview--"
+
+"I think," Miss Bellingham interrupted, "Doctor Berkeley and, in fact,
+the neighbourhood at large, are aware of the fact."
+
+Mr. Bellingham laughed rather shamefacedly. "I'm afraid I did lose my
+temper," he said; "but I am an impulsive old fellow, Doctor, and when
+I'm put out I'm apt to speak my mind--a little too bluntly, perhaps."
+
+"And audibly," his daughter added. "Do you know that Doctor Berkeley was
+reduced to the necessity of stopping his ears?" She glanced at me, as
+she spoke, with something like a twinkle in her solemn grey eyes.
+
+"Did I shout?" Mr. Bellingham asked, not very contritely, I thought,
+though he added: "I'm very sorry, my dear; but it won't happen again. I
+think we've seen the last of that good gentleman."
+
+"I am sure I hope so," she rejoined, adding: "And now I will leave you
+to your talk; I shall be in the next room if you should want me."
+
+I opened the door for her, and when she had passed out with a stiff
+little bow I seated myself by the bedside and resumed the consultation.
+It was evidently a case of nervous breakdown, to which the cab accident
+had, no doubt, contributed. As to the other antecedents, they were no
+concern of mine, though Mr. Bellingham seemed to think otherwise, for he
+resumed: "That cab business was the last straw, you know, and it
+finished me off, but I have been going down the hill for a long time.
+I've had a lot of trouble during the last two years. But I suppose I
+oughtn't to pester you with the details of my personal affairs."
+
+"Anything that bears on your present state of health is of interest to
+me if you don't mind telling it," I said.
+
+"Mind!" he exclaimed. "Did you ever meet an invalid who didn't enjoy
+talking about his own health? It's the listener who minds, as a rule."
+
+"Well, the present listener doesn't," I said.
+
+"Then," said Mr. Bellingham, "I'll treat myself to the luxury of telling
+you all my troubles; I don't often get the chance of a confidential
+grumble to a responsible man of my own class. And I really have some
+excuse for railing at Fortune, as you will agree when I tell you that, a
+couple of years ago, I went to bed one night a gentleman of independent
+means and excellent prospects and woke up in the morning to find myself
+practically a beggar. Not a cheerful experience that, you know, at my
+time of life, eh?"
+
+"No," I agreed, "nor at any other."
+
+"And that was not all," he continued; "for, at the same moment, I lost
+my only brother, my dearest, kindest friend. He disappeared--vanished
+off the face of the earth; but perhaps you have heard of the affair. The
+confounded papers were full of it at the time."
+
+He paused abruptly, noticing, no doubt, a sudden change in my face. Of
+course, I recollected the case now. Indeed, ever since I had entered the
+house some chord of memory had been faintly vibrating, and now his last
+words had struck out the full note.
+
+"Yes," I said, "I remember the incident, though I don't suppose I should
+but for the fact that our lecturer on medical jurisprudence drew my
+attention to it."
+
+"Indeed," said Mr. Bellingham, rather uneasily, as I fancied. "What did
+he say about it?"
+
+"He referred to it as a case that was calculated to give rise to some
+very pretty legal complications."
+
+"By Jove!" exclaimed Mr. Bellingham, "that man was a prophet! Legal
+complications, indeed! But I'll be bound he never guessed at the sort of
+infernal tangle that has actually gathered round the affair. By the way,
+what was his name?"
+
+"Thorndyke," I replied. "Doctor John Thorndyke."
+
+"Thorndyke," Mr. Bellingham repeated in a musing, retrospective tone. "I
+seem to remember that name. Yes, of course. I have heard a legal friend
+of mine, a Mr. Marchmont, speak of him in reference to the case of a man
+whom I knew slightly years ago--a certain Jeffrey Blackmore, who also
+disappeared very mysteriously. I remember now that Doctor Thorndyke
+unravelled that case with most remarkable ingenuity."
+
+"I daresay he would be very much interested to hear about your case," I
+suggested.
+
+"I daresay he would," was the reply; "but one can't take up a
+professional man's time for nothing, and I couldn't afford to pay him.
+And that reminds me that I'm taking up your time by gossiping about my
+purely personal affairs."
+
+"My morning round is finished," said I, "and, moreover, your personal
+affairs are highly interesting. I suppose I mustn't ask what is the
+nature of the legal entanglement?"
+
+"Not unless you are prepared to stay here for the rest of the day and go
+home a raving lunatic. But I'll tell you this much: the trouble is about
+my poor brother's will. In the first place, it can't be administered
+because there is no sufficient evidence that my brother is dead; and in
+the second place, if it could, all the property would go to people who
+were never intended to benefit. The will itself is the most diabolically
+exasperating document that was ever produced by the perverted ingenuity
+of a wrong-headed man. That's all. Will you have a look at my knee?"
+
+As Mr. Bellingham's explanation (delivered in a rapid _crescendo_ and
+ending almost in a shout) had left him purple-faced and trembling, I
+thought it best to bring our talk to an end. Accordingly I proceeded to
+inspect the injured knee, which was now nearly well, and to overhaul my
+patient generally; and having given him detailed instructions as to his
+general conduct, I rose to take my leave.
+
+"And remember," I said as I shook his hand, "no tobacco, no coffee, no
+excitement of any kind. Lead a quiet, bovine life."
+
+"That's all very well," he grumbled, "but supposing people come here and
+excite me?"
+
+"Disregard them," said I, "and read _Whitaker's Almanack_." And with
+this parting advice I passed out into the other room.
+
+Miss Bellingham was seated at the table with a pile of blue-covered
+note-books before her, two of which were open, displaying pages closely
+written in a small, neat handwriting. She rose as I entered and looked
+at me inquiringly.
+
+"I heard you advising my father to read _Whitaker's Almanack_," she
+said. "Was that as a curative measure?"
+
+"Entirely," I replied. "I recommended it for its medicinal virtues, as
+an antidote to mental excitement."
+
+She smiled faintly. "It certainly is not a highly emotional book," she
+said, and then asked: "Have you any other instructions to give?"
+
+"Well, I might give the conventional advice--to maintain a cheerful
+outlook and avoid worry; but I don't suppose you would find it very
+helpful."
+
+"No," she answered bitterly; "it is a counsel of perfection. People in
+our position are not a very cheerful class, I am afraid; but still they
+don't seek out worries from sheer perverseness. The worries come
+unsought. But, of course, you can't enter into that."
+
+"I can't give any practical help, I fear, though I do sincerely hope
+that your father's affairs will straighten themselves out soon."
+
+She thanked me for my good wishes and accompanied me down to the street
+door, where, with a bow and a rather stiff handshake, she gave me my
+_congé_.
+
+Very ungratefully the noise of Fetter Lane smote on my ears as I came
+out through the archway, and very squalid and unrestful the little
+street looked when contrasted with the dignity and monastic quiet of the
+old garden. As to the surgery, with its oilcloth floor and walls made
+hideous with gaudy insurance show-cards in sham gilt frames, its aspect
+was so revolting that I flew to the day-book for distraction, and was
+still busily entering the morning's visits when the bottle-boy,
+Adolphus, entered stealthily to announce lunch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JOHN THORNDYKE
+
+
+That the character of an individual tends to be reflected in his dress
+is a fact familiar to the least observant. That the observation is
+equally applicable to aggregates of men is less familiar, but equally
+true. Do not the members of the fighting professions, even to this day,
+deck themselves in feathers, in gaudy colours and gilded ornaments,
+after the manner of the African war-chief or the "Redskin brave," and
+thereby indicate the place of war in modern civilisation? Does not the
+Church of Rome send her priests to the altar in habiliments that were
+fashionable before the fall of the Roman Empire, in token of her
+immovable conservatism? And, lastly, does not the Law, lumbering on in
+the wake of progress, symbolise its subjection to precedent by head-gear
+reminiscent of the days of good Queen Anne?
+
+I should apologise for obtruding upon the reader these somewhat trite
+reflections; which were set going by the quaint stock-in-trade of the
+wig-maker's shop in the cloisters of the Inner Temple, whither I had
+strayed on a sultry afternoon in quest of shade and quiet. I had halted
+opposite the little shop window, and, with my eyes bent dreamily on the
+row of wigs, was pursuing the above train of thought when I was startled
+by a deep voice saying softly in my ear: "I'd have the full-bottomed one
+if I were you."
+
+I turned swiftly and rather fiercely, and looked into the face of my
+old friend and fellow-student, Jervis, behind whom, regarding us with a
+sedate smile, stood my former teacher, Dr. John Thorndyke. Both men
+greeted me with a warmth that I felt to be very flattering, for
+Thorndyke was quite a great personage, and even Jervis was several years
+my academic senior.
+
+"You are coming in to have a cup of tea with us, I hope," said
+Thorndyke; and as I assented gladly, he took my arm and led me across
+the court in the direction of the Treasury.
+
+"But why that hungry gaze at those forensic vanities, Berkeley?" he
+asked. "Are you thinking of following my example and Jervis's--deserting
+the bedside for the Bar?"
+
+"What! Has Jervis gone into the law?" I exclaimed.
+
+"Bless you, yes!" replied Jervis. "I have become parasitical on
+Thorndyke! 'The big fleas have little fleas,' you know. I am the
+additional fraction trailing after the whole number in the rear of a
+decimal point."
+
+"Don't you believe him, Berkeley," interposed Thorndyke. "He is the
+brains of the firm. I supply the respectability and moral worth. But you
+haven't answered my question. What are you doing here on a summer
+afternoon staring into a wigmaker's window?"
+
+"I am Barnard's locum; he is in practice in Fetter Lane."
+
+"I know," said Thorndyke; "we meet him occasionally, and very pale and
+peaky he has been looking of late. Is he taking a holiday?"
+
+"Yes. He has gone for a trip to the Isles of Greece in a currant ship."
+
+"Then," said Jervis, "you are actually a local G.P. I thought you were
+looking beastly respectable."
+
+"And, judging from your leisured manner when we encountered you," added
+Thorndyke, "the practice is not a strenuous one. I suppose it is
+entirely local?"
+
+"Yes," I replied. "The patients mostly live in the small streets and
+courts within a half-mile radius of the surgery, and the abodes of some
+of them are pretty squalid. Oh! and that reminds me of a very strange
+coincidence. It will interest you, I think."
+
+"Life is made up of strange coincidences," said Thorndyke. "Nobody but a
+reviewer of novels is ever really surprised at a coincidence. But what
+is yours?"
+
+"It is connected with a case that you mentioned to us at the hospital
+about two years ago, the case of a man who disappeared under rather
+mysterious circumstances. Do you remember it? The man's name was
+Bellingham."
+
+"The Egyptologist? Yes, I remember the case quite well. What about it?"
+
+"The brother is a patient of mine. He is living in Nevill's Court with
+his daughter, and they seem to be as poor as church mice."
+
+"Really," said Thorndyke, "this is quite interesting. They must have
+come down in the world rather suddenly. If I remember rightly, the
+brother was living in a house of some pretensions standing in its own
+grounds."
+
+"Yes, that is so. I see you recollect all about the case."
+
+"My dear fellow," said Jervis, "Thorndyke never forgets a likely case.
+He is a sort of medico-legal camel. He gulps down the raw facts from the
+newspapers or elsewhere, and then, in his leisure moments, he calmly
+regurgitates them and has a quiet chew at them. It is a quaint habit. A
+case crops up in the papers or in one of the courts, and Thorndyke
+swallows it whole. Then it lapses and everyone forgets it. A year or two
+later it crops up in a new form, and, to your astonishment, you find
+that Thorndyke has got it all cut and dried. He has been ruminating on
+it periodically in the interval."
+
+"You notice," said Thorndyke, "that my learned friend is pleased to
+indulge in mixed metaphors. But his statement is substantially true,
+though obscurely worded. You must tell us more about the Bellinghams
+when we have fortified you with a cup of tea."
+
+Our talk had brought us to Thorndyke's chambers, which were on the first
+floor of No. 5A King's Bench Walk, and as we entered the fine, spacious,
+panelled room we found a small, elderly man, neatly dressed in black,
+setting out the tea-service on the table. I glanced at him with some
+curiosity. He hardly looked like a servant, in spite of his neat, black
+clothes; in fact, his appearance was rather puzzling, for while his
+quiet dignity and his serious, intelligent face suggested some kind of
+professional man, his neat, capable hands were those of a skilled
+mechanic.
+
+Thorndyke surveyed the tea-tray thoughtfully and then looked at his
+retainer. "I see you have put three tea-cups, Polton," he said. "Now,
+how did you know I was bringing someone in to tea?"
+
+The little man smiled a quaint, crinkly smile of gratification as he
+explained:
+
+"I happened to look out of the laboratory window as you turned the
+corner, sir."
+
+"How disappointingly simple," said Jervis. "We were hoping for something
+abstruse and telepathic."
+
+"Simplicity is the soul of efficiency, sir," replied Polton as he
+checked the tea-service to make sure that nothing was forgotten, and
+with this remarkable aphorism he silently evaporated.
+
+"To return to the Bellingham case," said Thorndyke, when he had poured
+out the tea. "Have you picked up any facts relating to the parties--any
+facts, I mean, of course, that it would be proper for you to mention?"
+
+"I have learned one or two things that there is no harm in repeating.
+For instance, I gather that Godfrey Bellingham--my patient--lost all his
+property quite suddenly about the time of the disappearance."
+
+"That is really odd," said Thorndyke. "The opposite condition would be
+quite understandable, but one doesn't see exactly how this can have
+happened, unless there was an allowance of some sort."
+
+"No, that was what struck me. But there seem to be some queer features
+in the case, and the legal position is evidently getting complicated.
+There is a will, for example, which is giving trouble."
+
+"They will hardly be able to administer the will without either proof or
+presumption of death," Thorndyke remarked.
+
+"Exactly. That's one of the difficulties. Another is that there seems to
+be some fatal defect in the drafting of the will itself. I don't know
+what it is, but I expect I shall hear sooner or later. By the way, I
+mentioned the interest that you had taken in the case, and I think
+Bellingham would have liked to consult you, but, of course, the poor
+devil has no money."
+
+"That is awkward for him if the other interested parties have. There
+will probably be legal proceedings of some kind, and as the law takes no
+account of poverty, he is likely to go to the wall. He ought to have
+advice of some sort."
+
+"I don't see how he is to get it," said I.
+
+"Neither do I," Thorndyke admitted. "There are no hospitals for
+impecunious litigants; it is assumed that only persons of means have a
+right to go to law. Of course, if we knew the man and the circumstances
+we might be able to help him; but, for all we know to the contrary, he
+may be an arrant scoundrel."
+
+I recalled the strange conversation that I had overheard, and wondered
+what Thorndyke would have thought of it if it had been allowable for me
+to repeat it. Obviously it was not, however, and I could only give my
+own impressions.
+
+"He doesn't strike me as that," I said; "but, of course, one never
+knows. Personally, he impressed me rather favourably, which is more than
+the other man did."
+
+"What other man?" asked Thorndyke.
+
+"There was another man in the case, wasn't there? I forget his name. I
+saw him at the house and didn't much like the look of him. I suspect
+he's putting some sort of pressure on Bellingham."
+
+"Berkeley knows more about this than he is telling us," said Jervis.
+"Let us look up the report and see who this stranger is." He took down
+from a shelf a large volume of newspaper-cuttings and laid it on the
+table.
+
+"You see," said he, as he ran his finger down the index, "Thorndyke
+files all the cases that are likely to come to something, and I know he
+had expectations respecting this one. I fancy he had some ghoulish hope
+that the missing gentleman's head might turn up in somebody's dust-bin.
+Here we are; the other man's name is Hurst. He is apparently a cousin,
+and it was at his house that the missing man was last seen alive."
+
+"So you think Mr. Hurst is moving in the matter?" said Thorndyke, when
+he had glanced over the report.
+
+"That is my impression," I replied, "though I really know nothing about
+it."
+
+"Well," said Thorndyke, "if you should learn what is being done and
+should have permission to speak of it, I shall be very interested to
+hear how the case progresses; and if an unofficial opinion on any point
+would be of service, I think there would be no harm in my giving it."
+
+"It would certainly be of great value if the other parties are taking
+professional advice," I said; and then, after a pause, I asked: "Have
+you given this case much consideration?"
+
+Thorndyke reflected. "No," he said, "I can't say that I have. I turned
+it over rather carefully when the report first appeared, and I have
+speculated on it occasionally since. It is my habit, as Jervis was
+telling you, to utilise odd moments of leisure (such as a railway
+journey, for instance) by constructing theories to account for the facts
+of such obscure cases as have come to my notice. It is a useful habit, I
+think, for, apart from the mental exercise and experience that one gains
+from it, an appreciable proportion of these cases ultimately come into
+my hands, and then the previous consideration of them is so much time
+gained."
+
+"Have you formed any theory to account for the facts in this case?" I
+asked.
+
+"Yes; I have several theories, one of which I especially favour, and I
+am waiting with great interest such new facts as may indicate to me
+which of these theories is probably the correct one."
+
+"It's no use your trying to pump him, Berkeley," said Jervis. "He is
+fitted with an information-valve that opens inwards. You can pour in as
+much as you like, but you can't get any out."
+
+Thorndyke chuckled. "My learned friend is, in the main, correct," he
+said. "You see, I may be called upon any day to advise on this case, in
+which event I should feel remarkably foolish if I had already expounded
+my views in detail. But I should like to hear what you and Jervis make
+of the case as reported in the newspapers."
+
+"There now," exclaimed Jervis, "what did I tell you? He wants to suck
+our brains."
+
+"As far as my brain is concerned," I said, "the process of suction isn't
+likely to yield much except a vacuum, so I will resign in favour of you.
+You are a full-blown lawyer, whereas I am only a simple G.P."
+
+Jervis filled his pipe with deliberate care and lighted it. Then,
+blowing a slender stream of smoke into the air, he said:
+
+"If you want to know what I make of the case from that report, I can
+tell you in one word--nothing. Every road seems to end in a cul-de-sac."
+
+"Oh, come!" said Thorndyke, "this is mere laziness. Berkeley wants to
+witness a display of your forensic wisdom. A learned counsel may be in
+a fog--he very often is--but he doesn't state the fact baldly; he wraps
+it up in a decent verbal disguise. Tell us how you arrive at your
+conclusion. Show us that you have really weighed the facts."
+
+"Very well," said Jervis, "I will give you a masterly analysis of the
+case--leading to nothing." He continued to puff at his pipe for a time
+with slight embarrassment, as I thought--and I fully sympathised with
+him. Finally he blew a little cloud and commenced:
+
+"The position appears to be this: Here is a man who is seen to enter a
+certain house, who is shown into a certain room and shut in. He is not
+seen to come out, and yet, when the room is next entered, it is found to
+be empty; and that man is never seen again, alive or dead. That is a
+pretty tough beginning.
+
+"Now, it is evident that one of three things must have happened. Either
+he must have remained in that room, or at least in that house, alive; or
+he must have died, naturally or otherwise, and his body have been
+concealed; or he must have left the house unobserved. Let us take the
+first case. This affair happened nearly two years ago. Now, he couldn't
+have remained alive in the house for two years. He would have been
+noticed. The servants, for instance, when cleaning out the rooms, would
+have observed him."
+
+Here Thorndyke interposed with an indulgent smile at his junior: "My
+learned friend is treating the inquiry with unbecoming levity. We accept
+the conclusion that the man did not remain in the house alive."
+
+"Very well. Then did he remain in it dead? Apparently not. The report
+says that as soon as the man was missed, Hurst and the servants
+together searched the house thoroughly. But there had been no time or
+opportunity to dispose of the body, whence the only possible conclusion
+is that the body was not there. Moreover, if we admit the possibility of
+his having been murdered--for that is what concealment of the body would
+imply--there is the question: Who could have murdered him? Not the
+servants, obviously, and as to Hurst--well, of course, we don't know
+what his relations with the missing man have been--at least, I don't."
+
+"Neither do I," said Thorndyke. "I know nothing beyond what is in the
+newspaper report and what Berkeley has told us."
+
+"Then we know nothing. He may have had a motive for murdering the man or
+he may not. The point is that he doesn't seem to have had the
+opportunity. Even if we suppose that he managed to conceal the body
+temporarily, still there was the final disposal of it. He couldn't have
+buried it in the garden with the servants about; neither could he have
+burned it. The only conceivable method by which he could have got rid of
+it would have been that of cutting it up into fragments and burying the
+dismembered parts in some secluded spots or dropping them into ponds or
+rivers. But no remains of the kind have been found, as some of them
+probably would have been by now, so that there is nothing to support
+this suggestion; indeed, the idea of murder, in this house at least,
+seems to be excluded by the search that was made the instant the man was
+missed.
+
+"Then to take the third alternative: Did he leave the house unobserved?
+Well, it is not impossible, but it would be a queer thing to do. He may
+have been an impulsive or eccentric man. We can't say. We know nothing
+about him. But two years have elapsed and he has never turned up, so
+that if he left the house secretly he must have gone into hiding and be
+hiding still. Of course, he may have been the sort of lunatic who would
+behave in that manner or he may not. We have no information as to his
+personal character.
+
+"Then there is the complication of the scarab that was picked up in the
+grounds of his brother's house at Woodford. That seems to show that he
+visited that house at some time. But no one admits having seen him
+there; and it is uncertain, therefore, whether he went first to his
+brother's house or to Hurst's. If he was wearing the scarab when he
+arrived at the Eltham house, he must have left that house unobserved and
+gone to Woodford; but if he was not wearing it he probably went from
+Woodford to Eltham and there finally disappeared. As to whether he was
+or was not wearing the scarab when he was last seen alive by Hurst's
+housemaid, there is at present no evidence.
+
+"If he went to his brother's house after his visit to Hurst, the
+disappearance is more understandable if we don't mind flinging
+accusations of murder about rather casually; for the disposal of the
+body would be much less difficult in that case. Apparently no one saw
+him enter the house, and, if he did enter, it was by a back gate which
+communicated with the library--a separate building some distance from
+the house. In that case it would have been physically possible for the
+Bellinghams to have made away with him. There was plenty of time to
+dispose of the body unobserved--temporarily, at any rate. Nobody had
+seen him come to the house, and nobody knew that he was there--if he
+_was_ there; and apparently no search was made either at the time or
+afterwards. In fact, if it could be shown that the missing man ever left
+Hurst's house alive, or that he was wearing the scarab when he arrived
+there, things would look rather fishy for the Bellinghams--for, of
+course, the girl must have been in it if the father was. But there's the
+crux: there is no proof that the man ever did leave Hurst's house alive.
+And if he didn't--but there! as I said at first, whichever turning you
+take, you find that it ends in a blind alley."
+
+"A lame ending to a masterly exposition," was Thorndyke's comment.
+
+"I know," said Jervis. "But what would you have? There are quite a
+number of possible solutions, and one of them must be the true one. But
+how are we to judge which it is? I maintain that until we know something
+of the parties and the financial and other interests involved we have no
+data."
+
+"There," said Thorndyke, "I disagree with you entirely. I maintain that
+we have ample data. You say that we have no means of judging which of
+the various possible solutions is the true one; but I think that if you
+will read the report carefully and thoughtfully you will find that the
+facts now known to us point clearly to one explanation, and one only. It
+may not be the true explanation, and I don't suppose it is. But we are
+now dealing with the matter speculatively, academically, and I contend
+that our data yield a definite conclusion. What do you say, Berkeley?"
+
+"I say that it is time for me to be off; the evening consultations begin
+at half-past six."
+
+"Well," said Thorndyke, "don't let us keep you from your duties, with
+poor Barnard currant-picking in the Grecian Isles. But come in and see
+us again. Drop in when you like, after your work is done. You won't be
+in our way even if we are busy, which we very seldom are after eight
+o'clock."
+
+I thanked Dr. Thorndyke most heartily for making me free of his chambers
+in this hospitable fashion and took my leave, setting forth homewards by
+way of Middle Temple Lane and the Embankment; not a very direct route
+for Fetter Lane, it must be confessed; but our talk had revived my
+interest in the Bellingham household and put me in a reflective vein.
+
+From the remarkable conversation that I had overheard it was evident
+that the plot was thickening. Not that I supposed that these two
+respectable gentlemen really suspected one another of having made away
+with the missing man; but still, their unguarded words, spoken in anger,
+made it clear that each had allowed the thought of sinister
+possibilities to enter his mind--a dangerous condition that might easily
+grow into actual suspicion. And then the circumstances really were
+highly mysterious, as I realised with especial vividness now after
+listening to my friend's analysis of the evidence.
+
+From the problem itself my mind travelled, not for the first time during
+the last few days, to the handsome girl who had seemed in my eyes the
+high-priestess of this temple of mystery in the quaint little court.
+What a strange figure she made against this strange background, with her
+quiet, chilly, self-contained manner, her pale face, so sad and worn,
+her black, straight brows and solemn grey eyes, so inscrutable,
+mysterious, Sibylline. A striking, even impressive, personality this, I
+reflected, with something in it sombre and enigmatic that attracted and
+yet repelled.
+
+And here I recalled Jervis's words: "The girl must have been in it if
+the father was." It was a dreadful thought, even though only
+speculatively uttered, and my heart rejected it; rejected it with an
+indignation that rather surprised me. And this notwithstanding that the
+sombre black-robed figure that my memory conjured up was one that
+associated itself appropriately enough with the idea of mystery and
+tragedy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LEGAL COMPLICATIONS AND A JACKAL
+
+
+My meditations brought me by a circuitous route, and ten minutes late,
+to the end of Fetter Lane, where, exchanging my rather abstracted air
+for the alert manner of a busy practitioner, I strode forward briskly
+and darted into the surgery with knitted brows, as though just released
+from an anxious case. But there was only one patient waiting, and she
+saluted me as I entered with a snort of defiance.
+
+"Here you are, then?" said she.
+
+"You are perfectly correct, Miss Oman," I replied; "in fact, you have
+put the case in a nutshell. What can I have the pleasure of doing for
+you?"
+
+"Nothing," was the answer. "My medical adviser is a lady; but I've
+brought a note from Mr. Bellingham. Here it is," and she thrust the
+envelope into my hand.
+
+I glanced through the note and learned that my patient had had a couple
+of bad nights and a very harassing day. "Could I have something to give
+me a night's rest?" it concluded.
+
+I reflected a few moments. One is not very ready to prescribe sleeping
+draughts for unknown patients, but still, insomnia is a very distressing
+condition. In the end, I temporised with a moderate dose of bromide,
+deciding to call and see if more energetic measures were necessary.
+
+"He had better take a dose of this at once, Miss Oman," said I, as I
+handed her the bottle, "and I will look in later and see how he is."
+
+"I expect he will be glad to see you," she answered, "for he is all
+alone to-night and very dumpy. Miss Bellingham is out. But I must remind
+you that he's a poor man and pays his way. You must excuse my mentioning
+it."
+
+"I am much obliged to you for the hint, Miss Oman," I rejoined. "It
+isn't necessary for me to see him, but I should like just to look in and
+have a chat."
+
+"Yes, it will do him good. You have your points, though punctuality
+doesn't seem to be one of them," and with this parting shot Miss Oman
+bustled away.
+
+Half-past eight found me ascending the great, dim staircase of the house
+in Nevill's Court preceded by Miss Oman, by whom I was ushered into the
+room. Mr. Bellingham, who had just finished some sort of meal, was
+sitting hunched up in his chair gazing gloomily into the empty grate. He
+brightened up as I entered, but was evidently in very low spirits.
+
+"I didn't mean to drag you out after your day's work was finished," he
+said, "though I am very glad to see you."
+
+"You haven't dragged me out. I heard you were alone, so I just dropped
+in for a few minutes' gossip."
+
+"That is really kind of you," he said heartily. "But I'm afraid you'll
+find me rather poor company. A man who is full of his own highly
+disagreeable affairs is not a desirable companion."
+
+"You mustn't let me disturb you if you'd rather be alone," said I, with
+a sudden fear that I was intruding.
+
+"Oh, you won't disturb me," he replied; adding, with a laugh: "It's
+more likely to be the other way about. In fact, if I were not afraid of
+boring you to death I would ask you to let me talk my difficulties over
+with you."
+
+"You won't bore me," I said. "It is generally interesting to share
+another man's experiences without their inconveniences. 'The proper
+study of mankind is--man,' you know, especially to a doctor."
+
+Mr. Bellingham chuckled grimly. "You make me feel like a microbe," he
+said. "However, if you would care to take a peep at me through your
+microscope, I will crawl on to the stage for your inspection, though it
+is not _my_ actions that furnish the materials for your psychological
+studies. I am only a passive agent. It is my poor brother who is the
+_Deus ex machina_, who, from his unknown grave, as I fear, pulls the
+strings of this infernal puppet-show."
+
+He paused, and for a space gazed thoughtfully into the grate as if he
+had forgotten my presence. At length he looked up, and resumed:
+
+"It is a curious story, Doctor--a very curious story. Part of it you
+know--the middle part. I will tell it you from the beginning, and then
+you will know as much as I do; for, as to the end, that is known to no
+one. It is written, no doubt, in the book of destiny, but the page has
+yet to be turned.
+
+"The mischief began with my father's death. He was a country clergyman
+of very moderate means, a widower with two children, my brother John and
+me. He managed to send us both to Oxford, after which John went into the
+Foreign Office and I was to have gone into the Church. But I suddenly
+discovered that my views on religion had undergone a change that made
+this impossible, and just about this time my father came into a quite
+considerable property. Now, as it was his expressed intention to leave
+the estate equally divided between my brother and me, there was no need
+for me to take up any profession for a livelihood. Archaeology was
+already the passion of my life, and I determined to devote myself
+henceforth to my favourite study, in which, by the way, I was following
+a family tendency; for my father was an enthusiastic student of ancient
+Oriental history, and John was, as you know, an ardent Egyptologist.
+
+"Then my father died quite suddenly, and left no will. He had intended
+to have one drawn up, but had put it off until it was too late. And
+since nearly all the property was in the form of real estate, my brother
+inherited practically the whole of it. However, in deference to the
+known wishes of my father, he made me an allowance of five hundred a
+year, which was about a quarter of the annual income, I urged him to
+assign me a lump sum, but he refused to do this. Instead, he instructed
+his solicitor to pay me the allowance in quarterly instalments during
+the rest of his life; and it was understood that, on his death, the
+entire estate should devolve on me, or if I died first, on my daughter
+Ruth. Then, as you know, he disappeared suddenly, and as the
+circumstances suggested that he was dead, and there was no evidence that
+he was alive, his solicitor--a Mr. Jellicoe--found himself unable to
+continue the payment of the allowance. On the other hand, as there was
+no positive evidence that my brother was dead, it was impossible to
+administer the will."
+
+"You say that the circumstances suggested that your brother was dead.
+What circumstances were they?"
+
+"Principally the suddenness and completeness of the disappearance. His
+luggage, as you may remember, was found lying unclaimed at the railway
+station; and there was another circumstance even more suggestive. My
+brother drew a pension from the Foreign Office, for which he had to
+apply in person, or, if abroad, produce proof that he was alive on the
+date when the payment became due. Now, he was exceedingly regular in
+this respect; in fact, he had never been known to fail, either to appear
+in person or to transmit the necessary documents to his agent, Mr.
+Jellicoe. But from the moment when he vanished so mysteriously to the
+present day, nothing whatever has been heard of him."
+
+"It's a very awkward position for you," I said, "but I should think
+there will not be much difficulty in obtaining the permission of the
+Court to presume death and to proceed to prove the will."
+
+Mr. Bellingham made a wry face. "I expect you are right," he said, "but,
+unfortunately, that doesn't help me much. You see, Mr. Jellicoe, having
+waited a reasonable time for my brother to reappear, took a very unusual
+but, I think, in the special circumstances, a very proper step: he
+summoned me and the other interested party to his office and
+communicated to us the provisions of the will. And very extraordinary
+provisions they turned out to be. I was thunderstruck when I heard them.
+And the exasperating thing is that I feel sure my poor brother imagined
+that he had made everything perfectly safe and simple."
+
+"They generally do," I said, rather vaguely.
+
+"I suppose they do," said Mr. Bellingham; "but poor John has made the
+most infernal hash of his will, and I am certain that he has utterly
+defeated his own intentions. You see, we are an old London family. The
+house in Queen Square where my brother nominally lived, but actually
+kept his collection, has been occupied by us for generations, and most
+of the Bellinghams are buried in St. George's burial-ground close by,
+though some members of the family are buried in other churchyards in the
+neighbourhood. Now, my brother--who, by the way, was a bachelor--had a
+strong feeling for the family traditions, and he stipulated, not
+unnaturally, in his will that he should be buried in St. George's
+burial-ground among his ancestors, or, at least, in one of the places of
+burial appertaining to his native parish. But instead of simply
+expressing the wish and directing his executors to carry it out, he made
+it a condition affecting the operation of the will."
+
+"Affecting it in what respect?" I asked.
+
+"In a very vital respect," answered Mr. Bellingham. "The bulk of the
+property he bequeathed to me, or if I predeceased him, to my daughter
+Ruth. But the bequest was subject to the condition that I have
+mentioned--that he should be buried in a certain place--and if that
+condition was not fulfilled, the bulk of the property was to go to my
+cousin, George Hurst."
+
+"But in that case," said I, "as you can't produce the body, neither of
+you can get the property."
+
+"I am not so sure of that," he replied. "If my brother is dead, it is
+pretty certain that he is not buried in St. George's or any of the other
+places mentioned, and the fact can easily be proved by production of the
+registers. So that a permission to presume death would result in the
+handing over to Hurst of almost the entire estate."
+
+"Who is the executor?" I asked.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed, "there is another muddle. There are two executors;
+Jellicoe is one, and the other is the principal beneficiary--Hurst or
+myself, as the case may be. But, you see, neither of us can become an
+executor until the Court has decided which of us is the principal
+beneficiary."
+
+"But who is to apply to the Court? I thought that was the business of
+the executors."
+
+"Exactly. That is Hurst's difficulty. We were discussing it when you
+called the other day, and a very animated discussion it was," he added,
+with a grim smile. "You see, Jellicoe naturally refuses to move in the
+matter alone. He says he must have the support of the other executor.
+But Hurst is not at present the other executor; neither am I. But the
+two of us together are the co-executor, since the duty devolves upon one
+or other of us, in any case."
+
+"It's a complicated position," I said.
+
+"It is; and the complication has elicited a very curious proposal from
+Hurst. He points out--quite correctly, I am afraid--that as the
+conditions as to burial have not been complied with, the property must
+come to him, and he proposes a very neat little arrangement, which is
+this: That I shall support him and Jellicoe in their application for
+permission to presume death and administer the will, and that he shall
+pay me four hundred a year for life; the arrangement to hold good _in
+all eventualities_."
+
+"What does he mean by that?"
+
+"He means," said Bellingham, fixing me with a ferocious scowl, "that if
+the body should turn up at any future time, so that the conditions as to
+burial should be able to be carried out, he should still retain the
+property and pay me the four hundred a year."
+
+"The deuce!" said I. "He seems to know how to drive a bargain."
+
+"His position is that he stands to lose four hundred a year for the term
+of my life if the body is never found, and he ought to stand to win if
+it is."
+
+"And I gather that you have refused his offer?"
+
+"Yes; very emphatically, and my daughter agrees with me; but I am not
+sure that I have done the right thing. A man should think twice, I
+suppose, before he burns his boats."
+
+"Have you spoken to Mr. Jellicoe about the matter?"
+
+"Yes, I have been to see him to-day. He is a cautious man, and he
+doesn't advise me one way or the other. But I think he disapproves of my
+refusal; in fact, he remarked that a bird in the hand is worth two in
+the bush, especially when the whereabouts of the bush is unknown."
+
+"Do you think he will apply to the Court without your sanction?"
+
+"He doesn't want to; but I suppose, if Hurst puts pressure on him, he
+will have to. Besides, Hurst, as an interested party, could apply on his
+own account, and after my refusal he probably will; at least, that is
+Jellicoe's opinion."
+
+"The whole thing is a most astonishing muddle," I said, "especially when
+one remembers that your brother had a lawyer to advise him. Didn't Mr.
+Jellicoe point out to him how absurd the provisions were?"
+
+"Yes, he did. He tells me that he implored my brother to let him draw
+up a will embodying the matter in a reasonable form. But John wouldn't
+listen to him. Poor old fellow! he could be very pig-headed when he
+chose."
+
+"And is Hurst's proposal still open?"
+
+"No, thanks to my peppery temper. I refused it very definitely, and sent
+him off with a flea in his ear. I hope I have not made a false step; I
+was quite taken by surprise when Hurst made the proposal and got rather
+angry. You remember, my brother was last seen alive at Hurst's
+house--but there, I oughtn't to talk like that, and I oughtn't to pester
+you with my confounded affairs when you have come in for a friendly
+chat, though I gave you fair warning, you remember."
+
+"Oh, but you have been highly entertaining. You don't realise what an
+interest I take in your case."
+
+Mr. Bellingham laughed somewhat grimly. "My case!" he repeated. "You
+speak as if I were some rare and curious sort of criminal lunatic.
+However, I'm glad you find me amusing. It's more than I find myself."
+
+"I didn't say amusing; I said interesting. I view you with deep respect
+as the central figure of a stirring drama. And I am not the only person
+who regards you in that light. Do you remember my speaking to you of
+Doctor Thorndyke?"
+
+"Yes, of course I do."
+
+"Well, oddly enough, I met him this afternoon and we had a long talk at
+his chambers. I took the liberty of mentioning that I had made your
+acquaintance. Did I do wrong?"
+
+"No. Certainly not. Why shouldn't you tell him? Did he remember my
+infernal case, as you call it?"
+
+"Perfectly, in all its details. He is quite an enthusiast, you know, and
+uncommonly keen to hear how the case develops."
+
+"So am I, for that matter," said Mr. Bellingham.
+
+"I wonder," said I, "if you would mind my telling him what you have told
+me to-night. It would interest him enormously."
+
+Mr. Bellingham reflected awhile with his eyes fixed on the empty grate.
+Presently he looked up, and said slowly:
+
+"I don't know why I should. It's no secret; and if it were, I hold no
+monopoly in it. No; tell him, if you think he'd care to hear about it."
+
+"You needn't be afraid of his talking," I said. "He is as close as an
+oyster; and the facts may mean more to him than to us. He may be able to
+give a useful hint or two."
+
+"Oh, I'm not going to pick his brains," Mr. Bellingham said quickly and
+with some wrath. "I'm not the sort of man who goes round cadging for
+free professional advice. Understand that clearly, Doctor."
+
+"I do," I answered hastily. "That wasn't what I meant at all. Is that
+Miss Bellingham coming in? I heard the front door shut."
+
+"Yes, that will be my girl, I expect; but don't run away. You're not
+afraid of her, are you?" he added as I hurriedly picked up my hat.
+
+"I'm not sure that I'm not," I answered. "She is a rather majestic young
+lady."
+
+Mr. Bellingham chuckled and smothered a yawn, and at that moment his
+daughter entered the room; and, in spite of her shabby black dress and
+a shabbier handbag that she carried, I thought her appearance and manner
+fully justified my description.
+
+"You come in, Miss Bellingham," I said as she shook my hand with cool
+civility, "to find your father yawning and me taking my departure. So I
+have my uses, you see. My conversation is the infallible cure for
+insomnia."
+
+Miss Bellingham smiled. "I believe I am driving you away," she said.
+
+"Not at all," I replied hastily. "My mission was accomplished, that was
+all."
+
+"Sit down for a few minutes, Doctor," urged Mr. Bellingham, "and let
+Ruth sample the remedy. She will be affronted if you run away as soon as
+she comes in."
+
+"Well, you mustn't let me keep you up," I said.
+
+"Oh, I'll let you know when I fall asleep," he replied, with a chuckle;
+and with this understanding I sat down again--not at all unwillingly.
+
+At this moment Miss Oman entered with a small tray and a smile of which
+I should not have supposed her to be capable.
+
+"You'll take your toast and cocoa while they're hot, dear, won't you?"
+she said coaxingly.
+
+"Yes, I will, Phyllis, thank you," Miss Bellingham answered. "I am only
+just going to take off my hat," and she left the room, followed by the
+astonishingly transfigured spinster.
+
+She returned almost immediately as Mr. Bellingham was in the midst of a
+profound yawn, and sat down to her frugal meal, when her father
+mystified me considerably by remarking:
+
+"You're late to-night, chick. Have the Shepherd Kings been giving
+trouble?"
+
+"No," she replied; "but I thought I might as well get them done. So I
+dropped in at the Ormond Street library on my way home and finished
+them."
+
+"Then they are ready for stuffing now?"
+
+"Yes." As she answered she caught my astonished eye (for a stuffed
+Shepherd King is undoubtedly a somewhat surprising phenomenon) and
+laughed softly.
+
+"We mustn't talk in riddles like this," she said, "before Doctor
+Berkeley, or he will turn us both into pillars of salt. My father is
+referring to my work," she explained to me.
+
+"Are you a taxidermist, then?" I asked.
+
+She hastily set down the cup that she was raising to her lips and broke
+into a ripple of quiet laughter.
+
+"I am afraid my father has misled you with his irreverent expressions.
+He will have to atone by explaining."
+
+"You see, Doctor," said Mr. Bellingham, "Ruth is a literary searcher--"
+
+"Oh, don't call me a 'searcher'!" Miss Bellingham protested. "It
+suggests the female searcher at a police-station. Say investigator."
+
+"Very well, investigator or investigatrix, if you like. She hunts up
+references and bibliographies at the Museum for people who are writing
+books. She looks up everything that has been written on a given subject,
+and then, when she has crammed herself to bursting-point with facts, she
+goes to her client and disgorges and crams him or her, and he or she
+finally disgorges into the Press."
+
+"What a disgusting way to put it!" said his daughter. "However, that is
+what it amounts to. I am a literary jackal, a collector of provender for
+the literary lions. Is that quite clear?"
+
+"Perfectly. But I don't think that, even now, I quite understand about
+the stuffed Shepherd Kings."
+
+"Oh, it was not the Shepherd Kings who were to be stuffed. It was the
+author! That was mere obscurity of speech on the part of my father. The
+position is this: A venerable archdeacon wrote an article on the
+patriarch Joseph--"
+
+"And didn't know anything about him," interrupted Mr. Bellingham, "and
+got tripped up by a specialist who did, and then got shirty--"
+
+"Nothing of the kind," said Miss Bellingham. "He knew as much as
+venerable archdeacons ought to know; but the expert knew more. So the
+archdeacon commissioned me to collect the literature on the state of
+Egypt at the end of the seventeenth dynasty, which I have done; and
+to-morrow I shall go and stuff him, as my father expresses it, and
+then--"
+
+"And then," Mr. Bellingham interrupted, "the archdeacon will rush forth
+and pelt that expert with Shepherd Kings and Seqenen-Ra and the whole
+tag-rag and bobtail of the seventeenth dynasty. Oh, there'll be wigs on
+the green, I can tell you."
+
+"Yes, I expect there will be quite a lively little skirmish," said Miss
+Bellingham. And thus dismissing the subject, she made an energetic
+attack on the toast while her father refreshed himself with a colossal
+yawn.
+
+I watched her with furtive admiration and deep and growing interest. In
+spite of her pallor, her weary eyes, and her drawn and almost haggard
+face, she was an exceedingly handsome girl; and there was in her aspect
+a suggestion of purpose, of strength and character that marked her off
+from the rank and file of womanhood. I noted this as I stole an
+occasional glance at her or turned to answer some remark addressed to
+me; and I noted, too, that her speech, despite a general undertone of
+depression, was yet not without a certain caustic, ironical humour. She
+was certainly a rather enigmatical young person, but very decidedly
+interesting.
+
+When she had finished her repast she put aside the tray and, opening the
+shabby handbag, asked:
+
+"Do you take any interest in Egyptian history? We are as mad as hatters
+on the subject. It seems to be a family complaint."
+
+"I don't know much about it," I answered. "Medical studies are rather
+engrossing and don't leave much time for general reading."
+
+"Naturally," she said. "You can't specialise in everything. But if you
+would care to see how the business of a literary jackal is conducted, I
+will show you my notes."
+
+I accepted the offer eagerly (not, I fear, from pure enthusiasm for the
+subject), and she brought forth from the bag four blue-covered, quarto
+note-books, each dealing with one of the four dynasties from the
+fourteenth to the seventeenth. As I glanced through the neat and orderly
+extracts with which they were filled we discussed the intricacies of the
+peculiarly difficult and confused period that they covered, gradually
+lowering our voices as Mr. Bellingham's eyes closed and his head fell
+against the back of his chair. We had just reached the critical reign of
+Apepa II when a resounding snore broke in upon the studious quiet of
+the room and sent us both into a fit of silent laughter.
+
+"Your conversation has done its work," she whispered as I stealthily
+picked up my hat, and together we stole on tiptoe to the door, which she
+opened without a sound. Once outside, she suddenly dropped her bantering
+manner and said quite earnestly:
+
+"How kind it was of you to come and see him to-night! You have done him
+a world of good, and I am most grateful. Good night!"
+
+She shook hands with me really cordially, and I took my way down the
+creaking stairs in a whirl of happiness that I was quite at a loss to
+account for.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE WATERCRESS-BED
+
+
+Barnard's practice, like most others, was subject to those fluctuations
+that fill the struggling practitioner alternately with hope and despair.
+The work came in paroxysms with intervals of almost complete stagnation.
+One of these intermissions occurred on the day after my visit to
+Nevill's Court, with the result that by half-past eleven I found myself
+wondering what I should do with the remainder of the day. The better to
+consider this weighty problem, I strolled down to the Embankment, and,
+leaning on the parapet, contemplated the view across the river; the grey
+stone bridge with its perspective of arches, the picturesque pile of the
+shot-towers, and beyond, the shadowy shapes of the Abbey and St.
+Stephen's.
+
+It was a pleasant scene, restful and quiet, with a touch of life and a
+hint of sober romance, when a barge swept down through the middle arch
+of the bridge with a lugsail hoisted to a jury mast and a white-aproned
+woman at the tiller. Dreamily I watched the craft creep by upon the
+moving tide, noted the low freeboard, almost awash, the careful
+helmswoman, and the dog on the forecastle yapping at the distant
+shore--and thought of Ruth Bellingham.
+
+What was there about this strange girl that had made so deep an
+impression on me? That was the question that I propounded to myself, and
+not for the first time. Of the fact itself there was no doubt. But what
+was the explanation? Was it her unusual surroundings? Her occupation and
+rather recondite learning? Her striking personality and exceptional good
+looks? Or her connection with the dramatic mystery of her lost uncle?
+
+I concluded that it was all of these. Everything connected with her was
+unusual and arresting; but over and above these circumstances there was
+a certain sympathy and personal affinity of which I was strongly
+conscious and of which I dimly hoped that she, perhaps, was a little
+conscious, too. At any rate, I was deeply interested in her; of that
+there was no doubt whatever. Short as our acquaintance had been, she
+held a place in my thoughts that had never been held by any other woman.
+
+From Ruth Bellingham my reflections passed by a natural transition to
+the curious story that her father had told me. It was a queer affair,
+that ill-drawn will, with the baffled lawyer protesting in the
+background. It almost seemed as if there must be something behind it
+all, especially when I remembered Mr. Hurst's very singular proposal.
+But it was out of _my_ depth; it was a case for a lawyer, and to a
+lawyer it should go. This very night, I resolved, I would go to
+Thorndyke and give him the whole story as it had been told to me.
+
+And then there happened one of those coincidences at which we all wonder
+when they occur, but which are so frequent as to have become enshrined
+in a proverb. For, even as I formed the resolution, I observed two men
+approaching from the direction of Blackfriars, and recognised in them my
+quondam teacher and his junior.
+
+"I was just thinking about you," I said as they came up.
+
+"Very flattering," replied Jervis; "but I thought you had to talk of the
+devil."
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Thorndyke, "he was talking to himself. But why were
+you thinking of us, and what was the nature of your thoughts?"
+
+"My thoughts had reference to the Bellingham case. I spent the whole of
+last evening at Nevill's Court."
+
+"Ha! And are there any fresh developments?"
+
+"Yes, by Jove! there are. Bellingham gave me a full and detailed
+description of the will; and a pretty document it seems to be."
+
+"Did he give you permission to repeat the details to me?"
+
+"Yes. I asked specifically if I might and he had no objection whatever."
+
+"Good. We are lunching at Soho to-day as Polton has his hands full. Come
+with us and share our table and tell us your story as we go. Will that
+suit you?"
+
+It suited me admirably in the present state of the practice, and I
+accepted the invitation with undissembled glee.
+
+"Very well," said Thorndyke; "then let us walk slowly and finish with
+matters confidential before we plunge into the madding crowd."
+
+We set forth at a leisurely pace along the broad pavement and I
+commenced my narration. As well as I could remember, I related the
+circumstances that had led up to the present disposition of the property
+and then proceeded to the actual provisions of the will; to all of which
+my two friends listened with rapt interest, Thorndyke occasionally
+stopping me to jot down a memorandum in his pocket-book.
+
+"Why, the fellow must have been a stark lunatic!" Jervis exclaimed, when
+I had finished. "He seems to have laid himself out with the most
+devilish ingenuity to defeat his own ends."
+
+"That is not an uncommon peculiarity with testators," Thorndyke
+remarked. "A direct and perfectly intelligible will is rather the
+exception. But we can hardly judge until we have seen the actual
+document. I suppose Bellingham hasn't a copy?"
+
+"I don't know," said I; "but I will ask him."
+
+"If he has one, I should like to look through it," said Thorndyke. "The
+provisions are very peculiar, and, as Jervis says, admirably calculated
+to defeat the testator's wishes if they have been correctly reported.
+And, apart from that, they have a remarkable bearing on the
+circumstances of the disappearance. I daresay you noticed that."
+
+"I noticed that it is very much to Hurst's advantage that the body has
+not been found."
+
+"Yes, of course. But there are some other points that are very
+significant. However, it would be premature to discuss the terms of the
+will until we have seen the actual document or a certified copy."
+
+"If there is a copy extant," I said, "I will try to get hold of it.
+Bellingham is terribly afraid of being suspected of a desire to get
+professional advice gratis."
+
+"That," said Thorndyke, "is natural enough, and not discreditable. But
+you must overcome his scruples somehow. I expect you will be able to.
+You are a plausible young gentleman, as I remember of old, and you seem
+to have established yourself as quite the friend of the family."
+
+"They are rather interesting people," I explained; "very cultivated and
+with a strong leaning towards archaeology. It seems to be in the blood."
+
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "a family tendency, probably due to contact and
+common surroundings rather than heredity. So you like Godfrey
+Bellingham?"
+
+"Yes. He is a trifle peppery and impulsive, but quite an agreeable,
+genial old buffer."
+
+"And the daughter," said Jervis, "what is she like?"
+
+"Oh, she is a learned lady; works up bibliographies and references at
+the Museum."
+
+"Ah!" Jervis exclaimed, with deep disfavour, "I know the breed. Inky
+fingers; no chest to speak of; all side and spectacles."
+
+I rose artlessly at the gross and palpable bait.
+
+"You're quite wrong," I exclaimed indignantly, contrasting Jervis's
+hideous presentment with the comely original. "She is an exceedingly
+good-looking girl, and her manners all that a lady's should be. A little
+stiff, perhaps, but then I am only an acquaintance--almost a stranger."
+
+"But," Jervis persisted, "what is she like, in appearance I mean. Short?
+fat? sandy? Give us intelligible details."
+
+I made a rapid mental inventory, assisted by my recent cogitations.
+
+"She is about five feet seven, slim but rather plump, very erect in
+carriage and graceful in movements; black hair, loosely parted in the
+middle and falling very prettily away from the forehead; pale, clear
+complexion, dark grey eyes, straight eyebrows, straight, well-shaped
+nose, short mouth, rather full; round chin--what the deuce are you
+grinning at, Jervis?" For my friend had suddenly unmasked his batteries
+and now threatened, like the Cheshire Cat, to dissolve into a mere
+abstraction of amusement.
+
+"If there is a copy of that will, Thorndyke," he said, "we shall get it.
+I think you agree with me, reverend senior?"
+
+"I have already said," was the reply, "that I put my trust in Berkeley.
+And now let us dismiss professional topics. This is our hostelry."
+
+He pushed open an unpretentious glazed door and we followed him into the
+restaurant, whereof the atmosphere was pervaded by an appetising
+meatiness mingled with less agreeable suggestions of the destructive
+distillation of fat.
+
+It was some two hours later when I wished my friends adieu under the
+golden-leaved plane trees of King's Bench Walk.
+
+"I won't ask you to come in now," said Thorndyke, "as we have some
+consultations this afternoon. But come in and see us soon; don't wait
+for that copy of the will."
+
+"No," said Jervis. "Drop in in the evening when your work is done;
+unless, of course, there is more attractive society elsewhere--Oh, you
+needn't turn that colour, my dear child; we have all been young once;
+there is even a tradition that Thorndyke was young some time back in the
+pre-dynastic period."
+
+"Don't take any notice of him, Berkeley," said Thorndyke. "The egg-shell
+is sticking to his head still. He'll know better when he is my age."
+
+"Methuselah!" exclaimed Jervis; "I hope I shan't have to wait as long
+as that!"
+
+Thorndyke smiled benevolently at his irrepressible junior, and, shaking
+my hand cordially, turned into the entry.
+
+From the Temple I wended northward to the adjacent College of Surgeons,
+where I spent a couple of profitable hours examining the "pickles," and
+refreshing my memory on the subjects of pathology and anatomy;
+marvelling afresh (as every practical anatomist must marvel) at the
+incredibly perfect technique of the dissections, and inwardly paying a
+respectful tribute to the founder of the collection. At length, the
+warning of the clock, combined with an increasing craving for tea, drove
+me forth and bore me towards the scene of my, not very strenuous,
+labours. My mind was still occupied with the contents of the cases and
+the great glass jars, so that I found myself at the corner of Fetter
+Lane without a very clear idea of how I had got there. But at that point
+I was aroused from my reflections rather abruptly by a raucous voice in
+my ear.
+
+"'Orrible discovery at Sidcup!"
+
+I turned wrathfully--for a London street-boy's yell, let off at
+point-blank range, is, in effect, like the smack of an open hand--but
+the inscription on the staring yellow poster that was held up for my
+inspection changed my anger into curiosity.
+
+"Horrible discovery in a watercress-bed!"
+
+Now, let, prigs deny it if they will, but there is something very
+attractive in a "horrible discovery." It hints at tragedy, at mystery,
+at romance. It promises to bring into our grey and commonplace life that
+element of the dramatic which is the salt that our existence is
+savoured withal. "In a watercress-bed," too! The rusticity of the
+background seemed to emphasise the horror of the discovery, whatever it
+might be.
+
+I bought a copy of the paper, and, tucking it under my arm, hurried on
+to the surgery, promising myself a mental feast of watercress; but as I
+opened the door I found myself confronted by a corpulent woman of
+piebald and pimply aspect who saluted me with a deep groan. It was the
+lady from the coal shop in Fleur-de-Lys Court.
+
+"Good evening, Mrs. Jablett," I said briskly; "not come about yourself,
+I hope."
+
+"Yes, I have," she answered, rising and following me gloomily into the
+consulting-room; and then, when I had seated her in the patient's chair
+and myself at the writing-table, she continued: "It's my inside, you
+know, Doctor."
+
+The statement lacked anatomical precision and merely excluded the domain
+of the skin specialist. I accordingly waited for enlightenment and
+speculated on the watercress-beds, while Mrs. Jablett regarded me
+expectantly with a dim and watery eye.
+
+"Ah!" I said, at length; "it's your--your inside, is it, Mrs. Jablett?"
+
+"Yus. _And_ my 'ead," she added, with a voluminous sigh that filled the
+apartment with odorous reminiscences of "unsweetened."
+
+"Your head aches, does it?"
+
+"Somethink chronic!" said Mrs. Jablett. "Feels as if it was a-opening
+and a-shutting, a-opening and a-shutting, and when I sit down I feel as
+if I should _bust_."
+
+This picturesque description of her sensations--not wholly inconsistent
+with her figure--gave the clue to Mrs. Jablett's sufferings. Resisting a
+frivolous impulse to reassure her as to the elasticity of the human
+integument, I considered her case in exhaustive detail, coasting
+delicately round the subject of "unsweetened," and finally sent her
+away, revived in spirits and grasping a bottle of Mist. Sodae cum
+Bismutho from Barnard's big stock-jar. Then I went back to investigate
+the Horrible Discovery; but before I could open the paper, another
+patient arrived (_Impetigo contagiosa_, this time, affecting the "wide
+and archčd-front sublime" of a juvenile Fetter Laner), and then yet
+another, and so on through the evening until, at last, I forgot the
+watercress-beds altogether. It was only when I had purified myself from
+the evening consultations with hot water and a nail-brush and was about
+to sit down to a frugal supper, that I remembered the newspaper and
+fetched it from the drawer of the consulting-room table, where it had
+been hastily thrust out of sight. I folded it into a convenient form,
+and, standing it upright against the water-jug, read the report at my
+ease as I supped.
+
+There was plenty of it. Evidently the reporter had regarded it as a
+"scoop," and the editor had backed him up with ample space and
+hair-raising head-lines.
+
+"HORRIBLE DISCOVERY IN A WATERCRESS-BED AT SIDCUP!
+
+"A startling discovery was made yesterday afternoon in the course of
+clearing out a watercress-bed near the erstwhile rural village of Sidcup
+in Kent; a discovery that will occasion many a disagreeable qualm to
+those persons who have been in the habit of regaling themselves with
+this refreshing esculent. But before proceeding to a description of the
+circumstances of the actual discovery or of the objects found--which,
+however, it may be stated at once, are nothing more or less than the
+fragments of a dismembered human body--it will be interesting to trace
+the remarkable chain of coincidences by virtue of which the discovery
+was made.
+
+"The beds in question have been laid out in a small artificial lake fed
+by a tiny streamlet which forms one of the numerous tributaries of the
+River Cray. Its depth is greater than is usual in watercress-beds,
+otherwise the gruesome relics could never have been concealed beneath
+its surface, and the flow of water through it, though continuous, is
+slow. The tributary streamlet meanders through a succession of pasture
+meadows, in one of which the beds themselves are situated, and here
+throughout most of the year the fleecy victims of the human carnivore
+carry on the industry of converting grass into mutton. Now it happened
+some years ago that the sheep frequenting these pastures became affected
+with the disease known as 'liver-rot'; and here we must make a short
+digression into the domain of pathology.
+
+"'Liver-rot' is a disease of quite romantic antecedents. Its cause is a
+small, flat worm--the liver-fluke--which infests the liver and
+bile-ducts of the affected sheep.
+
+"Now how does the worm get into the sheep's liver? That is where the
+romance comes in. Let us see.
+
+"The cycle of transformations begins with the deposit of the eggs of the
+fluke in some shallow stream or ditch running through pasture lands. Now
+each egg has a sort of lid, which presently opens and lets out a
+minute, hairy creature who swims away in search of a particular kind of
+water-snail--the kind called by naturalists _Limnaea truncatula_. If he
+finds a snail, he bores his way into its flesh and soon begins to grow
+and wax fat. Then he brings forth a family--of tiny worms quite unlike
+himself, little creatures called _rediae_, which soon give birth to
+families of young _rediae_. So they may go on for several generations,
+but at last there comes a generation of _rediae_ which, instead of
+giving birth to fresh _rediae_, produce families of totally different
+offspring; big-headed, long-tailed creatures like miniature tadpoles,
+called by the learned _cercariae_. The _cercariae_ soon wriggle their
+way out of the body of the snail, and then complications arise: for it
+is the habit of this particular snail to leave the water occasionally
+and take a stroll in the fields. Thus the _cercariae_, escaping from the
+snail, find themselves on the grass, whereupon they promptly drop their
+tails and stick themselves to the grass-blades. Then comes the
+unsuspecting sheep to take his frugal meal, and, cropping the grass,
+swallows it, _cercariae_ and all. But the latter, when they find
+themselves in the sheep's stomach, make their way straight to the
+bile-ducts, up which they travel to the liver. Here, in a few weeks,
+they grow up into full-blown flukes and begin the important business of
+producing eggs.
+
+"Such is the pathological romance of 'liver-rot'; and now what is its
+connection with this mysterious discovery? It is this. After the
+outbreak of 'liver-rot,' above referred to, the ground landlord, a Mr.
+John Bellingham, instructed his solicitor to insert a clause in the
+lease of the beds directing that the latter should be periodically
+cleared and examined by an expert to make sure that they were free from
+the noxious water-snails. The last lease expired about two years ago,
+and since then the beds have been out of cultivation; but, for the
+safety of the adjacent pastures, it was considered necessary to make the
+customary periodical inspection, and it was in the course of cleaning
+the beds for this purpose that the present discovery was made.
+
+"The operation began two days ago. A gang of three men proceeded
+systematically to grub up the plants and collect the multitudes of
+water-snails that they might be examined by the expert to see if any of
+the obnoxious species were present. They had cleared nearly half the
+beds when, yesterday afternoon, one of the men working in the deepest
+part came upon some bones, the appearance of which excited his
+suspicion. Thereupon he called his mates, and they carefully picked away
+the plants piecemeal, a process that soon laid bare an unmistakable
+human hand lying on the mud amongst the roots. Fortunately they had the
+wisdom not to disturb the remains, but at once sent off a message to the
+police. Very soon, an inspector and a sergeant, accompanied by the
+divisional surgeon, arrived on the scene, and were able to view the
+remains lying as they had been found. And now another very strange fact
+came to light; for it was seen that the hand--a left one--lying on the
+mud was minus its third finger. This is regarded by the police as a very
+important fact as bearing on the question of identification, seeing that
+the number of persons having the third finger of the left hand missing
+must be quite small. After a thorough examination on the spot, the bones
+were carefully collected and conveyed to the mortuary, where they now
+lie awaiting further inquiries.
+
+"The divisional surgeon, Dr. Brandon, in an interview with our
+representative, made the following statements:
+
+"'The bones found are those of the left arm of a middle-aged or elderly
+man about five feet eight inches in height. All the bones of the arm are
+present, including the scapula, or shoulder-blade, and the clavicle, or
+collar-bone, but the three bones of the third finger are missing.'
+
+"'Is this a deformity or has the finger been cut off?' our correspondent
+asked.
+
+"'The finger has been amputated,' was the reply. 'If it had been absent
+from birth, the corresponding hand bone, or metacarpal, would have been
+wanting or deformed, whereas it is present and quite normal.'
+
+"'How long have the bones been in the water?' was the next question.
+
+"'More than a year, I should say. They are quite clean; there is not a
+vestige of the soft structures left.'
+
+"'Have you any theory as to how the arm came to be deposited where it
+was found?'
+
+"'I should rather not answer that question,' was the guarded response.
+
+"'One more question,' our correspondent urged. 'The ground landlord, Mr.
+John Bellingham; is not he the gentleman who disappeared so mysteriously
+some time ago?'
+
+"'So I understand,' Dr. Brandon replied.
+
+"'Can you tell me if Mr. Bellingham had lost the third finger of his
+left hand?'
+
+"'I cannot say,' said Dr. Brandon; and he added with a smile, 'you had
+better ask the police.'
+
+"That is how the matter stands at present. But we understand that the
+police are making active inquiries for any missing man who has lost the
+third finger of his left hand, and if any of our readers know of such a
+person, they are earnestly requested to communicate at once, either with
+us or with the authorities.
+
+"Also we believe that a systematic search is to be made for further
+remains."
+
+I laid the newspaper down and fell into a train of reflection. It was
+certainly a most mysterious affair. The thought that had evidently come
+to the reporter's mind stole naturally into mine. Could these remains be
+those of John Bellingham? It was obviously possible, though I could not
+but see that the fact of the bones having been found on his land, while
+it undoubtedly furnished the suggestion, did not in any way add to its
+probability. The connection was accidental and in no wise relevant.
+
+Then, too, there was the missing finger. No reference to any such injury
+or deformity had been made in the original report of the disappearance,
+though it could hardly have been overlooked. But it was useless to
+speculate without facts. I should be seeing Thorndyke in the course of
+the next few days, and, undoubtedly, if the discovery had any bearing
+upon the disappearance of John Bellingham, I should hear of it. With
+which reflection I rose from the table, and, adopting the advice
+contained in the spurious Johnsonian quotation proceeded to "take a walk
+in Fleet Street" before settling down for the evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SIDELIGHTS
+
+
+The association of coal with potatoes is one upon which I have
+frequently speculated, without arriving at any more satisfactory
+explanation than that both products are of the earth, earthy. Of the
+connection itself Barnard's practice furnished several instances besides
+Mrs. Jablett's establishment in Fleur-de-Lys Court, one of which was a
+dark and mysterious cavern a foot below the level of the street, that
+burrowed under an ancient house on the west side of Fetter Lane--a
+crinkly, timber house of the three-decker type that leaned back
+drunkenly from the road as if about to sit down in its own back yard.
+
+Passing this repository of the associated products about ten o'clock in
+the morning, I perceived in the shadow of the cavern no less a person
+than Miss Oman. She saw me at the same moment, and beckoned peremptorily
+with a hand that held a large Spanish onion. I approached with a
+deferential smile.
+
+"What a magnificent onion, Miss Oman! and how generous of you to offer
+it to me--"
+
+"I wasn't offering it to you. But there! Isn't it just like a man--"
+
+"Isn't what just like a man?" I interrupted. "If you mean the onion--"
+
+"I don't!" she snapped; "and I wish you wouldn't talk such a parcel of
+nonsense. A grown man and a member of a serious profession, too! You
+ought to know better."
+
+"I suppose I ought," I said reflectively. And she continued:
+
+"I called in at the surgery just now."
+
+"To see me?"
+
+"What else should I come for? Do you suppose that I called to consult
+the bottle-boy?"
+
+"Certainly not, Miss Oman. So you find the lady doctor no use, after
+all?"
+
+Miss Oman gnashed her teeth at me (and very fine teeth they were, too).
+
+"I called," she said majestically, "on behalf of Miss Bellingham."
+
+My facetiousness evaporated instantly. "I hope Miss Bellingham is not
+ill," I said with a sudden anxiety that elicited a sardonic smile from
+Miss Oman.
+
+"No," was the reply, "she is not ill, but she has cut her hand rather
+badly. It's her right hand, too, and she can't afford to lose the use of
+it, not being a great, hulking, lazy, lolloping man. So you had better
+go and put some stuff on it."
+
+With this advice, Miss Oman whisked to the right-about and vanished into
+the depths of the cavern like the Witch of Wokey, while I hurried on to
+the surgery to provide myself with the necessary instruments and
+materials, and thence proceeded to Nevill's Court.
+
+Miss Oman's juvenile maid-servant, who opened the door to me, stated the
+existing conditions with epigrammatic conciseness:
+
+"Mr. Bellingham is hout, sir; but Miss Bellingham is hin."
+
+Having thus delivered herself she retreated towards the kitchen and I
+ascended the stairs, at the head of which I found Miss Bellingham
+awaiting me with her right hand encased in what looked like a white
+boxing-glove.
+
+"I am glad you have come," she said. "Phyllis--Miss Oman, you know--has
+kindly bound up my hand, but I should like you to see that it is all
+right."
+
+We went into the sitting-room, where I laid out my paraphernalia on the
+table while I inquired into the particulars of the accident.
+
+"It is most unfortunate that it should have happened just now," she
+said, as I wrestled with one of those remarkable feminine knots that,
+while they seem to defy the utmost efforts of human ingenuity to untie,
+yet have a singular habit of untying themselves at inopportune moments.
+
+"Why just now, in particular?" I asked.
+
+"Because I have some specially important work to do. A very learned lady
+who is writing a historical book has commissioned me to collect all the
+literature relating to the Tell el Amarna letters--the cuneiform
+tablets, you know, of Amenhotep the Fourth."
+
+"Well," I said soothingly, "I expect your hand will soon be well."
+
+"Yes, but that won't do. The work has to be done immediately. I have to
+send in the completed notes not later than this day week, and it will be
+quite impossible. I am dreadfully disappointed."
+
+By this time I had unwound the voluminous wrappings and exposed the
+injury--a deep gash in the palm that must have narrowly missed a
+good-sized artery. Obviously the hand would be useless for fully a week.
+
+"I suppose," she said, "you couldn't patch it up so that I could write
+with it?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"No, Miss Bellingham. I shall have to put it on a splint. We can't run
+any risks with a deep wound like this."
+
+"Then I shall have to give up the commission, and I don't know how my
+client will get the work done in the time. You see, I am pretty well up
+in the literature of Ancient Egypt; in fact, I was to receive special
+payment on that account. And it would have been such an interesting
+task, too. However, it can't be helped."
+
+I proceeded methodically with the application of the dressings, and
+meanwhile reflected. It was evident that she was deeply disappointed.
+Loss of work meant loss of money, and it needed but a glance at her
+rusty black dress to see that there was little margin for that.
+Possibly, too, there was some special need to be met. Her manner seemed
+almost to imply that there was. And at this point I had a brilliant
+idea.
+
+"I'm not sure that it can't be helped," said I.
+
+She looked at me inquiringly, and I continued: "I am going to make a
+proposition, and I shall ask you to consider it with an open mind."
+
+"That sounds rather portentous," said she; "but I promise. What is it?"
+
+"It is this: When I was a student I acquired the useful art of writing
+shorthand. I am not a lightning reporter, you understand, but I can take
+matter down from dictation at quite respectable speed."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I have several hours free every day--usually, the whole of the
+afternoon up to six or half-past--and it occurs to me that if you were
+to go to the Museum in the mornings you could get out your books, look
+up passages (you could do that without using your right hand), and put
+in book-marks. Then I could come along in the afternoon and you could
+read out the selected passages to me, and I could take them down in
+shorthand. We should get through as much in a couple of hours as you
+could in a day using longhand."
+
+"Oh, but how kind of you, Doctor Berkeley!" she exclaimed. "How very
+kind! Of course, I couldn't think of taking up all your leisure in that
+way; but I do appreciate your kindness very much."
+
+I was rather chapfallen at this very definite refusal, but persisted
+feebly:
+
+"I wish you would. It may seem rather cheek for a comparative stranger
+like me to make such a proposal to a lady; but if you'd been a man--in
+these special circumstances--I should have made it all the same, and you
+would have accepted as a matter of course."
+
+"I doubt that. At any rate, I am not a man. I sometimes wish I were."
+
+"Oh, I am sure you are much better as you are!" I exclaimed, with such
+earnestness that we both laughed. And at this moment Mr. Bellingham
+entered the room carrying several large and evidently brand-new books in
+a strap.
+
+"Well, I'm sure!" he exclaimed genially; "here are pretty goings on.
+Doctor and patient giggling like a pair of schoolgirls! What's the
+joke?"
+
+He thumped his parcel of books down on the table and listened smilingly
+while my unconscious witticism was expounded.
+
+"The Doctor's quite right," he said. "You'll do as you are, chick; but
+the Lord knows what sort of man you would make. You take his advice and
+let well alone."
+
+Finding him in this genial frame of mind, I ventured to explain my
+proposition to him and to enlist his support. He considered it with
+attentive approval, and when I had finished turned to his daughter.
+
+"What is your objection, chick?" he asked.
+
+"It would give Doctor Berkeley such a fearful lot of work," she
+answered.
+
+"It would give him a fearful lot of pleasure," I said. "It would,
+really."
+
+"Then why not?" said Mr. Bellingham. "We don't mind being under an
+obligation to the Doctor, do we?"
+
+"Oh, it wasn't that!" she exclaimed hastily.
+
+"Then take him at his word. He means it. It is a kind action and he'll
+like doing it, I'm sure. That's all right, Doctor; she accepts, don't
+you, chick?"
+
+"Yes, if you say so, I do; and most thankfully."
+
+She accompanied the acceptance with a gracious smile that was in itself
+a large payment on account, and when we had made the necessary
+arrangements, I hurried away in a state of the most perfect satisfaction
+to finish my morning's work and order an early lunch.
+
+When I called for her a couple of hours later I found her waiting in the
+garden with the shabby handbag, of which I relieved her, and we set
+forth together, watched jealously by Miss Oman, who had accompanied her
+to the gate.
+
+As I walked up the court with this wonderful maid by my side I could
+hardly believe in my good fortune. By her presence and my own resulting
+happiness the mean surroundings became glorified and the commonest
+objects transfigured into things of beauty. What a delightful
+thoroughfare, for instance, was Fetter Lane, with its quaint charm and
+mediaeval grace! I snuffed the cabbage-laden atmosphere and seemed to
+breathe the scent of the asphodel. Holborn was even as the Elysian
+Fields; the omnibus that bore us westward was a chariot of glory; and
+the people who swarmed verminously on the pavements bore the semblance
+of the children of light.
+
+Love is a foolish thing judged by workaday standards, and the thoughts
+and actions of lovers foolish beyond measure. But the workaday standard
+is the wrong one, after all; for the utilitarian mind does but busy
+itself with the trivial and transitory interests of life, behind which
+looms the great and everlasting reality of the love of man and woman.
+There is more significance in a nightingale's song in the hush of a
+summer night than in all the wisdom of Solomon (who, by the way, was not
+without his little experiences of the tender passion).
+
+The janitor in the little glass box by the entrance to the library
+inspected us and passed us on, with a silent benediction, to the lobby,
+whence (when I had handed my stick to a bald-headed demigod and received
+a talismanic disc in exchange) we entered the enormous rotunda of the
+reading-room.
+
+I have often thought that, if some lethal vapour of highly preservative
+properties--such as formaldehyde, for instance--could be shed into the
+atmosphere of this apartment, the entire and complete collection of
+books and bookworms would be well worth preserving, for the
+enlightenment of posterity, as a sort of anthropological appendix to the
+main collection of the Museum. For, surely, nowhere else in the world
+are so many strange and abnormal human beings gathered together in one
+place. And a curious question that must have occurred to many observers
+is: Whence do these singular creatures come, and whither do they go when
+the very distinct-faced clock (adjusted to literary eye-sight) proclaims
+closing time? The tragic-faced gentleman, for instance, with the
+corkscrew ringlets that bob up and down like spiral springs as he walks?
+Or the short, elderly gentleman in the black cassock and bowler hat, who
+shatters your nerves by turning suddenly and revealing himself as a
+middle-aged woman? Whither do they go? One never sees them elsewhere. Do
+they steal away at closing time into the depths of the Museum and hide
+themselves until morning in sarcophagi or mummy cases? Or do they creep
+through spaces in the book-shelves and spend the night behind the
+volumes in a congenial atmosphere of leather and antique paper? Who can
+say? What I do know is that when Ruth Bellingham entered the
+reading-room she appeared in comparison with these like a creature of
+another order; even as the head of Antinous, which formerly stood (it
+has since been moved) amidst the portrait-busts of the Roman Emperors,
+seemed like the head of a god set in a portrait gallery of illustrious
+baboons.
+
+"What have we got to do?" I asked when we had found a vacant seat. "Do
+you want to look up the catalogue?"
+
+"No, I have the tickets in my bag. The books are waiting in the 'kept
+books' department."
+
+I placed my hat on the leather-covered shelf, dropped her gloves into
+it--how delightfully intimate and companionable it seemed!--altered the
+numbers on the tickets, and then we proceeded together to the "kept
+books" desk to collect the volumes that contained the material for our
+day's work.
+
+It was a blissful afternoon. Two and a half hours of happiness unalloyed
+did I spend at that shiny, leather-clad desk, guiding my nimble pen
+across the pages of the note-book. It introduced me to a new world--a
+world in which love and learning, sweet intimacy and crusted
+archaeology, were mingled into the oddest, most whimsical, and most
+delicious confection that the mind of man can conceive. Hitherto, these
+recondite histories had been far beyond my ken. Of the wonderful
+heretic, Amenhotep the Fourth, I had barely heard--at the most he had
+been a mere name; the Hittites a mythical race of undetermined habitat;
+while cuneiform tablets had presented themselves to my mind merely as an
+uncouth kind of fossil biscuit suited to the digestion of a pre-historic
+ostrich.
+
+Now all this was changed. As we sat with our chairs creaking together
+and she whispered the story of those stirring times into my receptive
+ear--talking is strictly forbidden in the reading-room--the disjointed
+fragments arranged themselves into a romance of supreme fascination.
+Egyptian, Babylonian, Aramaean, Hittite, Memphis, Babylon, Hamath,
+Megiddo--I swallowed them all thankfully, wrote them down and asked for
+more. Only once did I disgrace myself. An elderly clergyman of ascetic
+and acidulous aspect had passed us with a glance of evident disapproval,
+clearly setting us down as intruding philanderers; and when I
+contrasted the parson's probable conception of the whispered
+communications that were being poured into my ear so tenderly and
+confidentially with the dry reality, I chuckled aloud. But my fair
+task-mistress only paused, with her finger on the page, smilingly to
+rebuke me, and then went on with the dictation. She was certainly a
+Tartar for work.
+
+It was a proud moment for me when, in response to my interrogative
+"Yes?" my companion said "That is all" and closed the book. We had
+extracted the pith and marrow of six considerable volumes in two hours
+and a half.
+
+"You have been better than your word," she said. "It would have taken me
+two full days of really hard work to make the notes that you have
+written down since we commenced. I don't know how to thank you."
+
+"There's no need to. I've enjoyed myself and polished up my shorthand.
+What is the next thing? We shall want some books for to-morrow, shan't
+we?"
+
+"Yes. I have made out a list, so if you will come with me to the
+catalogue desk I will look out the numbers and ask you to write the
+tickets."
+
+The selection of a fresh batch of authorities occupied us for another
+quarter of an hour, and then, having handed in the volumes that we had
+squeezed dry, we took our way out of the reading-room.
+
+"Which way shall we go?" she asked as we passed out of the gate, where
+stood a massive policeman, like the guardian angel at the gate of
+Paradise (only, thank Heaven! he bore no flaming sword forbidding
+reentry).
+
+"We are going," I replied, "to Museum Street, where is a milkshop in
+which one can get an excellent cup of tea."
+
+She looked as if she would have demurred, but eventually followed
+obediently, and we were soon seated side by side at a little
+marble-topped table, retracing the ground that we had covered in the
+afternoon's work and discussing various points of interest over a joint
+teapot.
+
+"Have you been doing this sort of work long?" I asked as she handed me
+my second cup of tea.
+
+"Professionally," she answered, "only about two years; since we broke up
+our home, in fact. But long before that I used to come to the Museum
+with my Uncle John--the one who disappeared, you know, in that
+dreadfully mysterious way--and help him to look up references. We were
+quite good friends, he and I."
+
+"I suppose he was a very learned man?" I suggested.
+
+"Yes, in a certain way; in the way of the better-class collector he was
+very learned indeed. He knew the contents of every museum in the world,
+in so far as they were connected with Egyptian antiquities, and had
+studied them specimen by specimen. Consequently, as Egyptology is
+largely a museum science, he was a learned Egyptologist. But his real
+interest was in things rather than events. Of course, he knew a great
+deal--a very great deal--about Egyptian history, but still he was,
+before all, a collector."
+
+"And what will happen to his collection if he is really dead?"
+
+"The greater part of it goes to the British Museum by his will, and the
+remainder he has left to his solicitor, Mr. Jellicoe."
+
+"To Mr. Jellicoe! Why, what will Mr. Jellicoe do with Egyptian
+antiquities?"
+
+"Oh, he is an Egyptologist, too, and quite an enthusiast. He has a
+really fine collection of scarabs and other small objects such as it is
+possible to keep in a private house. I have always thought that it was
+his enthusiasm for everything Egyptian that brought him and my uncle
+together on terms of such intimacy; though I believe he is an excellent
+lawyer, and he is certainly a very discreet, cautious man."
+
+"Is he? I shouldn't have thought so, judging by your uncle's will."
+
+"Oh, but that was not Mr. Jellicoe's fault. He assures us that he
+entreated my uncle to let him draw up a fresh document with more
+reasonable provisions. But he says Uncle John was immovable; and he
+really _was_ a rather obstinate man. Mr. Jellicoe repudiates any
+responsibility in the matter. He washes his hands of the whole affair,
+and says that it is the will of a lunatic. And so it is. I was glancing
+through it only a night or two ago, and really I cannot conceive how a
+sane man could have written such nonsense."
+
+"You have a copy, then?" I asked eagerly, remembering Thorndyke's
+parting instructions.
+
+"Yes. Would you like to see it? I know my father has told you about it,
+and it is worth reading as a curiosity of perverseness."
+
+"I should very much like to show it to my friend, Doctor Thorndyke," I
+replied. "He said that he would be interested to read it and learn the
+exact provisions; and it might be well to let him, and hear what he has
+to say about it."
+
+"I see no objection," she rejoined; "but you know what my father is:
+his horror, I mean, of what he calls 'cadging for advice gratis.'"
+
+"Oh, but he need have no scruples on that score. Doctor Thorndyke wants
+to see the will because the case interests him. He is an enthusiast, you
+know, and he put the request as a personal favour to himself."
+
+"That is very nice and delicate of him, and I will explain the position
+to my father. If he is willing for Doctor Thorndyke to see the copy, I
+will send or bring it over this evening. Have we finished?"
+
+I regretfully admitted that we had, and, when I had paid the modest
+reckoning, we sallied forth, turning back with one accord into Great
+Russell Street to avoid the noise and bustle of the larger thoroughfare.
+
+"What sort of man was your uncle?" I asked presently, as we walked along
+the quiet, dignified street. And then I added hastily: "I hope you don't
+think me inquisitive, but, to my mind, he presents himself as a kind of
+mysterious abstraction; the unknown quantity of a legal problem."
+
+"My Uncle John," she answered reflectively, "was a very peculiar man,
+rather obstinate, very self-willed, what people call 'masterful,' and
+decidedly wrong-headed and unreasonable."
+
+"That is certainly the impression that the terms of his will convey," I
+said.
+
+"Yes; and not the will only. There was the absurd allowance that he made
+my father. That was a ridiculous arrangement, and very unfair, too. He
+ought to have divided up the property as my grandfather intended. And
+yet he was by no means ungenerous, only he would have his own way, and
+his own way was very commonly the wrong way.
+
+"I remember," she continued, after a short pause, "a very odd instance
+of his wrong-headedness and obstinacy. It was a small matter, but very
+typical of him. He had in his collection a beautiful little ring of the
+eighteenth dynasty. It was said to have belonged to Queen Ti, the mother
+of our friend Amenhotep the Fourth; but I don't think that could have
+been so, because the device on it was the Eye of Osiris, and Ti, as you
+know, was an Aten-worshipper. However, it was a very charming ring, and
+Uncle John, who had a queer sort of devotion to the mystical Eye of
+Osiris, commissioned a very clever goldsmith to make two exact copies of
+it, one for himself and one for me. The goldsmith naturally wanted to
+take the measurements of our fingers, but this Uncle John would not hear
+of; the rings were to be exact copies, and an exact copy must be the
+same size as the original. You can imagine the result; my ring was so
+loose that I couldn't keep it on my finger, and Uncle John's was so
+tight that, though he did manage to get it on, he was never able to get
+it off again. And it was only the circumstance that his left hand was
+decidedly smaller than his right that made it possible for him to wear
+it at all."
+
+"So you never wore your copy?"
+
+"No. I wanted to have it altered to make it fit, but he objected
+strongly; so I put it away, and have it in a box still."
+
+"He must have been an extraordinarily pig-headed old fellow," I
+remarked.
+
+"Yes; he was very tenacious. He annoyed my father a good deal, too, by
+making unnecessary alterations in the house in Queen Square when he
+fitted up his museum. We have a certain sentiment with regard to that
+house. Our people have lived in it ever since it was built, when the
+square was first laid out in the reign of Queen Anne, after whom the
+square was named. It is a dear old house. Would you like to see it? We
+are quite near it now."
+
+I assented eagerly. If it had been a coal-shed or a fried-fish shop I
+would still have visited it with pleasure, for the sake of prolonging
+our walk; but I was also really interested in this old house as a part
+of the background of the mystery of the vanished John Bellingham.
+
+We crossed into Cosmo Place, with its quaint row of the, now rare,
+cannon-shaped iron posts, and passing through stood for a few moments
+looking into the peaceful, stately old square. A party of boys disported
+themselves noisily on the range of stone posts that form a bodyguard
+round the ancient lamp-surmounted pump, but otherwise the place was
+wrapped in dignified repose suited to its age and station. And very
+pleasant it looked on this summer afternoon, with the sunlight gilding
+the foliage of its wide-spreading plane trees and lighting up the
+warm-toned brick of the house-fronts. We walked slowly down the shady
+west side, near the middle of which my companion halted.
+
+"This is the house," she said. "It looks gloomy and forsaken now; but it
+must have been a delightful house in the days when my ancestors could
+look out of the windows through the open end of the square across the
+fields and meadows to the heights of Hampstead and Highgate."
+
+She stood at the edge of the pavement looking up with a curious
+wistfulness at the old house; a very pathetic figure, I thought, with
+her handsome face and proud carriage, her threadbare dress and shabby
+gloves, standing at the threshold of the home that had been her family's
+for generations, that should now have been hers, and that was shortly to
+pass away into the hands of strangers.
+
+I, too, looked up at it with a strange interest, impressed by something
+gloomy and forbidding in its aspect. The windows were shuttered from
+basement to attic, and no sign of life was visible. Silent, neglected,
+desolate, it breathed an air of tragedy. It seemed to mourn in sackcloth
+and ashes for its lost master. The massive door within the splendid
+carven portico was crusted with grime, and seemed to have passed out of
+use as completely as the ancient lamp-irons or the rusted extinguishers
+wherein the footmen were wont to quench their torches when some
+Bellingham dame was borne up the steps in her gilded chair, in the days
+of good Queen Anne.
+
+It was in a somewhat sobered frame of mind that we presently turned away
+and started homeward by way of Great Ormond Street. My companion was
+deeply thoughtful, relapsing for a while into that sombreness of manner
+that had so impressed me when I first met her. Nor was I without a
+certain sympathetic pensiveness; as if, from the great, silent house,
+the spirit of the vanished man had issued forth to bear us company.
+
+But still it was a delightful walk, and I was sorry when at last we
+arrived at the entrance to Nevill's Court, and Miss Bellingham halted
+and held out her hand.
+
+"Good-bye," she said; "and many, many thanks for your invaluable help.
+Shall I take the bag?"
+
+"If you want it. But I must take out the note-books."
+
+"Why must you take them?" she asked.
+
+"Why, haven't I got to copy the notes out into longhand?"
+
+An expression of utter consternation spread over her face; in fact, she
+was so completely taken aback that she forgot to release my hand.
+
+"Heavens!" she exclaimed. "How idiotic of me! But it is impossible,
+Doctor Berkeley! It will take you hours!"
+
+"It is perfectly possible, and it is going to be done; otherwise the
+notes would be useless. Do you want the bag?"
+
+"No, of course not. But I am positively appalled. Hadn't you better give
+up the idea?"
+
+"And is this the end of our collaboration?" I exclaimed tragically,
+giving her hand a final squeeze (whereby she became suddenly aware of
+its position, and withdrew it rather hastily). "Would you throw away a
+whole afternoon's work? I won't, certainly; so, good-bye until
+to-morrow. I shall turn up in the reading-room as early as I can. You
+had better take the tickets. Oh, and you won't forget about the copy of
+the will for Doctor Thorndyke, will you?"
+
+"No; if my father agrees, you shall have it this evening."
+
+She took the tickets from me, and, thanking me yet again, retired into
+the court.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+JOHN BELLINGHAM'S WILL
+
+
+The task upon which I had embarked so lightheartedly, when considered in
+cold blood, did certainly appear, as Miss Bellingham had said, rather
+appalling. The result of two and a half hours' pretty steady work at an
+average speed of nearly a hundred words a minute, would take some time
+to transcribe into longhand; and if the notes were to be delivered
+punctually on the morrow, the sooner I got to work the better.
+
+Recognising this truth, I lost no time, but, within five minutes of my
+arrival at the surgery, was seated at the writing-table with my copy
+before me busily converting the sprawling, inexpressive characters into
+good, legible round-hand.
+
+The occupation was by no means unpleasant, apart from the fact that it
+was a labour of love; for the sentences, as I picked them up, were
+fragrant with reminiscences of the gracious whisper in which they had
+first come to me. And then the matter itself was full of interest. I was
+gaining a fresh outlook on life, was crossing the threshold of a new
+world (which was _her_ world); and so the occasional interruptions from
+patients, while they gave me intervals of enforced rest, were far from
+welcome.
+
+The evening wore on without any sign from Nevill's Court, and I began to
+fear that Mr. Bellingham's scruples had proved insurmountable. Not, I am
+afraid, that I was so much concerned for the copy of the will as for
+the possibility of a visit, no matter howsoever brief, from my fair
+employer; and when, on the stroke of half-past seven, the surgery door
+flew open with startling abruptness, my fears were allayed and my hopes
+shattered simultaneously. For it was Miss Oman who stalked in, holding
+out a blue foolscap envelope with a warlike air as if it were an
+ultimatum.
+
+"I've brought you this from Mr. Bellingham," she said. "There's a note
+inside."
+
+"May I read the note, Miss Oman?" I asked.
+
+"Bless the man!" she exclaimed. "What else would you do with it? Isn't
+that what I brought it for?"
+
+I supposed it was; and, thanking her for her gracious permission, I
+glanced through the note--a few lines authorising me to show the copy of
+the will to Dr. Thorndyke. When I looked up from the paper I found her
+eyes fixed on me with an expression critical and rather disapproving.
+
+"You seem to be making yourself mighty agreeable in a certain quarter,"
+she remarked.
+
+"I make myself universally agreeable. It is my nature to."
+
+"Ha!" she snorted.
+
+"Don't you find me rather agreeable?" I asked.
+
+"Oily," said Miss Oman. And then, with a sour smile at the open
+note-books, she remarked:
+
+"You've got some work to do now; quite a change for you."
+
+"A delightful change, Miss Oman. 'For Satan findeth'--but no doubt you
+are acquainted with the philosophical works of Doctor Watts?"
+
+"If you are referring to 'idle hands,'" she replied, "I'll give you a
+bit of advice, Don't you keep that hand idle any longer than is really
+necessary. I have my suspicions about that splint--oh, you know what I
+mean," and before I had time to reply, she had taken advantage of the
+entrance of a couple of patients to whisk out of the surgery with the
+abruptness that had distinguished her arrival.
+
+The evening consultations were considered to be over by half-past eight;
+at which time Adolphus was wont, with exemplary punctuality, to close
+the outer door of the surgery. To-night he was not less prompt than
+usual; and having performed this, his last daily office, and turned down
+the surgery gas, he reported the fact and took his departure.
+
+As his retreating footsteps died away and the slamming of the outer door
+announced his final disappearance, I sat up and stretched myself. The
+envelope containing the copy of the will lay on the table, and I
+considered it thoughtfully. It ought to be conveyed to Thorndyke with as
+little delay as possible, and, as it certainly could not be trusted out
+of my hands, it ought to be conveyed by me.
+
+I looked at the note-books. Nearly two hours' work had made a
+considerable impression on the matter that I had to transcribe, but
+still, a great deal of the task yet remained to be done. However, I
+reflected, I could put in a couple of hours more before going to bed and
+there would be an hour or two to spare in the morning. Finally I locked
+the note-books, open as they were, in the writing-table drawer, and
+slipping the envelope into my pocket, set out for the Temple.
+
+The soft chime of the Treasury clock was telling out, in confidential
+tones, the third quarter as I wrapped with my stick on the forbidding
+"oak" of my friends' chambers. There was no response, nor had I
+perceived any gleam of light from the windows as I approached, and I was
+considering the advisability of trying the laboratory on the next floor,
+when footsteps on the stone stairs and familiar voices gladdened my ear.
+
+"Hallo, Berkeley!" said Thorndyke, "do we find you waiting like a Peri
+at the gates of Paradise? Polton is upstairs, you know, tinkering at one
+of his inventions. If you ever find the nest empty, you had better go up
+and bang at the laboratory door. He's always there in the evenings."
+
+"I haven't been waiting long," said I, "and I was just thinking of
+rousing him up when you came."
+
+"That was right," said Thorndyke, turning up the gas. "And what news do
+you bring? Do I see a blue envelope sticking out of your pocket?"
+
+"You do."
+
+"Is it a copy of the will?" he asked.
+
+I answered "yes," and added that I had full permission to show it to
+him.
+
+"What did I tell you?" exclaimed Jervis. "Didn't I say that he would get
+the copy for us if it existed?"
+
+"We admit the excellence of your prognosis," said Thorndyke, "but there
+is no need to be boastful. Have you read through the document,
+Berkeley?"
+
+"No, I haven't taken it out of the envelope."
+
+"Then it will be equally new to us all, and we shall see if it tallies
+with your description."
+
+He placed three easy chairs at a convenient distance from the light, and
+Jervis, watching him with a smile, remarked:
+
+"Now Thorndyke is going to enjoy himself. To him, a perfectly
+unintelligible will is a thing of beauty and a joy for ever; especially
+if associated with some kind of recondite knavery."
+
+"I don't know," said I, "that this will is particularly unintelligible.
+The mischief seems to be that it is rather too intelligible. However,
+here it is," and I handed the envelope to Thorndyke.
+
+"I suppose that we can depend on this copy," said the latter, as he drew
+out the document and glanced at it. "Oh, yes," he added, "I see it is
+copied by Godfrey Bellingham, compared with the original and certified
+correct. In that case I will get you to read it out slowly, Jervis, and
+I will make a rough copy to keep for reference. Let us make ourselves
+comfortable and light our pipes before we begin."
+
+He provided himself with a writing-pad, and, when we had seated
+ourselves and got our pipes well alight, Jervis opened the document, and
+with a premonitory "hem!" commenced the reading.
+
+"In the name of God Amen. This is the last will and testament of me John
+Bellingham of number 141 Queen Square in the parish of St. George
+Bloomsbury London in the county of Middlesex Gentleman made this twenty
+first day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
+hundred and ninety-two.
+
+"1. I give and bequeath unto Arthur Jellicoe of number 184 New Square
+Lincoln's Inn London in the county of Middlesex Attorney-at-law the
+whole of my collection of seals and scarabs and those my cabinets marked
+B, C, and D together with the contents thereof and the sum of two
+thousand pounds sterling free of legacy duty.
+
+"Unto the Trustees of the British Museum the residue of my collection
+of antiquities.
+
+"Unto my cousin George Hurst of The Poplars Eltham in the county of Kent
+the sum of five thousand pounds free of legacy duty and unto my brother
+Godfrey Bellingham or if he should die before the occurrence of my death
+unto his daughter Ruth Bellingham the residue of my estate and effects
+real and personal subject to the conditions set forth hereinafter
+namely:
+
+"2. That my body shall be deposited with those of my ancestors in the
+churchyard appertaining to the church and parish of St. George the
+Martyr or if that shall not be possible, in some other churchyard,
+cemetery, burial ground, church, chapel or other authorised place for
+the reception of the bodies of the dead situate within or appertaining
+to the parishes of St. Andrew above the Bars and St. George the Martyr
+or St. George Bloomsbury and St. Giles in the Fields. But if the
+conditions in this clause be not carried out then
+
+"3. I give and devise the said residue of my estate and effects unto my
+cousin George Hurst aforesaid and I hereby revoke all wills and codicils
+made by me at any time heretofore and I appoint Arthur Jellicoe
+aforesaid to be the executor of this my will jointly with the principal
+beneficiary and residuary legatee that is to say with the aforesaid
+Godfrey Bellingham if the conditions set forth hereinbefore in clause 2
+shall be duly carried out but with the aforesaid George Hurst if the
+said conditions in the said clause 2 be not carried out.
+
+"JOHN BELLINGHAM.
+
+"Signed by the said testator John Bellingham in the presence of us
+present at the same time who at his request and in his presence and in
+the presence of each other have subscribed our names as witnesses.
+
+"Frederick Wilton, 16 Medford Road, London, N., clerk.
+
+"James Barker, 32 Wadbury Crescent, London, S.W., clerk."
+
+"Well," said Jervis, laying down the document as Thorndyke detached the
+last sheet from his writing-pad, "I have met with a good many idiotic
+wills, but this one can give them all points. I don't see how it is ever
+going to be administered. One of the two executors is a mere
+abstraction--a sort of algebraical problem with no answer."
+
+"I think that difficulty could be overcome," said Thorndyke.
+
+"I don't see how," retorted Jervis. "If the body is deposited in a
+certain place, A is the executor; if it is somewhere else, B is the
+executor. But, as you cannot produce the body, and no one has the least
+idea where it is, it is impossible to prove either that it is or that it
+is not in any specified place."
+
+"You are magnifying the difficulty, Jervis," said Thorndyke. "The body
+may, of course, be anywhere in the entire world, but the place where it
+is lying is either inside or outside the general boundary of these two
+parishes. If it has been deposited within the boundary of those two
+parishes, the fact must be ascertainable by examining the burial
+certificates issued since the date when the missing man was last seen
+alive and by consulting the registers of those specified places of
+burial. I think that if no record can be found of any such interment
+within the boundary of those two parishes, that fact will be taken by
+the Court as proof that no such interment has taken place, and that
+therefore the body must have been deposited elsewhere. Such a decision
+would constitute George Hurst the co-executor and residuary legatee."
+
+"That is cheerful for your friends, Berkeley," Jervis remarked, "for we
+may take it as pretty certain that the body has not been deposited in
+any of the places named."
+
+"Yes," I agreed gloomily, "I'm afraid there is very little doubt of
+that. But what an ass the fellow must have been to make such a to-do
+about his beastly carcass? What the deuce could it have mattered to him
+where it was dumped, when he had done with it?"
+
+Thorndyke chuckled softly. "Thus the irreverent youth of to-day," said
+he. "But yours is hardly a fair comment, Berkeley. Our training makes us
+materialists, and puts us a little out of sympathy with those in whom
+primitive beliefs and emotions survive. A worthy priest who came to look
+at our dissecting-room expressed surprise to me that students, thus
+constantly in the presence of relics of mortality, should be able to
+think of anything but the resurrection and the life hereafter. He was a
+bad psychologist. There is nothing so dead as a dissecting-room
+'subject'; and the contemplation of the human body in the process of
+being quietly taken to pieces--being resolved into its structural units
+like a worn-out clock or an old engine in the Mr. Rapper's yard--is
+certainly not conducive to a vivid realisation of the doctrine of the
+resurrection."
+
+"No; but this absurd anxiety to be buried in some particular place has
+nothing to do with religious belief; it is mere silly sentiment."
+
+"It is sentiment, I admit," said Thorndyke, "but I wouldn't call it
+silly. The feeling is so widespread in time and space that we must look
+on it with respect as something inherent in human nature. Think--as
+doubtless John Bellingham did--of the ancient Egyptians, whose chief
+aspiration was that of everlasting repose for the dead. See the trouble
+they took to achieve it. Think of the Great Pyramid, or that of
+Amenemhat the Fourth with its labyrinth of false passages and its sealed
+and hidden sepulchral chamber. Think of Jacob, borne after death all
+those hundreds of weary miles in order that he might sleep with his
+fathers, and then remember Shakespeare and his solemn adjuration to
+posterity to let him rest undisturbed in his grave. No, Berkeley, it is
+not a silly sentiment. I am as indifferent as you as to what becomes of
+my body 'when I have done with it,' to use your irreverent phrase; but I
+recognise the solicitude that some other men display on the subject as a
+natural feeling that has to be taken seriously."
+
+"But even so," I said, "if this man had a hankering for a freehold
+residence in some particular bone-yard, he might have gone about the
+business in a more reasonable way."
+
+"There I am entirely with you," Thorndyke replied. "It is the absurd way
+in which this provision is worded that not only creates all the trouble
+but also makes the whole document so curiously significant in view of
+the testator's disappearance."
+
+"How significant?" Jervis demanded eagerly.
+
+"Let us consider the provisions of the will point by point," said
+Thorndyke; "and first note that the testator commanded the services of a
+very capable lawyer."
+
+"But Mr. Jellicoe disapproved of the will," said I; "in fact, he
+protested strongly against the form of it."
+
+"We will bear that in mind, too," Thorndyke replied. "And now with
+reference to what we may call the contentious clauses: the first thing
+that strikes us is their preposterous injustice. Godfrey's inheritance
+is made conditional on a particular disposal of the testator's body. But
+this is a matter not necessarily under Godfrey's control. The testator
+might have been lost at sea, or killed in a fire or explosion, or have
+died abroad and been buried where his grave could not be identified.
+There are numerous probable contingencies besides the improbable one
+that has happened, that might prevent the body from being recovered.
+
+"But even if the body had been recovered, there is another difficulty.
+The places of burial in the parishes named have all been closed for many
+years. It would be impossible to reopen any of them without a special
+faculty, and I doubt whether such a faculty would be granted. Possibly
+cremation might meet the difficulty, but even that is doubtful; and, in
+any case, the matter would not be in the control of Godfrey Bellingham.
+Yet, if the required interment should prove impossible, he is to be
+deprived of his legacy."
+
+"It is a monstrous and absurd injustice," I exclaimed.
+
+"It is," Thorndyke agreed; "but this is nothing to the absurdity that
+comes to light when we consider clauses two and three in detail. Observe
+that the testator presumably wished to be buried in a certain place;
+also he wished that his brother should benefit under the will. Let us
+take the first point and see how he has set about securing the
+accomplishment of what he desired. Now, if we read clauses two and three
+carefully, we shall see that he has rendered it virtually impossible
+that his wishes can be carried out. He desires to be buried in a certain
+place and makes Godfrey responsible for his being so buried. But he
+gives Godfrey no power or authority to carry out the provision, and
+places insuperable obstacles in his way. For until Godfrey is an
+executor, he has no power or authority to carry out the provisions: and
+until the provisions are carried out, he does not become an executor."
+
+"It is a preposterous muddle," exclaimed Jervis.
+
+"Yes, but that is not the worst of it," Thorndyke continued. "The moment
+John Bellingham dies, his dead body has come into existence; and it is
+'deposited' for the time being, wherever he happens to have died. But
+unless he should happen to have died in one of the places of burial
+mentioned--which is in the highest degree unlikely--his body will be,
+for the time being, 'deposited' in some place other than those
+specified. In that case clause two is--for the time being--not complied
+with, and consequently George Hurst becomes, automatically, the
+co-executor.
+
+"But will George Hurst carry out the provisions of clause two? Probably
+not. Why should he? The will contains no instructions to that effect. It
+throws the whole duty on Godfrey. On the other hand, if he should carry
+out clause two, what happens? He ceases to be an executor and he loses a
+legacy of some seventy thousand pounds. We may be pretty certain that he
+will do nothing of the kind. So that, on considering the two clauses,
+we see that the wishes of the testator could only be carried out in the
+unlikely event of his dying in one of the burial-places mentioned, or
+his body being conveyed immediately after death to a public mortuary in
+one of the said parishes. In any other event, it is virtually certain
+that he will be buried in some place other than that which he desired,
+and that his brother will be left absolutely without provision or
+recognition."
+
+"John Bellingham could never have intended that," I said.
+
+"Clearly not," agreed Thorndyke; "the provisions of the will furnish
+internal evidence that he did not. You note that he bequeathed five
+thousand pounds to George Hurst, in the event of clause two being
+carried out; but he has made no bequest to his brother in the event of
+its not being carried out. Obviously, he had not entertained the
+possibility of this contingency at all. He assumed, as a matter of
+course, that the conditions of clause two would be fulfilled, and
+regarded the conditions themselves as a mere formality."
+
+"But," Jervis objected, "Jellicoe must have seen the danger of a
+miscarriage and pointed it out to his client."
+
+"Exactly," said Thorndyke. "There is the mystery. We understand that he
+objected strenuously, and that John Bellingham was obdurate. Now it is
+perfectly understandable that a man should adhere obstinately to the
+most stupid and perverse disposition of his property; but that a man
+should persist in retaining a particular form of words after it has been
+proved to him that the use of such form will almost certainly result in
+the defeat of his own wishes; that, I say, is a mystery that calls for
+very careful consideration."
+
+"If Jellicoe had been an interested party," said Jervis, "one would have
+suspected him of lying low. But the form of clause two doesn't affect
+him at all."
+
+"No," said Thorndyke; "the person who stands to profit by the muddle is
+George Hurst. But we understand that he was unacquainted with the terms
+of the will, and there is certainly nothing to suggest that he is in any
+way responsible for it."
+
+"The practical question is," said I, "what is going to happen? and what
+can be done for the Bellinghams?"
+
+"The probability is," Thorndyke replied, "that the next move will be
+made by Hurst. He is the party immediately interested. He will probably
+apply to the Court for permission to presume death and administer the
+will."
+
+"And what will the Court do?"
+
+Thorndyke smiled drily. "Now you are asking a very pretty conundrum. The
+decisions of Courts depend on idiosyncrasies of temperament that no one
+can foresee. But one may say that a Court does not lightly grant
+permission to presume death. There will be a rigorous inquiry--and a
+decidedly unpleasant one, I suspect--and the evidence will be reviewed
+by the judge with a strong predisposition to regard the testator as
+being still alive. On the other hand, the known facts point very
+distinctly to the probability that he is dead; and, if the will were
+less complicated and all the interested parties were unanimous in
+supporting the application, I don't see why it might not be granted.
+But it will clearly be to the interest of Godfrey to oppose the
+application, unless he can show that the conditions of clause two have
+been complied with--which it is virtually certain that he can not; and
+he may be able to bring forward reasons for believing John to be still
+alive. But even if he is unable to do this, inasmuch as it is pretty
+clear that he was intended to be the chief beneficiary, his opposition
+is likely to have considerable weight with the Court."
+
+"Oh, is it?" I exclaimed eagerly. "Then that accounts for a very
+peculiar proceeding on the part of Hurst. I have stupidly forgotten to
+tell you about it. He has been trying to come to a private agreement
+with Godfrey Bellingham."
+
+"Indeed!" said Thorndyke. "What sort of agreement?"
+
+"His proposal was this: that Godfrey should support him and Jellicoe in
+an application to the Court for permission to presume death and to
+administer the will, and that, if it was successful, Hurst should pay
+him four hundred pounds a year for life: the arrangement to hold good in
+all eventualities."
+
+"By which he means?"
+
+"That if the body should be discovered at any future time, so that the
+conditions of clause two could be carried out, Hurst should still retain
+the property and continue to pay Godfrey the four hundred a year for
+life."
+
+"Hey ho!" exclaimed Thorndyke; "that is a queer proposal; a very queer
+proposal indeed."
+
+"Not to say fishy," added Jervis. "I don't fancy the Court would look
+with approval on that little arrangement."
+
+"The law does not look with much favour on any little arrangements that
+aim at getting behind the provisions of a will," Thorndyke replied;
+"though there would be nothing to complain of in this proposal if it
+were not for the reference to 'all eventualities.' If a will is
+hopelessly impracticable, it is not unreasonable or improper for the
+various beneficiaries to make such private arrangements among themselves
+as may seem necessary to avoid useless litigation and delay in
+administering the will. If, for instance, Hurst had proposed to pay four
+hundred a year to Godfrey so long as the body remained undiscovered on
+condition that, in the event of its discovery, Godfrey should pay him a
+like sum for life, there would have been nothing to comment upon. It
+would have been an ordinary sporting chance. But the reference to 'all
+eventualities' is an entirely different matter. Of course, it may be
+mere greediness, but all the same, it suggests some very curious
+reflections."
+
+"Yes, it does," said Jervis. "I wonder if he has any reason to expect
+that the body will be found? Of course it doesn't follow that he has. He
+may be merely taking the opportunity offered by the other man's poverty
+to make sure of the bulk of the property whatever happens. But it is
+uncommonly sharp practice, to say the least."
+
+"Do I understand that Godfrey declined the proposal?" Thorndyke asked.
+
+"Yes, he did, very emphatically; and I fancy that the two gentlemen
+proceeded to exchange opinions on the circumstances of the disappearance
+with more frankness than delicacy."
+
+"Ah," said Thorndyke, "that is a pity. If the case comes into Court,
+there is bound to be a good deal of unpleasant discussion and still more
+unpleasant comment in the newspapers. But if the parties themselves
+begin to express suspicions of one another there is no telling where the
+matter will end."
+
+"No, by Jove!" said Jervis. "If they begin flinging accusations of
+murder about, the fat will be in the fire with a vengeance. That way
+lies the Old Bailey."
+
+"We must try to prevent them from making an unnecessary scandal," said
+Thorndyke. "It may be that an exposure will be unavoidable, and that
+must be ascertained in advance. But to return to your question,
+Berkeley, as to what is to be done. Hurst will probably make some move
+pretty soon. Do you know if Jellicoe will act with him?"
+
+"No, he won't. He declines to take any steps without Godfrey's
+assent--at least, that is what he says at present. His attitude is one
+of correct neutrality."
+
+"That is satisfactory, so far," said Thorndyke, "though he may alter his
+tone when the case comes into Court. From what you said just now I
+gathered that Jellicoe would prefer to have the will administered and be
+quit of the whole business; which is natural enough, especially as he
+benefits under the will to the extent of two thousand pounds and a
+valuable collection. Consequently, we may fairly assume that, even if he
+maintains an apparent neutrality, his influence will be exerted in
+favour of Hurst rather than of Bellingham; from which it follows that
+Bellingham ought certainly to be properly advised, and, when the case
+goes into Court, properly represented."
+
+"He can't afford either the one or the other," said I. "He's as poor as
+an insolvent church mouse and as proud as the devil. He wouldn't accept
+professional aid that he couldn't pay for."
+
+"H'm," grunted Thorndyke, "that's awkward. But we can't allow the case
+to go 'by default,' so to speak--to fail for the mere lack of technical
+assistance. Besides, it is one of the most interesting cases that I have
+ever met with, and I am not going to see it bungled. He couldn't object
+to a little general advice in a friendly, informal way--_amicus curiae_,
+as old Brodribb is so fond of saying; and there is nothing to prevent us
+from pushing forward the preliminary inquiries."
+
+"Of what nature would they be?"
+
+"Well, to begin with, we have to satisfy ourselves that the conditions
+of clause two have not been complied with: that John Bellingham has not
+been buried within the parish boundaries mentioned. Of course he has
+not, but we must not take anything for granted. Then we have to satisfy
+ourselves that he is not still alive and accessible. It is perfectly
+possible that he is, after all, and it is our business to trace him, if
+he is still in the land of the living. Jervis and I can carry out these
+investigations without saying anything to Bellingham; my learned brother
+will look through the register of burials--not forgetting the
+cremations--in the metropolitan area, and I will take the other matter
+in hand."
+
+"You really think that John Bellingham may still be alive?" said I.
+
+"Since his body has not been found, it is obviously a possibility. I
+think it in the highest degree improbable, but the improbable has to be
+investigated before it can be excluded."
+
+"It sounds like a rather hopeless quest," I remarked. "How do you
+propose to begin?"
+
+"I think of beginning at the British Museum. The people there may be
+able to throw some light on his movements. I know that there are some
+important excavations in progress at Heliopolis--in fact, the Director
+of the Egyptian Department is out there at the present moment; and
+Doctor Norbury, who is taking his place temporarily, is an old friend of
+John Bellingham's. I shall call on him and try to discover if there is
+anything that might have induced Bellingham suddenly to go abroad--to
+Heliopolis, for instance. Also, he may be able to tell me what it was
+that took the missing man to Paris on that last, rather mysterious
+journey. That might turn out to be an important clue. And meanwhile,
+Berkeley, you must endeavour tactfully to reconcile your friend to the
+idea of letting us give an eye to the case. Make it clear to him that I
+am doing this entirely for the enlargement of my own knowledge."
+
+"But won't you have to be instructed by a solicitor?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, of course, nominally; but only as a matter of etiquette. We shall
+do all the actual work. Why do you ask?"
+
+"I was thinking of the solicitor's costs, and I was going to mention
+that I have a little money of my own--"
+
+"Then keep it, my dear fellow. You'll want it when you go into practice.
+There will be no difficulty about the solicitor; I shall ask one of my
+friends to act nominally as a personal favour to me--Marchmont would
+take the case for us, Jervis, I am sure."
+
+"Yes," said Jervis. "Or old Brodribb, if we put it to him _amicus
+curiae_."
+
+"It is excessively kind of both of you to take this benevolent interest
+in the case of my friends," I said; "and it is to be hoped that they
+won't be foolishly proud and stiff-necked about it. It's rather the way
+with poor gentlefolk."
+
+"I'll tell you what!" exclaimed Jervis. "I have a most brilliant idea.
+You shall give us a little supper at your rooms and invite the
+Bellinghams to meet us. Then you and I will attack the old gentleman,
+and Thorndyke shall exercise his persuasive powers on the lady. These
+chronic and incurable old bachelors, you know, are quite irresistible."
+
+"You observe that my respected junior condemns me to lifelong celibacy,"
+Thorndyke remarked. "But," he added, "his suggestion is quite a good
+one. Of course, we mustn't put any sort of pressure on Bellingham to
+employ us--for that is what it amounts to, even if we accept no
+payment--but a friendly talk over the supper-table would enable us to
+put the matter delicately and yet convincingly."
+
+"Yes," said I, "I see that, and I like the idea immensely. But it won't
+be possible for several days, because I've got a job that takes up all
+my spare time--and that I ought to be at work on now," I added, with a
+sudden qualm at the way in which I had forgotten the passage of time in
+the interest of Thorndyke's analysis.
+
+My two friends looked at me inquiringly, and I felt it necessary to
+explain about the injured hand and the Tell el Amarna tablets; which I
+accordingly did, rather shyly and with a nervous eye upon Jervis. The
+slow grin, however, for which I was watching, never came; on the
+contrary, he not only heard me through quite gravely, but when I had
+finished said with some warmth, and using my old hospital pet name:
+
+"I'll say one thing for you, Polly; you're a good chum, and you always
+were. I hope your Nevill's Court friends appreciate the fact."
+
+"They are far more appreciative than the occasion warrants," I answered.
+"But to return to this supper question: how will this day week suit
+you?"
+
+"It will suit me," Thorndyke answered, with a glance at his junior.
+
+"And me too," said the latter; "so, if it will do for the Bellinghams,
+we will consider it settled; but if they can't come you must fix another
+night."
+
+"Very well," I said, rising and knocking out my pipe, "I will issue the
+invitation to-morrow. And now I must be off to have another slog at
+those notes."
+
+As I walked homewards I speculated cheerfully on the prospect of
+entertaining my friends under my own (or rather Barnard's) roof, if they
+could be lured out of their eremitical retirement. The idea had, in
+fact, occurred to me already, but I had been deterred by the
+peculiarities of Barnard's housekeeper. For Mrs. Gummer was one of those
+housewives who make up for an archaic simplicity of production by
+preparations on the most portentous and alarming scale. But this time I
+would not be deterred. If only the guests could be enticed into my
+humble lair, it would be easy to furnish the raw materials of the feast
+from outside; and the consideration of ways and means occupied me
+pleasantly until I found myself once more at my writing-table,
+confronted by my voluminous notes on the incident of the North Syrian
+War.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A MUSEUM IDYLL
+
+
+Whether it was that practice revived a forgotten skill on my part, or
+that Miss Bellingham had over-estimated the amount of work to be done, I
+am unable to say. But whichever may have been the explanation, the fact
+is that the fourth afternoon saw our task so nearly completed that I was
+fain to plead that a small remainder might be left over to form an
+excuse for yet one more visit to the reading-room.
+
+Short, however, as had been the period of our collaboration, it had been
+long enough to produce a great change in our relations to one another.
+For there is no friendship so intimate and satisfying as that engendered
+by community of work, and none--between man and woman, at any rate--so
+frank and wholesome.
+
+Every day I had arrived to find a pile of books with the places duly
+marked and the blue covered quarto note-books in readiness. Every day we
+had worked steadily at the allotted task, had then handed in the books
+and gone forth together to enjoy a most companionable tea in the
+milk-shop; thereafter to walk home by way of Queen Square, talking over
+the day's work and discussing the state of the world in the far-off days
+when Ahkhenaten was king and the Tell el Amarna tablets were a-writing.
+
+It had been a pleasant time, so pleasant, that as I handed in the books
+for the last time, I sighed to think that it was over; that not only
+was the task finished, but that the recovery of my fair patient's hand,
+from which I had that morning removed the splint, had put an end to the
+need of my help.
+
+"What shall we do?" I asked, as we came out into the central hall; "it
+is too early for tea. Shall we go and look at some of the galleries?"
+
+"Why not?" she answered. "We might look over some of the things
+connected with what we have been doing. For instance, there is a relief
+of Ahkhenaten upstairs in the Third Egyptian Room; we might go and look
+at that."
+
+I fell in eagerly with the suggestion, placing myself under her
+experienced guidance, and we started by way of the Roman Gallery, past
+the long row of extremely commonplace and modern-looking Roman Emperors.
+
+"I don't know," she said, pausing for a moment opposite a bust labelled
+"Trajan" (but obviously a portrait of Phil May), "how I am ever even to
+thank you for all that you have done? to say nothing of repayment."
+
+"There is no need to do either," I replied. "I have enjoyed working with
+you, so I have had my reward. But still," I added, "if you want to do me
+a great kindness, you have it in your power."
+
+"How?"
+
+"In connection with my friend Doctor Thorndyke. I told you he was an
+enthusiast. Now he is, for some reason, most keenly interested in
+everything relating to your uncle, and I happen to know that, if any
+legal proceedings should take place, he would very much like to keep a
+friendly eye on the case."
+
+"And what do you want me to do?"
+
+"I want you, if an opportunity should occur for him to give your father
+advice or help of any kind, to use your influence with your father in
+favour of, rather than in opposition to, his accepting it--always
+assuming that you have no real feeling against his doing so."
+
+Miss Bellingham looked at me thoughtfully for a few moments, and then
+laughed softly.
+
+"So the great kindness that I am to do you is to let you do me a further
+kindness through your friend!"
+
+"No," I protested; "that is where you are quite mistaken. It isn't
+benevolence on Doctor Thorndyke's part; it is professional enthusiasm."
+
+She smiled sceptically.
+
+"You don't believe in it," I said; "but consider other cases. Why does a
+surgeon get out of bed on a winter's night to do an emergency operation
+at a hospital? He doesn't get paid for it. Do you think it is altruism?"
+
+"Yes, of course. Isn't it?"
+
+"Certainly not. He does it because it is his job, because it is his
+business to fight with disease--and win."
+
+"I don't see much difference," she said. "It is work done for love
+instead of for payment. However, I will do what you ask if the
+opportunity arises; but I shan't suppose that I am repaying your
+kindness to me."
+
+"I don't mind, so long as you do it," I said, and we walked on for some
+time in silence.
+
+"Isn't it odd," she said presently, "how our talk always seems to come
+back to my uncle? Oh, and that reminds me that the things he gave to the
+Museum are in the same room as the Ahkhenaten relief. Would you like to
+see them?"
+
+"Of course I should."
+
+"Then we will go and look at them first." She paused, and then, rather
+shyly and with a rising colour, she continued: "And I think I should
+like to introduce you to a very dear friend of mine--with your
+permission, of course."
+
+This last addition she made hastily, seeing, I suppose, that I looked
+rather glum at the suggestion. Inwardly I consigned her friend to the
+devil, especially if of the masculine gender; outwardly I expressed my
+felicity at making the acquaintance of any person whom she should honour
+with her friendship. Whereat, to my discomfiture, she laughed
+enigmatically; a very soft laugh, low-pitched and musical, like the
+cooing of a glorified pigeon.
+
+I strolled on by her side, speculating a little anxiously on the coming
+introduction. Was I being conducted to the lair of one of the savants
+attached to the establishment? and would he add a superfluous third to
+our little party of two, so complete and companionable, _solus cum
+sola_, in this populated wilderness? Above all, would he turn out to be
+a comely young man, and bring my aerial castles tumbling about my ears?
+The shy look and the blush with which she had suggested the introduction
+were ominous indications, upon which I mused gloomily as we ascended the
+stairs and passed through the wide doorway. I glanced apprehensively at
+my companion, and met a quiet, inscrutable smile; and at that moment she
+halted outside a wall-case and faced me.
+
+"This is my friend," she said. "Let me present you to Artemidorus, late
+of the Fayyum. Oh, don't smile!" she pleaded. "I am quite serious. Have
+you never heard of pious Catholics who cherish a devotion to some
+long-departed saint? That is my feeling towards Artemidorus, and if you
+only knew what comfort he has shed into the heart of a lonely woman;
+what a quiet, unobtrusive friend he has been to me in my solitary,
+friendless days, always ready with a kindly greeting on his gentle,
+thoughtful face, you would like him for that alone. And I want you to
+like him and to share our silent friendship. Am I very silly, very
+sentimental?"
+
+A wave of relief had swept over me, and the mercury of my emotional
+thermometer, which had shrunk almost into the bulb, leaped up to summer
+heat. How charming it was of her and how sweetly intimate, to wish to
+share this mystical friendship with me! And what a pretty conceit it
+was, too, and how like this strange, inscrutable maiden, to come here
+and hold silent converse with this long-departed Greek. And the pathos
+of it all touched me deeply amidst the joy of this newborn intimacy.
+
+"Are you scornful?" she asked, with a shade of disappointment, as I made
+no reply.
+
+"No, indeed I am not," I answered earnestly. "I want to make you aware
+of my sympathy and my appreciation without offending you by seeming to
+exaggerate, and I don't know how to express it."
+
+"Oh, never mind about the expression, so long as you feel it. I thought
+you would understand," and she gave me a smile that made me tingle to my
+finger-tips.
+
+We stood awhile gazing in silence at the mummy--for such, indeed, was
+her friend Artemidorus. But not an ordinary mummy. Egyptian in form, it
+was entirely Greek in feeling; and brightly coloured as it was, in
+accordance with the racial love of colour, the tasteful refinement with
+which the decoration of the case was treated made those around look
+garish and barbaric. But the most striking feature was a charming panel
+portrait which occupied the place of the usual mask. This painting was a
+revelation to me. Except that it was executed in tempera instead of oil,
+it differed in no respect from modern work. There was nothing archaic or
+even ancient about it. With its freedom of handling and its correct
+rendering of light and shade, it might have been painted yesterday;
+indeed, enclosed in an ordinary gilt frame, it might have passed without
+remark in an exhibition of modern portraits.
+
+Miss Bellingham observed my admiration and smiled approvingly.
+
+"It is a charming little portrait, isn't it?" she said; "and such a
+sweet face, too; so thoughtful and human with just a shade of
+melancholy. But the whole thing is full of charm. I fell in love with it
+the first time I saw it. And it is so Greek!"
+
+"Yes, it is, in spite of the Egyptian gods and symbols."
+
+"Rather because of them, I think," said she. "There we have the typical
+Greek attitude, the genial, cultivated eclecticism that appreciated the
+fitness of even the most alien forms of art. There is Anubis standing
+beside the bier; there are Isis and Nephthys, and there below, Horus and
+Tahuti. But we can't suppose that Artemidorus worshipped or believed in
+those gods. They are there because they are splendid decoration and
+perfectly appropriate in character. The real feeling of those who loved
+the dead man breaks out in the inscription." She pointed to a band below
+the pectoral, where, in gilt capital letters, was written the two words,
+"[Greek: ARTEMIDORE EUPsUChI]."
+
+"Yes," I said, "it is very dignified and very human."
+
+"And so sincere and full of real emotion," she added. "I find it
+unspeakably touching. 'O Artemidorus, farewell!' There is the real note
+of human grief, the sorrow of eternal parting. How much finer it is than
+the vulgar boastfulness of the Semitic epitaphs, or our own miserable,
+insincere make-believe of the 'Not lost but gone before' type. He was
+gone from them for ever; they would look on his face and hear his voice
+no more; they realised that this was their last farewell. Oh, there is a
+world of love and sorrow in those two simple words!"
+
+For some time neither of us spoke. The glamour of this touching memorial
+of a long-buried grief had stolen over me, and I was content to stand
+silent by my beloved companion and revive, with a certain pensive
+pleasure, the ghosts of human emotions over which so many centuries had
+rolled. Presently she turned to me with a frank smile. "You have been
+weighed in the balance of friendship," she said, "and not found wanting.
+You have the gift of sympathy, even with a woman's sentimental fancies."
+
+I suspected that a good many men would have developed this precious
+quality under the circumstances, but I refrained from saying so. There
+is no use in crying down one's own wares. I was glad enough to have
+earned her good opinion so easily, and when she at length turned away
+from the case and passed through into the adjoining room, it was a very
+complacent young man who bore her company.
+
+"Here is Ahkhenaten--or Khu-en-aten, as the authorities here render the
+hieroglyphics." She indicated a fragment of a coloured relief labelled:
+"Portion of a painted stone tablet with a portrait figure of Amen-hetep
+IV," and we stopped to look at the frail, effeminate figure of the great
+king, with his large cranium, his queer, pointed chin and the Aten rays
+stretching out their weird hands as if caressing him.
+
+"We mustn't stay here if you want to see my uncle's gift, because this
+room closes at four to-day." With this admonition she moved on to the
+other end of the room, where she halted before a large floor-case
+containing a mummy and a large number of other objects. A black label
+with white lettering set forth the various contents with a brief
+explanation as follows:
+
+"Mummy of Sebek-hotep, a scribe of the twenty-second dynasty, together
+with the objects found in the tomb. These include the four Canopic jars,
+in which the internal organs were deposited, the Ushabti figures, tomb
+provisions and various articles that had belonged to the deceased; his
+favourite chair, his head-rest, his ink-palette, inscribed with his name
+and the name of the king, Osorkon I, in whose reign he lived, and other
+smaller articles. Presented by John Bellingham, Esq."
+
+"They have put all the objects together in one case," Miss Bellingham
+explained, "to show the contents of an ordinary tomb of the better
+class. You see that the dead man was provided with all his ordinary
+comforts: provisions, furniture, the ink-palette that he had been
+accustomed to use in writing on papyri, and a staff of servants to wait
+on him."
+
+"Where are the servants?" I asked.
+
+"The little Ushabti figures," she answered; "they were the attendants of
+the dead, you know, his servants in the under-world. It was a quaint
+idea, wasn't it? But it was all very complete and consistent, and quite
+reasonable, too, if once one accepts the belief in the persistence of
+the individual apart from the body."
+
+"Yes," I agreed, "and that is the only fair way to judge a religious
+system, by taking the main beliefs for granted. But what a business it
+must have been, bringing all these things from Egypt to London."
+
+"It was worth the trouble, though, for it is a fine and instructive
+collection. And the work is all very good of its kind. You notice that
+the Ushabti figures and the heads that form the stoppers of the Canopic
+jars are quite finely modelled. The mummy itself, too, is rather
+handsome, though that coat of bitumen on the back doesn't improve it.
+But Sebek-hotep must have been a fine-looking man."
+
+"The mask on the case is a portrait, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes; in fact, it is rather more. To some extent it is the actual face
+of the man himself. This mummy is enclosed in what is called a
+cartonnage, that is a case moulded on the figure. The cartonnage, was
+formed of a number of layers of linen or papyrus united by glue or
+cement, and when the case had been fitted to the mummy it was moulded to
+the body, so that the general form of the features and limbs was often
+apparent. After the cement was dry the case was covered with a thin
+layer of stucco and the face modelled more completely, and then the
+decorations and inscriptions were painted on. So that, you see, in a
+cartonnage, the body was sealed up like a nut in its shell, unlike the
+more ancient forms in which the mummy was merely rolled up and enclosed
+in a wooden coffin."
+
+At this moment there smote upon our ears a politely protesting voice
+announcing in sing-song tones that it was closing time; and
+simultaneously a desire for tea suggested the hospitable milk-shop. With
+leisurely dignity that ignored the official who shepherded us along the
+galleries, we made our way to the entrance, still immersed in
+conversation on matters sepulchral.
+
+It was rather earlier than our usual hour for leaving the Museum and,
+moreover, it was our last day--for the present. Wherefore we lingered
+over our tea to an extent that caused the milk-shop lady to view us with
+some disfavour, and when at length we started homeward, we took so many
+short cuts that six o'clock found us no nearer our destination than
+Lincoln's Inn Fields; whither we had journeyed by a slightly indirect
+route that traversed (among other places) Russell Square, Red Lion
+Square, with the quaint passage of the same name, Bedford Row, Jockey's
+Fields, Hand Court, and Great Turnstile.
+
+It was in the latter thoroughfare that our attention was attracted by a
+flaming poster outside a newsvendor's bearing the startling inscription:
+
+"MORE MEMENTOES OF MURDERED MAN."
+
+Miss Bellingham glanced at the poster and shuddered.
+
+"Horrible! Isn't it?" she said. "Have you read about them?"
+
+"I haven't been noticing the papers the last few, days," I replied.
+
+"No, of course you haven't. You've been slaving at those wretched notes.
+We don't very often see the papers, at least we don't take them in, but
+Miss Oman has kept us supplied during the last day or two. She is a
+perfect little ghoul; she delights in horrors of every kind, and the
+more horrible the better."
+
+"But," I asked, "what is it that they have found?"
+
+"Oh, they are the remains of some poor creature who seems to have been
+murdered and cut in pieces. It is dreadful. It made me shudder to read
+of it, for I couldn't help thinking of poor Uncle John, and, as for my
+father, he was really quite upset."
+
+"Are these the bones that were found in a watercress-bed at Sidcup?"
+
+"Yes. But they have found several more. The police have been most
+energetic. They seem to have been making a systematic search, and the
+result has been that they have discovered several portions of the body,
+scattered about in very widely separated places--Sidcup, Lee, St. Mary
+Cray; and yesterday it was reported that an arm had been found in one of
+the ponds called 'the Cuckoo Pits,' close to our old home."
+
+"What! in Essex?" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, in Epping Forest, quite near Woodford. Isn't it dreadful to think
+of it? They were probably hidden when we were living there. I think it
+was that that horrified my father so much. When he read it he was so
+upset that he gathered up the whole bundle of newspapers and tossed them
+out of the window; and they blew over the wall, and poor Miss Oman had
+to rush out and pursue them up the court."
+
+"Do you think he suspects that these remains may be those of your
+uncle?"
+
+"I think so, though he has said nothing to that effect, and, of course,
+I have not made any such suggestion to him. We always preserve the
+fiction between ourselves of believing that Uncle John is still alive."
+
+"But you don't think he is, do you?"
+
+"No, I am afraid I don't; and I feel pretty sure that my father doesn't
+think so either, but he doesn't like to admit it to me."
+
+"Do you happen to remember what bones have been found?"
+
+"No, I don't. I know that an arm was found in the Cuckoo Pits, and I
+think a thigh-bone was dredged up out of a pond near St. Mary Cray. But
+Miss Oman will be able to tell you all about it, if you are interested.
+She will be delighted to meet a kindred spirit," Miss Bellingham added,
+with a smile.
+
+"I don't know that I want to claim spiritual kinship with a ghoul," said
+I; "especially such a very sharp-tempered ghoul."
+
+"Oh, don't disparage her, Doctor Berkeley!" Miss Bellingham pleaded.
+"She isn't really bad-tempered; only a little prickly on the surface. I
+oughtn't to have called her a ghoul; she is just the sweetest, most
+affectionate, most unselfish little angelic human hedgehog that you
+could find if you travelled the wide world through. Do you know that she
+has been working her fingers to the bone making an old dress of mine
+presentable because she is so anxious that I shall look nice at your
+little supper-party."
+
+"You are sure to do that, in any case," I said; "but I withdraw my
+remark as to her temper unreservedly. And I really didn't mean it, you
+know; I have always liked the little lady."
+
+"That's right; and now won't you come in and have a few minutes' chat
+with my father? We are quite early, in spite of the short cuts."
+
+I assented readily, and the more so inasmuch as I wanted a few words
+with Miss Oman on the subject of catering and did not want to discuss it
+before my friends. Accordingly I went in and gossiped with Mr.
+Bellingham, chiefly about the work that we had done at the Museum, until
+it was time for me to return to the surgery.
+
+Having taken my leave, I walked down the stairs with reflective slowness
+and as much creaking of my boots as I could manage; with the result,
+hopefully anticipated, that as I approached the door of Miss Oman's room
+it opened and the lady's head protruded.
+
+"I'd change my cobbler if I were you," she said.
+
+I thought of the "angelic human hedgehog," and nearly sniggered in her
+face.
+
+"I am sure you would, Miss Oman, instantly; though, mind you, the poor
+fellow can't help his looks."
+
+"You are a very flippant young man," she said severely. Whereat I
+grinned, and she regarded me silently with a baleful glare. Suddenly I
+remembered my mission and became serious and sober.
+
+"Miss Oman," I said, "I very much want to take your advice on a matter
+of some importance--to me, at least." (That ought to fetch her, I
+thought.) The "advice fly"--strangely neglected by Izaak Walton--is
+guaranteed to kill in any weather. And it did fetch her. She rose in a
+flash and gorged it, cock's feathers, worsted body and all.
+
+"What is it about?" she asked eagerly. "But don't stand out there where
+everybody can hear but me. Come in and sit down."
+
+Now, I didn't want to discuss the matter here, and, besides, there was
+not time. I therefore assumed an air of mystery.
+
+"I can't, Miss Oman. I'm due at the surgery now. But if you should be
+passing and should have a few minutes to spare, I should be greatly
+obliged if you would look in. I really don't quite know how to act."
+
+"No, I expect not. Men very seldom do. But you're better than most, for
+you know when you are in difficulties and have the sense to consult a
+woman. But what is it about? Perhaps I might be thinking it over."
+
+"Well, you know," I began evasively, "it's a simple matter, but I can't
+very well--no, by Jove!" I added, looking at my watch, "I must run, or I
+shall keep the multitude waiting." And with this I bustled away, leaving
+her literally dancing with curiosity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SPHINX OF LINCOLN'S INN
+
+
+At the age of twenty-six one cannot claim to have attained to the
+position of a person of experience. Nevertheless, the knowledge of human
+nature accumulated in that brief period sufficed to make me feel pretty
+confident that, at some time during the evening, I should receive a
+visit from Miss Oman. And circumstances justified my confidence; for the
+clock yet stood at two minutes to seven when a premonitory tap at the
+surgery door heralded her arrival.
+
+"I happened to be passing," she explained, and I forbore to smile at the
+coincidence, "so I thought I might as well drop in and hear what you
+wanted to ask me about."
+
+She seated herself in the patients' chair and, laying a bundle of
+newspapers on the table, glared at me expectantly.
+
+"Thank you, Miss Oman," I said. "It is very good of you to look in on
+me. I am ashamed to give you all this trouble about such a trifling
+matter."
+
+She rapped her knuckles impatiently on the table.
+
+"Never mind about the trouble," she exclaimed tartly.
+"What--is--it--that--you--want--to--_ask_--me about?"
+
+I stated my difficulties in respect of the supper-party, and, as I
+proceeded, an expression of disgust and disappointment spread over her
+countenance. "I don't see why you need have been so mysterious about
+it," she said glumly.
+
+"I didn't mean to be mysterious; I was only anxious not to make a mess
+of the affair. It's all very fine to assume a lofty scorn of the
+pleasures of the table, but there is great virtue in a really good feed,
+especially when low-living and high-thinking have been the order of the
+day."
+
+"Coarsely put," said Miss Oman, "but perfectly true."
+
+"Very well. Now, if I leave the management to Mrs. Gummer, she will
+probably provide a tepid Irish stew with flakes of congealed fat on it,
+and a plastic suet-pudding or something of that kind, and turn the house
+upside-down in getting it ready. So I thought of having a cold spread
+and getting the things in from outside. But I don't want it to look as
+if I had been making enormous preparations."
+
+"They won't think the things came down from heaven," said Miss Oman.
+
+"No, I suppose they won't. But you know what I mean. Now, where do you
+advise me to go for the raw materials of conviviality?"
+
+Miss Oman reflected. "You'd better let me do your shopping and manage
+the whole business," was her final verdict.
+
+This was precisely what I had wanted, and I accepted thankfully,
+regardless of the feelings of Mrs. Gummer. I handed her two pounds, and,
+after some protests at my extravagance, she bestowed them in her purse;
+a process that occupied time, since that receptacle, besides and
+time-stained bills, already bulged with a lading of draper's samples,
+ends of tape, a card of linen buttons, another of hooks and eyes, a lump
+of beeswax, a rat-eaten stump of lead-pencil, and other trifles that I
+have forgotten. As she closed the purse at the imminent risk of
+wrenching off its fastenings she looked at me severely and pursed up her
+lips.
+
+"You're a very plausible young man," she remarked.
+
+"What makes you say that?" I asked.
+
+"Philandering about museums," she continued, "with handsome young ladies
+on the pretence of work. Work, indeed! Oh, I heard her telling her
+father about it. She thinks you were perfectly enthralled by the mummies
+and dried cats and chunks of stone and all the other trash. She doesn't
+know what humbugs men are."
+
+"Really, Miss Oman--" I began.
+
+"Oh, don't talk to me!" she snapped. "I can see it all. You can't impose
+on _me_. I can see you staring into those glass cases, egging her on to
+talk and listening open-mouthed and bulging-eyed and sitting at her
+feet--now, didn't you?"
+
+"I don't know about sitting at her feet," I said, "though it might
+easily have come to that with those infernal slippery floors; but I had
+a very jolly time, and I mean to go again if I can. Miss Bellingham is
+the cleverest and most accomplished woman I have ever spoken to."
+
+This was a poser for Miss Oman, whose admiration and loyalty, I knew,
+were only equalled by my own. She would have liked to contradict me, but
+the thing was impossible. To cover her defeat she snatched up the bundle
+of newspapers and began to open them out.
+
+"What sort of stuff is 'hibernation'?" she demanded suddenly.
+
+"Hibernation!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes. They found a patch of it on a bone that was discovered in a pond
+at St. Mary Cray, and a similar patch on one that was found at some
+place in Essex. Now, I want to know what 'hibernation' is."
+
+"You must mean 'eburnation,'" I said, after a moment's reflection.
+
+"The newspapers say 'hibernation,' and I suppose they know what they are
+talking about. If you don't know what it is, don't be ashamed to say
+so."
+
+"Well, then, I don't."
+
+"In that case you'd better read the papers and find out," she said, a
+little illogically. And then: "Are you fond of murders? I am, awfully."
+
+"What a shocking little ghoul you must be!" I exclaimed.
+
+She stuck out her chin at me. "I'll trouble you," she said, "to be a
+little more respectful in your language. Do you realise that I am old
+enough to be your mother?"
+
+"Impossible!" I ejaculated.
+
+"Fact," said Miss Oman.
+
+"Well, anyhow," said I, "age is not the only qualification. And,
+besides, you are too late for the billet. The vacancy's filled."
+
+Miss Oman slapped the papers down on the table and rose abruptly.
+
+"You had better read the papers and see if you can learn a little
+sense," she said severely as she turned to go. "Oh, and don't forget the
+finger!" she added eagerly. "That is really thrilling."
+
+"The finger?" I repeated.
+
+"Yes. They found a hand with one finger missing. The police think it is
+a highly important clue. I don't know quite what they mean; but you read
+the account and tell me what you think."
+
+With this parting injunction she bustled out through the surgery, and I
+followed to bid her a ceremonious adieu on the doorstep. I watched her
+little figure tripping with quick, bird-like steps down Fetter Lane, and
+was about to turn back into the surgery when my attention was attracted
+by the evolutions of an elderly gentleman on the opposite side of the
+street. He was a somewhat peculiar-looking man, tall, gaunt, and bony,
+and the way in which he carried his head suggested to the medical mind a
+pronounced degree of near sight and a pair of "deep" spectacle glasses.
+Suddenly he espied me and crossed the road with his chin thrust forward
+and a pair of keen blue eyes directed at me through the centres of his
+spectacles.
+
+"I wonder if you can and will help me," said he, with a courteous
+salute. "I wish to call on an acquaintance, and I have forgotten his
+address. It is in some court, but the name of that court has escaped me
+for the moment. My friend's name is Bellingham. I suppose you don't
+chance to know it? Doctors know a great many people, as a rule."
+
+"Do you mean Mr. Godfrey Bellingham?"
+
+"Ah! Then you do know him. I have not consulted the oracle in vain. He
+is a patient of yours, no doubt?"
+
+"A patient and a personal friend. His address is Forty-nine Nevill's
+Court."
+
+"Thank you, thank you. Oh, and as you are a friend, perhaps you can
+inform me as to the customs of the household. I am not expected, and I
+do not wish to make an untimely visit. What are Mr. Bellingham's habits
+as to his evening meal? Would this be a convenient time to call?"
+
+"I generally make my evening visits a little later than this--say about
+half-past eight; they have finished their meal by then."
+
+"Ah! half-past eight, then? Then I suppose I had better take a walk
+until that time. I don't want to disturb them."
+
+"Would you care to come in and smoke a cigar until it is time to make
+your call? If you would, I could walk over with you and show you the
+house."
+
+"That is very kind of you," said my new acquaintance, with an
+inquisitive glance at me through his spectacles. "I think I should like
+to sit down. It's a dull affair, mooning about the streets, and there
+isn't time to go back to my chambers--in Lincoln's Inn."
+
+"I wonder," said I, as I ushered him into the room lately vacated by
+Miss Oman, "if you happen to be Mr. Jellicoe?"
+
+He turned his spectacles full on me with a keen, suspicious glance.
+"What makes you think I am Mr. Jellicoe?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, only that you live in Lincoln's Inn."
+
+"Ha! I see. I live in Lincoln's Inn; Mr. Jellicoe lives in Lincoln's
+Inn; therefore I am Mr. Jellicoe. Ha! ha! Bad logic, but a correct
+conclusion. Yes, I am Mr. Jellicoe. What do you know about me?"
+
+"Mighty little, excepting that you were the late John Bellingham's man
+of business."
+
+"The '_late_ John Bellingham,' hey! How do you know he is the late John
+Bellingham?"
+
+"As a matter of fact, I don't; only I rather understood that that was
+your own belief."
+
+"You understood! Now, from whom did you 'understand' that? From Godfrey
+Bellingham? H'm! And how did he know what I believe? I never told him.
+It is a very unsafe thing, my dear sir, to expound another man's
+beliefs."
+
+"Then you think that John Bellingham is alive?"
+
+"Do I? Who said so? I did not, you know."
+
+"But he must be either dead or alive."
+
+"There," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I am entirely with you. You have stated an
+undeniable truth."
+
+"It is not a very illuminating one, however," I replied, laughing.
+
+"Undeniable truths often are not," he retorted. "They are apt to be
+extremely general. In fact, I would affirm that the certainty of the
+truth of a given proposition is directly proportional to its
+generality."
+
+"I suppose that is so," said I.
+
+"Undoubtedly. Take an instance from your own profession. Given a million
+normal human beings under twenty, and you can say with certainty that a
+majority of them will die before reaching a certain age, that they will
+die in certain circumstances and of certain diseases. Then take a single
+unit from that million, and what can you predict concerning him?
+Nothing. He may die to-morrow; he may live to a couple of hundred. He
+may die of a cold in the head or a cut finger, or from falling off the
+cross of St. Paul's. In a particular case you can predict nothing."
+
+"That is perfectly true," said I. And then, realising that I had been
+led away from the topic of John Bellingham, I ventured to return to it.
+
+"That was a very mysterious affair--the disappearance of John
+Bellingham, I mean."
+
+"Why mysterious?" asked Mr. Jellicoe. "Men disappear from time to time,
+and when they reappear, the explanations that they give (when they give
+any) seem to be more or less adequate."
+
+"But the circumstances were surely rather mysterious."
+
+"What circumstances?" asked Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"I mean the way in which he vanished from Mr. Hurst's house."
+
+"In what way did he vanish from it?"
+
+"Well, of course, I don't know."
+
+"Precisely. Neither do I. Therefore I can't say whether that way was a
+mysterious one or not."
+
+"It is not even certain that he did leave it," I remarked, rather
+recklessly.
+
+"Exactly," said Mr. Jellicoe. "And if he did not, he is there still. And
+if he is there still, he has not disappeared--in the sense understood.
+And if he has not disappeared, there is no mystery."
+
+I laughed heartily, but Mr. Jellicoe preserved a wooden solemnity and
+continued to examine me through his spectacles (which I, in my turn,
+inspected and estimated at about minus five dioptres). There was
+something highly diverting about this grim lawyer, with his dry
+contentiousness and almost farcical caution. His ostentatious reserve
+encouraged me to ply him with fresh questions, the more indiscreet the
+better.
+
+"I suppose," said I, "that, under these circumstances, you would hardly
+favour Mr. Hurst's proposal to apply for permission to presume death?"
+
+"Under what circumstances?" he inquired.
+
+"I was referring to the doubt you have expressed as to whether John
+Bellingham is, after all, really dead."
+
+"My dear sir," said he, "I fail to see your point. If it were certain
+that the man was alive, it would be impossible to presume that he was
+dead; and if it were certain that he was dead, presumption of death
+would still be impossible. You do not presume a certainty. The
+uncertainty is of the essence of the transaction."
+
+"But," I persisted, "if you really believe that he may be alive, I
+should hardly have thought that you would take the responsibility of
+presuming his death and dispersing his property."
+
+"I don't," said Mr. Jellicoe. "I take no responsibility. I act in
+accordance with the decision of the Court and have no choice in the
+matter."
+
+"But the Court may decide that he is dead and he may nevertheless be
+alive."
+
+"Not at all. If the Court decides that he is presumably dead, then he is
+presumably dead. As a mere irrelevant, physical circumstance he may, it
+is true, be alive. But legally speaking, and for testamentary purposes,
+he is dead. You fail to perceive the distinction, no doubt?"
+
+"I am afraid I do," I admitted.
+
+"Yes; members of your profession usually do. That is what makes them
+such bad witnesses in a court of law. The scientific outlook is
+radically different from the legal. The man of science relies on his own
+knowledge and observation and judgment, and disregards testimony. A man
+comes to you and tells you he is blind in one eye. Do you accept his
+statement? Not in the least. You proceed to test his eyesight with some
+infernal apparatus of coloured glasses, and you find that he can see
+perfectly well with both eyes. Then you decide that he is not blind in
+one eye; that is to say, you reject his testimony in favour of facts of
+your own ascertaining."
+
+"But surely that is the rational method of coming to a conclusion?"
+
+"In science, no doubt. Not in law. A court of law must decide according
+to the evidence which is before it; and that evidence is of the nature
+of sworn testimony. If a witness is prepared to swear that black is
+white, and no evidence to the contrary is offered, the evidence before
+the Court is that black is white, and the Court must decide accordingly.
+The judge and the jury may think otherwise--they may even have private
+knowledge to the contrary--but they have to decide according to the
+evidence."
+
+"Do you mean to say that a judge would be justified in giving a decision
+which he knew privately to be contrary to the facts? Or that he might
+sentence a man whom he knew to be innocent?"
+
+"Certainly. It has been done. There is a case of a judge who sentenced a
+man to death and allowed the execution to take place, notwithstanding
+that he--the judge--had actually seen the murder committed by another
+man. But that was carrying correctness of procedure to the verge of
+pedantry."
+
+"It was, with a vengeance," I agreed. "But to return to the case of John
+Bellingham. Supposing that after the Court has decided that he is dead
+he should turn up alive? What then?"
+
+"Ah! It would then be his turn to make an application, and the Court,
+having fresh evidence laid before it, would probably decide that he was
+alive."
+
+"And meantime his property would have been dispersed?"
+
+"Probably. But you will observe that the presumption of death would have
+arisen out of his own proceedings. If a man acts in such a way as to
+create a belief that he is dead, he must put up with the consequences."
+
+"Yes, that is reasonable enough," said I. And then, after a pause, I
+asked: "Is there any immediate likelihood of proceedings of the kind
+being commenced?"
+
+"I understood from what you said just now that Mr. Hurst was
+contemplating some action of the kind. No doubt you had your information
+from a reliable quarter." This answer Mr. Jellicoe delivered without
+moving a muscle, regarding me with the fixity of a spectacled
+figure-head.
+
+I smiled feebly. The operation of pumping Mr. Jellicoe was rather like
+the sport of boxing with a porcupine, being chiefly remarkable as a
+demonstration of the power of passive resistance. I determined, however,
+to make one more effort, rather, I think, for the pleasure of witnessing
+his defensive manoeuvres than with the expectation of getting anything
+out of him. I accordingly "opened out" on the subject of the "remains."
+
+"Have you been following these remarkable discoveries of human bones
+that have been appearing in the papers?" I asked.
+
+He looked at me stonily for some moments, and then replied:
+
+"Human bones are rather more within your province than mine, but, now
+that you mention it, I think I recall having read of some such
+discoveries. They were disconnected bones, I believe?"
+
+"Yes; evidently parts of a dismembered body."
+
+"So I should suppose. No, I have not followed the accounts. As we get on
+in life our interests tend to settle into grooves, and my groove is
+chiefly connected with conveyancing. These discoveries would be of more
+interest to a criminal lawyer."
+
+"I thought that you might, perhaps, have connected them with the
+disappearance of your client."
+
+"Why should I? What could be the nature of the connection?"
+
+"Well," I said, "these are the bones of a man--"
+
+"Yes; and my client was a man with bones. That is a connection,
+certainly, though not a very specific or distinctive one. But perhaps
+you had something more particular in your mind."
+
+"I had," I replied. "The fact that some of the bones were actually found
+on land belonging to your client seemed to me rather significant."
+
+"Did it, indeed?" said Mr. Jellicoe. He reflected for a few moments,
+gazing steadily at me the while, and then continued: "In that I am
+unable to follow you. It would have seemed to me that the finding of
+human remains upon a certain piece of land might conceivably throw a
+_prima facie_ suspicion upon the owner or occupant of that land as being
+the person who deposited them. But the case that you suggest is the one
+case in which this would be impossible. A man cannot deposit his own
+dismembered remains."
+
+"No, of course not. I was not suggesting that he deposited them
+himself, but merely that the fact of their being deposited on his land,
+in a way, connected these remains with him."
+
+"Again," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I fail to follow you, unless you are
+suggesting that it is customary for murderers who mutilate bodies to be
+punctilious in depositing the dismembered remains upon land belonging to
+their victims. In which case I am sceptical as to your facts. I am not
+aware of the existence of any such custom. Moreover, it appears that
+only a portion of the body was deposited on Mr. Bellingham's land, the
+remaining portions having been scattered broadcast over a wide area. How
+does that agree with your suggestion?"
+
+"It doesn't, of course," I admitted. "But there is another fact that I
+think you will admit to be more significant. The first remains that were
+discovered were found at Sidcup. Now, Sidcup is close to Eltham; and
+Eltham is the place where Mr. Bellingham was last seen alive."
+
+"And what is the significance of this? Why do you connect the remains
+with one locality rather than the various other localities in which
+other portions of the body have been found?"
+
+"Well," I replied, rather gravelled by this very pertinent question,
+"the appearances seem to suggest that the person who deposited these
+remains started from the neighbourhood of Eltham, where the missing man
+was last seen."
+
+Mr. Jellicoe shook his head. "You appear," said he, "to be confusing the
+order of deposition with the order of discovery. What evidence is there
+that the remains found at Sidcup were deposited before those found
+elsewhere?"
+
+"I don't know that there is any," I admitted.
+
+"Then," said he, "I don't see how you support your suggestion that the
+person started from the neighbourhood of Eltham."
+
+On consideration, I had to admit that I had nothing to offer in support
+of my theory; and having thus shot my last arrow in this very unequal
+contest, I thought it time to change the subject.
+
+"I called in at the British Museum the other day," said I, "and had a
+look at Mr. Bellingham's last gift to the nation. The things are very
+well shown in that central case."
+
+"Yes. I was very pleased with the position they have given to the
+exhibit, and so would my poor old friend have been. I wished, as I
+looked at the case, that he could have seen it. But perhaps he may,
+after all."
+
+"I am sure I hope he will," said I, with more sincerity, perhaps, than
+the lawyer gave me credit for. For the return of John Bellingham would
+most effectually have cut the Gordian knot of my friend Godfrey's
+difficulties. "You are a good deal interested in Egyptology yourself,
+aren't you?" I added.
+
+"Greatly interested," replied Mr. Jellicoe, with more animation than I
+had thought possible in his wooden face. "It is a fascinating subject,
+the study of this venerable civilisation, extending back to the
+childhood of the human race, preserved for ever for our instruction in
+its own unchanging monuments like a fly in a block of amber. Everything
+connected with Egypt is full of an impressive solemnity. A feeling of
+permanence, of stability, defying time and change, pervades it. The
+place, the people, and the monuments alike breathe of eternity."
+
+I was mightily surprised at this rhetorical outburst on the part of this
+dry and taciturn lawyer. But I liked him the better for the touch of
+enthusiasm that made him human, and determined to keep him astride of
+his hobby.
+
+"Yet," said I, "the people must have changed in the course of
+centuries."
+
+"Yes, that is so. The people who fought against Cambyses were not the
+race that marched into Egypt five thousand years before--the dynastic
+people whose portraits we see on the early monuments. In those fifty
+centuries the blood of Hyksos and Syrians and Ethiopians and Hittites,
+and who can say how many more races, must have mingled with that of the
+old Egyptians. But still the national life went on without a break; the
+old culture leavened the new peoples, and the immigrant strangers ended
+by becoming Egyptians. It is a wonderful phenomenon. Looking back on it
+from our own time, it seems more like a geological period than the
+life-history of a single nation. Are you at all interested in the
+subject?"
+
+"Yes, decidedly, though I am completely ignorant of it. The fact is that
+my interest is of quite recent growth. It is only of late that I have
+been sensible of the glamour of things Egyptian."
+
+"Since you made Miss Bellingham's acquaintance, perhaps?" suggested Mr.
+Jellicoe, himself as unchanging in aspect as an Egyptian effigy.
+
+I suppose I must have reddened--I certainly resented the remark--for he
+continued in the same even tone: "I made the suggestion because I know
+that she takes an intelligent interest in the subject and is, in fact,
+quite well informed on it."
+
+"Yes; she seems to know a great deal about the antiquities of Egypt, and
+I may as well admit that your surmise was correct. It was she who showed
+me her uncle's collection."
+
+"So I had supposed," said Mr. Jellicoe. "And a very instructive
+collection it is, in a popular sense; very suitable for exhibition in a
+public museum, though there is nothing in it of unusual interest to the
+expert. The tomb furniture is excellent of its kind and the cartonnage
+case of the mummy is well made and rather finely decorated."
+
+"Yes, I thought it quite handsome. But can you explain to me why, after
+taking all that trouble to decorate it, they should have disfigured it
+with those great smears of bitumen?"
+
+"Ah!" said Mr. Jellicoe, "that is quite an interesting question. It is
+not unusual to find mummy-cases smeared with bitumen; there is a mummy
+of a priestess in the next gallery which is completely coated with
+bitumen excepting the gilded face. Now, this bitumen was put on for a
+purpose--for the purpose of obliterating the inscriptions and thus
+concealing the identity of the deceased from the robbers and desecrators
+of tombs. And there is the oddity of this mummy of Sebek-hotep.
+Evidently there was an intention of obliterating the inscriptions. The
+whole of the back is covered thickly with bitumen, and so are the feet.
+Then the workers seem to have changed their minds and left the
+inscriptions and decoration untouched. Why they intended to cover it,
+and why, having commenced, they left it partially covered only, is a
+mystery. The mummy was found in its original tomb and quite
+undisturbed, so far as tomb-robbers are concerned. Poor Bellingham was
+greatly puzzled as to what the explanation could be."
+
+"Speaking of bitumen," said I, "reminds me of a question that has
+occurred to me. You know that this substance has been used a good deal
+by modern painters and that it has a very dangerous peculiarity; I mean
+its tendency to liquefy, without any very obvious reason, long after it
+has dried."
+
+"Yes, I know. Isn't there some story about a picture of Reynolds' in
+which bitumen had been used? A portrait of a lady, I think. The bitumen
+softened, and one of the lady's eyes slipped down on to her cheek; and
+they had to hang the portrait upside down and keep it warm until the eye
+slipped back into its place. But what was your question?"
+
+"I was wondering whether the bitumen used by the Egyptian artists has
+ever been known to soften after this great lapse of time."
+
+"Yes, I think it has. I have heard of instances in which the bitumen
+coatings of mummy cases have softened under certain circumstances and
+become quite 'tacky.' But, bless my soul! here am I gossiping with you
+and wasting your time, and it is nearly a quarter to nine!"
+
+My guest rose hastily, and I, with many apologies for having detained
+him, proceeded to fulfil my promise to guide him to his destination. As
+we sallied forth together the glamour of Egypt faded by degrees, and
+when he shook my hand stiffly at the gate of the Bellinghams' house, all
+his vivacity and enthusiasm had vanished, leaving the taciturn lawyer,
+dry, uncommunicative, and not a little suspicious.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE NEW ALLIANCE
+
+
+The "Great Lexicographer"--tutelary deity of my adopted habitat--has
+handed down to shuddering posterity a definition of the act of eating
+which might have been framed by a dyspeptic ghoul. "Eat: to devour with
+the mouth." It is a shocking view to take of so genial a function:
+cynical, indelicate, and finally unforgivable by reason of its very
+accuracy. For, after all, that is what eating amounts to, if one must
+needs express it with such crude brutality. But if "the ingestion of
+alimentary substances"--to ring a modern change upon the older
+formula--is in itself a process material even unto carnality, it is
+undeniable that it forms a highly agreeable accompaniment to more
+psychic manifestations.
+
+And so, as the lamplight, re-enforced by accessory candles, falls on the
+little table in the first-floor room looking on Fetter Lane--only now
+the curtains are drawn--the conversation is not the less friendly and
+bright for a running accompaniment executed with knives and forks, for
+clink of goblet and jovial gurgle of wine-flask. On the contrary, to one
+of us, at least--to wit, Godfrey Bellingham--the occasion is one of
+uncommon festivity, and his boyish enjoyment of the simple feast makes
+pathetic suggestions of hard times, faced uncomplainingly, but keenly
+felt nevertheless.
+
+The talk flitted from topic to topic, mainly concerning itself with
+matters artistic, and never for one moment approaching the critical
+subject of John Bellingham's will. From the stepped pyramid of Sakkara
+with its encaustic tiles to mediaeval church floors; from Elizabethan
+woodwork to Mycaenaean pottery, and thence to the industrial arts of the
+Stone Age and the civilisation of the Aztecs. I began to suspect that my
+two legal friends were so carried away by the interest of the
+conversation that they had forgotten the secret purpose of the meeting,
+for the dessert had been placed on the table (by Mrs. Gummer with the
+manner of a bereaved dependant dispensing funeral bakemeats), and still
+no reference had been made to the "case." But it seemed that Thorndyke
+was but playing a waiting game; was only allowing the intimacy to ripen
+while he watched for the opportunity. And that opportunity came, even as
+Mrs. Gummer vanished spectrally with a tray of plates and glasses.
+
+"So you had a visitor last night, Doctor," said Mr. Bellingham. "I mean
+my friend Jellicoe. He told us he had seen you, and mighty curious he
+was about you. I have never known Jellicoe to be so inquisitive before.
+What did you think of him?"
+
+"A quaint old cock. I found him highly amusing. We entertained one
+another for quite a long time with cross questions and crooked answers;
+I affecting eager curiosity, he replying with a defensive attitude of
+universal ignorance. It was a most diverting encounter."
+
+"He needn't have been so close," Miss Bellingham remarked, "seeing that
+all the world will be regaled with our affairs before long."
+
+"They are proposing to take the case into Court, then?" said Thorndyke.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Bellingham. "Jellicoe came to tell me that my cousin,
+Hurst, has instructed his solicitors to make the application and to
+invite me to join him. Actually he came to deliver an ultimatum from
+Hurst--But, I mustn't disturb the harmony of this festive gathering with
+litigious discords."
+
+"Now, why mustn't you?" asked Thorndyke. "Why is a subject in which we
+are all keenly interested to be _tabu_? You don't mind telling us about
+it, do you?"
+
+"No, of course not. But what do you think of a man who buttonholes a
+doctor at a dinner-party to retail a list of his ailments?"
+
+"It depends on what his ailments are," replied Thorndyke. "If he is a
+chronic dyspeptic and wishes to expound the virtues of Doctor Snaffler's
+Purple Pills for Pimply People, he is merely a bore. But if he chances
+to suffer from some rare and choice disease, such as Trypanosomiasis or
+Acromegaly, the doctor will be delighted to listen."
+
+"Then are we to understand," Miss Bellingham asked, "that we are rare
+and choice products, in a legal sense?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," replied Thorndyke. "The case of John Bellingham is, in
+many respects, unique. It will be followed with the deepest interest by
+the profession at large, and especially by medical jurists."
+
+"How gratifying that should be to us!" said Miss Bellingham. "We may
+even attain undying fame in textbooks and treatises; and yet we are not
+so very much puffed up with our importance."
+
+"No," said her father; "we could do without the fame quite well, and
+so, I think, could Hurst. Did Berkeley tell you of the proposal that he
+made?"
+
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "and I gather from what you say that he has
+repeated it."
+
+"Yes. He sent Jellicoe to give me another chance, and I was tempted to
+take it; but my daughter was strongly against any compromise, and
+probably she is right. At any rate, she is more concerned than I am."
+
+"What view did Mr. Jellicoe take?" Thorndyke asked.
+
+"Oh, he was very cautious and reserved, but he didn't disguise his
+feeling that I should be wise to take a certainty in lieu of a very
+problematical fortune. He would certainly like me to agree, for he
+naturally wishes to get the affair settled and pocket his legacy."
+
+"And have you definitely refused?"
+
+"Yes; quite definitely. So Hurst will apply for permission to presume
+death and prove the will, and Jellicoe will support him; he says he has
+no choice."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I suppose I shall oppose the application, though I don't quite know on
+what grounds."
+
+"Before you take any definite steps," said Thorndyke, "you ought to give
+the matter very careful consideration. I take it that you have very
+little doubt that your brother is dead. And if he is dead, any benefit
+that you may receive under the will must be conditional on the previous
+assumption or proof of death. But perhaps you have taken advice?"
+
+"No, I have not. As our friend the Doctor has probably told you, my
+means--or rather, the lack of them--do not admit of my getting
+professional advice. Hence my delicacy about discussing the case with
+you."
+
+"Then do you propose to conduct your case in person?"
+
+"Yes; if it is necessary for me to appear in Court, as I suppose it will
+be, if I oppose the application."
+
+Thorndyke reflected for a few moments, and then said gravely:
+
+"You had much better not appear in person to conduct your case, Mr.
+Bellingham, for several reasons. To begin with, Mr. Hurst is sure to be
+represented by a capable counsel, and you will find yourself quite
+unable to meet the sudden exigencies of a contest in Court. You will be
+out-manoeuvred. Then there is the judge to be considered."
+
+"But surely one can rely on the judge dealing fairly with a man who is
+unable to afford a solicitor and counsel?"
+
+"Undoubtedly, as a rule, a judge will give an unrepresented litigant
+every assistance and consideration. English judges in general are
+high-minded men with a deep sense of their great responsibilities. But
+you cannot afford to take any chances. You must consider the exceptions.
+A judge has been a counsel, and he may carry to the bench some of the
+professional prejudices of the bar. Indeed, if you consider the absurd
+licence permitted to counsel in their treatment of witnesses, and the
+hostile attitude adopted by some judges towards medical and other
+scientific men who have to give their evidence, you will see that the
+judicial mind is not always quite as judicial as one would wish,
+especially when the privileges and immunities of the profession are
+concerned. Now, your appearance in person to conduct your case must,
+unavoidably, cause some inconvenience to the Court. Your ignorance of
+procedure and legal details must occasion some delay; and if the judge
+should happen to be an irritable man he might resent the inconvenience
+and delay. I don't say that that would affect his decision--I don't
+think it would--but I am sure that it would be wise to avoid giving
+offence to the judge. And, above all, it is most desirable to be able to
+detect and reply to any manoeuvres on the part of the opposing counsel,
+which you certainly would not be able to do."
+
+"This is excellent advice, Doctor Thorndyke," said Bellingham, with a
+grim smile; "but I am afraid I shall have to take my chance."
+
+"Not necessarily," said Thorndyke. "I am going to make a little
+proposal, which I will ask you to consider without prejudice as a mutual
+accommodation. You see, your case is one of exceptional interest--it
+will become a textbook case, as Miss Bellingham has prophesied; and,
+since it lies within my specialty, it will be necessary for me, in any
+case, to follow it in the closest detail. Now, it would be much more
+satisfactory to me to study it from within than from without, to say
+nothing of the credit which would accrue to me if I should be able to
+conduct it to a successful issue. I am therefore going to ask you to put
+your case in my hands and let me see what can be done with it. I know
+this is an unusual course for a professional man to take, but I think it
+is not improper under the circumstances."
+
+Mr. Bellingham pondered in silence for a few moments, and then, after a
+glance at his daughter, began rather hesitatingly: "It is exceedingly
+generous of you, Doctor Thorndyke--"
+
+"Pardon me," interrupted Thorndyke, "it is not. My motives, as I have
+explained, are purely egoistic."
+
+Mr. Bellingham laughed uneasily and again glanced at his daughter, who,
+however, pursued her occupation of peeling a pear with calm deliberation
+and without lifting her eyes. Getting no help from her, he asked: "Do
+you think that there is any possibility whatever of a successful issue?"
+
+"Yes, a remote possibility--very remote, I fear, as things look at
+present; but if I thought the case absolutely hopeless I should advise
+you to stand aside and let events take their course."
+
+"Supposing the case to come to a favourable termination, would you allow
+me to settle your fees in the ordinary way?"
+
+"If the choice lay with me," replied Thorndyke, "I should say 'yes' with
+pleasure. But it does not. The attitude of the profession is very
+definitely unfavourable to 'speculative' practice. You may remember the
+well-known firm of Dodson and Fogg, who gained thereby much profit, but
+little credit. But why discuss contingencies of this kind? If I bring
+your case to a successful issue I shall have done very well for myself.
+We shall have benefited one another mutually. Come now, Miss Bellingham,
+I appeal to you. We have eaten salt together, to say nothing of pigeon
+pie and other cates. Won't you back me up, and at the same time do a
+kindness to Doctor Berkeley?"
+
+"Why, is Doctor Berkeley interested in our decision?"
+
+"Certainly he is, as you will appreciate when I tell you that he
+actually tried to bribe me secretly out of his own pocket."
+
+"Did you?" she asked, looking at me with an expression that rather
+alarmed me.
+
+"Well, not exactly," I replied, mighty hot and uncomfortable, and
+wishing Thorndyke at the devil with his confidences. "I merely mentioned
+that the--the--solicitor's costs, you know, and that sort of thing--but
+you needn't jump on me, Miss Bellingham; Doctor Thorndyke did all that
+was necessary in that way."
+
+She continued to look at me thoughtfully as I stammered out my excuses,
+and then said: "I wasn't going to. I was only thinking that poverty has
+its compensations. You are all so very good to us; and, for my part, I
+should accept Doctor Thorndyke's generous offer most gratefully, and
+thank him for making it so easy for us."
+
+"Very well, my dear," said Mr. Bellingham; "we will enjoy the sweets of
+poverty, as you say--we have sampled the other kind of thing pretty
+freely--and do ourselves the pleasure of accepting a great kindness,
+most delicately offered."
+
+"Thank you," said Thorndyke. "You have justified my faith in you, Miss
+Bellingham, and in the power of Doctor Berkeley's salt. I understand
+that you place your affairs in my hands?"
+
+"Entirely and thankfully," replied Mr. Bellingham. "Whatever you think
+best to be done we agree to beforehand."
+
+"Then," said I, "let us drink success to the Cause. Port, if you please,
+Miss Bellingham; the vintage is not recorded, but it is quite wholesome,
+and a suitable medium for the sodium chloride of friendship." I filled
+her glass, and, when the bottle had made its circuit, we stood up and
+solemnly pledged the new alliance.
+
+"There is just one thing that I would say before we dismiss the subject
+for the present," said Thorndyke. "It is a good thing to keep one's own
+counsel. When you get formal notice from Mr. Hurst's solicitors that
+proceedings are being commenced, you may refer them to Mr. Marchmont of
+Gray's Inn, who will nominally act for you. He will actually have
+nothing to do, but we must preserve the fiction that I am instructed by
+a solicitor. Meanwhile, and until the case goes into Court, I think it
+very necessary that neither Mr. Jellicoe nor anyone else should know
+that I am to be connected with it. We must keep the other side in the
+dark, if we can."
+
+"We will be as secret as the grave," said Mr. Bellingham; "and, as a
+matter of fact, it will be quite easy, since it happens, by a curious
+coincidence, that I am already acquainted with Mr. Marchmont. He acted
+for Stephen Blackmore, you remember, in that case that you unravelled so
+wonderfully. I knew the Blackmores."
+
+"Did you?" said Thorndyke. "What a small world it is! And what a
+remarkable affair that was! The intricacies and cross-issues made it
+quite absorbingly interesting; and it is noteworthy for me in another
+respect, for it was one of the first cases in which I was associated
+with Doctor Jervis."
+
+"Yes, and a mighty useful associate I was," remarked Jervis, "though I
+did pick up one or two facts by accident. And, by the way, the Blackmore
+case had certain points in common with your case, Mr. Bellingham. There
+was a disappearance and a disputed will, and the man who vanished was a
+scholar and an antiquarian."
+
+"Cases in our specialty are apt to have certain general resemblances,"
+said Thorndyke; and as he spoke he directed a keen glance at his junior,
+the significance of which I partly understood when he abruptly changed
+the subject.
+
+"The newspaper reports of your brother's disappearance, Mr. Bellingham,
+were remarkably full of detail. There were even plans of your house and
+that of Mr. Hurst. Do you know who supplied the information?"
+
+"No, I don't," replied Mr. Bellingham. "I know that I didn't. Some
+newspaper men came to me for information, but I sent them packing. So, I
+understand, did Hurst; and as for Jellicoe, you might as well
+cross-examine an oyster."
+
+"Well," said Thorndyke, "the Press-men have queer methods of getting
+'copy'; but still, someone must have given them that description of your
+brother and those plans. It would be interesting to know who it was.
+However, we don't know; and now let us dismiss these legal topics, with
+suitable apologies for having introduced them."
+
+"And perhaps," said I, "we may as well adjourn to what we will call the
+drawing-room--it is really Barnard's den--and leave the housekeeper to
+wrestle with the debris."
+
+We migrated to the cheerfully shabby little apartment, and, when Mrs.
+Gummer had served coffee, with gloomy resignation (as who should say:
+"If you will drink this sort of stuff I suppose you must, but don't
+blame _me_ for the consequences"), I settled Mr. Bellingham in Barnard's
+favourite lop-sided easy chair--the depressed seat of which suggested
+its customary use by an elephant of sedentary habits--and opened the
+diminutive piano.
+
+"I wonder if Miss Bellingham would give us a little music?" I said.
+
+"I wonder if she could?" was the smiling response. "Do you know," she
+continued, "I have not touched a piano for nearly two years? It will be
+quite an interesting experiment--to me; but if it fails, you will be the
+sufferers. So you must choose."
+
+"My verdict," said Mr. Bellingham, "is _fiat experimentum_, though I
+won't complete the quotation, as that would seem to disparage Doctor
+Barnard's piano. But before you begin, Ruth, there is one rather
+disagreeable matter that I want to dispose of, so that I may not disturb
+the harmony with it later."
+
+He paused, and we all looked at him expectantly.
+
+"I suppose, Doctor Thorndyke," he said, "you read the newspapers?"
+
+"I don't," replied Thorndyke. "But I ascertain, for purely business
+purposes, what they contain."
+
+"Then," said Mr. Bellingham, "you have probably met with some accounts
+of the finding of certain human remains, apparently portions of a
+mutilated body?"
+
+"Yes, I have seen those reports and filed them for future reference."
+
+"Exactly. Well, now, it can hardly be necessary for me to tell you that
+those remains--the mutilated remains of some poor murdered creature, as
+there can be no doubt they are--have seemed to have a very dreadful
+significance for me. You will understand what I mean; and I want to ask
+you if--if they have made a similar suggestion to you."
+
+Thorndyke paused before replying, with his eyes bent thoughtfully on
+the floor, and we all looked at him anxiously.
+
+"It is very natural," he said at length, "that you should associate
+these remains with the mystery of your brother's disappearance. I should
+like to say that you are wrong in doing so, but if I did I should be
+uncandid. There are certain facts that do, undoubtedly, seem to suggest
+a connection, and, up to the present, there are no definite facts of a
+contrary significance."
+
+Mr. Bellingham sighed deeply and shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
+
+"It is a horrible affair!" he said huskily; "horrible! Would you mind,
+Doctor Thorndyke, telling us just how the matter stands in your
+opinion--what the probabilities are, for and against?"
+
+Again Thorndyke reflected awhile, and it seemed to me that he was not
+very willing to discuss the subject. However, the question had been
+asked pointedly, and eventually he answered:
+
+"At the present stage of the investigation it is not very easy to state
+the balance of probabilities. The matter is still quite speculative. The
+bones which have been found hitherto (for we are dealing with a
+skeleton, not with a body) have been exclusively those which are useless
+for personal identification; which is, in itself, a rather curious and
+striking fact. The general character and dimensions of the bones seem to
+suggest a middle-aged man of about your brother's height, and the date
+of deposition appears to be in agreement with the date of his
+disappearance."
+
+"Is it known, then, when they were deposited?" Mr. Bellingham asked.
+
+"In the case of those found at Sidcup it seems possible to deduce an
+approximate date. The watercress-bed was cleaned out about two years
+ago, so they could not have been lying there longer than that; and their
+condition suggests that they could not have been there much less than
+two years, as there is apparently not a vestige of the soft structures
+left. Of course, I am speaking from the newspaper reports only; I have
+no direct knowledge of the matter."
+
+"Have they found any considerable part of the body yet? I haven't been
+reading the papers myself. My little friend, Miss Oman, brought a great
+bundle of 'em for me to read, but I couldn't stand it; I pitched the
+whole boiling of 'em out of the window."
+
+I thought I detected a slight twinkle in Thorndyke's eye, but he
+answered quite gravely:
+
+"I think I can give you the particulars from memory, though I won't
+guarantee the dates. The original discovery was made, apparently quite
+accidentally, at Sidcup on the fifteenth of July. It consisted of a
+complete left arm, minus the third finger and including the bones of the
+shoulder--the shoulder-blade and collar-bone. This discovery seems to
+have set the local population, especially the juvenile part of it,
+searching all the ponds and streams of the neighbourhood--"
+
+"Cannibals!" interjected Mr. Bellingham.
+
+"With the result that there was dredged up out of a pond near St. Mary
+Cray, in Kent, a right thigh-bone. There is a slight clue to identity in
+respect of this bone, since the head of it has a small patch of what is
+called 'eburnation'--that is a sort of porcelain-like polish that occurs
+on the parts of bones that form a joint when the natural covering of
+cartilage is destroyed by disease. It is produced by the unprotected
+surface of one bone grinding against the similarly unprotected surface
+of another."
+
+"And how," Mr. Bellingham asked, "would that help the identification?"
+
+"It would indicate," replied Thorndyke, "that the deceased had probably
+suffered from rheumatoid arthritis--what is commonly known as rheumatic
+gout--and he would probably have limped slightly and complained of some
+pain in the right hip."
+
+"I am afraid that doesn't help us much," said Mr. Bellingham; "for, you
+see, John had a pretty pronounced limp from another cause, an old injury
+to his left ankle; and as to complaining of pain--well, he was a hardy
+old fellow and not much given to making complaints of any kind. But
+don't let me interrupt you."
+
+"The next discovery," continued Thorndyke, "was made near Lee, by the
+police this time. They seem to have developed sudden activity in the
+matter, and in searching the neighbourhood of West Kent they dragged out
+of a pond near Lee the bones of a right foot. Now, if it had been the
+left instead of the right we might have had a clue, as I understand that
+your brother had fractured his left ankle, and there might have been
+some traces of the injury on the foot itself."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Bellingham, "I suppose there might. The injury was
+described as a Pott's fracture."
+
+"Exactly. Well, now, after this discovery at Lee it seems that the
+police set on foot a systematic search of all the ponds and small pieces
+of water around London, and on the twenty-third, they found in the
+Cuckoo Pits in Epping Forest, not far from Woodford, the bones of a
+right arm (including those of the shoulder, as before), which seem to be
+part of the same body."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Bellingham, "I heard of that. Quite close to my old
+house. Horrible! horrible! It gave me the shudders to think of it--to
+think that poor old John may have been waylaid and murdered when he was
+actually coming to see me. He may even have got into the grounds by the
+back gate, if it was left unfastened, and been followed in there and
+murdered. You remember that a scarab from his watch-chain was found
+there? But is it clear that this arm was the fellow of the arm that was
+found at Sidcup?"
+
+"It seems to agree in character and dimensions," said Thorndyke, "and
+the agreement is strongly supported by a discovery that was made two
+days later."
+
+"What is that?" Mr. Bellingham demanded.
+
+"It is the lower half of a trunk which the police dredged out of a
+rather deep pond on the skirts of the forest at Loughton--Staple's Pond,
+it is called. The bones found were the pelvis--that is, the two
+hipbones--and six vertebrae, or joints of the backbone. Having
+discovered these, the police dammed the stream and pumped the pond dry,
+but no other bones were found; which is rather odd, as there should have
+been a pair of ribs belonging to the upper vertebra--the twelfth dorsal
+vertebra. It suggests some curious questions as to the method of
+dismemberment; but I mustn't go into unpleasant details. The point is
+that the cavity of the right hip-joint showed a patch of eburnation
+corresponding to that on the head of the right thigh-bone that was found
+at St. Mary Cray. So there can be very little doubt that these bones are
+all part of the same body."
+
+"I see," grunted Mr. Bellingham; and he added, after a moment's
+thought: "Now, the question is, Are these bones the remains of my
+brother John? What do you say, Doctor Thorndyke?"
+
+"I say that the question cannot be answered on the facts at present
+known to us. It can only be said that they may be, and that some of the
+circumstances suggest that they are. But we can only wait for further
+discoveries. At any moment the police may light upon some portion of the
+skeleton which will settle the question definitely one way or the
+other."
+
+"I suppose," said Mr. Bellingham, "I can't be of any service to you in
+the matter of identification?"
+
+"Indeed you can," said Thorndyke, "and I was going to ask you to assist
+me. What I want you to do is this: Write down a full description of your
+brother, including every detail known to you, together with an account
+of every illness or injury from which you know him to have suffered; and
+also the names and, if possible, the addresses of any doctors, surgeons,
+or dentists who may have attended him at any time. The dentists are
+particularly important, as their information would be invaluable if the
+skull belonging to these bones should be discovered."
+
+Mr. Bellingham shuddered.
+
+"It's a shocking idea," he said; "but, of course, you are quite right.
+You must have the facts if you are to form an opinion. I will write out
+what you want and send it to you without delay. And now, for God's sake,
+let us throw off this nightmare, for a little while, at least! What is
+there, Ruth, among Doctor Barnard's music that you can manage?"
+
+Barnard's collection in general inclined to the severely classical, but
+we disinterred from the heap a few lighter works of an old-fashioned
+kind, including a volume of Mendelssohn's _Lieder ohne Worte_, and with
+one of these Miss Bellingham made trial of her skill, playing it with
+excellent taste and quite adequate execution. That, at least, was her
+father's verdict; for, as to me, I found it the perfection of happiness
+merely to sit and look at her--a state of mind that would have been in
+no wise disturbed even by _Silvery Waves_ or _The Maiden's Prayer_.
+
+Thus with simple, homely music, and conversation always cheerful and
+sometimes brilliant, slipped away one of the pleasantest evenings of my
+life, and slipped away all too soon. St. Dunstan's clock was the fly in
+the ointment, for it boomed out intrusively the hour of eleven just as
+my guests were beginning thoroughly to appreciate one another; and
+thereby carried the sun (with a minor paternal satellite) out of the
+firmament of my heaven. For I had, in my professional capacity, given
+strict injunctions that Mr. Bellingham should on no account sit up late;
+and now, in my social capacity, I had smilingly to hear "the doctor's
+orders" quoted. It was a scurvy return for all my care.
+
+When Mr. and Miss Bellingham departed, Thorndyke and Jervis would have
+gone too; but noting my bereaved condition, and being withal
+compassionate and tender of heart, they were persuaded to stay awhile
+and bear me company in a consolatory pipe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE EVIDENCE REVIEWED
+
+
+"So the game has opened," observed Thorndyke, as he struck a match. "The
+play has begun with a cautious lead off by the other side. Very
+cautious, and not very confident."
+
+"Why do you say 'not very confident'?" I asked.
+
+"Well, it is evident that Hurst--and, I fancy, Jellicoe too--is anxious
+to buy off Bellingham's opposition, and at a pretty long price, under
+the circumstances. And when we consider how very little Bellingham has
+to offer against the presumption of his brother's death, it looks as if
+Hurst hadn't much to say on his side."
+
+"No," said Jervis, "he can't hold many trumps or he wouldn't be willing
+to pay four hundred a year for his opponent's chance; and that is just
+as well, for it seems to me that our own hand is a pretty poor one."
+
+"We must look through our hand and see what we do hold," said Thorndyke.
+"Our trump card at present--a rather small one, I am afraid--is the
+obvious intention of the testator that the bulk of the property should
+go to his brother."
+
+"I suppose you will begin your inquiries now," said I.
+
+"We began them some time ago--the day after you brought us the will, in
+fact. Jervis has been through the registers and has ascertained that no
+interment under the name of John Bellingham has taken place since the
+disappearance; which was just what we expected. He has also discovered
+that some other person has been making similar inquiries; which, again,
+is what we expected."
+
+"And your own investigations?"
+
+"Have given negative results for the most part. I found Doctor Norbury,
+at the British Museum, very friendly and helpful; so friendly, in fact,
+that I am thinking whether I may not be able to enlist his help in
+certain private researches of my own, with reference to the changes
+effected by time in the physical properties of certain substances."
+
+"Oh; you haven't told me about that," said Jervis.
+
+"No: I haven't really commenced to plan my experiments yet, and they
+will probably lead to nothing when I do. It occurred to me that,
+possibly, in the course of time, certain molecular changes might take
+place in substances such as wood, bone, pottery, stucco, and other
+common materials, and that these changes might alter their power of
+conducting or transmitting molecular vibrations. Now, if this should
+turn out to be the case, it would be a fact of considerable importance,
+medico-legal and otherwise; for it would be possible to determine
+approximately the age of any object of known composition by testing its
+reactions to electricity, heat, light and other molecular vibrations. I
+thought of seeking Doctor Norbury's assistance because he can furnish me
+with materials for experiment of such great age that the reactions, if
+any, should be extremely easy to demonstrate. But to return to our case.
+I learned from him that John Bellingham had certain friends in
+Paris--collectors and museum officials--whom he was in the habit of
+visiting for the purpose of study and exchange of specimens. I have
+made inquiries of all of these, and none of them had seen him during his
+last visit. In fact, I have not yet discovered anyone who had seen
+Bellingham in Paris on this occasion. So his visit there remains a
+mystery for the present."
+
+"It doesn't seem to be of much importance, since he undoubtedly came
+back," I remarked; but to this Thorndyke demurred.
+
+"It is impossible to estimate the importance of the unknown," said he.
+
+"Well, how does the matter stand," asked Jervis, "on the evidence that
+we have? John Bellingham disappeared on a certain date. Is there
+anything to show what was the manner of his disappearance?"
+
+"The facts in our possession," said Thorndyke, "which are mainly those
+set forth in the newspaper report, suggest several alternative
+possibilities; and in view of the coming inquiry--for they will, no
+doubt, have to be gone into in Court, to some extent--it may be worth
+while to consider them. There are five conceivable hypotheses"--here
+Thorndyke checked them on his fingers as he proceeded--"First, he may
+still be alive. Second, he may have died and been buried without
+identification. Third, he may have been murdered by some unknown person.
+Fourth, he may have been murdered by Hurst and his body concealed.
+Fifth, he may have been murdered by his brother. Let us examine these
+possibilities seriatim.
+
+"First, he may still be alive. If he is, he must either have disappeared
+voluntarily, have lost his memory suddenly and not been identified, or
+have been imprisoned--on a false charge or otherwise. Let us take the
+first case--that of voluntary disappearance. Obviously, its
+improbability is extreme."
+
+"Jellicoe doesn't think so," said I. "He thinks it quite on the cards
+that John Bellingham is alive. He says that it is not a very unusual
+thing for a man to disappear for a time."
+
+"Then why is he applying for a presumption of death?"
+
+"Just what I asked him. He says that it is the correct thing to do; that
+the entire responsibility rests on the Court."
+
+"That is all nonsense," said Thorndyke. "Jellicoe is the trustee for his
+absent client, and, if he thinks that client is alive, it is his duty to
+keep the estate intact; and he knows that perfectly well. We may take it
+that Jellicoe is of the same opinion as I am: that John Bellingham is
+dead."
+
+"Still," I urged, "men do disappear from time to time, and turn up again
+after years of absence."
+
+"Yes, but for a definite reason. Either they are irresponsible vagabonds
+who take this way of shuffling off their responsibilities, or they are
+men who have been caught in a net of distasteful circumstances. For
+instance, a civil servant or a solicitor or a tradesman finds himself
+bound for life to a locality and an occupation of intolerable monotony.
+Perhaps he has an ill-tempered wife, who, after the amiable fashion of a
+certain type of woman, thinking that her husband is pinned down without
+a chance of escape, gives a free rein to her temper. The man puts up
+with it for years, but at last it becomes unbearable. Then he suddenly
+disappears; and small blame to him. But this was not Bellingham's case.
+He was a wealthy bachelor with an engrossing interest in life, free to
+go whither he would and to do whatsoever he wished. Why should he
+disappear? The thing is incredible.
+
+"As to his having lost his memory and remained unidentified, that, also,
+is incredible in the case of a man who had visiting-cards and letters in
+his pocket, whose linen was marked, and who was being inquired for
+everywhere by the police. As to his being in prison, we may dismiss that
+possibility, inasmuch as a prisoner, both before and after conviction,
+would have full opportunity of communicating with his friends.
+
+"The second possibility, that he may have died suddenly and been buried
+without identification, is highly improbable; but, as it is conceivable
+that the body might have been robbed and the means of identification
+thus lost, it remains as a possibility that has to be considered, remote
+as it is.
+
+"The third hypothesis, that he may have been murdered by some unknown
+person, is, under the circumstances, not wildly improbable; but, as the
+police were on the look out and a detailed description of the missing
+man's person was published in the papers, it would involve the complete
+concealment of the body. But this would exclude the most probable form
+of the crime--the casual robbery with violence. It is therefore
+possible, but highly improbable.
+
+"The fourth hypothesis is that Bellingham was murdered by Hurst. Now the
+one fact which militates against this view is that Hurst apparently had
+no motive for committing the murder. We are assured by Jellicoe that no
+one but himself knew the contents of the will, and if this is so--but,
+mind, we have no evidence that it is so--Hurst would have no reason to
+suppose that he had anything material to gain by his cousin's death.
+Otherwise the hypothesis presents no inherent improbabilities. The man
+was last seen alive at Hurst's house. He was seen to enter it and he was
+never seen to leave it--we are still taking the facts as stated in the
+newspapers, remember--and it now appears that he stands to benefit
+enormously by that man's death."
+
+"But," I objected, "you are forgetting that, directly the man was
+missed, Hurst and the servants together searched the entire house."
+
+"Yes. What did they search for?"
+
+"Why, for Mr. Bellingham, of course."
+
+"Exactly; for Mr. Bellingham. That is, for a living man. Now how do you
+search a house for a living man? You look in all the rooms. When you
+look in a room, if he is there, you see him; if you do not see him, you
+assume that he is not there. You don't look under the sofa or behind the
+piano, you don't pull out large drawers or open cupboards. You just look
+into the rooms. That is what these people seem to have done. And they
+did not see Mr. Bellingham. But Mr. Bellingham's corpse might have been
+stowed away out of sight in any one of the rooms that they looked into."
+
+"That is a grim thought," said Jervis; "But it is perfectly true. There
+is no evidence that the man was not lying dead in the house at the very
+time of the search."
+
+"But even so," said I, "there was the body to be disposed of somehow.
+Now how could he possibly have got rid of the body without being
+observed?"
+
+"Ah!" said Thorndyke, "now we are touching on a point of crucial
+importance. If anyone should ever write a treatise on the art of
+murder--not an exhibition of literary fireworks like De Quincey's, but a
+genuine working treatise--he might leave all other technical details to
+take care of themselves if he could describe some really practicable
+plan for disposing of the body. That is, and always has been, the great
+stumbling-block to the murderer: to get rid of the body. The human
+body," he continued, thoughtfully regarding his pipe, just as, in the
+days of my pupilage, he was wont to regard the black-board chalk, "is a
+very remarkable object. It presents a combination of properties that
+makes it singularly difficult to conceal permanently. It is bulky and of
+an awkward shape, it is heavy, it is completely incombustible, it is
+chemically unstable, and its decomposition yields great volumes of
+highly odorous gases, and it nevertheless contains identifiable
+structures of the highest degree of permanence. It is extremely
+difficult to preserve unchanged, and it is still more difficult
+completely to destroy. The essential permanence of the human body is
+well shown in the classical case of Eugene Aram; but a still more
+striking instance is that of Seqenen-Ra the Third, one of the last kings
+of the seventeenth Egyptian dynasty. Here, after a lapse of some four
+thousand years, it has been possible to determine, not only the cause of
+death and the manner of its occurrence, but the way in which the king
+fell, the nature of the weapon with which the fatal wound was inflicted,
+and even the position of the assailant. And the permanence of the body
+under other conditions is admirably shown in the case of Doctor Parkman,
+of Boston, U.S.A., in which identification was actually effected by
+means of remains collected from the ashes of a furnace."
+
+"Then we may take it," said Jervis, "that the world has not yet seen
+the last of John Bellingham."
+
+"I think we may regard that as almost a certainty," replied Thorndyke.
+"The only question--and a very important one--is as to when the
+reappearance may take place. It may be to-morrow or it may be centuries
+hence, when all the issues involved have been forgotten."
+
+"Assuming," said I, "for the sake of argument, that Hurst did murder him
+and that the body was concealed in the study at the time the search was
+made. How could it have been disposed of? If you had been in Hurst's
+place, how would you have gone to work?"
+
+Thorndyke smiled at the bluntness of my question.
+
+"You are asking me for an incriminating statement," said he, "delivered
+in the presence of a witness too. But, as a matter of fact, there is no
+use in speculating _a priori_; we should have to reconstruct a purely
+imaginary situation, the circumstances of which are unknown to us, and
+we should almost certainly reconstruct it wrong. What we may fairly
+assume is that no reasonable person, no matter how immoral, would find
+himself in the position that you suggest. Murder is usually a crime of
+impulse, and the murderer a person of feeble self-control. Such persons
+are most unlikely to make elaborate and ingenious arrangements for the
+disposal of the bodies of their victims. Even the cold-blooded
+perpetrators of the most carefully planned murders appear, as I have
+said, to break down at this point. The almost insuperable difficulty of
+getting rid of a human body is not appreciated until the murderer
+suddenly finds himself face to face with it.
+
+"In the case that you are suggesting, the choice would seem to lie
+between burial on the premises or dismemberment and dispersal of the
+fragments; and either method would be pretty certain to lead to
+discovery."
+
+"As illustrated by the remains of which you were speaking to Mr.
+Bellingham," Jervis remarked.
+
+"Exactly," Thorndyke answered, "though we could hardly imagine a
+reasonably intelligent criminal adopting a watercress-bed as a
+hiding-place."
+
+"No. That was certainly an error of judgment. By the way, I thought it
+best to say nothing while you were talking to Bellingham, but I noticed
+that, in discussing the possibility of those being the bones of his
+brother, you made no comment on the absence of the third finger of the
+left hand. I am sure you didn't overlook it, but isn't it a point of
+some importance?"
+
+"As to identification? Under the present circumstances, I think not. If
+there were a man missing who had lost that finger it would, of course,
+be an important fact. But I have not heard of any such man. Or, again,
+if there were any evidence that the finger had been removed before
+death, it would be highly important. But there is no such evidence. It
+may have been cut off after death, and there is where the real
+significance of its absence lies."
+
+"I don't quite see what you mean," said Jervis.
+
+"I mean that, if there is no report of any missing man who had lost that
+particular finger, the probability is that the finger was removed after
+death. And then arises the interesting question of motive. Why should it
+have been removed? It could hardly have become detached accidentally.
+What do you suggest?"
+
+"Well," said Jervis, "it might have been a peculiar finger; a finger,
+for instance, with some characteristic deformity, such as an ankylosed
+joint, which would be easy to identify."
+
+"Yes; but that explanation introduces the same difficulty. No person
+with a deformed or ankylosed finger has been reported as missing."
+
+Jervis puckered up his brows and looked at me.
+
+"I'm hanged if I see any other explanation," he said. "Do you,
+Berkeley?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Don't forget which finger it is that is missing," said Thorndyke. "The
+third finger on the left hand."
+
+"Oh, I see!" said Jervis. "The ring-finger. You mean it may have been
+removed for the sake of a ring that wouldn't come off."
+
+"Yes. It would not be the first instance of the kind. Fingers have been
+severed from dead hands--and even from living ones--for the sake of
+rings that were too tight to be drawn off. And the fact that it is the
+left hand supports this suggestion; for a ring that was inconveniently
+tight would be worn by preference on the left hand, as that is usually
+slightly smaller than the right. What is the matter, Berkeley?"
+
+A sudden light had burst upon me, and I suppose my countenance betrayed
+the fact.
+
+"I am a confounded fool!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Oh, don't say that," said Jervis. "Give your friends a chance."
+
+"I ought to have seen this long ago and told you about it. John
+Bellingham did wear a ring, and it was so tight that, when once he had
+got it on, he could never get it off again."
+
+"Do you happen to know on which hand he wore it?" Thorndyke asked.
+
+"Yes. It was the left hand; because Miss Bellingham, who told me about
+it, said that he would never have been able to get the ring on at all
+but for the fact that his left hand was slightly smaller than his
+right."
+
+"There it is, then," said Thorndyke. "With this new fact in our
+possession, the absence of this finger furnishes the starting-point of
+some very curious speculations."
+
+"As, for instance?" said Jervis.
+
+"Ah, under the circumstances, I must leave you to pursue those
+speculations independently. I am now acting for Mr. Bellingham."
+
+Jervis grinned and was silent for a while, refilling his pipe
+thoughtfully; but when he had got it alight he resumed.
+
+"To return to the question of the disappearance; you don't consider it
+highly improbable that Bellingham might have been murdered by Hurst?"
+
+"Oh, don't imagine that I am making an accusation. I am considering the
+various probabilities merely in the abstract. The same reasoning applies
+to the Bellinghams. As to whether any of them did commit the murder,
+that is a question of personal character. I certainly do not suspect the
+Bellinghams after having seen them, and with regard to Hurst, I know
+nothing, or at least very little, to his disadvantage."
+
+"Do you know anything?" asked Jervis.
+
+"Well," Thorndyke said, with some hesitation, "it seems a thought unkind
+to rake up the little details of a man's past, and yet it has to be
+done. I have, of course, made the usual routine inquiries concerning
+the parties to this affair, and this is what they have brought to
+light:
+
+"Hurst, as you know, is a stockbroker--a man of good position and
+reputation; but, about ten years ago, he seems to have committed an
+indiscretion, to put it mildly, which nearly got him into rather serious
+difficulties. He appears to have speculated rather heavily and
+considerably beyond his means, for when a sudden spasm of the market
+upset his calculations, it turned out that he had been employing his
+clients' capital and securities. For a time it looked as if there was
+going to be serious trouble; then, quite unexpectedly, he managed to
+raise the necessary amount in some way and settle all claims. Whence he
+got the money has never been discovered to this day, which is a curious
+circumstance, seeing that the deficiency was rather over five thousand
+pounds; but the important fact is that he did get it and that he paid up
+all that he owed. So that he was only a potential defaulter, so to
+speak; and, discreditable as the affair undoubtedly was, it does not
+seem to have any direct bearing on this present case."
+
+"No," Jervis agreed, "though it makes one consider his position with
+more attention than one would otherwise."
+
+"Undoubtedly," said Thorndyke. "A reckless gambler is a man whose
+conduct cannot be relied on. He is subject to sudden vicissitudes of
+fortune which may force him into other kinds of wrongdoing. Many an
+embezzlement has been preceded by an unlucky plunge on the turf."
+
+"Assuming the responsibility for this disappearance to lie between Hurst
+and--and the Bellinghams," said I, with an uncomfortable gulp as I
+mentioned the name of my friends, "to which side does the balance of
+probability incline?"
+
+"To the side of Hurst, I should say, without doubt," replied Thorndyke.
+"The case stands thus--on the facts presented to us: Hurst appears to
+have had no motive for killing the deceased (as we will call him); but
+the man was seen to enter his house, was never seen to leave it, and was
+never again seen alive. Bellingham, on the other hand, had a motive, as
+he believed himself to be the principal beneficiary under the will. But
+the deceased was not seen at his house, and there is no evidence that he
+went to the house or to the neighbourhood of the house, excepting the
+scarab that was found there. But the evidence of the scarab is vitiated
+by the fact that Hurst was present when it was picked up, and that it
+was found on a spot over which Hurst had passed only a few minutes
+previously. Until Hurst is cleared, it seems to me that the presence of
+the scarab proves nothing against the Bellinghams."
+
+"Then your opinions on the case," said I, "are based entirely on the
+facts that have been made public."
+
+"Yes, mainly. I do not necessarily accept those facts just as they are
+presented, and I may have certain views of my own on the case. But if I
+have, I do not feel in a position to discuss them. For the present,
+discussion has to be limited to the facts and inferences offered by the
+parties concerned."
+
+"There!" exclaimed Jervis, rising to knock out his pipe, "that is where
+Thorndyke has you. He lets you think you're in the very thick of the
+'know' until one fine morning you wake up and discover that you have
+only been a gaping outsider; and then you are mightily astonished--and
+so are the other side, too, for that matter. But we must really be off
+now, mustn't we, reverend senior?"
+
+"I suppose we must," replied Thorndyke; and, as he drew on his gloves,
+he asked: "Have you heard from Barnard lately?"
+
+"Oh, yes," I answered. "I wrote to him at Smyrna to say that the
+practice was flourishing and that I was quite happy and contented, and
+that he might stay away as long as he liked. He writes by return that he
+will prolong his holiday if an opportunity offers, but will let me know
+later."
+
+"Gad," said Jervis, "it was a stroke of luck for Barnard that Bellingham
+happened to have such a magnificent daughter--there! don't mind me, old
+man. You go in and win--she's worth it, isn't she, Thorndyke?"
+
+"Miss Bellingham is a very charming young lady," replied Thorndyke. "I
+am most favourably impressed by both the father and the daughter, and I
+only trust that we may be able to be of some service to them." With this
+sedate little speech Thorndyke shook my hand, and I watched my two
+friends go on their way until their fading shapes were swallowed up in
+the darkness of Fetter Lane.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
+
+
+It was some two or three mornings after my little supper-party that, as
+I stood in the consulting-room brushing my hat preparatory to starting
+on my morning round, Adolphus appeared at the door to announce two
+gentlemen waiting in the surgery. I told him to bring them in, and a
+moment later Thorndyke entered, accompanied by Jervis. I noted that they
+looked uncommonly large in the little apartment, especially Thorndyke,
+but I had no time to consider this phenomenon, for the latter, when he
+had shaken my hand, proceeded at once to explain the object of their
+visit.
+
+"We have come to ask a favour, Berkeley," he said; "to ask you to do us
+a very great service in the interests of your friends, the Bellinghams."
+
+"You know I shall be delighted," I said warmly. "What is it?"
+
+"I will explain. You know--or perhaps you don't--that the police have
+collected all the bones that have been discovered and deposited them in
+the mortuary at Woodford, where they are to be viewed by the coroner's
+jury. Now, it has become imperative that I should have more definite and
+reliable information about them than I can get from the newspapers. The
+natural thing would be for me to go down and examine them myself, but
+there are circumstances that make it very desirable that my connection
+with the case should not leak out. Consequently, I can't go myself,
+and, for the same reason, I can't send Jervis. On the other hand, as it
+is now stated pretty openly that the police consider the bones to be
+almost certainly those of John Bellingham, it would seem perfectly
+natural that you, as Godfrey Bellingham's doctor, should go down to view
+them on his behalf."
+
+"I should like to go," I said. "I would give anything to go; but how is
+it to be managed? It would mean a whole day off and leaving the practice
+to take care of itself."
+
+"I think that could be arranged," said Thorndyke; "and the matter is
+really important for two reasons. One is that the inquest opens
+to-morrow, and someone certainly ought to be there to watch the
+proceedings on Godfrey's behalf; and the other is that our client has
+received notice from Hurst's solicitors that the application would be
+heard in the Probate Court in a few days."
+
+"Isn't that rather sudden?" I asked.
+
+"It certainly suggests that there has been a good deal more activity
+than we were given to understand. But you see the importance of the
+affair. The inquest will be a sort of dress rehearsal for the Probate
+Court, and it is quite essential that we should have a chance of
+estimating the management."
+
+"Yes, I see that. But how are we to manage about the practice?"
+
+"We shall find you a substitute."
+
+"Through a medical agent?"
+
+"Yes," said Jervis. "Turcival will find us a man; in fact, he has done
+it. I saw him this morning; he has a man who is waiting up in town to
+negotiate for the purchase of a practice and who would do the job for a
+couple of guineas. Quite a reliable man. Only say the word, and I will
+run off to Adam Street and engage him definitely."
+
+"Very well. You engage the locum tenens, and I will be prepared to start
+for Woodford as soon as he turns up."
+
+"Excellent!" said Thorndyke. "That is a great weight off my mind. And if
+you could manage to drop in this evening and smoke a pipe with us we
+could talk over the plan of campaign and let you know what items of
+information we are particularly in want of."
+
+I promised to turn up at King's Bench Walk as soon after half-past eight
+as possible, and my two friends then took their departure, leaving me to
+set out in high spirits on my scanty round of visits.
+
+It is surprising what different aspects things present from different
+points of view; how relative are our estimates of the conditions and
+circumstances of life. To the urban workman--the journeyman baker or
+tailor, for instance, labouring year in year out in a single building--a
+holiday ramble on Hampstead Heath is a veritable voyage of discovery;
+whereas to the sailor the shifting panorama of the whole wide world is
+but the commonplace of the day's work.
+
+So I reflected as I took my place in the train at Liverpool Street on
+the following day. There had been a time when a trip by rail to the
+borders of Epping Forest would have been far from a thrilling
+experience; now, after vegetating in the little world of Fetter Lane, it
+was quite an adventure.
+
+The enforced inactivity of a railway journey is favourable to thought,
+and I had much to think about. The last few weeks had witnessed
+momentous changes in my outlook. New interests had arisen, new
+friendships had grown up; and, above all, there had stolen into my life
+that supreme influence that, for good or for evil, according to my
+fortune, was to colour and pervade it even to its close. Those few days
+of companionable labour in the reading-room, with the homely
+hospitalities of the milk-shop and the pleasant walks homeward through
+the friendly London streets, had called into existence a new world--a
+world in which the gracious personality of Ruth Bellingham was the one
+dominating reality. And thus, as I leaned back in a corner of the
+railway carriage with an unlighted pipe in my hand, the events of the
+immediate past, together with those more problematical ones of the
+impending future, occupied me rather to the exclusion of the business of
+the moment, which was to review the remains collected in the Woodford
+mortuary, until, as the train approached Stratford, the odours of the
+soap and bone-manure factories poured in at the open window and (by a
+natural association of ideas) brought me back to the object of my quest.
+
+As to the exact purpose of this expedition, I was not very clear; but I
+knew that I was acting as Thorndyke's proxy and thrilled with pride at
+the thought. But what particular light my investigations were to throw
+upon the intricate Bellingham case I had no very definite idea. With a
+view to fixing the course of procedure in my mind, I took Thorndyke's
+written instructions from my pocket and read them over carefully. They
+were very full and explicit, making ample allowance for my lack of
+experience in medico-legal matters:--
+
+   1. Do not appear to make minute investigations or in any way
+      excite remark.
+
+   2. Ascertain if all the bones belonging to each region are
+      present, and if not, which are missing.
+
+   3. Measure the extreme length of the principal bones and compare
+      those of opposite sides.
+
+   4. Examine the bones with reference to the age, sex, and muscular
+      development of the deceased.
+
+   5. Note the presence or absence of signs of constitutional
+      disease, local disease of bone or adjacent structures, old or
+      recent injuries, and any other departures from the normal or
+      usual.
+
+   6. Observe the presence or absence of adipocere and its position,
+      if present.
+
+   7. Note any remains of tendons, ligaments, or other soft
+      structures.
+
+   8. Examine the Sidcup hand with reference to the question as to
+      whether the finger was separated before or after death.
+
+   9. Estimate the probable period of submersion and note any changes
+      (as, e.g., mineral or organic staining) due to the character of
+      the water or mud.
+
+  10. Ascertain the circumstances (immediate and remote) that led to
+      the discovery of the bones and the names of the persons
+      concerned in those circumstances.
+
+  11. Commit all information to writing as soon as possible, and make
+      plans and diagrams on the spot, if circumstances permit.
+
+  12. Preserve an impassive exterior; listen attentively but without
+      eagerness; ask as few questions as possible; pursue any inquiry
+      that your observations on the spot may suggest.
+
+These were my instructions, and, considering that I was going merely to
+inspect a few dry bones, they appeared rather formidable; in fact, the
+more I read them over the greater became my misgivings as to my
+qualifications for the task.
+
+As I approached the mortuary it became evident that some, at least, of
+Thorndyke's admonitions were by no means unnecessary. The place was in
+charge of a police-sergeant, who watched my approach suspiciously; and
+some half-dozen men, obviously newspaper reporters, hovered about the
+entrance like a pack of jackals. I presented the coroner's order which
+Mr. Marchmont had obtained, and which the sergeant read with his back
+against the wall, to prevent the newspaper men from looking over his
+shoulder.
+
+My credentials being found satisfactory, the door was unlocked and I
+entered, accompanied by three enterprising reporters, whom, however, the
+sergeant summarily ejected and locked out, returning to usher me into
+the presence and to observe my proceedings with intelligent but highly
+embarrassing interest.
+
+The bones were laid out on a large table and covered with a sheet, which
+the sergeant slowly turned back, watching my face intently as he did so
+to note the impression that the spectacle made upon me. I imagine that
+he must have been somewhat disappointed by my impassive demeanour, for
+the remains suggested to me nothing more than a rather shabby set of
+"student's osteology." The whole collection had been set out (by the
+police-surgeon, as the sergeant informed me) in their proper anatomical
+order; notwithstanding which I counted them over carefully to make sure
+that none were missing, checking them by the list with which Thorndyke
+had furnished me.
+
+"I see you have found the left thigh-bone," I remarked, observing that
+this did not appear in the list.
+
+"Yes," said the sergeant; "that turned up yesterday evening in a big
+pond called Baldwin's Pond in the Sand-pit plain, near Little Monk
+Wood."
+
+"Is that near here?" I asked.
+
+"In the forest up Loughton way," was the reply.
+
+I made a note of the fact (on which the sergeant looked as if he was
+sorry he had mentioned it), and then turned my attention to a general
+consideration of the bones before examining them in detail. Their
+appearance would have been improved and examination facilitated by a
+thorough scrubbing, for they were just as they had been taken from their
+respective resting-places, and it was difficult to decide whether their
+reddish-yellow colour was an actual stain or due to a deposit on the
+surface. In any case, as it affected them all alike, I thought it an
+interesting feature and made a note of it. They bore numerous traces of
+their sojourn in the various ponds from which they had been recovered,
+but these gave me little help in determining the length of time during
+which they had been submerged. They were, of course, encrusted with mud,
+and little wisps of pond-weed stuck to them in places; but these facts
+furnished only the vaguest measure of time.
+
+Some of the traces were, indeed, more informing. To several of the
+bones, for instance, there adhered the dried egg-clusters of the common
+pond-snail, and in one of the hollows of the right shoulder-blade (the
+"infra-spinous fossa") was a group of the mud-built tubes of the red
+river-worm. These remains gave proof of a considerable period of
+submersion, and since they could not have been deposited on the bones
+until all the flesh had disappeared, they furnished evidence that some
+time--a month or two, at any rate--had elapsed since this had happened.
+Incidentally, too, their distribution showed the position in which the
+bones had lain, and though this appeared to be of no importance in the
+existing circumstances, I made careful notes of the situation of each
+adherent body, illustrating their position by rough sketches.
+
+The sergeant watched my proceedings with an indulgent smile.
+
+"You're making a regular inventory, sir," he remarked, "as if you were
+going to put 'em up for auction. I shouldn't think those snails' eggs
+would be much help in identification. And all that has been done
+already," he added as I produced my measuring-tape.
+
+"No doubt," I replied; "but my business is to make independent
+observations, to check the others, if necessary." And I proceeded to
+measure each of the principal bones separately and to compare those of
+the opposite sides. The agreement in dimensions and general
+characteristics of the pairs of bones left little doubt that all were
+parts of one skeleton, a conclusion that was confirmed by the eburnated
+patch on the head of the right thigh-bone and the corresponding patch in
+the socket of the right hip-bone. When I had finished my measurements I
+went over the entire series of bones in detail, examining each with the
+closest attention for any of those signs which Thorndyke had indicated,
+and eliciting nothing but a monotonously reiterated negative. They were
+distressingly and disappointingly normal.
+
+"Well, sir, and what do you make of 'em?" the sergeant asked cheerfully
+as I shut up my note-book and straightened my back. "Whose bones are
+they? Are they Mr. Bellingham's, think ye?"
+
+"I should be very sorry to say whose bones they are," I replied. "One
+bone is very much like another, you know."
+
+"I suppose it is," he agreed; "but I thought that, with all that
+measuring and all those notes, you might have arrived at something
+definite." Evidently he was disappointed in me; and I was somewhat
+disappointed in myself when I contrasted Thorndyke's elaborate
+instructions with the meagre result of my investigations. For what did
+my discoveries amount to? And how much was the inquiry advanced by the
+few entries in my note-book?
+
+The bones were apparently those of a man of fair though not remarkable
+muscular development; over thirty years of age, but how much older I was
+unable to say. His height I judged roughly to be five feet eight inches,
+but my measurements would furnish data for a more exact estimate by
+Thorndyke. Beyond this the bones were quite uncharacteristic. There were
+no signs of disease either local or general, no indications of injuries
+either old or recent, no departures of any kind from the normal or
+usual; and the dismemberment had been effected with such care that there
+was not a single scratch on any of the separated surfaces. Of adipocere
+(the peculiar waxy or soapy substance that is commonly found in bodies
+that have slowly decayed in damp situations) there was not a trace; and
+the only remnant of the soft structures was a faint indication, like a
+spot of dried glue, of the tendon on the tip of the right elbow.
+
+The sergeant was in the act of replacing the sheet, with the air of a
+showman who has just given an exhibition, when there came a sharp
+rapping on the mortuary door. The officer finished spreading the sheet
+with official precision, and having ushered me out into the lobby,
+turned the key and admitted three persons, holding the door open after
+they had entered for me to go out. But the appearance of the new-comers
+inclined me to linger. One of them was a local constable, evidently in
+official charge; a second was a labouring man, very muddy and wet, who
+carried a small sack; while in the third I thought I scented a
+professional brother.
+
+The sergeant continued to hold the door open.
+
+"Nothing more I can do for you, sir?" he asked genially.
+
+"Is that the divisional surgeon?" I inquired.
+
+"Yes. I am the divisional surgeon," the new-comer answered. "Did you
+want anything of me?"
+
+"This," said the sergeant, "is a medical gentleman who has got
+permission from the coroner to inspect the remains. He is acting for the
+family of the deceased--I mean, for the family of Mr. Bellingham," he
+added in answer to an inquiring glance from the surgeon.
+
+"I see," said the latter. "Well, they have found the rest of the trunk,
+including, I understand, the ribs that were missing from the other part.
+Isn't that so, Davis?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the constable. "Inspector Badger says all the ribs
+is here, and all the bones of the neck as well."
+
+"The inspector seems to be an anatomist," I remarked.
+
+The sergeant grinned. "He's a very knowing gentleman, is Mr. Badger. He
+came down here this morning quite early and spent a long time looking
+over the bones and checking them by some notes in his pocket-book. I
+fancy he's got something on, but he was precious close about it."
+
+Here the sergeant shut up rather suddenly--perhaps contrasting his own
+conduct with that of his superior.
+
+"Let us have these new bones out on the table," said the police-surgeon.
+"Take that sheet off, and don't shoot them out as if they were coals.
+Hand them out carefully."
+
+The labourer fished out the wet and muddy bones one by one from the
+sack, and as he laid them on the table the surgeon arranged them in
+their proper relative positions.
+
+"This has been a neatly executed job," he remarked; "none of your clumsy
+hacking with a chopper or a saw. The bones have been cleanly separated
+at the joints. The fellow who did this must have had some anatomical
+knowledge, unless he was a butcher, which, by the way, is not
+impossible. He has used his knife uncommonly skilfully, and you notice
+that each arm was taken off with the scapula attached, just as a butcher
+takes off a shoulder of mutton. Are there any more bones in that bag?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the labourer, wiping his hands with an air of
+finality on the posterior aspect of his trousers; "that's the lot."
+
+The surgeon looked thoughtfully at the bones as he gave a final touch
+to their arrangement, and remarked:
+
+"The inspector is right. All the bones of the neck are there. Very odd.
+Don't you think so?"
+
+"You mean--"
+
+"I mean that this very eccentric murderer seems to have given himself
+such an extraordinary amount of trouble for no reason that one can see.
+There are these neck vertebrae, for instance. He must have carefully
+separated the skull from the atlas instead of just cutting through the
+neck. Then there is the way he divided the trunk; the twelfth ribs have
+just come in with this lot, but the twelfth dorsal vertebra to which
+they belong was attached to the lower half. Imagine the trouble he must
+have taken to do that, and without cutting or hacking the bones about,
+either. It is extraordinary. This is rather interesting, by the way.
+Handle it carefully."
+
+He picked up the breast-bone daintily--for it was covered with wet
+mud--and handed it to me with the remark: "That is the most definite
+piece of evidence we have."
+
+"You mean," I said, "that the union of the two parts into a single mass
+fixes this as the skeleton of an elderly man?"
+
+"Yes, that is the obvious suggestion, which is confirmed by the deposit
+of bone in the rib-cartilages. You can tell the inspector, Davis, that I
+have checked this lot of bones and that they are all here."
+
+"Would you mind writing it down, sir?" said the constable. "Inspector
+Badger said I was to have everything in writing."
+
+The surgeon took out his pocket-book, and, while he was selecting a
+suitable piece of paper, he asked: "Did you form any opinion as to the
+height of the deceased?"
+
+"Yes, I thought he would be about five feet eight" (here I caught the
+sergeant's eyes fixed on me with a knowing leer).
+
+"I made it five eight and a half," said the police-surgeon; "but we
+shall know better when we have seen the lower leg-bones. Where was this
+lot found, Davis?"
+
+"In the pond just off the road in Lord's Bushes, sir, and the inspector
+has gone off now to--"
+
+"Never mind where he's gone," interrupted the sergeant. "You just answer
+questions and attend to your business."
+
+The sergeant's reproof conveyed a hint to me on which I was not slow to
+act. Friendly as my professional colleague was, it was clear that the
+police were disposed to treat me as an interloper who was to be kept out
+of the "know" as far as possible. Accordingly I thanked my colleague and
+the sergeant for their courtesy, and bidding them adieu until we should
+meet at the inquest, took my departure and walked away quickly until I
+found an inconspicuous position from which I could keep the door of the
+mortuary in view. A few moments later I saw Constable Davis emerge and
+stride away up the road.
+
+I watched his rapidly diminishing figure until he had gone as far as I
+considered desirable, and then I set forth in his wake. The road led
+straight away from the village, and in less than half a mile entered the
+outskirts of the forest. Here I quickened my pace to close up somewhat,
+and it was well that I did so, for suddenly he diverged from the road
+into a green lane, where for a while I lost sight of him. Still
+hurrying forward, I again caught sight of him just as he turned off into
+a narrow path that entered a beech wood with a thickish undergrowth of
+holly, along which I followed him for several minutes, gradually
+decreasing the distance between us, until suddenly there fell on my ear
+a rhythmical, metallic sound like the clank of a pump. Soon after I
+caught the sound of men's voices, and then the constable struck off the
+path into the wood.
+
+I now advanced more cautiously, endeavouring to locate the search party
+by the sound of the pump, and when I had done this I made a little
+detour so that I might approach from the opposite direction to that from
+which the constable had appeared.
+
+Still guided by the noise of the pump, I at length came out into a small
+opening among the trees and halted to survey the scene. The centre of
+the opening was occupied by a small pond, not more than a dozen yards
+across, by the side of which stood a builder's handcart. The little
+two-wheeled vehicle had evidently been used to convey the appliances
+which were deposited on the ground near it, and which consisted of a
+large tub--now filled with water--a shovel, a rake, a sieve, and a
+portable pump, the latter being fitted with a long delivery hose. There
+were three men besides the constable, one of whom was working the handle
+of the pump, while another was glancing at a paper that the constable
+had just delivered to him. He looked up sharply as I appeared, and
+viewed me with unconcealed disfavour.
+
+"Hallo, sir!" said he. "You can't come here."
+
+Now, seeing that I actually was here, this was clearly a mistake, and I
+ventured to point out the fallacy.
+
+"Well, I can't allow you to stay here. Our business is of a private
+nature."
+
+"I know exactly what your business is, Inspector Badger."
+
+"Oh, do you?" said he, surveying me with a foxy smile. "And I expect I
+know what yours is, too. But we can't have any of you newspaper gentry
+spying on us just at present, so you just be off."
+
+I thought it best to undeceive him at once, and accordingly, having
+explained who I was, I showed him the coroner's permit, which he read
+with manifest annoyance.
+
+"This is all very well, sir," said he as he handed me back the paper,
+"but it doesn't authorise you to come spying on the proceedings of the
+police. Any remains that we discover will be deposited in the mortuary,
+where you can inspect them to your heart's content; but you can't stay
+here and watch us."
+
+I had no defined object in keeping a watch on the inspector's
+proceedings; but the sergeant's indiscreet hint had aroused my
+curiosity, which was further excited by Mr. Badger's evident desire to
+get rid of me. Moreover, while we had been talking, the pump had stopped
+(the muddy floor of the pond being now pretty fully exposed), and the
+inspector's assistant was handling the shovel impatiently.
+
+"Now, I put it to you, Inspector," said I, persuasively, "is it politic
+of you to allow it to be said that you refused an authorised
+representative of the family facilities for verifying any statements
+that you may make hereafter?"
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked.
+
+"I mean that if you should happen to find some bone which could be
+identified as part of the body of Mr. Bellingham, that fact would be of
+more importance to his family than to anyone else. You know that there
+is a very valuable estate and a rather difficult will."
+
+"I didn't know it, and I don't see the bearing of it now" (neither did
+I, for that matter); "but if you make such a point of being present at
+the search, I can't very well refuse. Only you mustn't get in our way,
+that's all."
+
+On hearing this conclusion, his assistant, who looked like a
+plain-clothes officer, took up his shovel and stepped into the mud that
+formed the bottom of the pond, stooping as he went and peering among the
+masses of weed that had been left stranded by the withdrawal of the
+water. The inspector watched him anxiously, cautioning him from time to
+time to "look out where he was treading"; the labourer left the pump and
+craned forward from the margin of the mud, and the constable and I
+looked on from our respective points of vantage. For some time the
+search was fruitless. Once the searcher stooped and picked up what
+turned out to be a fragment of decayed wood; then the remains of a
+long-deceased jay were discovered, examined, and rejected. Suddenly the
+man bent down by the side of a small pool that had been left in one of
+the deeper hollows, stared intently into the mud, and stood up.
+
+"There's something here that looks like a bone, sir," he sang out.
+
+"Don't grub about, then," said the inspector. "Drive your shovel right
+into the mud where you saw it and bring it to the sieve."
+
+The man followed out these instructions, and as he came shorewards with
+a great pile of the slimy mud on his shovel we all converged on the
+sieve, which the inspector took up and held over the tub, directing the
+constable and labourer to "lend a hand," meaning thereby that they were
+to crowd round the tub and exclude me as completely as possible. This,
+in fact, they did very effectively with his assistance, for, when the
+shovelful of mud had been deposited on the sieve, the four men leaned
+over it and so nearly hid it from view that it was only by craning over,
+first on one side and then on the other, that I was able to catch an
+occasional glimpse of it and to observe it gradually melting away as the
+sieve, immersed in the water, was shaken to and fro.
+
+Presently the inspector raised the sieve from the water and stooped over
+it more closely to examine its contents. Apparently the examination
+yielded no very conclusive results, for it was accompanied by a series
+of rather dubious grunts.
+
+At length the officer stood up, and turning to me with a genial but foxy
+smile, held out the sieve for my inspection.
+
+"Like to see what we have found, Doctor?" said he.
+
+I thanked him and stooped over the sieve. It contained the sort of
+litter of twigs, skeleton leaves, weed, pond-snails, dead shells, and
+fresh-water mussels that one would expect to strain out from the mud of
+an ancient pond; but in addition to these there were three small bones
+which at the first glance gave me quite a start until I saw what they
+were.
+
+The inspector looked at me inquiringly. "H'm?" said he.
+
+"Yes," I replied. "Very interesting."
+
+"Those will be human bones, I fancy; h'm?"
+
+"I should say so, undoubtedly," I answered.
+
+"Now," said the inspector, "could you say, off-hand, which finger those
+bones belong to?"
+
+I smothered a grin (for I had been expecting this question), and
+answered:
+
+"I can say off-hand that they don't belong to any finger. They are the
+bones of the left great toe."
+
+The inspector's jaw dropped. "The deuce they are!" he muttered. "H'm. I
+thought they looked a bit stout."
+
+"I expect," said I, "that if you go through the mud close to where this
+came from you'll find the rest of the foot."
+
+The plain-clothes man proceeded at once to act on my suggestion, taking
+the sieve with him to save time. And sure enough, after filling it twice
+with the mud from the bottom of the pool, the entire skeleton of the
+foot was brought to light.
+
+"Now you're happy, I suppose," said the inspector when I had checked the
+bones and found them all present.
+
+"I should be more happy," I replied, "if I knew what you were searching
+for in this pond. You weren't looking for the foot, were you?"
+
+"I was looking for anything that I might find," he answered. "I shall go
+on searching until we have the whole body. I shall go through all the
+streams and ponds around here, except Connaught Water. That I shall
+leave to the last, as it will be a case of dredging from a boat and
+isn't so likely as the smaller ponds. Perhaps the head will be there;
+it's deeper than any of the others."
+
+It now occurred to me that as I had learned all that I was likely to
+learn, which was little enough, I might as well leave the inspector to
+pursue his researches unembarrassed by my presence. Accordingly I
+thanked him for his assistance and departed by the way I had come.
+
+But as I retraced my steps along the shady path I speculated profoundly
+on the officer's proceedings. My examination of the mutilated hand had
+yielded the conclusion that the finger had been removed either after
+death or shortly before, but more probably after. Someone else had
+evidently arrived at the same conclusion, and had communicated his
+opinion to Inspector Badger; for it was clear that that gentleman was in
+full cry after the missing finger. But why was he searching for it here
+when the hand had been found at Sidcup? And what did he expect to learn
+from it when he found it? There is nothing particularly characteristic
+about a finger, or, at least, the bones of one; and the object of the
+present researches was to determine the identity of the person of whom
+these bones were the remains. There was something mysterious about the
+affair, something suggesting that Inspector Badger was in possession of
+private information of some kind. But what information could he have?
+And whence could he have obtained it? These were questions to which I
+could find no answer, and I was still fruitlessly revolving them when I
+arrived at the modest inn where the inquest was to be held, and where I
+proposed to fortify myself with a correspondingly modest lunch as a
+preparation for my attendance at that inquiry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE CROWNER'S QUEST
+
+
+The proceedings of that fine old institution, the coroner's court, are
+apt to have their dignity impaired by the somewhat unjudicial
+surroundings amidst which they are conducted. The present inquiry was to
+be held in a long room attached to the inn, ordinarily devoted, as its
+various appurtenances testified, to gatherings of a more convivial
+character.
+
+Hither I betook myself after a protracted lunch and a meditative pipe,
+and, being the first to arrive--the jury having already been sworn and
+conducted to the mortuary to view the remains--whiled away the time by
+considering the habits of the customary occupants of the room by the
+light of the objects contained in it. A wooden target with one or two
+darts sticking in it hung on the end wall and invited the Robin Hoods of
+the village to try their skill; a system of incised marks on the oaken
+table made sinister suggestions of shove-halfpenny; and a large open
+box, filled with white wigs, gaudily coloured robes and wooden spears,
+swords and regalia, crudely coated with gilded paper, obviously
+appertained to the puerile ceremonials of the Order of Druids.
+
+I had exhausted the interest of these relics and had transferred my
+attentions to the picture gallery when the other spectators and the
+witnesses began to arrive. Hastily I seated myself in the only
+comfortable chair besides the one placed at the head of the table,
+presumably for the coroner; and I had hardly done so when the latter
+entered accompanied by the jury. Immediately after them came the
+sergeant, Inspector Badger, one or two plain-clothes men, and finally
+the divisional surgeon.
+
+The coroner took his seat at the head of the table and opened his book,
+and the jury seated themselves on a couple of benches on one side of the
+long table. I looked with some interest at the twelve "good men and
+true." They were a representative group of British tradesmen, quiet,
+attentive, and rather solemn; but my attention was particularly
+attracted by a small man with a very large head and a shock of
+upstanding hair whom I had diagnosed, after a glance at his intelligent
+but truculent countenance and the shiny knees of his trousers, as the
+village cobbler. He sat between the broad-shouldered foreman, who looked
+like a blacksmith, and a dogged, red-faced man whose general aspect of
+prosperous greasiness suggested the calling of a butcher.
+
+"The inquiry, gentlemen," the coroner commenced, "upon which we are now
+entering concerns itself with two questions. The first is that of
+identity: Who was this person whose body we have just viewed? The second
+is, How, when, and by what means did he come by his death? We will take
+the identity first and begin with the circumstances under which the body
+was discovered."
+
+Here the cobbler stood up and raised an excessively dirty hand.
+
+"I rise, Mr. Chairman," said he, "to a point of order." The other
+jurymen looked at him curiously and some of them, I regret to say,
+grinned. "You have referred, sir," he continued, "to the body which we
+have just viewed. I wish to point out that we have not viewed a body: we
+have viewed a collection of bones."
+
+"We will refer to them as the remains, if you prefer it," said the
+coroner.
+
+"I do prefer it," was the reply, and the objector sat down.
+
+"Very well," rejoined the coroner, and he proceeded to call the
+witnesses, of whom the first was the labourer who had discovered the
+bones in the watercress-bed.
+
+"Do you happen to know how long it was since the beds had been cleaned
+out previously?" the coroner asked, when the witness had told the story
+of the discovery.
+
+"They was cleaned out by Mr. Tapper's orders just before he gave them
+up. That will be a little better than two years ago. In May it were. I
+helped to clean 'em. I worked on this very same place and there wasn't
+no bones there then."
+
+The coroner glanced at the jury. "Any questions, gentlemen?" he asked.
+
+The cobbler directed an intimidating scowl at the witness and demanded:
+
+"Were you searching for bones when you came on these remains?"
+
+"Me!" exclaimed the witness. "What should I be searching for bones for?"
+
+"Don't prevaricate," said the cobbler sternly; "answer the question: Yes
+or no."
+
+"No; of course I wasn't."
+
+The juryman shook his enormous head dubiously as though implying that
+he would let it pass this time but it mustn't happen again; and the
+examination of the witnesses continued, without eliciting anything that
+was new to me or giving rise to any incident, until the sergeant had
+described the finding of the right arm in the Cuckoo Pits.
+
+"Was this an accidental discovery?" the coroner asked.
+
+"No. We had instructions from Scotland Yard to search any likely ponds
+in this neighbourhood."
+
+The coroner discreetly forbore to press this matter any farther, but my
+friend the cobbler was evidently on the qui vive, and I anticipated a
+brisk cross-examination for Mr. Badger when his turn came. The inspector
+was apparently of the same opinion, for I saw him cast a glance of the
+deepest malevolence at the too inquiring disciple of St. Crispin. In
+fact, his turn came next, and the cobbler's hair stood up with unholy
+joy.
+
+The finding of the lower half of the trunk in Staple's Pond at Loughton
+was the inspector's own achievement, but he was not boastful about it.
+The discovery, he remarked, followed naturally on the previous one in
+the Cuckoo Pits.
+
+"Had you any private information that led you to search this particular
+neighbourhood?" the cobbler asked.
+
+"We had no private information whatever," replied Badger.
+
+"Now I put it to you," pursued the juryman, shaking a forensic, and very
+dirty, forefinger at the inspector; "here are certain remains found at
+Sidcup; here are certain other remains found at St. Mary Cray, and
+certain others at Lee. All those places are in Kent. Now isn't it very
+remarkable that you should come straight down to Epping Forest, which is
+in Essex, and search for those bones and find 'em?"
+
+"We were making a systematic search of all likely places," replied
+Badger.
+
+"Exactly," said the cobbler, with a ferocious grin, "that's just my
+point. I say, isn't it very funny that, after finding remains in Kent
+some twenty miles from here with the River Thames between, you should
+come here to look for the bones and go straight to Staple's Pond, where
+they happen to be--and find 'em?"
+
+"It would have been more funny," Badger replied sourly, "if we'd gone
+straight to a place where they happened _not_ to be--and found them."
+
+A gratified snigger arose from the other eleven good men and true, and
+the cobbler grinned savagely; but before he could think of a suitable
+rejoinder the coroner interposed.
+
+"The question is not very material," he said, "and we mustn't embarrass
+the police by unnecessary inquiries."
+
+"It's my belief," said the cobbler, "that he knew they were there all
+the time."
+
+"The witness has stated that he had no private information," said the
+coroner; and he proceeded to take the rest of the inspector's evidence,
+watched closely by the critical juror.
+
+The account of the finding of the remains having been given in full, the
+police-surgeon was called and sworn; the jurymen straightened their
+backs with an air of expectancy, and I turned over a page of my
+note-book.
+
+"You have examined the bones at present lying in the mortuary and
+forming the subject of this inquiry?" the coroner asked.
+
+"I have."
+
+"Will you kindly tell us what you have observed?"
+
+"I find that the bones are human bones, and are, in my opinion, all
+parts of the same person. They form a skeleton which is complete with
+the exception of the skull, the third finger of the left hand, the
+knee-caps, and the leg-bones--I mean the bones between the knees and the
+ankles."
+
+"Is there anything to account for the absence of the missing finger?"
+
+"No. There is no deformity and no sign of its having been amputated
+during life. In my opinion it was removed after death."
+
+"Can you give us any description of the deceased?"
+
+"I should say that these are the bones of an elderly man, probably over
+sixty years of age, about five feet eight and a half inches in height,
+of rather stout build, fairly muscular, and well preserved. There are no
+signs of disease excepting some old-standing rheumatic gout of the right
+hip-joint."
+
+"Can you form any opinion as to the cause of death?"
+
+"No. There are no marks of violence or signs of injury. But it will be
+impossible to form any opinion as to the cause of death until we have
+seen the skull."
+
+"Did you note anything else of importance?"
+
+"Yes. I was struck by the appearance of anatomical knowledge and skill
+on the part of the person who dismembered the body. The knowledge of
+anatomy is proved by the fact that the corpse has been divided into
+definite anatomical regions. For instance, the bones of the neck are
+complete and include the top joint of the backbone known as the atlas;
+whereas a person without anatomical knowledge would probably take off
+the head by cutting through the neck. Then the arms have been separated
+with the scapula (or shoulder-blade) and clavicle (or collar-bone)
+attached, just as an arm would be removed for dissection.
+
+"The skill is shown by the neat way in which the dismemberment has been
+carried out. The parts have not been rudely hacked asunder, but have
+been separated at the joints so skilfully that I have not discovered a
+single scratch or mark of the knife on any of the bones."
+
+"Can you suggest any class of person who would be likely to possess the
+knowledge and skill to which you refer?"
+
+"It would, of course, be possessed by a surgeon or medical student, and
+possibly by a butcher."
+
+"You think that the person who dismembered this body may have been a
+surgeon or a medical student?"
+
+"Yes; or a butcher. Someone accustomed to the dismemberment of bodies
+and skilful with the knife."
+
+Here the cobbler suddenly rose to his feet.
+
+"I rise, Mr. Chairman," said he, "to protest against the statement that
+has just been made."
+
+"What statement?" demanded the coroner.
+
+"Against the aspersion," continued the cobbler, with an oratorical
+flourish, "that has been cast upon a honourable calling."
+
+"I don't understand you," said the coroner.
+
+"Doctor Summers has insinuated that this murder was committed by a
+butcher. Now a member of that honourable calling is sitting on this
+jury--"
+
+"You let me alone," growled the butcher.
+
+"I will not let you alone," persisted the cobbler. "I desire--"
+
+"Oh, shut up, Pope!" This was from the foreman, who, at the same moment,
+reached out an enormous hairy hand with which he grabbed the cobbler's
+coat-tails and brought him into a sitting posture with a thump that
+shook the room.
+
+But Mr. Pope, though seated, was not silenced. "I desire," said he, "to
+have my protest put on record."
+
+"I can't do that," said the coroner, "and I can't allow you to interrupt
+the witnesses."
+
+"I am acting," said Mr. Pope, "in the interests of my friend here and
+the members of a honourable----"
+
+But here the butcher turned on him savagely, and, in a hoarse
+stage-whisper, exclaimed:
+
+"Look here, Pope; you've got too much of what the cat licks--"
+
+"Gentlemen! gentlemen!" the coroner protested, sternly; "I cannot permit
+this unseemly conduct. You are forgetting the solemnity of the occasion
+and your own responsible positions. I must insist on more decent and
+decorous behaviour."
+
+There was profound silence, in the midst of which the butcher concluded
+in the same hoarse whisper:
+
+"--licks 'er paws with."
+
+The coroner cast a withering glance at him, and turning to the witness,
+resumed the examination.
+
+"Can you tell us, Doctor, how long a time has elapsed since the death of
+the deceased?"
+
+"I should say not less than eighteen months, but probably more. How much
+more it is impossible from inspection alone to say. The bones are
+perfectly clean--that is, clean of all soft structures--and will remain
+substantially in their present condition for many years."
+
+"The evidence of the man who found the remains in the watercress-bed
+suggests that they could not have been there more than two years. Do the
+appearances, in your opinion, agree with that view?"
+
+"Yes; perfectly."
+
+"There is one more point, Doctor; a very important one. Do you find
+anything in any of the bones, or all of them together, which would
+enable you to identify them as the bones of any particular individual?"
+
+"No," replied Dr. Summers; "I found no peculiarity that could furnish
+the means of personal identification."
+
+"The description of a missing individual has been given to us," said the
+coroner; "a man, fifty-nine years of age, five feet eight inches in
+height, healthy, well preserved, rather broad in build, and having an
+old Pott's fracture of the left ankle. Do the remains that you have
+examined agree with that description?"
+
+"Yes, in so far as agreement is possible. There is no disagreement."
+
+"The remains might be those of that individual?"
+
+"They might; but there is no positive evidence that they are. The
+description would apply to a large proportion of elderly men, except as
+to the fracture."
+
+"You found no signs of such a fracture?"
+
+"No. Pott's fracture affects the bone called the fibula. That is one of
+the bones that has not yet been found, so there is no evidence on that
+point. The left foot was quite normal, but then it would be in any case,
+unless the fracture had resulted in great deformity."
+
+"You estimated the height of the deceased as half an inch greater than
+that of the missing person. Does that constitute a disagreement?"
+
+"No; my estimate is only approximate. As the arms are complete and the
+legs are not, I have based my calculations on the width across the two
+arms. But measurement of the thigh-bones gives the same result. The
+length of the thigh-bones is one foot seven inches and five-eighths."
+
+"So the deceased might not have been taller than five feet eight?"
+
+"That is so: from five feet eight to five feet nine."
+
+"Thank you. I think that is all we want to ask you, Doctor; unless the
+jury wish to put any questions."
+
+He glanced uneasily at that august body, and instantly the irrepressible
+Pope rose to the occasion.
+
+"About that finger that is missing," said the cobbler. "You say that it
+was cut off after death."
+
+"That is my opinion."
+
+"Now, can you tell us why it was cut off?"
+
+"No, I cannot."
+
+"Oh, come now, Doctor Summers, you must have formed some opinion on the
+subject."
+
+Here the coroner interposed. "The Doctor is only concerned with evidence
+arising out of the actual examination of the remains. Any personal
+opinions or conjectures that he may have formed are not evidence, and he
+must not be asked about them."
+
+"But, sir," objected Pope, "we want to know why that finger was cut off.
+It couldn't have been took off for no reason. May I ask, sir, if the
+person who is missing had anything peculiar about that finger?"
+
+"Nothing is stated to that effect in the written description," replied
+the coroner.
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Pope, "Inspector Badger can tell us."
+
+"I think," said the coroner, "we had better not ask the police too many
+questions. They will tell us anything that they wish to be made public."
+
+"Oh, very well," snapped the cobbler. "If it's a matter of hushing it up
+I've got no more to say; only I don't see how we are to arrive at a
+verdict if we don't have the facts put before us."
+
+All the witnesses having now been examined, the coroner proceeded to sum
+up and address the jury.
+
+"You have heard the evidence, gentlemen, of the various witnesses, and
+you will have perceived that it does not enable us to answer either of
+the questions that form the subject of this inquiry. We now know that
+the deceased was an elderly man, about sixty years of age, and about
+five feet eight or nine in height; and that his death took place from
+eighteen months to two years ago. That is all we know. From the
+treatment to which the body has been subjected we may form certain
+conjectures as to the circumstances of his death. But we have no actual
+knowledge. We do not know who the deceased was or how he came by his
+death. Consequently, it will be necessary to adjourn this inquiry until
+fresh facts are available, and as soon as that is the case, you will
+receive due notice that your attendance is required."
+
+The silence of the Court gave place to the confused noise of moving
+chairs and a general outbreak of eager talk, amidst which I rose and
+made my way out into the street. At the door I encountered Dr. Summers,
+whose dog-cart was waiting close by.
+
+"Are you going back to town now?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," I answered; "as soon as I can catch a train."
+
+"If you jump into my cart I'll run you down in time for the five-one.
+You'll miss it if you walk."
+
+I accepted his offer thankfully, and a minute later was spinning briskly
+down the road to the station.
+
+"Queer little devil, that man, Pope," Dr. Summers remarked. "Quite a
+character; socialist, labourite, agitator, general crank; anything for a
+row."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "that was what his appearance suggested. It must be
+trying for the coroner to get a truculent rascal like that on a jury."
+
+Summers laughed. "I don't know. He supplies the comic relief. And then,
+you know, those fellows have their uses. Some of his questions were
+pretty pertinent."
+
+"So Badger seemed to think."
+
+"Yes, by Jove," chuckled Summers, "Badger didn't like him a bit; and I
+suspect the worthy inspector was sailing pretty close to the wind in his
+answers."
+
+"You think he really has some private information?"
+
+"Depends upon what you mean by 'information.' The police are not a
+speculative body. They wouldn't be taking all this trouble unless they
+had a pretty straight tip from somebody. How are Mr. and Miss
+Bellingham? I used to know them slightly when they lived here."
+
+I was considering a discreet answer to this question when we swept into
+the station yard. At the same moment the train drew up at the platform,
+and, with a hurried hand-shake and hastily spoken thanks, I sprang from
+the dog-cart and darted into the station.
+
+During the rather slow journey homewards I read over my notes and
+endeavoured to extract from the facts they set forth some significance
+other than that which lay on the surface, but without much success. Then
+I fell to speculating on what Thorndyke would think of the evidence at
+the inquest and whether he would be satisfied with the information that
+I had collected. These speculations lasted me, with occasional
+digressions, until I arrived at the Temple and ran up the stairs rather
+eagerly to my friend's chambers.
+
+But here a disappointment awaited me. The nest was empty with the
+exception of Polton, who appeared at the laboratory door in his white
+apron, with a pair of flat-nosed pliers in his hand.
+
+"The Doctor has had to go down to Bristol to consult over an urgent
+case," he explained, "and Doctor Jervis has gone with him. They'll be
+away a day or two, I expect, but the Doctor left this note for you."
+
+He took a letter from a shelf, where it had been stood conspicuously on
+edge, and handed it to me. It was a short note from Thorndyke
+apologising for his sudden departure and asking me to give Polton my
+notes with any comments that I had to make.
+
+"You will be interested to learn," he added, "that the application will
+be heard in the Probate Court the day after to-morrow. I shall not be
+present, of course, nor will Jervis, so I should like you to attend and
+keep your eyes open for anything that may happen during the hearing and
+that may not appear in the notes that Marchmont's clerk will be
+instructed to take. I have retained Dr. Payne to stand by and help you
+with the practice, so that you can attend the Court with a clear
+conscience."
+
+This was highly flattering and quite atoned for the small
+disappointment; with deep gratification at the trust that Thorndyke had
+reposed in me, I pocketed the letter, handed my notes to Polton, wished
+him "Good evening," and betook myself to Fetter Lane.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+WHICH CARRIES THE READER INTO THE PROBATE COURT
+
+
+The Probate Court wore an air of studious repose when I entered with
+Miss Bellingham and her father. Apparently the great and inquisitive
+public had not become aware of the proceedings that were about to take
+place, or had not realised their connection with the sensational
+"Mutilation Case"; but barristers and Press-men, better informed, had
+gathered in some strength, and the hum of their conversation filled the
+air like the droning of the voluntary that ushers in a cathedral
+service.
+
+As we entered, a pleasant-faced, elderly gentleman rose and came forward
+to meet us, shaking Mr. Bellingham's hand cordially and saluting Miss
+Bellingham with a courtly bow.
+
+"This is Mr. Marchmont, Doctor," said the former, introducing me; and
+the solicitor, having thanked me for the trouble I had taken in
+attending at the inquest, led us to a bench, at the farther end of which
+was seated a gentleman whom I recognised as Mr. Hurst.
+
+Mr. Bellingham recognised him at the same moment and glared at him
+wrathfully.
+
+"I see that scoundrel is here!" he exclaimed in a distinctly audible
+voice, "pretending that he doesn't see me, because he is ashamed to look
+me in the face, but--"
+
+"Hush! hush! my dear sir," exclaimed the horrified solicitor; "we
+mustn't talk like that, especially in this place. Let me beg you--let me
+entreat you to control your feelings, to make no indiscreet remarks; in
+fact, to make no remarks at all," he added, with the evident conviction
+that any remarks that Mr. Bellingham might make would be certain to be
+indiscreet.
+
+"Forgive me, Marchmont," Mr. Bellingham replied contritely. "I will
+control myself; I will really be quite discreet. I won't even look at
+him again--because, if I do, I shall probably go over and pull his
+nose."
+
+This particular form of discretion did not appear to be quite to Mr.
+Marchmont's liking, for he took the precaution of insisting that Miss
+Bellingham and I should sit on the farther side of his client, and thus
+effectually separate him from his enemy.
+
+"Who's the long-nosed fellow talking to Jellicoe?" Mr. Bellingham asked.
+
+"That is Mr. Loram, K.C., Mr. Hurst's counsel; and the convivial-looking
+gentleman next to him is our counsel, Mr. Heath, a most able man
+and"--here Mr. Marchmont whispered behind his hand--"fully instructed by
+Doctor Thorndyke."
+
+At this juncture the judge entered and took his seat; the usher
+proceeded with great rapidity to swear in the jury, and the Court
+gradually settled down into that state of academic quiet which it
+maintained throughout the proceedings, excepting when the noisy
+swing-doors were set oscillating by some bustling clerk or reporter.
+
+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. George Hurst, is now applying to the
+Court for permission to presume the death of the testator and prove the
+will. As the time which has elapsed since the testator was last seen
+alive is only two years, the application is based upon the circumstances
+of the disappearance, which were, in many respects, very singular, the
+most remarkable feature of that disappearance being, perhaps, its
+suddenness and completeness."
+
+Here the judge remarked in a still, small voice that "It would, perhaps,
+have been even more remarkable if the testator had disappeared gradually
+and incompletely."
+
+"No doubt, my Lord," agreed Mr. Loram; "but the point is that the
+testator, whose habits had always been regular and orderly, disappeared
+on the date mentioned without having made any of the usual provisions
+for the conduct of his affairs, and has not since then been seen or
+heard of."
+
+With this preamble Mr. Loram proceeded to give a narrative of the events
+connected with the disappearance of John Bellingham, which was
+substantially identical with that which I had read in the newspapers;
+and having laid the actual facts before the jury, he went on to discuss
+their probable import.
+
+"Now, what conclusion," he asked, "will this strange, this most
+mysterious train of events suggest to an intelligent person who shall
+consider it impartially? Here is a man who steps forth from the house of
+his cousin or his brother, as the case may be, and forthwith, in the
+twinkling of an eye, vanishes from human ken. What is the explanation?
+Did he steal forth and, without notice or hint of his intention, take
+train to some seaport, thence to embark for some distant land, leaving
+his affairs to take care of themselves and his friends to speculate
+vainly as to his whereabouts? Is he now in hiding abroad, or even at
+home, indifferent alike to the safety of his own considerable property
+and the peace of mind of his friends? Or is it that death has come upon
+him unawares by sickness, by accident, or, more probably, by the hand of
+some unknown criminal? Let us consider the probabilities.
+
+"Can he have disappeared by his own deliberate act? Why not? it may be
+asked. Men undoubtedly do disappear from time to time, to be discovered
+by chance or to reappear voluntarily after intervals of years and find
+their names almost forgotten and their places filled by new-comers. Yes;
+but there is always some reason for a disappearance of this kind, even
+though it be a bad one. Family discords that make life a weariness;
+pecuniary difficulties that make life a succession of anxieties;
+distaste for particular circumstances and surroundings from which there
+seems no escape; inherent restlessness and vagabond tendencies, and so
+on.
+
+"Do any of these explanations apply to the present case? No, they do
+not. Family discords--at least those capable of producing chronic
+misery--appertain exclusively to the married state. But the testator was
+a bachelor with no encumbrances whatever. Pecuniary anxieties can be
+equally excluded. The testator was in easy, in fact, in affluent
+circumstances. His mode of life was apparently agreeable and full of
+interest and activity, and he had full liberty to change it if he
+wished. He had been accustomed to travel, and could do so again without
+absconding. He had reached an age when radical changes do not seem
+desirable. He was a man of fixed and regular habits, and his regularity
+was of his own choice and not due to compulsion or necessity. When last
+seen by his friends, as I shall prove, he was proceeding to a definite
+destination with the expressed intention of returning for purposes of
+his own appointing. He did return and then vanished, leaving those
+purposes unachieved.
+
+"If we conclude that he has voluntarily disappeared and is at present in
+hiding, we adopt an opinion that is entirely at variance with all these
+weighty facts. If, on the other hand, we conclude that he has died
+suddenly, or has been killed by an accident or otherwise, we are
+adopting a view that involves no inherent improbabilities and that is
+entirely congruous with the known facts; facts that will be proved by
+the testimony of the witnesses whom I shall call. The supposition that
+the testator is dead is not only more probable than that he is alive; I
+submit that it is the only reasonable explanation of the circumstances
+of his disappearance.
+
+"But this is not all. The presumption of death which arises so
+inevitably out of the mysterious and abrupt manner in which the testator
+disappeared has recently received most conclusive and dreadful
+confirmation. On the fifteenth of July last there were discovered at
+Sidcup the remains of a human arm--a left arm, gentlemen, from the hand
+of which the third, or ring, finger was missing. The doctor who has
+examined that arm will tell you that that finger was cut off either
+after death or immediately before; and his evidence will prove
+conclusively that that arm must have been deposited in the place where
+it was found just about the time when the testator disappeared. Since
+that first discovery, other portions of the same mutilated body have
+come to light; and it is a strange and significant fact that they have
+all been found in the immediate neighbourhood of Eltham or Woodford. You
+will remember, gentlemen, that it was either at Eltham or Woodford that
+the testator was last seen alive.
+
+"And now observe the completeness of the coincidence. These human
+remains, as you will be told presently by the experienced and learned
+medical gentleman who has examined them most exhaustively, are those of
+a man of about sixty years of age, about five feet eight inches in
+height, fairly muscular and well preserved, apparently healthy, and
+rather stoutly built. Another witness will tell you that the missing
+man was about sixty years of age, about five feet eight inches in
+height, fairly muscular and well preserved, apparently healthy, and
+rather stoutly built. And--another most significant and striking
+fact--the testator was accustomed to wear upon the third finger of his
+left hand--the very finger that is missing from the remains that were
+found--a most peculiar ring, which fitted so tightly that he was unable
+to get it off after once putting it on; a ring, gentlemen, of so
+peculiar a pattern that had it been found on the body must have
+instantly established the identity of the remains. In a word, gentlemen,
+the remains which have been found are those of a man exactly like the
+testator; they differ from him in no respect whatever; they display a
+mutilation which suggests an attempt to conceal an identifying
+peculiarity which he undoubtedly presented; and they were deposited in
+their various hiding-places about the time of the testator's
+disappearance. Accordingly, when you have heard these facts proved by
+the sworn testimony of competent witnesses, together with the facts
+relating to the disappearance, I shall ask you for a verdict in
+accordance with that evidence."
+
+Mr. Loram sat down, and adjusting a pair of pince-nez, rapidly glanced
+over his brief while the usher was administering the oath to the first
+witness.
+
+This was Mr. Jellicoe, who stepped into the box and directed a stony
+gaze at the (apparently) unconscious judge. The usual preliminaries
+having been gone through, Mr. Loram proceeded to examine him.
+
+"You were the testator's solicitor and confidential agent, I believe?"
+
+"I was--and am."
+
+"How long have you known him?"
+
+"Twenty-seven years."
+
+"Judging from your experience of him, should you say that he was a
+person likely to disappear voluntarily and suddenly to cease to
+communicate with his friends?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Kindly give your reasons for that opinion."
+
+"Such conduct on the part of the testator would be entirely opposed to
+his habits and character as they are known to me. He was exceedingly
+regular and business-like in his dealings with me. When travelling
+abroad he always kept me informed as to his whereabouts, or, if he was
+likely to be beyond reach of communications, he always advised me
+beforehand. One of my duties was to collect a pension which he drew from
+the Foreign Office, and on no occasion, previous to his disappearance,
+has he ever failed to furnish me punctually with the necessary
+documents."
+
+"Had he, so far as you know, any reasons for wishing to disappear?"
+
+"No."
+
+"When and where did you last see him alive?"
+
+"At six o'clock in the evening, on the fourteenth of October, nineteen
+hundred and two, at 141 Queen Square, Bloomsbury."
+
+"Kindly tell us what happened on that occasion."
+
+"The testator had called for me at my office at a quarter past three,
+and asked me to come with him to his house to meet Doctor Norbury. I
+accompanied him to 141 Queen Square, and shortly after we arrived Doctor
+Norbury came to look at some antiquities that the testator proposed to
+give to the British Museum. The gift consisted of a mummy with the four
+Canopic jars and other tomb-furniture, which the testator stipulated
+should be exhibited together in a single case and in the state in which
+they were then presented. Of these objects, the mummy only was ready for
+inspection. The tomb-furniture had not yet arrived in England, but was
+expected within a week. Doctor Norbury accepted the gift on behalf of
+the Museum, but could not take possession of the objects until he had
+communicated with the Director and obtained his formal authority. The
+testator accordingly gave me certain instructions concerning the
+delivery of the gift, as he was leaving England that evening."
+
+"Are those instructions relevant to the subject of this inquiry?"
+
+"I think they are. The testator was going to Paris, and perhaps from
+thence to Vienna. He instructed me to receive and unpack the
+tomb-furniture on its arrival, and to store it, with the mummy, in a
+particular room, where it was to remain for three weeks. If he returned
+within that time he was to hand it over in person to the Museum
+authorities; if he had not returned within that time, he desired me to
+notify the Museum authorities that they were at liberty to take
+possession of and remove the collection at their convenience. From these
+instructions I gathered that the testator was uncertain as to the length
+of his absence from England and the extent of his journey."
+
+"Did he state precisely where he was going?"
+
+"No. He said that he was going to Paris and perhaps to Vienna, but he
+gave no particulars and I asked for none."
+
+"Do you, in fact, know where he went?"
+
+"No. He left the house at six o'clock wearing a long, heavy overcoat
+and carrying a suit-case and an umbrella. I wished him 'Good-bye' at the
+door and watched him walk away as if going towards Southampton Row. I
+have no idea where he went, and I never saw him again."
+
+"Had he no other luggage than the suit-case?"
+
+"I do not know, but I believe not. He was accustomed to travel with the
+bare necessaries, and to buy anything further that he wanted _en
+route_."
+
+"Did he say nothing to the servants as to the probable date of his
+return?"
+
+"There were no servants excepting the caretaker. The house was not used
+for residential purposes. The testator slept and took his meals at his
+club, though he kept his clothes at the house."
+
+"Did you receive any communication from him after he left?"
+
+"No. I never heard from him again in any way. I waited for three weeks
+as he had instructed me, and then notified the Museum authorities that
+the collection was ready for removal. Five days later Doctor Norbury
+came and took formal possession of it, and it was transferred to the
+Museum forthwith."
+
+"When did you next hear of the testator?"
+
+"On the twenty-third of November following at a quarter past seven in
+the evening. Mr. George Hurst came to my rooms, which are over my
+office, and informed me that the testator had called at his house during
+his absence and had been shown into the study to wait for him. That on
+his--Mr. Hurst's--arrival it was found that the testator had disappeared
+without acquainting the servants with his intended departure, and
+without being seen by anyone to leave the house. Mr. Hurst thought this
+so remarkable that he had hastened up to town to inform me. I also
+thought it a remarkable circumstance, especially as I had received no
+communication from the testator, and we both decided that it was
+advisable to inform the testator's brother, Godfrey, of what had
+happened.
+
+"Accordingly Mr. Hurst and I proceeded as quickly as possible to
+Liverpool Street and took the first train available to Woodford, where
+Mr. Godfrey Bellingham then resided. We arrived at his house at five
+minutes to nine, and were informed by the servant that he was not at
+home, but that his daughter was in the library, which was a detached
+building situated in the grounds. The servant lighted a lantern and
+conducted us through the grounds to the library, where we found Mr.
+Godfrey Bellingham and Miss Bellingham. Mr. Godfrey had only just come
+in and had entered by the back gate, which had a bell that rang in the
+library. Mr. Hurst informed Mr. Godfrey of what had occurred, and then
+we all left the library to walk up to the house. A few paces from the
+library I noticed by the light of the lantern, which Mr. Godfrey was
+carrying, a small object lying on the lawn. I pointed it out to him and
+he picked it up, and then we all recognised it as a scarab that the
+testator was accustomed to wear on his watch-chain. It was fitted with a
+gold wire passed through the suspension hole and a gold ring. Both the
+wire and the ring were in position, but the ring was broken. We went to
+the house and questioned the servants as to visitors; but none of them
+had seen the testator, and they all agreed that no visitor whatsoever
+had come to the house during the afternoon, or evening. Mr. Godfrey and
+Miss Bellingham both declared that they had neither seen nor heard
+anything of the testator, and were both unaware that he had returned to
+England. As the circumstances were somewhat disquieting, I communicated,
+on the following morning, with the police and requested them to make
+inquiries; which they did, with the result that a suit-case, bearing the
+initials 'J.B.', was found to be lying unclaimed in the cloak-room at
+Charing Cross Station. I was able to identify the suit-case as that
+which I had seen the testator carry away from Queen Square. I was also
+able to identify some of the contents. I interviewed the cloak-room
+attendant, who informed me that the suit-case had been deposited on the
+twenty-third at about 4.15 P.M. He had no recollection of the person who
+deposited it. It remained unclaimed in the possession of the railway
+company for three months, and was then surrendered to me."
+
+"Were there any marks or labels on it showing the route by which it had
+travelled?"
+
+"There were no labels on it and no marks other than the initials 'J.B.'"
+
+"Do you happen to know the testator's age?"
+
+"Yes. He was fifty-nine on the eleventh of October, nineteen hundred and
+two."
+
+"Can you tell us what his height was?"
+
+"Yes. He was exactly five feet eight inches."
+
+"What sort of health had he?"
+
+"So far as I know his health was good. I am not aware that he suffered
+from any disease. I am only judging by his appearance, which was that of
+a healthy man."
+
+"Should you describe him as well preserved or otherwise?"
+
+"I should describe him as a well-preserved man for his age."
+
+"How should you describe his figure?"
+
+"I should describe him as rather broad and stout in build, and fairly
+muscular, though not exceptionally so."
+
+Mr. Loram made a rapid note of these answers, and then said:
+
+"You have told us, Mr. Jellicoe, that you have known the testator
+intimately for twenty-seven years. Now, did you ever notice whether he
+was accustomed to wear any rings upon his fingers?"
+
+"He wore upon the third finger of his left hand a copy of an antique
+ring which bore the device of the Eye of Osiris. That was the only ring
+he ever wore as far as I know."
+
+"Did he wear it constantly?"
+
+"Yes, necessarily; because it was too small for him, and having once
+squeezed it on he was never able to get it off again."
+
+This was the sum of Mr. Jellicoe's evidence, and at its conclusion the
+witness glanced inquiringly at Mr. Bellingham's counsel. But Mr. Heath
+remained seated, attentively considering the notes that he had just
+made, and finding that there was to be no cross-examination, Mr.
+Jellicoe stepped down from the box. I leaned back on my bench, and,
+turning my head, observed Miss Bellingham deep in thought.
+
+"What do you think of it?" I asked.
+
+"It seems very complete and conclusive," she replied. And then, with a
+sigh, she murmured: "Poor old Uncle John! How horrid it sounds to talk
+of him in this cold-blooded, business-like way, as 'the testator,' as if
+he were nothing but a sort of algebraical sign."
+
+"There isn't much room for sentiment, I suppose, in the proceedings of
+the Probate Court," I replied. To which she assented, and then asked:
+"Who is this lady?"
+
+"This lady" was a fashionably dressed young woman who had just bounced
+into the witness-box and was now being sworn. The preliminaries being
+finished, she answered Miss Bellingham's question and Mr. Loram's by
+stating that her name was Augustina Gwendoline Dobbs, and that she was
+housemaid to Mr. George Hurst, of "The Poplars," Eltham.
+
+"Mr. Hurst lives alone, I believe?" said Mr. Loram.
+
+"I don't know what you mean by that," Miss Dobbs began; but the
+barrister explained:
+
+"I mean that I believe he is unmarried?"
+
+"Well, and what about it?" the witness demanded tartly.
+
+"I am asking you a question."
+
+"I know that," said the witness viciously; "and I say that you've no
+business to make any such insinuations to a respectable young lady when
+there's a cook-housekeeper and a kitchenmaid living in the house, and
+him old enough to be my father----"
+
+Here his lordship flattened his eyelids with startling effect, and Mr.
+Loram interrupted: "I make no insinuations. I merely ask, Is your
+employer, Mr. Hurst, an unmarried man, or is he not?"
+
+"I never asked him," said the witness sulkily.
+
+"Please answer my question--yes or no?"
+
+"How can I answer your question? He may be unmarried or he may not. How
+do I know? I'm not a private detective."
+
+Mr. Loram directed a stupefied gaze at the witness, and in the ensuing
+silence a plaintive voice came from the bench:
+
+"Is the point material?"
+
+"Certainly, my lord," replied Mr. Loram.
+
+"Then, as I see that you are calling Mr. Hurst, perhaps you had better
+put the question to him. He will probably know."
+
+Mr. Loram bowed, and as the judge subsided into his normal state of coma
+he turned to the triumphant witness.
+
+"Do you remember anything remarkable occurring on the twenty-third of
+November the year before last?"
+
+"Yes. Mr. John Bellingham called at our house."
+
+"How did you know he was Mr. John Bellingham?"
+
+"I didn't; but he said he was, and I supposed he knew."
+
+"At what time did he arrive?"
+
+"At twenty minutes past five in the evening."
+
+"What happened then?"
+
+"I told him that Mr. Hurst had not come home yet, and he said he would
+wait for him in the study and write some letters; so I showed him into
+the study and shut the door."
+
+"What happened next?"
+
+"Nothing. Then Mr. Hurst came home at his usual time--a quarter to
+six--and let himself in with his key. He went straight through into the
+study, where I supposed Mr. Bellingham still was, so I took no notice,
+but laid the table for two. At six o'clock Mr. Hurst came into the
+dining-room--he has tea in the City and dines at six--and when he saw
+the table laid for two he asked the reason. I said I thought Mr.
+Bellingham was staying to dinner.
+
+"'Mr. Bellingham!' says he. 'I didn't know he was here. Why didn't you
+tell me?' he says. 'I thought he was with you, sir,' I said. 'I showed
+him into the study,' I said. 'Well, he wasn't there when I came in,' he
+said, 'and he isn't there now,' he said. 'Perhaps he has gone to wait in
+the drawing-room,' he said. So we went and looked in the drawing-room,
+but he wasn't there. Then Mr. Hurst said he thought Mr. Bellingham must
+have got tired of waiting and gone away; but I told him I was quite sure
+he hadn't, because I had been watching all the time. Then he asked me if
+Mr. Bellingham was alone or whether his daughter was with him, and I
+said that it wasn't that Mr. Bellingham at all, but Mr. John Bellingham,
+and then he was more surprised than ever. I said we had better search
+the house to make sure whether he was there or not, and Mr. Hurst said
+he would come with me; so we went all over the house and looked in all
+the rooms, but there was not a sign of Mr. Bellingham in any of them.
+Then Mr. Hurst got very nervous and upset, and when he had just snatched
+a little dinner he ran off to catch the six-thirty train up to town."
+
+"You say that Mr. Bellingham could not have left the house because you
+were watching all the time. Where were you while you were watching?"
+
+"I was in the kitchen. I could see the front gate from the kitchen
+window."
+
+"You say that you laid the table for two. Where did you lay it?"
+
+"In the dining-room, of course."
+
+"Could you see the front gate from the dining-room?"
+
+"No, but I could see the study door. The study is opposite the
+dining-room."
+
+"Do you have to come upstairs to get from the kitchen to the
+dining-room?"
+
+"Yes, of course you do!"
+
+"Then might not Mr. Bellingham have left the house while you were coming
+up the stairs?"
+
+"No, he couldn't have done."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because it would have been impossible."
+
+"But why would it have been impossible?"
+
+"Because he couldn't have done it."
+
+"I suggest that Mr. Bellingham left the house quietly while you were on
+the stairs?"
+
+"No, he didn't."
+
+"How do you know he did not?"
+
+"I am quite sure he didn't."
+
+"What makes you feel sure he did not?"
+
+"I am quite certain he didn't."
+
+"But how can you be certain?"
+
+"Because I should have seen him if he had."
+
+"But I mean when you were on the stairs."
+
+"He was in the study when I was on the stairs."
+
+"How do you know he was in the study?"
+
+"Because I showed him in there and he hadn't come out."
+
+Mr. Loram paused and took a deep breath, and his lordship flattened his
+eyelids.
+
+"Is there a side gate to the premises?" the barrister resumed wearily.
+
+"Yes. It opens into a narrow lane at the side of the house."
+
+"And there is a French window in the study, is there not?"
+
+"Yes; it opens on to the small grass plot opposite the side gate."
+
+"Were the window and the gate locked, or would it have been possible for
+Mr. Bellingham to let himself out into the lane?"
+
+"The window and the gate both have catches on the inside. He could have
+got out that way, but, of course, he didn't."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Well, no gentleman would go creeping out by the back way like a thief."
+
+"Did you look to see if the French window was shut and fastened after
+you missed Mr. Bellingham?"
+
+"I looked at it when we shut the house up for the night. It was then
+shut and fastened on the inside."
+
+"And the side gate?"
+
+"That was shut and latched. You have to slam the gate to make the latch
+fasten, so no one could have gone out of that gate without being heard."
+
+Here the examination-in-chief ended, and Mr. Loram sat down with an
+audible sigh of relief. Miss Dobbs was about to step down from the
+witness-box when Mr. Heath rose to cross-examine.
+
+"Did you see Mr. Bellingham in a good light?" he asked.
+
+"Pretty good. It was dark outside, but the hall-lamp was alight."
+
+"Kindly look at this"--here a small object was passed across to the
+witness. "It is a trinket that Mr. Bellingham is stated to have carried
+suspended from his watch-guard. Can you remember if he was wearing it in
+that manner when he came to the house?"
+
+"No, he was not."
+
+"You are sure of that?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"Thank you. And now I want to ask you about the search that you have
+mentioned. You say that you went all over the house. Did you go into the
+study?"
+
+"No--at least, not until Mr. Hurst had gone to London."
+
+"When you did go in, was the window fastened?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Could it have been fastened from the outside?"
+
+"No; there is no handle outside."
+
+"What furniture is there in the study?"
+
+"There is a writing-table, a revolving-chair, two easy chairs, two large
+bookcases, and a wardrobe that Mr. Hurst keeps his overcoats and hats
+in."
+
+"Does the wardrobe lock?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Was it locked when you went in?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know. I don't go about trying the cupboards and
+drawers."
+
+"What furniture is there in the drawing-room?"
+
+"A cabinet, six or seven chairs, a Chesterfield sofa, a piano, a
+silver-table, and one or two occasional tables."
+
+"Is the piano a grand or an upright."
+
+"It is an upright grand."
+
+"In what position is it placed?"
+
+"It stands across a corner near the window."
+
+"Is there sufficient room behind it for a man to conceal himself?"
+
+Miss Dobbs was amused and did not dissemble. "Oh, yes," she sniggered,
+"there's plenty of room for a man to hide behind it."
+
+"When you searched the drawing-room, did you look behind the piano?"
+
+"No, I didn't!" Miss Dobbs replied scornfully.
+
+"Did you look under the sofa?"
+
+"Certainly not!"
+
+"What did you do, then?"
+
+"We opened the door and looked into the room. We were not looking for a
+cat or a monkey; we were looking for a middle-aged gentleman."
+
+"And am I to take it that your search over the rest of the house was
+conducted in a similar manner?"
+
+"Certainly. We looked into the rooms, but we did not search under the
+beds or in the cupboards."
+
+"Are all the rooms in the house in use as living or sleeping rooms?"
+
+"No; there is one room on the second floor that is used as a store and
+lumber room, and one on the first floor that Mr. Hurst uses to store
+trunks and things that he is not using."
+
+"Did you look in those rooms when you searched the house?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Have you looked in them since?"
+
+"I have been in the lumber-room since, but not in the other. It is
+always kept locked."
+
+At this point an ominous flattening became apparent in his lordship's
+eyelids, but these symptoms passed off when Mr. Heath sat down and
+indicated that he had no further questions to ask.
+
+Miss Dobbs once more prepared to step down from the witness-box, when
+Mr. Loram shot up like a jack-in-the-box.
+
+"You have made certain statements," said he, "concerning the scarab
+which Mr. Bellingham was accustomed to wear suspended from his
+watch-guard. You say that he was not wearing it when he came to Mr.
+Hurst's house on the twenty-third of November, nineteen hundred and two.
+Are you quite sure of that?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"I must ask you to be very careful in your statement on this point. The
+question is a highly important one. Do you swear that the scarab was not
+hanging from his watch-guard?"
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+"Did you notice the watch-guard particularly?"
+
+"No, not particularly."
+
+"Then what makes you so sure that the scarab was not attached to it?"
+
+"It couldn't have been."
+
+"Why could it not?"
+
+"Because if it had been there I should have seen it."
+
+"What kind of a watch-guard was Mr. Bellingham wearing?"
+
+"Oh, an ordinary sort of watch-guard."
+
+"I mean, was it a chain or a ribbon or a strap?"
+
+"A chain, I think--or perhaps a ribbon--or it might have been a strap."
+
+His lordship flattened his eyelids, but made no further sign, and Mr.
+Loram continued:
+
+"Did you or did you not notice what kind of watch-guard Mr. Bellingham
+was wearing?"
+
+"I did not. Why should I? It was no business of mine."
+
+"But yet you are sure about the scarab?"
+
+"Yes, quite sure."
+
+"You noticed that, then?"
+
+"No, I didn't. How could I when it wasn't there?"
+
+Mr. Loram paused and looked helplessly at the witness; a suppressed
+titter arose from the body of the Court, and a faint voice from the
+bench inquired:
+
+"Are you _quite_ incapable of giving a straightforward answer?"
+
+Miss Dobbs' only reply was to burst into tears; whereupon Mr. Loram
+abruptly sat down and abandoned his re-examination.
+
+The witness-box vacated by Miss Dobbs was occupied successively by Dr.
+Norbury, Mr. Hurst, and the cloak-room attendant, none of whom
+contributed any new facts, but merely corroborated the statements made
+by Mr. Jellicoe and the housemaid. Then came the labourer who discovered
+the bones at Sidcup, and who repeated the evidence that he had given at
+the inquest, showing that the remains could not have been lying in the
+watercress-bed more than two years. Finally Dr. Summers was called, and,
+after he had given a brief description of the bones that he had
+examined, was asked by Mr. Loram:
+
+"You have heard the description that Mr. Jellicoe has given of the
+testator?"
+
+"I have."
+
+"Does that description apply to the person whose remains you examined?"
+
+"In a general way, it does."
+
+"I must ask you for a direct answer--yes or no. Does it apply?"
+
+"Yes. But I ought to say that my estimate of the height of the deceased
+is only approximate."
+
+"Quite so. Judging from your examination of those remains and from Mr.
+Jellicoe's description, might those remains be the remains of the
+testator, John Bellingham?"
+
+"Yes, they might."
+
+On receiving this admission Mr. Loram sat down, and Mr. Heath
+immediately rose to cross-examine.
+
+"When you examined these remains, Doctor Summers, did you discover any
+personal peculiarities which would enable you to identify them as the
+remains of any one individual rather than any other individual of
+similar size, age, and proportions?"
+
+"No. I found nothing that would identify the remains as those of any
+particular individual."
+
+As Mr. Heath asked no further questions, the witness received his
+dismissal, and Mr. Loram informed the Court that that was his case. The
+judge bowed somnolently, and then Mr. Heath rose to address the Court on
+behalf of the respondent. It was not a long speech, nor was it enriched
+by any displays of florid rhetoric; it concerned itself exclusively with
+a rebutment of the arguments of the counsel for the petitioner.
+
+Having briefly pointed out that the period of absence was too short to
+give rise of itself to the presumption of death, Mr. Heath continued:
+
+"The claim therefore rests upon evidence of a positive character. My
+learned friend asserts that the testator is presumably dead, and it is
+for him to prove what he has affirmed. Now, has he done this? I submit
+that he has not. He has argued with great force and ingenuity that the
+testator, being a bachelor, a solitary man without wife or child,
+dependent or master, public or private office or duty, or any bond,
+responsibility, or any other condition limiting his freedom of action,
+had no reason or inducement for absconding. This is my learned friend's
+argument, and he has conducted it with so much skill and ingenuity that
+he has not only succeeded in proving his case; he has proved a great
+deal too much. For if it is true, as my learned friend so justly argues,
+that a man thus unfettered by obligations of any kind has no reason for
+disappearing, is it not even more true that he has no reason for _not_
+disappearing? My friend has urged that the testator was at liberty to go
+where he pleased, when he pleased, and how he pleased; and that
+therefore there was no need for him to abscond. I reply, if he was at
+liberty to go away, whither, when, and how he pleased, why do we express
+surprise that he has made use of his liberty? My learned friend points
+out that the testator notified to nobody his intention of going away and
+has acquainted no one with his whereabouts; but, I ask, whom should he
+have notified? He was responsible to nobody; there was no one dependent
+upon him; his presence or absence was the concern of nobody but himself.
+If circumstances suddenly arising made it desirable that he should go
+abroad, why should he not go? I say there was no reason whatever.
+
+"My learned friend has said that the testator went away leaving his
+affairs to take care of themselves. Now, gentlemen, I ask you if this
+can fairly be said of a man whose affairs are, as they have been for
+years, in the hands of a highly capable, completely trustworthy agent
+who is better acquainted with them than the testator himself? Clearly it
+cannot.
+
+"To conclude this part of the argument: I submit that the circumstances
+of the so-called disappearance of the testator present nothing out of
+the ordinary. The testator is a man of ample means, without any
+responsibilities to fetter his movements and has been in the constant
+habit of travelling, often into remote and distant regions. The mere
+fact that he has been absent somewhat longer than usual affords no
+ground whatever for the drastic proceeding of presuming his death and
+taking possession of his property.
+
+"With reference to the human remains which have been mentioned in
+connection with the case I need say but little. The attempt to connect
+them with the testator has failed completely. You yourselves have heard
+Doctor Summers state on oath that they cannot be identified as the
+remains of any particular person. That would seem to dispose of them
+effectually. I must remark upon a very singular point that has been
+raised by the learned counsel for the petitioner, which is this:
+
+"My learned friend points out that these remains were discovered near
+Eltham and near Woodford and that the testator was last seen alive at
+one of these two places. This he considers for some reason to be a
+highly significant fact. But I cannot agree with him. If the testator
+had been last seen alive at Woodford and the remains had been found at
+Woodford, or if he had disappeared from Eltham and the remains had been
+found at Eltham, that would have had some significance. But he can only
+have been last seen at one of the places, whereas the remains have been
+found at both places. Here again my learned friend seems to have proved
+too much."
+
+"But I need not occupy your time further. I repeat that, in order to
+justify us in presuming the death of the testator, clear and positive
+evidence would be necessary. That no such evidence has been brought
+forward. Accordingly, seeing that the testator may return at any time
+and is entitled to find his property intact, I shall ask you for a
+verdict that will secure to him this measure of ordinary justice."
+
+At the conclusion of Mr. Heath's speech the judge, as if awakening from
+a refreshing nap, opened his eyes; and uncommonly shrewd, intelligent
+eyes they were, when the expressive eyelids were duly tucked up out of
+the way. He commenced by reading over a part of the will and certain
+notes--which he appeared to have made in some miraculous fashion with
+his eyes shut--and then proceeded to review the evidence and the
+counsels' arguments for the instruction of the jury.
+
+"Before considering the evidence which you have heard, gentlemen," he
+said, "it will be well for me to say a few words to you on the general
+legal aspects of the case which is occupying our attention."
+
+"If a person goes abroad or disappears from his home and his ordinary
+places of resort and is absent for a long period of time, the
+presumption of death arises at the expiration of seven years from the
+date on which he was last heard of. That is to say, that the total
+disappearance of an individual for seven years constitutes presumptive
+evidence that the said individual is dead; and the presumption can be
+set aside only by the production of evidence that he was alive at some
+time within that period of seven years. But if, on the other hand, it
+is sought to presume the death of a person who has been absent for a
+shorter period than seven years, it is necessary to produce such
+evidence as shall make it highly probable that the said person is dead.
+Of course, presumption implies supposition as opposed to actual
+demonstration; but, nevertheless, the evidence in such a case must be of
+a kind that tends to create a very strong belief that death has
+occurred; and I need hardly say that the shorter the period of absence,
+the more convincing must be the evidence.
+
+"In the present case, the testator, John Bellingham, has been absent
+somewhat under two years. This is a relatively short period, and in
+itself gives rise to no presumption of death. Nevertheless, death has
+been presumed in a case where the period of absence was even shorter and
+the insurance recovered; but here the evidence supporting the belief in
+the occurrence of death was exceedingly weighty.
+
+"The testator in this case was a shipmaster, and his disappearance was
+accompanied by the disappearance of the ship and the entire ship's
+company in the course of a voyage from London to Marseilles. The loss of
+the ship and her crew was the only reasonable explanation of the
+disappearance, and, short of actual demonstration, the facts offered
+convincing evidence of the death of all persons on board. I mention this
+case as an illustration. You are not dealing with speculative
+probabilities. You are contemplating a very momentous proceeding, and
+you must be very sure of your ground. Consider what it is that you are
+asked to do.
+
+"The petitioner asks permission to presume the death of the testator in
+order that the testator's property may be distributed among the
+beneficiaries under the will. The granting of such permission involves
+us in the gravest responsibility. An ill-considered decision might be
+productive of a serious injustice to the testator, an injustice that
+could never be remedied. Hence it is incumbent upon you to weigh the
+evidence with the greatest care, to come to no decision without the
+profoundest consideration of all the facts.
+
+"The evidence that you have heard divides itself into two parts--that
+relating to the circumstances of the testator's disappearance, and that
+relating to certain human remains. In connection with the latter I can
+only express my surprise and regret that the application was not
+postponed until the completion of the coroner's inquest, and leave you
+to consider the evidence. You will bear in mind that Doctor Summers has
+stated explicitly that the remains cannot be identified as those of any
+particular individual, but that the testator and the unknown deceased
+had so many points of resemblance that they might possibly be one and
+the same person.
+
+"With reference to the circumstances of the disappearance, you have
+heard the evidence of Mr. Jellicoe to the effect that the testator has
+on no previous occasion gone abroad without informing him as to his
+proposed destination. But in considering what weight you are to give to
+this statement you will bear in mind that when the testator set out for
+Paris after his interview with Doctor Norbury he left Mr. Jellicoe
+without any information as to his specific destination, his address in
+Paris, or the precise date when he should return, and that Mr. Jellicoe
+was unable to tell us where the testator went or what was his business.
+Mr. Jellicoe was, in fact, for a time without any means of tracing the
+testator or ascertaining his whereabouts.
+
+"The evidence of the housemaid, Dobbs, and of Mr. Hurst is rather
+confusing. It appears that the testator came to the house, was shown
+into a certain room, and when looked for later was not to be found. A
+search of the premises showed that he was not in the house, whence it
+seems to follow that he must have left it; but since no one was informed
+of his intention to leave, and he had expressed the intention of staying
+to see Mr. Hurst, his conduct in thus going away surreptitiously must
+appear somewhat eccentric. The point that you have to consider,
+therefore, is whether a person who is capable of thus departing in a
+surreptitious and eccentric manner from a house, without giving notice
+to the servants, is capable also of departing in a surreptitious and
+eccentric manner from his usual places of resort without giving notice
+to his friends or thereafter informing them of his whereabouts.
+
+"The questions, then, gentlemen, that you have to ask yourselves before
+deciding on your verdict are two: first, Are the circumstances of the
+testator's disappearance and his continued absence incongruous with his
+habits and personal peculiarities as they are known to you? and second,
+Are there any facts which indicate in a positive manner that the
+testator is dead? Ask yourselves these questions, gentlemen, and the
+answers to them, furnished by the evidence that you have heard, will
+guide you to your decision."
+
+Having delivered himself of the above instructions, the judge applied
+himself to the perusal of the will with professional gusto, in which
+occupation he was presently disturbed by the announcement of the foreman
+of the jury that a verdict had been agreed upon.
+
+The judge sat up and glanced at the jury-box, and when the foreman
+proceeded to state that "We find no sufficient reason for presuming the
+testator, John Bellingham, to be dead," he nodded approvingly. Evidently
+that was his opinion, too, as he was careful to explain when he conveyed
+to Mr. Loram the refusal of the Court to grant the permission applied
+for.
+
+The decision was a great relief to me, and also, I think, to Miss
+Bellingham; but most of all to her father, who, with instinctive good
+manners, since he could not suppress a smile of triumph, rose hastily
+and stumped out of the Court, so that the discomfited Hurst should not
+see him. His daughter and I followed, and as we left the Court she
+remarked, with a smile:
+
+"So our pauperism is not, after all, made absolute. There is still a
+chance for us in the Chapter of Accidents--and perhaps even for poor old
+Uncle John."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
+
+
+The morning after the hearing saw me setting forth on my round in more
+than usually good spirits. The round itself was but a short one, for my
+list contained only a couple of "chronics," and this, perhaps,
+contributed to my cheerful outlook on life. But there were other
+reasons. The decision of the Court had come as an unexpected reprieve
+and the ruin of my friends' prospects was at least postponed. Then, I
+had learned that Thorndyke was back from Bristol and wished me to look
+in on him; and, finally, Miss Bellingham had agreed to spend this very
+afternoon with me, browsing round the galleries at the British Museum.
+
+I had disposed of my two patients by a quarter to eleven, and three
+minutes later was striding down Mitre Court, all agog to hear what
+Thorndyke had to say with reference to my notes on the inquest. The
+"oak" was open when I arrived at his chambers, and a modest flourish on
+the little brass knocker of the inner door was answered by my quondam
+teacher himself.
+
+"How good of you, Berkeley," he said, shaking hands genially, "to look
+me up so early. I am all alone, just looking through the report of the
+evidence in yesterday's proceedings."
+
+He placed an easy chair for me, and, gathering up a bundle of
+type-written papers, laid them aside on the table.
+
+"Were you surprised at the decision?" I asked.
+
+"No," he answered. "Two years is a short period of absence; but still,
+it might easily have gone the other way. I am greatly relieved. The
+respite gives us time to carry out our investigations without undue
+hurry."
+
+"Did you find my notes of any use?" I asked.
+
+"Heath did. Polton handed them to him, and they were invaluable to him
+for his cross-examination. I haven't seen them yet; in fact, I have only
+just got them back from him. Let us go through them together now."
+
+He opened a drawer, and taking from it my note-book, seated himself, and
+began to read through my notes with grave attention, while I stood and
+looked shyly over his shoulder. On the page that contained my sketches
+of the Sidcup arm, showing the distribution of the snails' eggs on the
+bones, he lingered with a faint smile that made me turn hot and red.
+
+"Those sketches look rather footy," I said; "but I had to put something
+in my note-book."
+
+"You didn't attach any importance, then, to the facts that they
+illustrated?"
+
+"No. The egg-patches were there, so I noted the fact. That's all."
+
+"I congratulate you, Berkeley. There is not one man in twenty who would
+have the sense to make a careful note of what he considers an
+unimportant or irrelevant fact; and the investigator who notes only
+those things that appear significant is perfectly useless. He gives
+himself no material for reconsideration. But you don't mean that these
+egg-patches and worm-tubes appeared to you to have no significance at
+all?"
+
+"Oh, of course, they show the position in which the bones were lying."
+
+"Exactly. The arm was lying, fully extended, with the dorsal side
+uppermost. There is nothing remarkable in that. But we also learn from
+these egg-patches that the hand had been separated from the arm before
+it was thrown into the pond; and there is something very remarkable in
+that."
+
+I leaned over his shoulder and gazed at my sketches, amazed at the
+rapidity with which he had reconstructed the limb from my rough drawings
+of the individual bones.
+
+"I don't quite see how you arrived at it, though," I said.
+
+"Well, look at your drawings. The egg-patches are on the dorsal surface
+of the scapula, the humerus, and the bones of the fore-arm. But here you
+have shown six of the bones of the hand: two metacarpals, the os magnum,
+and three phalanges; and they all have egg-patches on the _palmar_
+surface. Therefore the hand was lying palm upwards."
+
+"But the hand may have been pronated."
+
+"If you mean pronated in relation to the arm, that is impossible, for
+the position of the egg-patches shows clearly that the bones of the arm
+were lying in the position of supination. Thus the dorsal surface of the
+arm and the palmar surface of the hand respectively were uppermost,
+which is an anatomical impossibility so long as the hand is attached to
+the arm."
+
+"But might not the hand have become detached after lying in the pond
+some time?"
+
+"No. It could not have been detached until the ligaments had decayed,
+and if it had been separated after the decay of the soft parts, the
+bones would have been thrown into disorder. But the egg-patches are all
+on the palmar surface, showing that the bones were still in their normal
+relative positions. No, Berkeley, that hand was thrown into the pond
+separately from the arm."
+
+"But why should it have been?" I asked.
+
+"Ah, there is a very pretty little problem for you to consider. And,
+meantime, let me tell you that your expedition has been a brilliant
+success. You are an excellent observer. Your only fault is that when you
+have noted certain facts you don't seem fully to appreciate their
+significance--which is merely a matter of inexperience. As to the facts
+that you have collected, several of them are of prime importance."
+
+"I am glad you are satisfied," said I, "though I don't see that I have
+discovered much excepting those snails' eggs; and they don't seem to
+have advanced matters very much."
+
+"A definite fact, Berkeley, is a definite asset. Perhaps we may
+presently find a little space in our Chinese puzzle which this fact of
+the detached hand will just drop into. But, tell me, did you find
+nothing unexpected or suggestive about those bones--as to their number
+and condition, for instance?"
+
+"Well, I thought it a little queer that the scapula and clavicle should
+be there. I should have expected him to cut the arm off at the
+shoulder-joint."
+
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "so should I; and so it has been done in every
+case of dismemberment that I am acquainted with. To an ordinary person,
+the arm seems to join on to the trunk at the shoulder-joint, and that is
+where he would naturally sever it. What explanation do you suggest of
+this unusual mode of severing the arm?"
+
+"Do you think the fellow could have been a butcher?" I asked,
+remembering Dr. Summers' remark. "This is the way a shoulder of mutton
+is taken off."
+
+"No," replied Thorndyke. "A butcher includes the scapula in a shoulder
+of mutton for a specific purpose, namely, to take off a given quantity
+of meat. And also, as a sheep has no clavicle, it is the easiest way to
+detach the limb. But I imagine a butcher would find himself in
+difficulties if he attempted to take off a man's arm in that way. The
+clavicle would be a new and perplexing feature. Then, too, a butcher
+does not deal very delicately with his subject; if he has to divide a
+joint, he just cuts through it and does not trouble himself to avoid
+marking the bones. But you note here that there is not a single scratch
+or score on any one of the bones, not even where the finger was removed.
+Now, if you have ever prepared bones for a museum, as I have, you will
+remember the extreme care that is necessary in disarticulating joints to
+avoid disfiguring the articular ends of the bones with cuts and
+scratches."
+
+"Then you think that the person who dismembered this body must have had
+some anatomical knowledge and skill?"
+
+"That is what has been suggested. The suggestion is not mine."
+
+"Then I infer that you don't agree?"
+
+Thorndyke smiled. "I am sorry to be so cryptic, Berkeley, but you
+understand that I can't make statements. Still, I am trying to lead you
+to make certain inferences from the facts that are in your possession."
+
+"If I make the right inference, will you tell me?" I asked.
+
+"It won't be necessary," he answered, with the same quiet smile. "When
+you have fitted a puzzle together you don't need to be told that you
+have done it."
+
+It was most infernally tantalising. I pondered on the problem with a
+scowl of such intense cogitation that Thorndyke laughed outright.
+
+"It seems to me," I said, at length, "that the identity of the remains
+is the primary question and that is a question of fact. It doesn't seem
+any use to speculate about it."
+
+"Exactly. Either these bones are the remains of John Bellingham or they
+are not. There will be no doubt on the subject when all the bones are
+assembled--if ever they are. And the settlement of that question will
+probably throw light on the further question: Who deposited them in the
+places in which they were found? But to return to your observations: did
+you gather nothing from the other bones? From the complete state of the
+neck vertebrae, for instance?"
+
+"Well, it did strike me as rather odd that the fellow should have gone
+to the trouble of separating the atlas from the skull. He must have been
+pretty handy with the scalpel to have done it as cleanly as he seems to
+have done; but I don't see why he should have gone about the business in
+the most inconvenient way."
+
+"You notice the uniformity of method. He has separated the head from the
+spine, instead of cutting through the spine lower down, as most persons
+would have done: he removed the arms with the entire shoulder-girdle,
+instead of simply cutting them off at the shoulder-joints. Even in the
+thighs the same peculiarity appears; for in neither case was the
+knee-cap found with the thigh-bone, although it seems to have been
+searched for. Now the obvious way to divide the leg is to cut through
+the patellar ligament, leaving the knee-cap attached to the thigh. But
+in this case, the knee-cap appears to have been left attached to the
+shank. Can you explain why this person should have adopted this unusual
+and rather inconvenient method? Can you suggest a motive for this
+procedure, or can you think of any circumstances which might lead a
+person to adopt this method by preference?"
+
+"It seems as if he wished, for some reason, to divide the body into
+definite anatomical regions."
+
+Thorndyke chuckled. "You are not offering that suggestion as an
+explanation, are you? Because it would require more explaining than the
+original problem. And it is not even true. Anatomically speaking, the
+knee-cap appertains to the thigh rather than to the shank. It is a
+sesamoid bone belonging to the thigh muscles; yet in this case it has
+been left attached, apparently, to the shank. No, Berkeley, that cat
+won't jump. Our unknown operator was not preparing a skeleton as a
+museum specimen; he was dividing a body up into convenient-sized
+portions for the purpose of conveying them to various ponds. Now what
+circumstances might have led him to divide it in this peculiar manner?"
+
+"I am afraid I have no suggestion to offer. Have you?"
+
+Thorndyke suddenly lapsed into ambiguity. "I think," he said, "it is
+possible to conceive such circumstances, and so, probably, will you if
+you think it over."
+
+"Did you gather anything of importance from the evidence at the
+inquest?" I asked.
+
+"It is difficult to say," he replied. "The whole of my conclusions in
+this case are based on what is virtually circumstantial evidence. I have
+not one single fact of which I can say that it admits only of a single
+interpretation. Still, it must be remembered that even the most
+inconclusive facts, if sufficiently multiplied, yield a highly
+conclusive total. And my little pile of evidence is growing, particle by
+particle; but we mustn't sit here gossiping at this hour of the day; I
+have to consult with Marchmont and you say that you have an early
+afternoon engagement. We can walk together as far as Fleet Street."
+
+A minute or two later we went our respective ways, Thorndyke towards
+Lombard Street and I to Fetter Lane, not unmindful of those coming
+events that were casting so agreeable a shadow before them.
+
+There was only one message awaiting me, and when Adolphus had delivered
+it (amidst mephitic fumes that rose from the basement, premonitory of
+fried plaice), I pocketed my stethoscope and betook myself to Gunpowder
+Alley, the aristocratic abode of my patient, joyfully threading the now
+familiar passages of Gough Square and Wine Office Court, and meditating
+pleasantly on the curious literary flavour that pervades these
+little-known regions. For the shade of the author of _Rasselas_ still
+seems to haunt the scenes of his Titanic labours and his ponderous but
+homely and temperate rejoicings. Every court and alley whispers of books
+and of the making of books; forms of type, trundled noisily on trollies
+by ink-smeared boys, salute the wayfarer at odd corners; piles of
+strawboard, rolls or bales of paper, drums of printing-ink or
+roller-composition stand on the pavement outside dark entries; basement
+windows give glimpses into Hadean caverns tenanted by legions of
+printer's devils; and the very air is charged with the hum of press and
+with odours of glue and paste and oil. The entire neighbourhood is given
+up to the printer and binder; and even my patient turned out to be a
+guillotine-knife grinder--a ferocious and revolutionary calling
+strangely at variance with his harmless appearance and meek bearing.
+
+I was in good time at my tryst, despite the hindrances of fried plaice
+and invalid guillotinists; but, early as I was, Miss Bellingham was
+already waiting in the garden--she had been filling a bowl with
+flowers--ready to sally forth.
+
+"It is quite like old times," she said, as we turned into Fetter Lane,
+"to be going to the Museum together. It brings back the Tell el Amarna
+tablets and all your kindness and unselfish labour. I suppose we shall
+walk there to-day?"
+
+"Certainly," I replied; "I am not going to share your society with the
+common mortals who ride in omnibuses. That would be sheer, sinful waste.
+Besides, it is more companionable to walk."
+
+"Yes, it is; and the bustle of the streets makes one more appreciative
+of the quiet of the Museum. What are we going to look at when we get
+there?"
+
+"You must decide that," I replied. "You know the collection much better
+than I do."
+
+"Well, now," she mused, "I wonder what you would like to see; or, in
+other words, what I should like you to see. The old English pottery is
+rather fascinating, especially the Fulham ware. I rather think I shall
+take you to see that."
+
+She reflected awhile, and then, just as we reached the gate of Staple
+Inn, she stopped and looked thoughtfully down the Gray's Inn Road.
+
+"You have taken a great interest in our 'case,' as Doctor Thorndyke
+calls it. Would you like to see the churchyard where Uncle John wished
+to be buried? It is a little out of our way, but we are not in a hurry,
+are we?"
+
+I, certainly, was not. Any deviation that might prolong our walk was
+welcome, and, as to the place--why, all places were alike to me if only
+she were by my side. Besides, the churchyard was really of some
+interest, since it was undoubtedly the "exciting cause" of the obnoxious
+paragraph two of the disputed will. I accordingly expressed a desire to
+make its acquaintance, and we crossed to the entrance to Gray's Inn
+Road.
+
+"Do you ever try," she asked, as we turned down the dingy thoroughfare,
+"to picture to yourself familiar places as they looked a couple of
+hundred years ago?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, "and very difficult I find it. One has to manufacture
+the materials for reconstruction, and then the present aspect of the
+place will keep obtruding itself. But some places are easier to
+reconstitute than others."
+
+"That is what I find," said she. "Now Holborn, for example, is quite
+easy to reconstruct, though I daresay the imaginary form isn't a bit
+like the original. But there are fragments left, like Staple Inn and the
+front of Gray's Inn; and then one has seen prints of the old Middle Row
+and some of the taverns, so that one has some material with which to
+help out one's imagination. But this road that we are walking in always
+baffles me. It looks so old and yet is, for the most part, so new that I
+find it impossible to make a satisfactory picture of its appearance,
+say, when Sir Roger de Coverley might have strolled in Gray's Inn Walks,
+or farther back, when Francis Bacon had chambers in the Inn."
+
+"I imagine," said I, "that part of the difficulty is in the mixed
+character of the neighbourhood. Here, on the one side, is old Gray's
+Inn, not much changed since Bacon's time--his chambers are still to be
+seen, I think, over the gateway; and there, on the Clerkenwell side, is
+a dense and rather squalid neighbourhood which has grown up over a
+region partly rural and wholly fugitive in character. Places like
+Bagnigge Wells and Hockley in the Hole would not have had many buildings
+that were likely to survive; and in the absence of surviving specimens
+the imagination hasn't much to work from."
+
+"I daresay you are right," said she. "Certainly, the purlieus of old
+Clerkenwell present a very confused picture to me; whereas, in the case
+of an old street like, say, Great Ormond Street, one has only to sweep
+away the modern buildings and replace them with glorious old houses like
+the few that remain, dig up the roadway and pavements and lay down
+cobble-stones, plant a few wooden posts, hang up one or two oil-lamps,
+and the transformation is complete. And a very delightful transformation
+it is."
+
+"Very delightful; which, by the way, is a melancholy thought. For we
+ought to be doing better work than our forefathers; whereas what we
+actually do is to pull down the old buildings, clap the doorways,
+porticoes, panelling, and mantels in our museums, and then run up
+something inexpensive and useful and deadly uninteresting in their
+place."
+
+My companion looked at me and laughed softly. "For a naturally cheerful,
+and even gay young man," said she, "you are most amazingly pessimistic.
+The mantle of Jeremiah--if he ever wore one--seems to have fallen on
+you, but without in the least impairing your good spirits excepting in
+regard to matters architectural."
+
+"I have much to be thankful for," said I. "Am I not taken to the Museum
+by a fair lady? And does she not stay me with mummy cases and comfort me
+with crockery?"
+
+"Pottery," she corrected; and then, as we met a party of grave-looking
+women emerging from a side-street, she said: "I suppose those are lady
+medical students."
+
+"Yes, on their way to the Royal Free Hospital. Note the gravity of their
+demeanour and contrast it with the levity of the male student."
+
+"I was doing so," she answered, "and wondering why professional women
+are usually so much more serious than men."
+
+"Perhaps," I suggested, "it is a matter of selection. A peculiar type of
+woman is attracted to the professions, whereas every man has to earn his
+living as a matter of course."
+
+"Yes, I daresay that is the explanation. This is our turning."
+
+We passed into Heathcote Street, at the end of which was an open gate
+giving entrance to one of those disused and metamorphosed burial-grounds
+that are to be met with in the older districts of London; in which the
+dispossessed dead are jostled into corners to make room for the living.
+Many of the headstones were still standing, and others, displaced to
+make room for asphalted walks and seats, were ranged around by the
+walls, exhibiting inscriptions made meaningless by their removal. It was
+a pleasant enough place on this summer afternoon, contrasted with the
+dingy street whence we had come, though its grass was faded and yellow
+and the twitter of the birds in the trees mingled with the hideous
+Board-school drawl of the children who played around the seats and the
+few remaining tombs.
+
+"So this is the last resting-place of the illustrious house of
+Bellingham," said I.
+
+"Yes; and we are not the only distinguished people who repose in this
+place. The daughter of no less a person than Richard Cromwell is buried
+here; the tomb is still standing--but perhaps you have been here before,
+and know it."
+
+"I don't think I have ever been here before; and yet there is something
+about the place that seems familiar." I looked around, cudgelling my
+brains for the key to the dimly reminiscent sensations that the place
+evoked; until, suddenly, I caught sight of a group of buildings away to
+the west, enclosed within a wall heightened by a wooden trellis.
+
+"Yes, of course!" I exclaimed. "I remember the place now. I have never
+been in this part before, but in that enclosure beyond which opens at
+the end of Henrietta Street, there used to be and may be still, for all
+I know, a school of anatomy, at which I attended in my first year; in
+fact, I did my first dissection there."
+
+"There was a certain gruesome appropriateness in the position of the
+school," remarked Miss Bellingham. "It would have been really convenient
+in the days of the resurrection men. Your material would have been
+delivered at your very door. Was it a large school?"
+
+"The attendance varied according to the time of the year. Sometimes I
+worked there quite alone. I used to let myself in with a key and hoist
+my subject out of a sort of sepulchral tank by means of a chain tackle.
+It was a ghoulish business. You have no idea how awful the body used to
+look, to my unaccustomed eyes, as it rose slowly out of the tank. It was
+like the resurrection scenes that you see on some old tombstones, where
+the deceased is shown rising out of his coffin while the skeleton,
+Death, falls vanquished with his dart shattered and his crown toppling
+off.
+
+"I remember, too, that the demonstrator used to wear a blue apron, which
+created a sort of impression of a cannibal butcher's shop. But I am
+afraid I am shocking you."
+
+"No, you are not. Every profession has its unpresentable aspects, which
+ought not to be seen by out-siders. Think of a sculptor's studio and of
+the sculptor himself when he is modelling a large figure or group in the
+clay. He might be a bricklayer or a road-sweeper if you judge by his
+appearance. This is the tomb I was telling you about."
+
+We halted before the plain coffer of stone, weathered and wasted by age,
+but yet kept in decent repair by some pious hands, and read the
+inscription, setting forth with modest pride, that here reposed Anna,
+sixth daughter of Richard Cromwell, "The Protector." It was a simple
+monument and commonplace enough, with the crude severity of the ascetic
+age to which it belonged. But still, it carried the mind back to those
+stirring times when the leafy shades of Gray's Inn Lane must have
+resounded with the clank of weapons and the tramp of armed men; when
+this bald recreation-ground was a rustic churchyard, standing amidst
+green fields and hedgerows, and countrymen leading their pack-horses
+into London through the Lane would stop to look in over the wooden gate.
+
+Miss Bellingham looked at me critically as I stood thus reflecting, and
+presently remarked, "I think you and I have a good many mental habits in
+common."
+
+I looked up inquiringly, and she continued: "I notice that an old
+tombstone seems to set you meditating. So it does me. When I look at an
+ancient monument, and especially an old headstone, I find myself almost
+unconsciously retracing the years to the date that is written on the
+stone. Why do you think that is? Why should a monument be so stimulating
+to the imagination? And why should a common headstone be more so than
+any other?"
+
+"I suppose it is," I answered reflectively, "that a churchyard monument
+is a peculiarly personal thing and appertains in a peculiar way to a
+particular time. And the circumstance that it has stood untouched by the
+passing years while everything around has changed, helps the imagination
+to span the interval. And the common headstone, the memorial of some
+dead and gone farmer or labourer who lived and died in the village hard
+by, is still more intimate and suggestive. The rustic, childish
+sculpture of the village mason and the artless doggerel of the village
+schoolmaster, bring back the time and place and the conditions of life
+much more vividly than the more scholarly inscriptions and the more
+artistic enrichments of monuments of greater pretensions. But where are
+your own family tombstones?"
+
+"They are over in that farther corner. There is an intelligent, but
+inopportune, person apparently copying the epitaphs. I wish he would go
+away. I want to show them to you."
+
+I now noticed, for the first time, an individual engaged, note-book in
+hand, in making a careful survey of a group of old headstones. Evidently
+he was making a copy of the inscriptions, for not only was he poring
+attentively over the writing on the face of the stone, but now and again
+he helped out his vision by running his fingers over the worn lettering.
+
+"That is my grandfather's tombstone that he is copying now," said Miss
+Bellingham; and even as she spoke, the man turned and directed a
+searching glance at us with a pair of keen, spectacled eyes.
+
+Simultaneously we uttered an exclamation of surprise; for the
+investigator was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+"O! ARTEMIDORUS, FAREWELL!"
+
+
+Whether or not Mr. Jellicoe was surprised to see us, it is impossible to
+say. His countenance (which served the ordinary purposes of a face,
+inasmuch as it contained the principal organs of special sense, with the
+inlets to the alimentary and respiratory tracts) was, as an apparatus
+for the expression of the emotions, a total failure. To a thought-reader
+it would have been about as helpful as the face carved upon the handle
+of an umbrella; a comparison suggested, perhaps, by a certain
+resemblance to such an object. He advanced, holding his open note-book
+and pencil, and having saluted us with a stiff bow and an old-fashioned
+flourish of his hat, shook hands rheumatically and waited for us to
+speak.
+
+"This is an unexpected pleasure, Mr. Jellicoe," said Miss Bellingham.
+
+"It is very good of you to say so," he replied.
+
+"And quite a coincidence--that we should all happen to come here on the
+same day."
+
+"A coincidence, certainly," he admitted; "and if we had all happened not
+to come--which must have occurred frequently--that also would have been
+a coincidence."
+
+"I suppose it would," said she, "but I hope we are not interrupting
+you."
+
+"Thank you, no. I had just finished when I had the pleasure of
+perceiving you."
+
+"You were making some notes in reference to the case, I imagine," said
+I. It was an impertinent question, put with malice aforethought for the
+mere pleasure of hearing him evade it.
+
+"The case?" he repeated. "You are referring, perhaps, to Stevens versus
+the Parish Council?"
+
+"I think Doctor Berkeley was referring to the case of my uncle's will,"
+Miss Bellingham said quite gravely, though with a suspicious dimpling
+about the corners of her mouth.
+
+"Indeed," said Mr. Jellicoe. "There is a case, is there; a suit?"
+
+"I mean the proceedings instituted by Mr. Hurst."
+
+"Oh, but that was merely an application to the Court, and is, moreover,
+finished and done with. At least, so I understand. I speak, of course,
+subject to correction; I am not acting for Mr. Hurst, you will be
+pleased to remember. As a matter of fact," he continued, after a brief
+pause, "I was just refreshing my memory as to the wording of the
+inscriptions on these stones, especially that of your grandfather,
+Francis Bellingham. It has occurred to me that if it should appear by
+the finding of the coroner's jury that your uncle is deceased, it would
+be proper and decorous that some memorial should be placed here. But, as
+the burial-ground is closed, there might be some difficulty about
+erecting a new monument, whereas there would probably be none in adding
+an inscription to one already existing. Hence these investigations. For
+if the inscription on your grandfather's stone had set forth that 'here
+rests the body of Francis Bellingham,' it would have been manifestly
+improper to add 'also that of John Bellingham, son of the above.'
+Fortunately the inscription was more discreetly drafted, merely
+recording the fact that this monument is 'sacred to the memory of the
+said Francis,' and not committing itself as to the whereabouts of the
+remains. But perhaps I am interrupting you?"
+
+"No, not at all," replied Miss Bellingham (which was grossly untrue; he
+was interrupting _me_ most intolerably); "we were going to the British
+Museum and just looked in here on our way."
+
+"Ha," said Mr. Jellicoe, "now, I happen to be going to the Museum too,
+to see Doctor Norbury. I suppose that is another coincidence?"
+
+"Certainly it is," Miss Bellingham replied; and then she asked: "Shall
+we walk there together?" and the old curmudgeon actually said
+"yes"--confound him!
+
+We returned to the Gray's Inn Road, where, as there was now room for us
+to walk abreast, I proceeded to indemnify myself for the lawyer's
+unwelcome company by leading the conversation back to the subject of the
+missing man.
+
+"Was there anything, Mr. Jellicoe, in Mr. John Bellingham's state of
+health that would make it probable that he might die suddenly?"
+
+The lawyer looked at me suspiciously for a few moments and then
+remarked:
+
+"You seem to be greatly interested in John Bellingham and his affairs."
+
+"I am. My friends are deeply concerned in them, and the case itself is
+of more than common interest from a professional point of view."
+
+"And what is the bearing of this particular question?"
+
+"Surely it is obvious," said I. "If a missing man is known to have
+suffered from some affection, such as heart disease, aneurism, or
+arterial degeneration, likely to produce sudden death, that fact will
+surely be highly material to the question as to whether he is probably
+dead or alive."
+
+"No doubt you are right," said Mr. Jellicoe. "I have little knowledge of
+medical affairs, but doubtless you are right. As to the question itself,
+I am Mr. Bellingham's lawyer, not his doctor. His health is a matter
+that lies outside my jurisdiction. But you heard my evidence in Court,
+to the effect that the testator appeared, to my untutored observation,
+to be a healthy man. I can say no more now."
+
+"If the question is of any importance," said Miss Bellingham, "I wonder
+they did not call his doctor and settle it definitely. My own impression
+is that he was--or is--rather a strong and sound man. He certainly
+recovered very quickly and completely after his accident."
+
+"What accident was that?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, hasn't my father told you? It occurred while he was staying with
+us. He slipped from a high kerb and broke one of the bones of the left
+ankle--somebody's fracture--"
+
+"Pott's?"
+
+"Yes, that was the name--Pott's fracture; and he broke both his
+knee-caps as well. Sir Morgan Bennet had to perform an operation, or he
+would have been a cripple for life. As it was, he was about again in a
+few weeks, apparently none the worse excepting for a slight weakness of
+the left ankle."
+
+"Could he walk upstairs?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, yes; and play golf and ride a bicycle."
+
+"You are sure he broke both knee-caps?"
+
+"Quite sure. I remember that it was mentioned as an uncommon injury, and
+that Sir Morgan seemed quite pleased with him for doing it."
+
+"That sounds rather libellous; but I expect he was pleased with the
+result of the operation. He might well be."
+
+Here there was a brief lull in the conversation, and, even as I was
+trying to think of a poser for Mr. Jellicoe, that gentleman took the
+opportunity to change the subject.
+
+"Are you going to the Egyptian Rooms?" he asked.
+
+"No," replied Miss Bellingham; "we are going to look at the pottery."
+
+"Ancient or modern?"
+
+"The old Fulham ware is what chiefly interests us at present; that of
+the seventeenth century. I don't know whether you would call that
+ancient or modern."
+
+"Neither do I," said Mr. Jellicoe. "Antiquity and modernity are terms
+that have no fixed connotation. They are purely relative and their
+application in a particular instance has to be determined by a sort of
+sliding scale. To a furniture collector, a Tudor chair or a Jacobean
+chest is ancient; to an architect, their period is modern, whereas an
+eleventh-century church is ancient; but to an Egyptologist, accustomed
+to remains of a vast antiquity, both are products of modern periods
+separated by an insignificant interval. And, I suppose," he added,
+reflectively, "that to a geologist, the traces of the very earliest dawn
+of human history appertain only to the recent period. Conceptions of
+time, like all other conceptions, are relative."
+
+"You appear to be a disciple of Herbert Spencer," I remarked.
+
+"I am a disciple of Arthur Jellicoe, sir," he retorted. And I believed
+him.
+
+By the time we had reached the Museum he had become almost genial; and,
+if less amusing in this frame, he was so much more instructive and
+entertaining that I refrained from baiting him, and permitted him to
+discuss his favourite topic unhindered, especially since my companion
+listened with lively interest. Nor, when we entered the great hall, did
+he relinquish possession of us, and we followed submissively, as he led
+the way past the winged bulls of Nineveh and the great seated statues,
+until we found ourselves, almost without the exercise of our volition,
+in the upper room amidst the glaring mummy cases that had witnessed the
+birth of my friendship with Ruth Bellingham.
+
+"Before I leave you," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I should like to show you that
+mummy that we were discussing the other evening; the one, you remember,
+that my friend, John Bellingham, presented to the Museum a little time
+before his disappearance. The point that I mentioned is only a trivial
+one, but it may become of interest hereafter if any plausible
+explanation should be forthcoming." He led us along the room until we
+arrived at the case containing John Bellingham's gift, where he halted
+and gazed in at the mummy with the affectionate reflectiveness of the
+connoisseur.
+
+"The bitumen coating was what we were discussing, Miss Bellingham,"
+said he. "You have seen it, of course."
+
+"Yes," she answered. "It is a dreadful disfigurement, isn't it?"
+
+"Aesthetically it is to be deplored, but it adds a certain speculative
+interest to the specimen. You notice that the black coating leaves the
+principal decoration and the whole of the inscription untouched, which
+is precisely the part that one would expect to find covered up; whereas
+the feet and the back, which probably bore no writing, are quite thickly
+encrusted. If you stoop down, you can see that the bitumen was daubed
+freely into the lacings of the back, where it served no purpose, so that
+even the strings are embedded." He stooped, as he spoke, and peered up
+inquisitively at the back of the mummy, where it was visible between the
+supports.
+
+"Has Doctor Norbury any explanation to offer?" asked Miss Bellingham.
+
+"None whatever," replied Mr. Jellicoe. "He finds it as great a mystery
+as I do. But he thinks that we may get some suggestion from the Director
+when he comes back. He is a very great authority, as you know, and a
+practical excavator of great experience too. But I mustn't stay here
+talking of these things, and keeping you from your pottery. Perhaps I
+have stayed too long already. If I have I ask your pardon, and I will
+now wish you a very good afternoon." With a sudden return to his
+customary wooden impassivity, he shook hands with us, bowed stiffly, and
+took himself off towards the curator's office.
+
+"What a strange man that is," said Miss Bellingham, as Mr. Jellicoe
+disappeared through the doorway at the end of the room, "or perhaps I
+should say, a strange being, for I can hardly think of him as a man. I
+have never met any other human creature at all like him."
+
+"He is certainly a queer old fogey," I agreed.
+
+"Yes, but there is something more than that. He is so emotionless, so
+remote and aloof from all mundane concerns. He moves among ordinary men
+and women, but as a mere presence, an unmoved spectator of their
+actions, quite dispassionate and impersonal."
+
+"Yes, he is astonishingly self-contained; in fact, he seems, as you say,
+to go to and fro among men, enveloped in a sort of infernal atmosphere
+of his own, like Marley's ghost. But he is lively and human enough as
+soon as the subject of Egyptian antiquities is broached."
+
+"Lively, but not human. He is always, to me, quite unhuman. Even when he
+is most interested, and even enthusiastic, he is a mere personification
+of knowledge. Nature ought to have furnished him with an ibis' head like
+Tahuti; then he would have looked his part."
+
+"He would have made a rare sensation in Lincoln's Inn if she had," said
+I; and we both laughed heartily at the imaginary picture of Tahuti
+Jellicoe, slender-beaked and top-hatted, going about his business in
+Lincoln's Inn and the Law Courts.
+
+Insensibly, as we talked, we had drawn near to the mummy of Artemidorus,
+and now my companion halted before the case with her thoughtful grey
+eyes bent dreamily on the face that looked out at us. I watched her with
+reverent admiration. How charming she looked as she stood with her
+sweet, grave face turned so earnestly to the object of her mystical
+affection! How dainty and full of womanly dignity and grace! And then,
+suddenly, it was borne in upon me that a great change had come over her
+since the day of our first meeting. She had grown younger, more girlish,
+and more gentle. At first she had seemed much older than I; a sad-faced
+woman, weary, solemn, enigmatic, almost gloomy, with a bitter, ironic
+humour and a bearing distant and cold. Now she was only maidenly and
+sweet; tinged, it is true, with a certain seriousness, but frank and
+gracious and wholly lovable.
+
+Could the change be due to our growing friendship? As I asked myself the
+question, my heart leaped with a new-born hope. I yearned to tell her
+all that she was to me--all that I hoped we might be to one another in
+the years to come.
+
+At length I ventured to break in upon her reverie.
+
+"What are you thinking about so earnestly, fair lady?"
+
+She turned quickly with a bright smile and sparkling eyes that looked
+frankly into mine. "I was wondering," said she, "if he was jealous of my
+new friend. But what a baby I am to talk such nonsense!"
+
+She laughed softly and happily with just an adorable hint of shyness.
+
+"Why should he be jealous?" I asked.
+
+"Well, you see, before--we were friends, he had me all to himself. I
+have never had a man-friend before--except my father--and no really
+intimate friend at all. And I was very lonely in those days, after our
+troubles had befallen. I am naturally solitary, but still, I am only a
+girl; I am not a philosopher. So when I felt very lonely, I used to come
+here and look at Artemidorus and make believe that he knew all the
+sadness of my life and sympathised with me. It was very silly, I know,
+but yet, somehow it was a real comfort to me."
+
+"It was not silly of you at all. He must have been a good man, a gentle,
+sweet-faced man who had won the love of those who knew him, as this
+beautiful memorial tells us; and it was wise and good of you to sweeten
+the bitterness of your life with the fragrance of this human love that
+blossoms in the dust after the lapse of centuries. No, you were not
+silly, and Artemidorus is not jealous of your new friend."
+
+"Are you sure?" She still smiled as she asked the question, but her
+glance was soft--almost tender--and there was a note of whimsical
+anxiety in her voice.
+
+"Quite sure. I give you my confident assurance."
+
+She laughed gaily. "Then," said she, "I am satisfied, for I am sure you
+know. But here is a mighty telepathist who can read the thoughts even of
+a mummy. A most formidable companion. But tell me how you know."
+
+"I know, because it is he who gave you to me to be my friend. Don't you
+remember?"
+
+"Yes, I remember," she answered, softly. "It was when you were so
+sympathetic with my foolish whim that I felt we were really friends."
+
+"And I, when you confided your pretty fancy to me, thanked you for the
+gift of your friendship, and treasured it, and do still treasure it,
+above everything on earth."
+
+She looked at me quickly with a sort of nervousness in her manner, and
+cast down her eyes. Then, after a few moments' almost embarrassed
+silence, as if to bring our talk back to a less emotional plane, she
+said:
+
+"Do you notice the curious way in which this memorial divides itself up
+into two distinct parts?"
+
+"How do you mean?" I asked, a little disconcerted by the sudden descent.
+
+"I mean that there is a part of it that is purely decorative and a part
+that is expressive or emotional. You notice that the general design and
+scheme of decoration, although really Greek in feeling, follows rigidly
+the Egyptian conventions. But the portrait is entirely in the Greek
+manner, and when they came to that pathetic farewell, it had to be
+spoken in their own tongue, written in their own familiar characters."
+
+"Yes. I have noticed that and admired the taste with which they have
+kept the inscription so inconspicuous as not to clash with the
+decoration. An obtrusive inscription in Greek characters would have
+spoiled the consistency of the whole scheme."
+
+"Yes, it would." She assented absently as if she were thinking of
+something else, and once more gazed thoughtfully at the mummy. I watched
+her with deep content: noted the lovely contour of her cheek, the soft
+masses of hair that strayed away so gracefully from her brow, and
+thought her the most wonderful creature that had ever trod the earth.
+Suddenly she looked at me reflectively.
+
+"I wonder," she said, "what made me tell you about Artemidorus. It was a
+rather silly, childish sort of make-believe, and I wouldn't have told
+anyone else for the world; not even my father. How did I know that you
+would sympathise and understand?"
+
+She asked the question in all simplicity with her serious, grey eyes
+looking inquiringly into mine. And the answer came to me in a flash,
+with the beating of my own heart.
+
+"I will tell you how you knew, Ruth," I whispered passionately. "It was
+because I loved you more than anyone in the world has ever loved you,
+and you felt my love in your heart and called it sympathy."
+
+I stopped short, for she had blushed scarlet and then turned deathly
+pale. And now she looked at me wildly, almost with terror.
+
+"Have I shocked you, Ruth, dearest?" I exclaimed penitently, "have I
+spoken too soon? If I have, forgive me. But I had to tell you. I have
+been eating my heart out for love of you for I don't know how long. I
+think I have loved you from the first day we met. Perhaps I shouldn't
+have spoken yet, but, Ruth, dear, if you only knew what a sweet girl you
+are, you wouldn't blame me."
+
+"I don't blame you," she said, almost in a whisper; "I blame myself. I
+have been a bad friend to you, who have been so loyal and loving to me.
+I ought not to have let this happen. For it can't be, Paul; I can't say
+what you want me to say. We can never be anything more to one another
+than friends."
+
+A cold hand seemed to grasp my heart--a horrible fear that I had lost
+all that I cared for--all that made life desirable.
+
+"Why can't we?" I asked. "Do you mean that--that the gods have been
+gracious to some other man?"
+
+"No, no," she answered, hastily--almost indignantly, "of course I don't
+mean that."
+
+"Then it is only that you don't love me yet. Of course you don't. Why
+should you? But you will, dear, some day. And I will wait patiently
+until that day comes and not trouble you with entreaties. I will wait
+for you as Jacob waited for Rachel; and as the long years seemed to him
+but as a few days because of the love he bore her, so it shall be with
+me, if only you will not send me away quite without hope."
+
+She was looking down, white-faced, with a hardening of the lips as if
+she were in bodily pain. "You don't understand," she whispered. "It
+can't be--it can never be. There is something that makes it impossible,
+now and always. I can't tell you more than that."
+
+"But, Ruth, dearest," I pleaded despairingly, "may it not become
+possible some day? Can it not be made possible? I can wait, but I can't
+give you up. Is there no chance whatever that this obstacle may be
+removed?"
+
+"Very little, I fear. Hardly any. No, Paul; it is hopeless, and I can't
+bear to talk about it. Let me go now. Let us say good-bye here and see
+one another no more for a while. Perhaps we may be friends again some
+day--when you have forgiven me."
+
+"Forgiven you, dearest!" I exclaimed. "There is nothing to forgive. And
+we are friends, Ruth. Whatever happens, you are the dearest friend I
+have on earth, or can ever have."
+
+"Thank you, Paul," she said faintly. "You are very good to me. But let
+me go, please. I must go. I must be alone."
+
+She held out a trembling hand, and, as I took it, I was shocked to see
+how terribly agitated and ill she looked.
+
+"May I not come with you, dear?" I pleaded.
+
+"No, no!" she exclaimed breathlessly; "I must go away by myself. I want
+to be alone. Good-bye!"
+
+"Before I let you go, Ruth--if you must go--I must have a solemn promise
+from you."
+
+Her sad grey eyes met mine and her lips quivered with an unspoken
+question.
+
+"You must promise me," I went on, "that if ever this barrier that parts
+us should be removed, you will let me know instantly. Remember that I
+love you always, and that I am waiting for you always on this side of
+the grave."
+
+She caught her breath in a little quick sob, and pressed my hand.
+
+"Yes," she whispered: "I promise. Good-bye." She pressed my hand again
+and was gone; and, as I gazed at the empty doorway through which she had
+passed, I caught a glimpse of her reflection in a glass case on the
+landing, where she had paused for a moment to wipe her eyes. I felt it,
+in a manner, indelicate to have seen her, and turned away my head
+quickly; and yet I was conscious of a certain selfish satisfaction in
+the sweet sympathy that her grief bespoke.
+
+But now that she was gone a horrible sense of desolation descended on
+me. Only now, by the consciousness of irreparable loss, did I begin to
+realise the meaning of this passion of love that had stolen unawares
+into my life. How it had glorified the present and spread a glamour of
+delight over the dimly considered future: how all pleasures and desires,
+all hopes and ambitions, had converged upon it as a focus; how it had
+stood out as the one great reality behind which the other circumstances
+of life were as a background, shimmering, half seen, immaterial, and
+unreal. And now it was gone--lost, as it seemed, beyond hope; and that
+which was left to me was but the empty frame from which the picture had
+vanished.
+
+I have no idea how long I stood rooted to the spot where she had left
+me, wrapped in a dull consciousness of pain, immersed in a half-numb
+reverie. Recent events flitted, dream-like, through my mind; our happy
+labours in the reading-room; our first visit to the Museum; and this
+present day that had opened so brightly and with such joyous promise.
+One by one these phantoms of a vanished happiness came and went.
+Occasional visitors sauntered into the room--but the galleries were
+mostly empty that day--gazed inquisitively at my motionless figure, and
+went their way. And still the dull, intolerable ache in my breast went
+on, the only vivid consciousness that was left to me.
+
+Presently I raised my eyes and met those of the portrait. The sweet,
+pensive face of the old Greek settler looked out at me wistfully as
+though he would offer comfort; as though he would tell me that he, too,
+had known sorrow when he lived his life in the sunny Fayyum. And a
+subtle consolation, like the faint scent of old rose leaves, seemed to
+exhale from that friendly face that had looked on the birth of my
+happiness and had seen it wither and fade. I turned away, at last, with
+a silent farewell; and when I looked back, he seemed to speed me on my
+way with gentle valediction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE ACCUSING FINGER
+
+
+Of my wanderings after I left the Museum on that black and dismal _dies
+irae_, I have but a dim recollection. But I must have travelled a quite
+considerable distance, since it wanted an hour or two to the time for
+returning to the surgery, and I spent the interval walking swiftly
+through streets and squares, unmindful of the happenings around, intent
+only on my present misfortune, and driven by a natural impulse to seek
+relief in bodily exertion. For mental distress sets up, as it were, a
+sort of induced current of physical unrest; a beneficent arrangement, by
+which a dangerous excess of emotional excitement may be transformed into
+motor energy, and so safely got rid of. The motor apparatus acts as a
+safety-valve to the psychical; and if the engine races for a while, with
+the onset of bodily fatigue the emotional pressure-gauge returns to a
+normal reading.
+
+And so it was with me. At first I was conscious of nothing but a sense
+of utter bereavement, of the shipwreck of all my hopes. But, by degrees,
+as I threaded my way among the moving crowds, I came to a better and
+more worthy frame of mind. After all, I had lost nothing that I had ever
+had. Ruth was still all that she had ever been to me--perhaps even more;
+and if that had been a rich endowment yesterday, why not to-day also?
+And how unfair it would be to her if I should mope and grieve over a
+disappointment that was no fault of hers and for which there was no
+remedy! Thus I reasoned with myself, and to such purpose that, by the
+time I reached Fetter Lane, my dejection had come to quite manageable
+proportions and I had formed the resolution to get back to the _status
+quo ante bellum_ as soon as possible.
+
+About eight o'clock, as I was sitting alone in the consulting-room,
+gloomily persuading myself that I was now quite resigned to the
+inevitable, Adolphus brought me a registered packet, at the handwriting
+on which my heart gave such a bound that I had much ado to sign the
+receipt. As soon as Adolphus had retired (with undissembled contempt of
+the shaky signature) I tore open the packet, and as I drew out a letter
+a tiny box dropped on the table.
+
+The letter was all too short, and I devoured it over and over again with
+the eagerness of a condemned man reading a reprieve:--
+
+"My Dear Paul,
+
+"Forgive me for leaving you so abruptly this afternoon, and leaving you
+so unhappy, too. I am more sane and reasonable now, and so send you
+greeting and beg you not to grieve for that which can never be. It is
+quite impossible, dear friend, and I entreat you, as you care for me,
+never to speak of it again; never again to make me feel that I can give
+so little when you have given so much. And do not try to see me for a
+little while. I shall miss your visits, and so will my father, who is
+very fond of you; but it is better that we should not meet, until we can
+take up the old relations--if that can ever be.
+
+"I am sending you a little keepsake in case we should drift apart on
+the eddies of life. It is the ring that I told you about--the one that
+my uncle gave me. Perhaps you may be able to wear it as you have a small
+hand, but in any case keep it in remembrance of our friendship. The
+device on it is the Eye of Osiris, a mystic symbol for which I have a
+sentimentally superstitious affection, as also had my poor uncle, who
+actually bore it tattooed in scarlet on his breast. It signifies that
+the great judge of the dead looks down on men to see that justice is
+done and that truth prevails. So I commend you to the good Osiris; may
+his eye be upon you, ever watchful over your welfare in the absence of
+
+"Your affectionate friend
+
+"RUTH."
+
+It was a sweet letter, I thought, even if it carried little comfort;
+quiet and reticent like its writer, but with an undertone of sincere
+affection. I laid it down at length, and, taking the ring from its box,
+examined it fondly. Though but a copy, it had all the quaintness and
+feeling of the antique original, and, above all, it was fragrant with
+the spirit of the giver. Dainty and delicate, wrought of silver and
+gold, with an inlay of copper, I would not have exchanged it for the
+Koh-i-noor; and when I had slipped it on my finger its tiny eye of blue
+enamel looked up at me so friendly and companionable that I felt the
+glamour of the old-world superstition stealing over me, too.
+
+Not a single patient came in this evening, which was well for me (and
+also for the patient), as I was able forthwith to write in reply a long
+letter; but this I shall spare the long-suffering reader excepting its
+concluding paragraph:--
+
+"And now, dearest, I have said my say; once for all, I have said it, and
+I will not open my mouth on the subject again (I am not actually opening
+it now) 'until the times do alter.' And if the times do never alter--if
+it shall come to pass, in due course, that we two shall sit side by
+side, white-haired, and crinkly-nosed, and lean our poor old chins upon
+our sticks and mumble and gibber amicably over the things that might
+have been if the good Osiris had come up to the scratch--I will still be
+content, because your friendship, Ruth, is better than another woman's
+love. So you see, I have taken my gruel and come up to time smiling--if
+you will pardon the pugilistic metaphor--and I promise you loyally to do
+your bidding and never again to distress you.
+
+"Your faithful and loving friend,
+
+"PAUL."
+
+This letter I addressed and stamped, and then, with a wry grimace which
+I palmed off on myself (but not on Adolphus) as a cheerful smile, I went
+out and dropped it into the post-box; after which I further deluded
+myself by murmuring _Nunc dimittis_ and assuring myself that the
+incident was now absolutely closed.
+
+But, despite this comfortable assurance, I was, in the days that
+followed, an exceedingly miserable young man. It is all very well to
+write down troubles of this kind as trivial and sentimental. They are
+nothing of the kind. When a man of an essentially serious nature has
+found the one woman of all the world who fulfils his highest ideals of
+womanhood, who is, in fact, a woman in ten thousand, to whom he has
+given all that he has to give of love and worship, the sudden wreck of
+all his hopes is no small calamity. And so I found it. Resign myself as
+I would to the bitter reality, the ghost of the might-have-been haunted
+me night and day, so that I spent my leisure wandering abstractedly
+about the streets, always trying to banish thought and never for an
+instant succeeding. A great unrest was upon me; and when I received a
+letter from Dick Barnard announcing his arrival at Madeira, homeward
+bound, I breathed a sigh of relief. I had no plans for the future, but I
+longed to be rid of the, now irksome, routine of the practice--to be
+free to come and go when and how I pleased.
+
+One evening, as I sat consuming with little appetite my solitary supper,
+there fell on me a sudden sense of loneliness. The desire that I had
+hitherto felt to be alone with my own miserable reflections gave place
+to a yearning for human companionship. That, indeed, which I craved for
+most was forbidden, and I must abide by my lady's wishes; but there were
+my friends in the Temple. It was more than a week since I had seen them;
+in fact, we had not met since the morning of that unhappiest day of my
+life. They would be wondering what had become of me. I rose from the
+table, and, having filled my pouch from a tin of tobacco, set forth for
+King's Bench Walk.
+
+As I approached the entry of No. 5A in the gathering darkness I met
+Thorndyke himself emerging, encumbered with two deck-chairs, a
+reading-lantern, and a book.
+
+"Why, Berkeley!" he exclaimed, "is it indeed thou? We have been
+wondering what had become of you."
+
+"It _is_ a long time since I looked you up," I admitted.
+
+He scrutinised me attentively by the light of the entry lamp, and then
+remarked: "Fetter Lane doesn't seem to be agreeing with you very well,
+my son. You are looking quite thin and peaky."
+
+"Well, I've nearly done with it. Barnard will be back in about ten days.
+His ship is putting in at Madeira to coal and take in some cargo, and
+then he is coming home. Where are you going with those chairs?"
+
+"I am going to sit down at the end of the Walk by the garden railings.
+It's cooler there than indoors. If you will wait a moment I will fetch
+another chair for Jervis, though he won't be back for a little while."
+He ran up the stairs, and presently returned with a third chair, and we
+carried our impedimenta down to the quiet corner at the bottom of the
+Walk.
+
+"So your term of servitude is coming to an end," said he when we had
+placed the chairs and hung the lantern on the railings. "Any other
+news?"
+
+"No. Have you any?"
+
+"I am afraid I have not. All my inquiries have yielded negative results.
+There is, of course, a considerable body of evidence, and it all seems
+to point one way. But I am unwilling to make a decisive move without
+something more definite. I am really waiting for confirmation or
+otherwise of my ideas on the subject; for some new item of evidence."
+
+"I didn't know there was any evidence."
+
+"Didn't you?" said Thorndyke. "But you know as much as I know. You have
+all the essential facts; but apparently you haven't collated them and
+extracted their meaning. If you had, you would have found them
+curiously significant."
+
+"I suppose I mustn't ask what their significance is?"
+
+"No, I think not. When I am conducting a case I mention my surmises to
+nobody--not even to Jervis. Then I can say confidently that there has
+been no leakage. Don't think I distrust you. Remember that my thoughts
+are my client's property, and that the essence of strategy is to keep
+the enemy in the dark."
+
+"Yes, I see that. Of course, I ought not to have asked."
+
+"You ought not to need to ask," Thorndyke replied, with a smile; "you
+should put the facts together and reason from them yourself."
+
+While we had been talking I had noticed Thorndyke glance at me
+inquisitively from time to time. Now, after an interval of silence, he
+asked suddenly:
+
+"Is anything amiss, Berkeley? Are you worrying about your friends'
+affairs?"
+
+"No, not particularly; though their prospects don't look very rosy."
+
+"Perhaps they are not quite so bad as they look," said he. "But I am
+afraid something is troubling you. All your gay spirits seem to have
+evaporated." He paused for a few moments, and then added: "I don't want
+to intrude on your private affairs, but if I can help you by advice or
+otherwise, remember that we are old friends and that you are my academic
+offspring."
+
+Instinctively, with a man's natural reticence, I began to mumble a
+half-articulate disclaimer; and then I stopped. After all, why should I
+not confide in him? He was a good man and a wise man, full of human
+sympathy, as I knew, though so cryptic and secretive in his
+professional capacity. And I wanted a friend badly just now.
+
+"I am afraid," I began shyly, "it is not a matter that admits of much
+help, and it's hardly the sort of thing that I ought to worry you by
+talking about----"
+
+"If it is enough to make you unhappy, my dear fellow, it is enough to
+merit serious consideration by your friend; so, if you don't mind
+telling me----"
+
+"Of course I don't, sir!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Then fire away; and don't call me 'sir.' We are brother practitioners
+now."
+
+Thus encouraged, I poured out the story of my little romance; bashfully
+at first and with halting phrases, but, later, with more freedom and
+confidence. He listened with grave attention, and once or twice put a
+question when my narrative became a little disconnected. When I had
+finished he laid his hand softly on my arm.
+
+"You have had rough luck, Berkeley. I don't wonder that you are
+miserable. I am more sorry than I can tell you."
+
+"Thank you," I said. "It's exceedingly good of you to listen so
+patiently, but it's a shame for me to pester you with my sentimental
+troubles."
+
+"Now, Berkeley, you don't think that, and I hope you don't think that I
+do. We should be bad biologists and worse physicians if we should
+under-estimate the importance of that which is Nature's chiefest care.
+The one salient biological truth is the paramount importance of sex; and
+we are deaf and blind if we do not hear and see it in everything that
+lives when we look abroad upon the world; when we listen to the spring
+song of the birds, or when we consider the lilies of the field. And as
+is man to the lower organisms, so is human love to their merely reflex
+manifestations of sex. I will maintain, and you will agree with me, I
+know, that the love of a serious and honourable man for a woman who is
+worthy of him is the most momentous of all human affairs. It is the
+foundation of social life, and its failure is a serious calamity, not
+only to those whose lives may be thereby spoilt, but to society at
+large."
+
+"It's a serious enough matter for the parties concerned," I agreed; "but
+that is no reason why they should bore their friends."
+
+"But they don't. Friends should help one another and think it a
+privilege."
+
+"Oh, I shouldn't mind coming to you for help, knowing you as I do. But
+no one can help a poor devil in a case like this--and certainly not a
+medical jurist."
+
+"Oh, come, Berkeley!" he protested, "don't rate us too low. The humblest
+of creatures has its uses--'even the little pismire,' you know, as Isaak
+Walton tells us. Why, I have got substantial help from a
+stamp-collector. And then reflect upon the motor-scorcher and the
+earthworm and the blow-fly. All these lowly creatures play their parts
+in the scheme of Nature; and shall we cast out the medical jurist as
+nothing worth?"
+
+I laughed dejectedly at my teacher's genial irony.
+
+"What I meant," said I, "was that there is nothing to be done but
+wait--perhaps for ever. I don't know why she isn't able to marry me, and
+I mustn't ask her. She can't be married already."
+
+"Certainly not. She told you explicitly that there was no man in the
+case."
+
+"Exactly. And I can think of no other valid reason, excepting that she
+doesn't care enough for me. That would be a perfectly sound reason, but
+then it would only be a temporary one, not the insuperable obstacle that
+she assumes to exist, especially as we really got on excellently
+together. I hope it isn't some confounded perverse feminine scruple. I
+don't see how it could be; but women are most frightfully tortuous and
+wrong-headed at times."
+
+"I don't see," said Thorndyke, "why we should cast about for perversely
+abnormal motives when there is a perfectly reasonable explanation
+staring us in the face."
+
+"Is there?" I exclaimed. "I see none."
+
+"You are, not unnaturally, overlooking some of the circumstances that
+affect Miss Bellingham; but I don't suppose she has failed to grasp
+their meaning. Do you realise what her position really is? I mean with
+regard to her uncle's disappearance?"
+
+"I don't think I quite understand you."
+
+"Well, there is no use in blinking the facts," said Thorndyke. "The
+position is this: If John Bellingham ever went to his brother's house at
+Woodford, it is nearly certain that he went there after his visit to
+Hurst. Mind, I say '_if_ he went'; I don't say that I believe he did.
+But it is stated that he appears to have gone there; and if he did go,
+he was never seen alive afterwards. Now, he did not go in at the front
+door. No one saw him enter the house. But there was a back gate, which
+John Bellingham knew, and which had a bell which rang in the library.
+And you will remember that, when Hurst and Jellicoe called, Mr.
+Bellingham had only just come in. Previous to that time Miss Bellingham
+had been alone in the library; that is to say, she was alone in the
+library at the very time when John Bellingham is said to have made his
+visit. That is the position, Berkeley. Nothing pointed has been said up
+to the present. But, sooner or later, if John Bellingham is not found,
+dead or alive, the question will be opened. Then it is certain that
+Hurst, in self-defence, will make the most of any facts that may
+transfer suspicion from him to someone else. And that someone else will
+be Miss Bellingham."
+
+I sat for some moments literally paralysed with horror. Then my dismay
+gave place to indignation. "But, damn it!" I exclaimed, starting up--"I
+beg your pardon--but could anyone have the infernal audacity to
+insinuate that that gentle, refined lady murdered her uncle?"
+
+"That is what will be hinted, if not plainly asserted; and she knows it.
+And that being so, is it difficult to understand why she should refuse
+to allow you to be publicly associated with her? To run the risk of
+dragging your honourable name into the sordid transactions of the
+police-court or the Old Bailey? To invest it, perhaps, with a dreadful
+notoriety?"
+
+"Oh, don't! for God's sake! It is too horrible! Not that I would care
+for myself. I would be proud to share her martyrdom of ignominy, if it
+had to be; but it is the sacrilege, the blasphemy of even thinking of
+her in such terms, that enrages me."
+
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "I understand and sympathise with you. Indeed, I
+share your righteous indignation at this dastardly affair. So you
+mustn't think me brutal for putting the case so plainly."
+
+"I don't. You have only shown me the danger that I was fool enough not
+to see. But you seem to imply that this hideous position has been
+brought about deliberately."
+
+"Certainly I do! This is no chance affair. Either the appearances
+indicate the real events--which I am sure they do not--or they have been
+created of a set purpose to lead to false conclusions. But the
+circumstances convince me that there has been a deliberate plot; and I
+am waiting--in no spirit of Christian patience, I can tell you--to lay
+my hand on the wretch who has done this."
+
+"What are you waiting for?" I asked.
+
+"I am waiting for the inevitable," he replied; "for the false move that
+the most artful criminal invariably makes. At present he is lying low;
+but presently he must make a move, and then I shall have him."
+
+"But he may go on lying low. What will you do then?"
+
+"Yes, that is the danger. We may have to deal with the perfect villain
+who knows when to leave well alone. I have never met him, but he may
+exist, nevertheless."
+
+"And then we should have to stand by and see our friends go under."
+
+"Perhaps," said Thorndyke; and we both subsided into gloomy and silent
+reflection.
+
+The place was peaceful and quiet, as only a backwater of London can be.
+Occasional hoots from far-away tugs and steamers told of the busy life
+down below in the crowded Pool. A faint hum of traffic was borne in from
+the streets outside the precincts, and the shrill voices of newspaper
+boys came in unceasing chorus from the direction of Carmelite Street.
+They were too far away to be physically disturbing, but the excited
+yells, toned down as they were by distance, nevertheless stirred the
+very marrow in my bones, so dreadfully suggestive were they of those
+possibilities of the future at which Thorndyke had hinted. They seemed
+like the sinister shadows of coming misfortunes.
+
+Perhaps they called up the same association of ideas in Thorndyke's
+mind, for he remarked presently: "The newsvendor is abroad to-night like
+a bird of ill-omen. Something unusual has happened: some public or
+private calamity, most likely, and these yelling ghouls are out to feast
+on the remains. The newspaper men have a good deal in common with the
+carrion-birds that hover over a battle-field."
+
+Again we subsided into silence and reflection. Then, after an interval,
+I asked:
+
+"Would it be possible for me to help in any way in this investigation of
+yours?"
+
+"That is exactly what I have been asking myself," replied Thorndyke. "It
+would be right and proper that you should, and I think you might."
+
+"How?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"I can't say off-hand; but Jervis will be going away for his holiday
+almost at once--in fact, he will go off actual duty to-night. There is
+very little doing; the long vacation is close upon us, and I can do
+without him. But if you would care to come down here and take his place,
+you would be very useful to me; and if there should be anything to be
+done in the Bellinghams' case, I am sure you would make up in enthusiasm
+for any deficiency in experience."
+
+"I couldn't really take Jervis's place," said I, "but if you would let
+me help you in any way it would be a great kindness. I would rather
+clean your boots than be out of it altogether."
+
+"Very well. Let us leave it that you come here as soon as Barnard has
+done with you. You can have Jervis's room, which he doesn't often use
+nowadays, and you will be more happy here than elsewhere, I know. I may
+as well give you my latchkey now. I have a duplicate upstairs, and you
+understand that my chambers are yours too from this moment."
+
+He handed me the latchkey and I thanked him warmly from my heart, for I
+felt sure that the suggestion was made, not for any use that I should be
+to him, but for my own peace of mind. I had hardly finished speaking
+when a quick step on the paved walk caught my ear.
+
+"Here is Jervis," said Thorndyke. "We will let him know that there is a
+locum tenens ready to step into his shoes when he wants to be off." He
+flashed the lantern across the path, and a few moments later his junior
+stepped up briskly with a bundle of newspapers tucked under his arm.
+
+It struck me that Jervis looked at me a little queerly when he
+recognised me in the dim light; also that he was a trifle constrained in
+his manner, as if my presence were an embarrassment. He listened to
+Thorndyke's announcement of our newly made arrangement without much
+enthusiasm and with none of his customary facetious comments. And again
+I noticed a quick glance at me, half curious, half uneasy, and wholly
+puzzling to me.
+
+"That's all right," he said when Thorndyke had explained the situation.
+"I daresay you'll find Berkeley as useful as me, and, in any case, he'll
+be better here than staying on with Barnard." He spoke with unwonted
+gravity, and there was in his tone a solicitude for me that attracted my
+notice and that of Thorndyke as well, for the latter looked at him
+curiously, though he made no comment. After a short silence, however, he
+asked: "And what news does my learned brother bring? There is a mighty
+shouting among the outer barbarians, and I see a bundle of newspapers
+under my learned friend's arm. Has anything in particular happened?"
+
+Jervis looked more uncomfortable than ever. "Well--yes," he replied
+hesitatingly, "something has happened--there! It's no use beating about
+the bush; Berkeley may as well learn it from me as from those yelling
+devils outside." He took a couple of papers from his bundle and silently
+handed one to me and the other to Thorndyke.
+
+Jervis's ominous manner, naturally enough, alarmed me not a little. I
+opened the paper with a nameless dread. But whatever my vague fears,
+they fell far short of the occasion; and when I saw those yells from
+without crystallised into scare headlines and flaming capitals I turned
+for a moment sick and dizzy with fear.
+
+The paragraph was only a short one, and I read it through in less than a
+minute:
+
+"THE MISSING FINGER
+
+"DRAMATIC DISCOVERY AT WOODFORD.
+
+"The mystery that has surrounded the remains of a mutilated human body,
+portions of which have been found in various places in Kent and Essex,
+has received a partial and very sinister solution. The police have, all
+along, suspected that these remains were those of a Mr. John Bellingham
+who disappeared under circumstances of some suspicion about two years
+ago. There is now no doubt upon the subject, for the finger which was
+missing from the hand that was found at Sidcup has been discovered at
+the bottom of a disused well _together with a ring_, which has been
+identified as one habitually worn by Mr. John Bellingham.
+
+"The house in the garden of which the well is situated was the property
+of the murdered man, and was occupied at the time of the disappearance
+by his brother, Mr. Godfrey Bellingham. But the latter left it very soon
+after, and it has been empty ever since. Just lately it has been put in
+repair, and it was in this way that the well came to be emptied and
+cleaned out. It seems that Detective-Inspector Badger, who was searching
+the neighbourhood for further remains, heard of the emptying of the well
+and went down in the bucket to examine the bottom, where he found the
+three bones and the ring.
+
+"Thus the identity of the body is established beyond all doubt, and the
+question that remains is, Who killed John Bellingham? It may be
+remembered that a trinket, apparently broken from his watch-chain, was
+found in the grounds of this house on the day that he disappeared, and
+that he was never again seen alive. What may be the import of these
+facts time will show."
+
+That was all; but it was enough. I dropped the paper to the ground and
+glanced round furtively at Jervis, who sat gazing gloomily at the toes
+of his boots. It was horrible; It was incredible! The blow was so
+crushing that it left my faculties numb, and for a while I seemed
+unable even to think intelligibly.
+
+I was aroused by Thorndyke's voice--calm, business-like, composed:
+
+"Time will show, indeed! But meanwhile we must go warily. And don't be
+unduly alarmed, Berkeley. Go home, take a good dose of bromide with a
+little stimulant, and turn in. I am afraid this has been rather a shock
+to you."
+
+I rose from my chair like one in a dream and held out my hand to
+Thorndyke; and even in the dim light and in my dazed condition I noticed
+that his face bore a look that I had never seen before: the look of a
+granite mask of Fate--grim, stern, inexorable.
+
+My two friends walked with me as far as the gateway at the top of Inner
+Temple Lane, and as we reached the entry a stranger, coming quickly up
+the Lane, overtook and passed us. In the glare of the lamp outside the
+porter's lodge he looked at us quickly over his shoulder, and though he
+passed on without halt or greeting, I recognised him with a certain dull
+surprise which I did not understand then and do not understand now. It
+was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+I shook hands once more with my friends and strode out into Fleet
+Street, but as soon as I was outside the gate I made direct for Nevill's
+Court. What was in my mind I do not know; only that some instinct of
+protection led me there, where my lady lay unconscious of the hideous
+menace that hung over her. At the entrance to the court a tall, powerful
+man was lounging against the wall, and he seemed to look at me curiously
+as I passed; but I hardly noticed him and strode forward into the narrow
+passage. By the shabby gateway of the house I halted and looked up at
+such of the windows as I could see over the wall. They were all dark.
+All the inmates, then, were in bed. Vaguely comforted by this, I walked
+on to the New Street end of the court and looked out. Here, too, a
+man--a tall, thick-set man--was loitering; and, as he looked
+inquisitively into my face, I turned and reentered the court, slowly
+retracing my steps. As I again reached the gate of the house I stopped
+to look up once more at the windows, and turning, I found the man whom I
+had last noticed close behind me. Then, in a flash of dreadful
+comprehension, I understood. These two men were plain-clothes policemen.
+
+For a moment a blind fury possessed me. An insane impulse urged me to
+give battle to this intruder; to avenge upon his person the insult of
+his presence. Fortunately the impulse was but momentary, and I recovered
+myself without making any demonstration. But the appearance of those two
+policemen brought the peril into the immediate present, imparted to it a
+horrible actuality. A chilly sweat of terror stood on my forehead, and
+my ears were ringing when I walked with faltering steps out into Fetter
+Lane.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+JOHN BELLINGHAM
+
+
+The next few days were a very nightmare of horror and gloom. Of course,
+I repudiated my acceptance of the decree of banishment that Ruth had
+passed upon me. I was her friend, at least, and in time of peril my
+place was at her side. Tacitly--though thankfully enough, poor
+girl!--she had recognised the fact and made me once more free of the
+house.
+
+For there was no disguising the situation. Newspaper boys yelled the
+news up and down Fleet Street from morning to night; soul-shaking
+posters grinned on gaping crowds; and the newspapers fairly wallowed in
+the "Shocking details." It is true that no direct accusations were made;
+but the original reports of the disappearance were reprinted with such
+comments as made me gnash my teeth with fury.
+
+The wretchedness of those days will live in my memory until my dying
+day. Never can I forget the dread that weighed me down, the horrible
+suspense, the fear that clutched at my heart as I furtively scanned the
+posters in the streets. Even the wretched detectives who prowled about
+the entrances to Nevill's Court became grateful to my eyes, for,
+embodying as they did the hideous menace that hung over my dear lady,
+their presence at least told me that the blow had not yet fallen.
+Indeed, we came, after a time, to exchange glances of mutual
+recognition, and I thought that they seemed to be sorry for her and for
+me, and had no great liking for their task. Of course, I spent most of
+my leisure at the old house, though my heart ached more there than
+elsewhere; and I tried, with but poor success, I fear, to maintain a
+cheerful, confident manner, cracking my little jokes as of old, and even
+essaying to skirmish with Miss Oman. But this last experiment was a dead
+failure; and when she had suddenly broken down in a stream of brilliant
+repartee to weep hysterically on my breast, I abandoned the attempt and
+did not repeat it.
+
+A dreadful gloom had settled down upon the old house. Poor Miss Oman
+crept silently but restlessly up and down the ancient stairs with dim
+eyes and a tremulous chin, or moped in her room with a parliamentary
+petition (demanding, if I remember rightly, the appointment of a female
+judge to deal with divorce and matrimonial causes) which lay on her
+table languidly awaiting signatures that never came. Mr. Bellingham,
+whose mental condition at first alternated between furious anger and
+absolute panic, was fast sinking into a state of nervous prostration
+that I viewed with no little alarm. In fact, the only really
+self-possessed person in the entire household was Ruth herself, and even
+she could not conceal the ravages of sorrow and suspense and
+overshadowing peril. Her manner was almost unchanged; or rather, I
+should say, she had gone back to that which I had first known--quiet,
+reserved, taciturn, with a certain bitter humour showing through her
+unvarying amiability. When she and I were alone, indeed, her reserve
+melted away and she was all sweetness and gentleness. But it wrung my
+heart to look at her, to see how, day by day, she grew ever more thin
+and haggard; to watch the growing pallor of her cheek; to look into her
+solemn grey eyes, so sad and tragic and yet so brave and defiant of
+fate.
+
+It was a terrible time; and through it all the dreadful questions
+haunted me continually: When will the blow fall? What is it that the
+police are waiting for? And when they do strike, what will Thorndyke
+have to say?
+
+So things went on for four dreadful days. But on the fourth day, just as
+the evening consultations were beginning and the surgery was filled with
+waiting patients, Polton appeared with a note, which he insisted, to the
+indignation of Adolphus, on delivering into my own hands. It was from
+Thorndyke, and was to the following effect:----
+
+"I learn from Dr. Norbury that he has recently heard from Herr
+Lederbogen, of Berlin--a learned authority on Oriental antiquities--who
+makes some reference to an English Egyptologist whom he met in Vienna
+about a year ago. He cannot recall the Englishman's name, but there are
+certain expressions in the letter which make Dr. Norbury suspect that he
+is referring to John Bellingham.
+
+"I want you to bring Mr. and Miss Bellingham to my chambers this evening
+at 8.30, to meet Dr. Norbury and talk over this letter; and in view of
+the importance of the matter, I look to you not to fail me."
+
+A wave of hope and relief swept over me. It was still possible that this
+Gordian knot might be cut; that the deliverance might come before it was
+too late. I wrote a hasty note in reply to Thorndyke and another to
+Ruth, making the appointment; and having given them both to the trusty
+Polton, returned somewhat feverishly to my professional duties. To my
+profound relief, the influx of patients ceased, and the practice sank
+into its accustomed torpor; whereby I was able, without base and
+mendacious subterfuge, to escape in good time to my tryst.
+
+It was near upon eight o'clock when I passed through the archway into
+Nevill's Court. The warm afternoon light had died away, for the summer
+was running out apace. The last red glow of the setting sun had faded
+from the ancient roofs and chimney-stacks, and down in the narrow court
+the shades of evening had begun to gather in nooks and corners. I was
+due at eight, and, as it still wanted some minutes to the hour, I
+sauntered slowly down the court, looking reflectively on the familiar
+scene and the well-known friendly faces.
+
+The day's work was drawing to a close. The little shops were putting up
+their shutters; lights were beginning to twinkle in parlour windows; a
+solemn hymn arose in the old Moravian chapel, and its echoes stole out
+through the dark entry that opens into the court under the archway.
+
+Here was Mr. Finneymore (a man of versatile gifts, with a leaning
+towards paint and varnish) sitting, white-aproned and shirt-sleeved, on
+a chair in his garden, smoking his pipe with a complacent eye on his
+dahlias. There at an open window a young man, with a brush in his hand
+and another behind his ear, stood up and stretched himself while an
+older lady deftly rolled up a large map. The barber was turning out the
+gas in his little saloon; the greengrocer was emerging with a cigarette
+in his mouth and an aster in his button-hole, and a group of children
+were escorting the lamplighter on his rounds.
+
+All these good, homely folk were Nevill's Courtiers of the genuine
+breed; born in the court, as had been their fathers before them for
+generations. And of such to a great extent was the population of the
+place. Miss Oman herself claimed aboriginal descent and so did the
+sweet-faced Moravian lady next door--a connection of the famous La
+Trobes of the old Conventicle, whose history went back to the Gordon
+Riots; and as to the gentleman who lived in the ancient
+timber-and-plaster house at the bottom of the court, it was reported
+that his ancestors had dwelt in that very house since the days of James
+the First.
+
+On these facts I reflected as I sauntered down the court: on the strange
+phenomenon of an old-world hamlet with its ancient population lingering
+in the very heart of the noisy city; an island of peace set in an ocean
+of unrest, an oasis in a desert of change and ferment.
+
+My meditations brought me to the shabby gate in the high wall, and as I
+raised the latch and pushed it open, I saw Ruth standing at the door of
+the house talking to Miss Oman. She was evidently waiting for me, for
+she wore her sombre black cloak and hat and a black veil, and when she
+saw me she came out, closing the door after her and holding out her
+hand.
+
+"You are punctual," said she. "St. Dunstan's clock is striking now."
+
+"Yes," I answered. "But where is your father?"
+
+"He has gone to bed, poor old dear. He didn't feel well enough to come,
+and I did not urge him. He is really very ill. This dreadful suspense
+will kill him if it goes on much longer."
+
+"Let us hope it won't," I said, but with little conviction, I fear, in
+my tone. It was harrowing to see her torn by anxiety for her father, and
+I yearned to comfort her. But what was there to say? Mr. Bellingham was
+breaking up visibly under the stress of the terrible menace that hung
+over his daughter, and no words of mine could make the fact less
+manifest.
+
+We walked silently up the court. The lady at the window greeted us with
+a smiling salutation, Mr. Finneymore removed his pipe and raised his
+cap, receiving a gracious bow from Ruth in return, and then we passed
+through the covered way into Fetter Lane, where my companion paused and
+looked about her.
+
+"What are you looking for?" I asked.
+
+"The detective," she answered quietly. "It would be a pity if the poor
+man should miss me after waiting so long. However, I don't see him"; and
+she turned away towards Fleet Street. It was an unpleasant surprise to
+me that her sharp eyes had detected the secret spy upon her movements;
+and the dry, sardonic tone of her remark pained me, too, recalling, as
+it did, the frigid self-possession that had so repelled me in the early
+days of our acquaintance. And yet I could not but admire the cool
+unconcern with which she faced her horrible peril.
+
+"Tell me a little more about this conference," she said, as we walked
+down Fetter Lane. "Your note was rather more concise than lucid; but I
+suppose you wrote it in a hurry."
+
+"Yes, I did. And I can't give you any details now. All I know is that
+Doctor Norbury has had a letter from a friend of his in Berlin, an
+Egyptologist, as I understand, named Lederbogen, who refers to an
+English acquaintance of his and Norbury's whom he saw in Vienna about a
+year ago. He cannot remember the Englishman's name, but from some of the
+circumstances Norbury seems to think that he is referring to your Uncle
+John. Of course, if this should turn out to be really the case, it would
+set everything straight; so Thorndyke was anxious that you and your
+father should meet Norbury and talk it over."
+
+"I see," said Ruth. Her tone was thoughtful but by no means
+enthusiastic.
+
+"You don't seem to attach much importance to the matter," I remarked.
+
+"No. It doesn't seem to fit the circumstances. What is the use of
+suggesting that poor Uncle John is alive--and behaving like an imbecile,
+which he certainly was not--when his dead body has actually been found?"
+
+"But," I suggested lamely, "there may be some mistake. It may not be his
+body after all."
+
+"And the ring?" she asked, with a bitter smile.
+
+"That may be just a coincidence. It was a copy of a well-known form of
+antique ring. Other people may have had copies made as well as your
+uncle. Besides," I added, with more conviction, "we haven't seen the
+ring. It may not be his at all."
+
+She shook her head. "My dear Paul," she said quietly, "it is useless to
+delude ourselves. Every known fact points to the certainty that it is
+his body. John Bellingham is dead: there can be no doubt of that. And to
+everyone except his unknown murderer and one or two of my own loyal
+friends, it must seem that his death lies at my door. I realised from
+the beginning that the suspicion lay between George Hurst and me; and
+the finding of the ring fixes it definitely on me. I am only surprised
+that the police have made no move yet."
+
+The quiet conviction of her tone left me for a while speechless with
+horror and despair. Then I recalled Thorndyke's calm, even confident
+attitude, and I hastened to remind her of it.
+
+"There is one of your friends," I said, "who is still undismayed.
+Thorndyke seems to anticipate no difficulties."
+
+"And yet," she replied, "he is ready to consider a forlorn hope like
+this. However, we shall see."
+
+I could think of nothing more to say, and it was in gloomy silence that
+we pursued our way down Inner Temple Lane and through the dark entries
+and tunnel-like passages that brought us out, at length, by the
+Treasury.
+
+"I don't see any light in Thorndyke's chambers," I said, as we crossed
+King's Bench Walk; and I pointed out the row of windows all dark and
+blank.
+
+"No: and yet the shutters are not closed. He must be out."
+
+"He can't be after making an appointment with you and your father. It is
+most mysterious. Thorndyke is so very punctilious about his
+engagements."
+
+The mystery was solved, when we reached the landing, by a slip of paper
+fixed by a tack on the iron-bound "oak."
+
+"A note for P.B. is on the table," was the laconic message: on reading
+which I inserted my key, swung the heavy door outward, and opened the
+lighter inner door. The note was lying on the table and I brought it
+out to the landing to read by the light of the staircase lamp.
+
+"Apologise to our friends," it ran, "for the slight change of programme.
+Norbury is anxious that I should get my experiments over before the
+Director returns, so as to save discussion. He has asked me to begin
+to-night and says he will see Mr. and Miss Bellingham here, at the
+Museum. Please bring them along at once. The hall porters are instructed
+to admit you and bring you to us. I think some matters of importance may
+transpire at the interview.--J.E.T."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I hope you don't mind," I said apologetically, when I had read the note
+to Ruth.
+
+"Of course I don't," she replied. "I am rather pleased. We have so many
+associations with the dear old Museum, haven't we?" She looked at me for
+a moment with a strange and touching wistfulness and then turned to
+descend the stone stairs.
+
+At the Temple gate, I hailed a hansom and we were soon speeding westward
+and north to the soft tinkle of the horse's bell.
+
+"What are these experiments that Doctor Thorndyke refers to?" she asked
+presently.
+
+"I can only answer you rather vaguely," I replied. "Their object, I
+believe, is to ascertain whether the penetrability of organic substances
+by the X-rays becomes altered by age; whether, for instance, an ancient
+block of wood is more or less transparent to the rays than a new block
+of the same size."
+
+"And of what use would the knowledge be, if it were obtained?"
+
+"I can't say. Experiments are made to obtain knowledge without regard
+to its utility. The use appears when the knowledge has been acquired.
+But in this case, if it should be possible to determine the age of any
+organic substance by its reaction to X-rays, the discovery might be of
+some value in legal practice--as in demonstrating a new seal on an old
+document, for instance. But I don't know whether Thorndyke has anything
+definite in view; I only know that the preparations have been on a most
+portentous scale."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"In regard to size. When I went into the workshop yesterday morning, I
+found Polton erecting a kind of portable gallows about nine feet high,
+and he had just finished varnishing a pair of enormous wooden trays,
+each over six feet long. It looked as if he and Thorndyke were
+contemplating a few private executions with subsequent post-mortems on
+the victims."
+
+"What a horrible suggestion!"
+
+"So Polton said, with his quaint, crinkly smile. But he was mighty close
+about the use of the apparatus all the same. I wonder if we shall see
+anything of the experiments, when we get there. This is Museum Street,
+isn't it?"
+
+"Yes." As she spoke, she lifted the flap of one of the little windows in
+the back of the cab and peered out. Then, closing it with a quiet,
+ironic smile, she said:
+
+"It is all right; he hasn't missed us. It will be quite a nice little
+change for him."
+
+The cab swung round into Great Russell Street, and, glancing out as it
+turned, I saw another hansom following; but before I had time to inspect
+its solitary passenger, we drew up at the Museum gates. The
+gate-porter, who seemed to expect us, ushered us up the drive to the
+great portico and into the Central Hall, where he handed us over to
+another official.
+
+"Doctor Norbury is in one of the rooms adjoining the Fourth Egyptian
+Room," the latter stated in answer to our inquiries: and, providing
+himself with a wire-guarded lantern, he prepared to escort us thither.
+
+Up the great staircase, now wrapped in mysterious gloom, we passed in
+silence with bitter-sweet memories of that day of days when we had first
+trodden its steps together: through the Central Saloon, the Mediaeval
+Room and the Asiatic Saloon, and so into the long range of the
+Ethnographical Galleries.
+
+It was a weird journey. The swaying lantern shot its beams abroad into
+the darkness of the great, dim galleries, casting instantaneous flashes
+on the objects in the cases, so that they leaped into being and vanished
+in the twinkling of an eye. Hideous idols with round, staring eyes
+started forth from the darkness, glared at us for an instant and were
+gone. Grotesque masks, suddenly revealed by the shimmering light, took
+on the semblance of demon faces that seemed to mow and gibber at us as
+we passed. As for the life-sized models--realistic enough by
+daylight--their aspect was positively alarming; for the moving light and
+shadow endowed them with life and movement, so that they seemed to watch
+us furtively, to lie in wait and to hold themselves in readiness to
+steal out and follow us. The illusion evidently affected Ruth as well as
+me, for she drew nearer to me and whispered:
+
+"These figures are quite startling. Did you see that Polynesian? I
+really felt as if he were going to spring out on us."
+
+"They are rather uncanny," I admitted, "but the danger is over now. We
+are passing out of their sphere of influence."
+
+We came out on a landing as I spoke and then turned sharply to the left
+along the North Gallery, from the centre of which we entered the Fourth
+Egyptian Room.
+
+Almost immediately, a door in the opposite wall opened; a peculiar,
+high-pitched humming sound became audible, and Jervis came out on tiptoe
+with his hand raised.
+
+"Tread as lightly as you can," he said. "We are just making an
+exposure."
+
+The attendant turned back with his lantern, and we followed Jervis into
+the room from whence he had come. It was a large room, and little
+lighter than the galleries, for the single glow-lamp that burned at the
+end where we entered left the rest of the apartment in almost complete
+obscurity. We seated ourselves at once on the chairs that had been
+placed for us, and, when the mutual salutations had been exchanged, I
+looked about me. There were three people in the room besides Jervis:
+Thorndyke, who sat with his watch in his hand, a grey-headed gentleman
+whom I took to be Dr. Norbury, and a smaller person at the dim farther
+end--undistinguishable, but probably Polton. At our end of the room were
+the two large trays that I had seen in the workshop, now mounted on
+trestles and each fitted with a rubber drain-tube leading down to a
+bucket. At the farther end of the room the sinister shape of the gallows
+reared itself aloft in the gloom; only now I could see that it was not a
+gallows at all. For affixed to the top cross-bar was a large,
+bottomless glass basin, inside which was a glass bulb that glowed with a
+strange green light; and in the heart of the bulb a bright spot of red.
+
+It was all clear enough so far. The peculiar sound that filled the air
+was the hum of the interrupter; the bulb was, of course, a Crookes tube,
+and the red spot inside it, the glowing red-hot disc of the
+anti-cathode. Clearly an X-ray photograph was being made; but of what? I
+strained my eyes, peering into the gloom at the foot of the gallows, but
+though I could make out an elongated object lying on the floor directly
+under the bulb, I could not resolve the dimly seen shape into anything
+recognisable. Presently, however, Dr. Norbury supplied the clue.
+
+"I am rather surprised," said he, "that you chose so composite an object
+as a mummy to begin on. I should have thought that a simpler object,
+such as a coffin or a wooden figure, would have been more instructive."
+
+"In some ways it would," replied Thorndyke, "but the variety of
+materials that the mummy gives us has its advantages. I hope your father
+is not ill, Miss Bellingham."
+
+"He is not at all well," said Ruth, "and we agreed that it was better
+for me to come alone. I knew Herr Lederbogen quite well. He stayed with
+us for a time when he was in England."
+
+"I trust," said Dr. Norbury, "that I have not troubled you for nothing.
+Herr Lederbogen speaks of 'our erratic English friend with the long name
+that I can never remember,' and it seemed to me that he might be
+referring to your uncle."
+
+"I should hardly have called my uncle erratic," said Ruth.
+
+"No, no. Certainly not," Dr. Norbury agreed hastily. "However, you shall
+see the letter presently and judge for yourself. We mustn't introduce
+irrelevant topics while the experiment is in progress, must we, Doctor?"
+
+"You had better wait until we have finished," said Thorndyke, "because I
+am going to turn out the light. Switch off the current, Polton."
+
+The green light vanished from the bulb, the hum of the interrupter swept
+down an octave or two and died away. Then Thorndyke and Dr. Norbury rose
+from their chairs and went towards the mummy, which they lifted tenderly
+while Polton drew from beneath it what presently turned out to be a huge
+black-paper envelope. The single glow-lamp was switched off, leaving the
+room in total darkness, until there burst out suddenly a bright
+orange-red light immediately above one of the trays.
+
+We all gathered round to watch, as Polton--the high-priest of these
+mysteries--drew from the black envelope a colossal sheet of bromide
+paper, laid it carefully in the tray and proceeded to wet it with a
+large brush which he had dipped in a pail of water.
+
+"I thought you always used plates for this kind of work," said Dr.
+Norbury.
+
+"We do, by preference; but a six-foot plate would be impossible, so I
+had a special paper made to the size."
+
+There is something singularly fascinating in the appearance of a
+developing photograph; in the gradual, mysterious emergence of the
+picture from the blank, white surface of plate or paper. But a
+skiagraph, or X-ray photograph, has a fascination all its own. Unlike
+an ordinary photograph, which yields a picture of things already seen,
+it gives a presentment of objects hitherto invisible; and hence, when
+Polton poured the developer on the already wet paper, we all craned over
+the tray with the keenest curiosity.
+
+The developer was evidently a very slow one. For fully half a minute no
+change could be seen in the uniform surface. Then, gradually, almost
+insensibly, the marginal portion began to darken, leaving the outline of
+the mummy in pale relief. The change, once started, proceeded apace.
+Darker and darker grew the margin of the paper until from slaty grey it
+had turned to black; and still the shape of the mummy, now in strong
+relief, remained an elongated patch of bald white. But not for long.
+Presently the white shape began to be tinged with grey, and, as the
+colour deepened, there grew out of it a paler form that seemed to steal
+out of the enshrouding grey like an apparition, spectral, awesome,
+mysterious. The skeleton was coming into view.
+
+"It is rather uncanny," said Dr. Norbury. "I feel as if I were assisting
+at some unholy rite. Just look at it now!"
+
+The grey shadow of the cartonnage, the wrappings and the flesh was
+fading away into the black background and the white skeleton stood out
+in sharp contrast. And it certainly was a rather weird spectacle.
+
+"You'll lose the bones if you develop much farther," said Dr. Norbury.
+
+"I must let the bones darken," Thorndyke replied, "in case there are any
+metallic objects. I have three more papers in the envelope."
+
+The white shape of the skeleton now began to grey over and, as Dr.
+Norbury had said, its distinctness became less and yet less. Thorndyke
+leaned over the tray with his eyes fixed on a point in the middle of the
+breast and we all watched him in silence. Suddenly he rose. "Now,
+Polton," he said sharply; "get the hypo on as quickly as you can."
+
+Polton, who had been waiting with his hand on the stop-cock of the
+drain-tube, rapidly ran off the developer into the bucket and flooded
+the paper with the fixing solution.
+
+"Now we can look at it at our leisure," said Thorndyke. After waiting a
+few seconds, he switched on one of the glow-lamps, and as the flood of
+light fell on the photograph, he added: "You see we haven't quite lost
+the skeleton."
+
+"No." Dr. Norbury put on a pair of spectacles and bent down over the
+tray; and at this moment I felt Ruth's hand touch my arm, lightly, at
+first, and then with a strong, nervous grasp; and I could feel that her
+hand was trembling. I looked round at her anxiously and saw that she had
+turned deathly pale.
+
+"Would you rather go out into the gallery?" I asked; for the room with
+its tightly shut windows was close and hot.
+
+"No," she replied quietly, "I will stay here. I am quite well." But
+still she kept hold of my arm.
+
+Thorndyke glanced at her keenly and then looked away as Dr. Norbury
+turned to him to ask a question.
+
+"Why is it, think you, that some of the teeth show so much whiter than
+others?"
+
+"I think the whiteness of the shadows is due to the presence of metal,"
+Thorndyke replied.
+
+"Do you mean that the teeth have metal fillings?" asked Dr. Norbury.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Really! This is very interesting. The use of gold stoppings--and
+artificial teeth, too--by the ancient Egyptians is well known, but we
+have no examples in the Museum. This mummy ought to be unrolled. Do you
+think all those teeth are filled with the same metal? They are not
+equally white."
+
+"No," replied Thorndyke. "Those teeth that are perfectly white are
+undoubtedly filled with gold, but that greyish one is probably filled
+with tin."
+
+"Very interesting," said Dr. Norbury. "_Very_ interesting! And what do
+you make of that faint mark across the chest, near the top of the
+sternum?"
+
+It was Ruth who answered his question.
+
+"It is the Eye of Osiris!" she exclaimed, in a hushed voice.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Dr. Norbury, "so it is. You are quite right. It is
+the Utchat--the Eye of Horus--or Osiris, if you prefer to call it so.
+That, I presume, will be a gilded device on some of the wrappings."
+
+"No: I should say it is a tattoo mark. It is too indefinite for a gilded
+device. And I should say further that the tattooing is done in
+vermilion, as carbon tattooing would cast no visible shadow."
+
+"I think you must be mistaken about that," said Dr. Norbury, "but we
+shall see, if the Director allows us to unroll the mummy. By the way,
+those little objects in front of the knees are metallic, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, they are metallic. But they are not in front of the knees; they
+are _in_ the knees. They are pieces of silver wire which have been used
+to repair fractured knee-caps."
+
+"Are you sure of that?" exclaimed Dr. Norbury, peering at the little
+white marks with ecstasy; "because, if you are, and if these objects are
+what you say they are, the mummy of Sebek-hotep is an absolutely unique
+specimen."
+
+"I am quite certain of it," said Thorndyke.
+
+"Then," said Dr. Norbury, "we have made a discovery, thanks to your
+inquiring spirit. Poor John Bellingham! He little knew what a treasure
+he was giving us! How I wish he could have known! How I wish he could
+have been here with us to-night!"
+
+He paused once more to gaze in rapture at the photograph. And then
+Thorndyke, in his quiet, impassive way, said:
+
+"John Bellingham is here, Doctor Norbury. This is John Bellingham."
+
+Dr. Norbury started back and stared at Thorndyke in speechless
+amazement.
+
+"You don't mean," he exclaimed, after a long pause, "that this mummy is
+the body of John Bellingham!"
+
+"I do, indeed. There is no doubt of it."
+
+"But it is impossible! The mummy was here in the gallery a full three
+weeks before he disappeared."
+
+"Not so," said Thorndyke. "John Bellingham was last seen alive by you
+and Mr. Jellicoe on the fourteenth of October, more than three weeks
+before the mummy left Queen Square. After that date he was never seen
+alive or dead by any person who knew him and could identify him."
+
+Dr. Norbury reflected awhile in silence. Then, in a faint voice, he
+asked: "How do you suggest that John Bellingham's body came to be
+inside that cartonnage?"
+
+"I think Mr. Jellicoe is the most likely person to be able to answer
+that question," Thorndyke replied drily.
+
+There was another interval of silence, and then Dr. Norbury asked
+suddenly:
+
+"But what do you suppose has become of Sebek-hotep? The real
+Sebek-hotep, I mean?"
+
+"I take it," said Thorndyke, "that the remains of Sebek-hotep, or at
+least a portion of them, are at present lying in the Woodford mortuary
+awaiting an adjourned inquest."
+
+As Thorndyke made this statement a flash of belated intelligence,
+mingled with self-contempt, fell on me. Now that the explanation was
+given, how obvious it was! And yet I, a competent anatomist and
+physiologist and actually a pupil of Thorndyke's, had mistaken those
+ancient bones for the remains of a recent body!
+
+Dr. Norbury considered the last statement for some time in evident
+perplexity. "It is all consistent enough, I must admit," said he, at
+length, "and yet--are you quite sure there is no mistake? It seems so
+incredible."
+
+"There is no mistake, I assure you," Thorndyke answered. "To convince
+you, I will give you the facts in detail. First, as to the teeth. I have
+seen John Bellingham's dentist and obtained particulars from his
+case-book. There were in all five teeth that had been filled. The right
+upper wisdom-tooth, the molar next to it, and the second lower molar on
+the left side, had all extensive gold fillings. You can see them all
+quite plainly in the skiagraph. The left lower lateral incisor had a
+very small gold filling, which you can see as a nearly circular white
+dot. In addition to these, a filling of tin amalgam had been inserted
+while the deceased was abroad, in the second left upper bicuspid, the
+rather grey spot that we have already noticed. These would, by
+themselves, furnish ample means of identification. But in addition,
+there is the tattooed device of the Eye of Osiris--"
+
+"Horus," murmured Dr. Norbury.
+
+"Horus, then--in the exact locality in which it was borne by the
+deceased and tattooed, apparently, with the same pigment. There are,
+further, the suture wires in the knee-caps; Sir Morgan Bennet, having
+looked up the notes of the operation, informs me that he introduced
+three suture wires into the left patella and two into the right; which
+is what the skiagraph shows. Lastly, the deceased had an old Pott's
+fracture on the left side. It is not very apparent now, but I saw it
+quite distinctly just now when the shadows of the bones were whiter. I
+think that you may take it that the identification is beyond all doubt
+or question."
+
+"Yes," agreed Dr. Norbury, with gloomy resignation, "it sounds, as you
+say, quite conclusive. Well, well, it is a most horrible affair. Poor
+old John Bellingham! It looks uncommonly as if he had met with foul
+play. Don't you think so?"
+
+"I do," replied Thorndyke. "There was a mark on the right side of the
+skull that looked rather like a fracture. It was not very clear, being
+at the side, but we must develop up the next negative to show it."
+
+Dr. Norbury drew his breath in sharply through his teeth. "This is a
+gruesome business, Doctor," said he. "A terrible business. Awkward for
+our people, too. By the way, what is our position in the matter? What
+steps ought we to take?"
+
+"You should give notice to the coroner--I will manage the police--and
+you should communicate with one of the executors of the will."
+
+"Mr. Jellicoe?"
+
+"No, not Mr. Jellicoe, under the peculiar circumstances. You had better
+write to Mr. Godfrey Bellingham."
+
+"But I rather understood that Mr. Hurst was the co-executor," said Dr.
+Norbury.
+
+"He is surely, as matters stand," said Jervis.
+
+"Not at all," replied Thorndyke. "He _was_ as matters _stood_; but he is
+not now. You are forgetting the conditions of clause two. That clause
+sets forth the conditions under which Godfrey Bellingham shall inherit
+the bulk of the estate and become the co-executor; and those conditions
+are: 'that the body of the testator shall be deposited in some
+authorised place for the reception of the bodies of the dead, situate
+within the boundaries of, or appertaining to some place of worship
+within, the parish of St. George, Bloomsbury, and St. Giles in the
+Fields or St. Andrew above the Bars and St. George the Martyr.' Now
+Egyptian mummies are the bodies of the dead, and this Museum is an
+authorised place for their reception; and this building is situate
+within the boundaries of the parish of St. George, Bloomsbury. Therefore
+the provisions of clause two have been duly carried out and therefore
+Godfrey Bellingham is the principal beneficiary under the will, and the
+co-executor, in accordance with the wishes of the testator. Is that
+quite clear?"
+
+"Perfectly," said Dr. Norbury; "and a most astonishing coincidence--but,
+my dear young lady, had you not better sit down? You are looking very
+ill."
+
+He glanced anxiously at Ruth, who was pale to the lips and was now
+leaning heavily on my arm.
+
+"I think, Berkeley," said Thorndyke, "you had better take Miss
+Bellingham out into the gallery, where there is more air. This has been
+a tremendous climax to all the trials that she has borne so bravely. Go
+out with Berkeley," he added gently, laying his hand on her shoulder,
+"and sit down while we develop the other negatives. You mustn't break
+down now, you know, when the storm has passed and the sun is beginning
+to shine." He held the door open, and as we passed out his face softened
+into a smile of infinite kindness. "You won't mind my locking you out,"
+said he; "this is a photographic dark-room at present."
+
+The key grated in the lock and we turned away into the dim gallery. It
+was not quite dark, for a beam of moonlight filtered in here and there
+through the blinds that covered the sky-lights. We walked on slowly, her
+arm linked in mine, and for a while neither of us spoke. The great rooms
+were very silent and peaceful and solemn. The hush, the stillness, the
+mystery of the half-seen forms in the cases around, were all in harmony
+with the deeply-felt sense of a great deliverance that filled our
+hearts.
+
+We had passed through into the next room before either of us broke the
+silence. Insensibly our hands had crept together, and as they met and
+clasped with mutual pressure, Ruth exclaimed: "How dreadful and tragic
+it is! Poor, poor Uncle John! It seems as if he had come back from the
+world of shadows to tell us of this awful thing. But, O God! what a
+relief it is!" She caught her breath in one or two quick sobs and
+pressed my hand passionately.
+
+"It is over, dearest," I said. "It is gone for ever. Nothing remains but
+the memory of your sorrow and your noble courage and patience."
+
+"I can't realise it yet," she murmured. "It has been like a frightful,
+interminable dream."
+
+"Let us put it away," said I, "and think only of the happy life that is
+opening."
+
+She made no reply, and only a quick catch in her breath, now and again,
+told of the long agony that she had endured with such heroic calm.
+
+We walked on slowly, scarcely disturbing the silence with our soft
+foot-falls, through the wide doorway into the second room. The vague
+shapes of the mummy-cases standing erect in the wall-cases, loomed out
+dim and gigantic, silent watchers keeping their vigil with the memories
+of untold centuries locked in their shadowy breasts. They were an
+awesome company. Reverend survivors from a vanished world, they looked
+out from the gloom of their abiding-place, but with no shade of menace
+or of malice in their silent presence; rather with a solemn benison on
+the fleeting creatures of to-day.
+
+Half-way along the room a ghostly figure, somewhat aloof from its
+companions, showed a dim, pallid blotch where its face would have been.
+With one accord we halted before it.
+
+"Do you know who it is, Ruth?" I asked.
+
+"Of course I do," she answered. "It is Artemidorus."
+
+We stood, hand in hand, facing the mummy, letting our memories fill in
+the vague silhouette with its well-remembered details. Presently I drew
+her nearer to me and whispered:
+
+"Ruth! do you remember when we last stood here?"
+
+"As if I could ever forget!" she answered passionately. "Oh, Paul! The
+sorrow of it! The misery! How it wrung my heart to tell you! Were you
+_very_ unhappy when I left you?"
+
+"Unhappy! I never knew, until then, what real, heart-breaking sorrow
+was. It seemed as if the light had gone out of my life for ever. But
+there was just one little spot of brightness left."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"You made me a promise, dear--a solemn promise; and I felt--at least I
+hoped--that the day would come, if I only waited patiently, when you
+would be able to redeem it."
+
+She crept closer to me and yet closer, until her head nestled on my
+shoulder and her soft cheek lay against mine.
+
+"Dear heart," I whispered, "is it now? Is the time fulfilled?"
+
+"Yes, dearest," she murmured softly. "It is now--and for ever."
+
+Reverently I folded her in my arms; gathered her to the heart that
+worshipped her utterly. Henceforth no sorrows could hurt us, no
+misfortunes vex; for we should walk hand in hand on our earthly
+pilgrimage and find the way all too short.
+
+Time, whose sands run out with such unequal swiftness for the just and
+the unjust, the happy and the wretched, lagged, no doubt, with the
+toilers in the room that we had left. But for us its golden grains
+trickled out apace and left the glass empty before we had begun to mark
+their passage. The turning of a key and the opening of a door aroused us
+from our dream of perfect happiness. Ruth raised her head to listen, and
+our lips met for one brief moment. Then, with a silent greeting to the
+friend who had looked on our grief and witnessed our final happiness, we
+turned and retraced our steps quickly, filling the great, empty rooms
+with chattering echoes.
+
+"We won't go back into the dark-room--which isn't dark now," said Ruth.
+
+"Why not?" I asked.
+
+"Because--when I came out I was very pale; and I'm--well, I don't think
+I am very pale now. Besides, poor Uncle John is in there--and--I should
+be ashamed to look at him with my selfish heart overflowing with
+happiness."
+
+"You needn't be," said I. "It is the day of our lives and we have a
+right to be happy. But you shan't go in, if you don't wish to," and I
+accordingly steered her adroitly past the beam of light that streamed
+from the open door.
+
+"We have developed four negatives," said Thorndyke, as he emerged with
+the others, "and I am leaving them in the custody of Doctor Norbury, who
+will sign each when they are dry, as they may have to be put in
+evidence. What are you going to do?"
+
+I looked at Ruth to see what she wished.
+
+"If you won't think me ungrateful," said she, "I should rather be alone
+with my father to-night. He is very weak, and--"
+
+"Yes, I understand," I said hastily. And I did. Mr. Bellingham was a man
+of strong emotions and would probably be somewhat overcome by the sudden
+change of fortune and the news of his brother's tragic death.
+
+"In that case," said Thorndyke, "I will bespeak your services. Will you
+go on and wait for me at my chambers, when you have seen Miss Bellingham
+home?"
+
+I agreed to this, and we set forth under the guidance of Dr. Norbury
+(who carried an electric lamp) to return by the way we had come; two of
+us, at least, in a vastly different frame of mind. The party broke up at
+the entrance gates, and as Thorndyke wished my companion "Good night,"
+she held his hand and looked up in his face with swimming eyes.
+
+"I haven't thanked you, Doctor Thorndyke," she said, "and I don't feel
+that I ever can. What you have done for me and my father is beyond all
+thanks. You have saved his life and you have rescued me from the most
+horrible ignominy. Good-bye! and God bless you!"
+
+The hansom that bowled along eastward--at most unnecessary speed--bore
+two of the happiest human beings within the wide boundaries of the town.
+I looked at my companion as the lights of the street shone into the cab,
+and was astonished at the transformation. The pallor of her cheek had
+given place to a rosy pink; the hardness, the tension, the haggard
+self-repression that had aged her face, were all gone, and the girlish
+sweetness that had so bewitched me in the early days of our love had
+stolen back. Even the dimple was there when the sweeping lashes lifted
+and her eyes met mine in a smile of infinite tenderness. Little was said
+on that brief journey. It was happiness enough to sit, hand clasped in
+hand, and know that our time of trial was past; that no cross of Fate
+could ever part us now.
+
+The astonished cabman set us down, according to instructions, at the
+entrance to Nevill's Court, and watched us with open mouth as we
+vanished into the narrow passage. The court had settled down for the
+night, and no one marked our return; no curious eye looked down on us
+from the dark house-front as we said "Good-bye" just inside the gate.
+
+"You will come and see us to-morrow, dear, won't you?" she asked.
+
+"Do you think it possible that I could stay away, then?"
+
+"I hope not. But come as early as you can. My father will be positively
+frantic to see you; because I shall have told him, you know. And,
+remember, that it is you who have brought us this great deliverance.
+Good night, Paul."
+
+"Good night, sweetheart."
+
+She put up her face frankly to be kissed and then ran up to the ancient
+door; whence she waved me a last good-bye. The shabby gate in the wall
+closed behind me and hid her from my sight; but the light of her love
+went with me and turned the dull street into a path of glory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A STRANGE SYMPOSIUM
+
+
+It came upon me with something of a shock of surprise to find the scrap
+of paper still tacked to the oak of Thorndyke's chambers. So much had
+happened since I had last looked on it that it seemed to belong to
+another epoch of my life. I removed it thoughtfully and picked out the
+tack before entering, and then, closing the inner door, but leaving the
+oak open, I lit the gas and fell to pacing the room.
+
+What a wonderful episode it had been! How the whole aspect of the world
+had been changed in a moment by Thorndyke's revelation! At another time,
+curiosity would have led me to endeavour to trace back the train of
+reasoning by which the subtle brain of my teacher had attained this
+astonishing conclusion. But now my own happiness held exclusive
+possession of my thoughts. The image of Ruth filled the field of my
+mental vision. I saw her again as I had seen her in the cab with her
+sweet, pensive face and downcast eyes; I felt again the touch of her
+soft cheek and the parting kiss by the gate, so frank and simple, so
+intimate and final.
+
+I must have waited quite a long time, though the golden minutes sped
+unreckoned, for when my two colleagues arrived they tendered needless
+apologies.
+
+"And I suppose," said Thorndyke, "you have been wondering what I wanted
+you for."
+
+I had not, as a matter of fact, given the matter a moment's
+consideration.
+
+"We are going to call on Mr. Jellicoe," Thorndyke explained. "There is
+something behind this affair, and until I have ascertained what it is,
+the case is not complete from my point of view."
+
+"Wouldn't it have done as well to-morrow?" I asked.
+
+"It might; and then it might not. There is an old saying as to catching
+a weasel asleep. Mr. Jellicoe is a somewhat wide-awake person, and I
+think it best to introduce him to Inspector Badger at the earliest
+possible moment."
+
+"The meeting of a weasel and a badger suggests a sporting interview,"
+remarked Jervis. "But you don't expect Jellicoe to give himself away, do
+you?"
+
+"He can hardly do that, seeing that there is nothing to give away. But I
+think he may make a statement. There were some exceptional
+circumstances, I feel sure."
+
+"How long have you known that the body was in the Museum?" I asked.
+
+"About thirty or forty seconds longer than you have, I should say."
+
+"Do you mean," I exclaimed, "that you didn't know until the negative was
+developed?"
+
+"My dear fellow," he replied, "do you suppose that, if I had had certain
+knowledge where the body was, I should have allowed that noble girl to
+go on dragging out a lingering agony of suspense that I could have cut
+short in a moment? Or that I should have made these humbugging pretences
+of scientific experiments if a more dignified course had been open to
+me?"
+
+"As to the experiments," said Jervis, "Norbury could hardly have
+refused if you had taken him into your confidence."
+
+"Indeed he could, and probably would. My 'confidence' would have
+involved a charge of murder against a highly respectable gentleman who
+was well known to him. He would probably have referred me to the police,
+and then what could I have done? I had plenty of suspicions, but not a
+single solid fact."
+
+Our discussion was here interrupted by hurried footsteps on the stairs
+and a thundering rat-tat on our knocker.
+
+As Jervis opened the door, Inspector Badger burst into the room in a
+highly excited state.
+
+"What is all this, Doctor Thorndyke?" he asked. "I see you've sworn an
+information against Mr. Jellicoe, and I have a warrant to arrest him;
+but before anything is done I think it right to tell you that we have
+more evidence than is generally known pointing to quite a different
+quarter."
+
+"Derived from Mr. Jellicoe's information," said Thorndyke. "But the fact
+is that I have just examined and identified the body at the British
+Museum, where it was deposited by Mr. Jellicoe. I don't say that he
+murdered John Bellingham--though that is what the appearances
+suggest--but I do say that he will have to account for his secret
+disposal of the body."
+
+Inspector Badger was thunderstruck. Also he was visibly annoyed. The
+salt which Mr. Jellicoe had so adroitly sprinkled on the constabulary
+tail appeared to develop irritating properties, for when Thorndyke had
+given him a brief outline of the facts he stuck his hands in his pockets
+and exclaimed gloomily:
+
+"Well, I'm hanged! And to think of all the time and trouble I've spent
+on those damned bones! I suppose they were just a plant?"
+
+"Don't let us disparage them," said Thorndyke. "They have played a
+useful part. They represent the inevitable mistake that every criminal
+makes sooner or later. The murderer will always do a little too much. If
+he would only lie low and let well alone, the detective might whistle
+for a clue. But it is time we were starting."
+
+"Are we all going?" asked the inspector, looking at me in particular
+with no very gracious recognition.
+
+"We will all come with you," said Thorndyke; "but you will, naturally,
+make the arrest in the way that seems best to you."
+
+"It's a regular procession," grumbled the inspector; but he made no more
+definite objection, and we started forth on our quest.
+
+The distance from the Temple to Lincoln's Inn is not great. In five
+minutes we were at the gateway in Chancery Lane, and a couple of minutes
+later saw us gathered round the threshold of the stately old house in
+New Square.
+
+"Seems to be a light in the first floor front," said Badger. "You'd
+better move away before I ring the bell."
+
+But the precaution was unnecessary. As the inspector advanced to the
+bell-pull a head was thrust out of the open window immediately above the
+street door.
+
+"Who are you?" inquired the owner of the head in a voice which I
+recognised as that of Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"I am Inspector Badger, of the Criminal Investigation Department. I
+wish to see Mr. Arthur Jellicoe."
+
+"Then look at me. I am Mr. Arthur Jellicoe."
+
+"I hold a warrant for your arrest, Mr. Jellicoe. You are charged with
+the murder of Mr. John Bellingham, whose body has just been discovered
+in the British Museum."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"By Doctor Thorndyke."
+
+"Indeed," said Mr. Jellicoe. "Is he here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Ha! And you wish to arrest me, I presume?"
+
+"Yes. That is what I am here for."
+
+"Well, I will agree to surrender myself subject to certain conditions."
+
+"I can't make any conditions, Mr. Jellicoe."
+
+"No. I will make them, and you will accept them. Otherwise you will not
+arrest me."
+
+"It's no use for you to talk like that," said Badger. "If you don't let
+me in I shall have to break in. And I may as well tell you," he added
+mendaciously, "that the house is surrounded."
+
+"You may accept my assurance," Mr. Jellicoe replied calmly, "that you
+will not arrest me if you do not accept my conditions."
+
+"Well, what are your conditions?" demanded Badger impatiently.
+
+"I desire to make a statement," said Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"You can do that, but I must caution you that anything you say may be
+used in evidence against you."
+
+"Naturally. But I wish to make the statement in the presence of Doctor
+Thorndyke, and I desire to hear a statement from him of the method of
+investigation by which he discovered the whereabouts of the body. That
+is to say, if he is willing."
+
+"If you mean that we should mutually enlighten one another, I am very
+willing indeed," said Thorndyke.
+
+"Very well. Then my conditions, Inspector, are that I shall hear Doctor
+Thorndyke's statement and that I shall be permitted to make a statement
+myself, and that until those statements are completed, with any
+necessary interrogation and discussion, I shall remain at liberty and
+shall suffer no molestation or interference of any kind. And I agree
+that, on the conclusion of the said proceedings, I will submit without
+resistance to any course that you may adopt."
+
+"I can't agree to that," said Badger.
+
+"Can't you?" said Mr. Jellicoe coldly; and, after a pause, he added:
+"Don't be hasty. I have given you full warning."
+
+There was something in Mr. Jellicoe's passionless tone that disturbed
+the inspector exceedingly, for he turned to Thorndyke and said in a low
+tone:
+
+"I wonder what his game is? He can't get away, you know."
+
+"There are several possibilities," said Thorndyke.
+
+"M'yes," said Badger, stroking his chin perplexedly.
+
+"After all, is there any objection? His statement might save trouble,
+and you'd be on the safe side. It would take you some time to break in."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Jellicoe, with his hand on the window, "do you
+agree--yes or no?"
+
+"All right," said Badger sulkily. "I agree."
+
+"You promise not to molest me in any way until I have quite finished?"
+
+"I promise."
+
+Mr. Jellicoe's head disappeared and the window closed. After a short
+interval we heard the jar of massive bolts and the clank of a chain,
+and, as the heavy door swung open, Mr. Jellicoe stood revealed, calm and
+impassive, with an old-fashioned office candlestick in his hand.
+
+"Who are the others?" he inquired, peering out sharply through his
+spectacles.
+
+"O, they are nothing to do with me," replied Badger.
+
+"They are Doctor Berkeley and Doctor Jervis," said Thorndyke.
+
+"Ha!" said Mr. Jellicoe; "very kind and attentive of them to call. Pray
+come in, gentlemen. I am sure you will be interested to hear our little
+discussion."
+
+He held the door open with a certain stiff courtesy, and we all entered
+the hall led by Inspector Badger. He closed the door softly and preceded
+us up the stairs and into the apartment from the window of which he had
+dictated the terms of surrender. It was a fine old room, spacious,
+lofty, and dignified, with panelled walls and a carved mantelpiece, the
+central escutcheon of which bore the initials "J.W.P." with the date
+"1671." A large writing-table stood at the farther end, and behind it an
+iron safe.
+
+"I have been expecting this visit," Mr. Jellicoe remarked tranquilly as
+he placed four chairs opposite the table.
+
+"Since when?" asked Thorndyke.
+
+"Since last Monday evening, when I had the pleasure of seeing you
+conversing with my friend Doctor Berkeley at the Inner Temple gate, and
+then inferred that you were retained in the case. That was a
+circumstance that had not been fully provided for. May I offer you
+gentlemen a glass of sherry?" As he spoke he placed on the table a
+decanter and a tray of glasses, and looked at us interrogatively with
+his hand on the stopper.
+
+"Well, I don't mind if I do, Mr. Jellicoe," said Badger, on whom the
+lawyer's glance had finally settled. Mr. Jellicoe filled a glass and
+handed it to him with a stiff bow; then, with the decanter still in his
+hand, he said persuasively: "Doctor Thorndyke, pray allow me to fill you
+a glass?"
+
+"No, thank you," said Thorndyke, in a tone so decided that the inspector
+looked round at him quickly. And as Badger caught his eye, the glass
+which he was about to raise to his lips became suddenly arrested and was
+slowly returned to the table untasted.
+
+"I don't want to hurry you, Mr. Jellicoe," said the inspector, "but it's
+rather late, and I should like to get this business settled. What is it
+that you wish to do?"
+
+"I desire," replied Mr. Jellicoe, "to make a detailed statement of the
+events that have happened, and I wish to hear from Doctor Thorndyke
+precisely how he arrived at his very remarkable conclusion. When this
+has been done I shall be entirely at your service; and I suggest that it
+would be more interesting if Doctor Thorndyke would give us his
+statement before I furnish you with the actual facts."
+
+"I am entirely of your opinion," said Thorndyke.
+
+"Then in that case," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I suggest that you disregard
+me, and address your remarks to your friends as if I were not present."
+
+Thorndyke acquiesced with a bow, and Mr. Jellicoe, having seated himself
+in his elbow-chair behind the table, poured himself out a glass of
+water, selected a cigarette from a neat silver case, lighted it
+deliberately, and leaned back to listen at his ease.
+
+"My first acquaintance with this case," Thorndyke began without
+preamble, "was made through the medium of the daily papers about two
+years ago; and I may say that, although I had no interest in it beyond
+the purely academic interest of a specialist in a case that lies in his
+particular specialty, I considered it with deep attention. The newspaper
+reports contained no particulars of the relations of the parties that
+could furnish any hints as to motives on the part of any of them, but
+merely a bare statement of the events. And this was a distinct
+advantage, inasmuch as it left one to consider the facts of the case
+without regard to motive--to balance the _prima facie_ probabilities
+with an open mind. And it may surprise you to learn that those _prima
+facie_ probabilities pointed from the very first to that solution which
+has been put to the test of experiment this evening. Hence it will be
+well for me to begin by giving the conclusions that I reached by
+reasoning from the facts set forth in the newspapers before any of the
+further facts came to my knowledge.
+
+"From the facts as stated in the newspaper reports it is obvious that
+there were four possible explanations of the disappearance.
+
+"1. The man might be alive and in hiding. This was highly improbable,
+for the reasons that were stated by Mr. Loram at the late hearing of the
+application, and for a further reason that I shall mention presently.
+
+"2. He might have died by accident or disease, and his body failed to be
+identified. This was even more improbable, seeing that he carried on his
+person abundant means of identification, including visiting cards.
+
+"3. He might have been murdered by some stranger for the sake of his
+portable property. This was highly improbable for the same reason: his
+body could hardly have failed to be identified.
+
+"These three explanations are what we may call the outside explanations.
+They touched none of the parties mentioned; they were all obviously
+improbable on general grounds; and to all of them there was one
+conclusive answer--the scarab which was found in Godfrey Bellingham's
+garden. Hence I put them aside and gave my attention to the fourth
+explanation. This was that the missing man had been made away with by
+one of the parties mentioned in the report. But, since the reports
+mentioned three parties, it was evident that there was a choice of three
+hypotheses, namely:
+
+"(_a_) That John Bellingham had been made away with by Hurst; or (_b_)
+by the Bellinghams; or (_c_) by Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"Now, I have constantly impressed on my pupils that the indispensable
+question that must be asked at the outset of such an inquiry as this is,
+'When was the missing person last undoubtedly seen or known to be
+alive?' That is the question that I asked myself after reading the
+newspaper report; and the answer was, that he was last certainly seen
+alive on the fourteenth of October, nineteen hundred and two, at 141
+Queen Square, Bloomsbury. Of the fact that he was alive at that time
+and place there could be no doubt whatever; for he was seen at the same
+moment by two persons, both of whom were intimately acquainted with him,
+and one of whom, Doctor Norbury, was apparently a disinterested witness.
+After that date he was never seen, alive or dead, by any person who knew
+him and was able to identify him. It was stated that he had been seen on
+the twenty-third of November following by the housemaid of Mr. Hurst;
+but as this person was unacquainted with him, it was uncertain whether
+the person whom she saw was or was not John Bellingham.
+
+"Hence the disappearance dated, not from the twenty-third of November,
+as everyone seems to have assumed, but from the fourteenth of October;
+and the question was not, 'What became of John Bellingham after he
+entered Mr. Hurst's house?' but, 'What became of him after his interview
+in Queen Square?'
+
+"But as soon as I had decided that that interview must form the real
+starting-point of the inquiry, a most striking set of circumstances came
+into view. It became obvious that if Mr. Jellicoe had had any reason for
+wishing to make away with John Bellingham, he had such an opportunity as
+seldom falls to the lot of an intending murderer.
+
+"Just consider the conditions. John Bellingham was known to be setting
+out alone upon a journey beyond the sea. His exact destination was not
+stated. He was to be absent for an undetermined period, but at least
+three weeks. His disappearance would occasion no comment; his absence
+would lead to no inquiries, at least for several weeks, during which the
+murderer would have leisure quietly to dispose of the body and conceal
+all traces of the crime. The conditions were, from a murderer's point of
+view, ideal.
+
+"But that was not all. During that very period of John Bellingham's
+absence Mr. Jellicoe was engaged to deliver to the British Museum what
+was admittedly a dead human body; and that body was to be enclosed in a
+sealed case. Could any more perfect or secure method of disposing of a
+body be devised by the most ingenious murderer? The plan would have had
+only one weak point: the mummy would be known to have left Queen Square
+_after_ the disappearance of John Bellingham, and suspicion might in the
+end have arisen. To this point I shall return presently; meanwhile we
+will consider the second hypothesis--that the missing man was made away
+with by Mr. Hurst.
+
+"Now, there seemed to be no doubt that some person, purporting to be
+John Bellingham, did actually visit Mr. Hurst's house; and he must
+either have left that house or remained in it. If he left, he did so
+surreptitiously; if he remained, there could be no reasonable doubt that
+he had been murdered and that his body had been concealed. Let us
+consider the probabilities in each case.
+
+"Assuming--as everyone seems to have done--that the visitor was really
+John Bellingham, we are dealing with a responsible, middle-aged
+gentleman, and the idea that such a person would enter a house, announce
+his intention of staying, and then steal away unobserved is very
+difficult to accept. Moreover, he would appear to have come down to
+Eltham by rail immediately on landing in England, leaving his luggage in
+the cloak-room at Charing Cross. This pointed to a definiteness of
+purpose quite inconsistent with his casual disappearance from the house.
+
+"On the other hand, the idea that he might have been murdered by Hurst
+was not inconceivable. The thing was physically possible. If Bellingham
+had really been in the study when Hurst came home, the murder could have
+been committed--by appropriate means--and the body temporarily concealed
+in the cupboard or elsewhere. But, although possible, it was not at all
+probable. There was no real opportunity. The risk and the subsequent
+difficulties would be very great; there was not a particle of positive
+evidence that a murder had occurred; and the conduct of Hurst in
+immediately leaving the house in possession of the servants is quite
+inconsistent with the supposition that there was a body concealed in it.
+So that, while it is almost impossible to believe that John Bellingham
+left the house of his own accord, it is equally difficult to believe
+that he did not leave it.
+
+"But there is a third possibility, which, strange to say, no one seems
+to have suggested. Supposing that the visitor was not John Bellingham at
+all, but someone who was personating him? That would dispose of the
+difficulties completely. The strange disappearance ceases to be strange,
+for a personator would necessarily make off before Mr. Hurst should
+arrive and discover the imposture. But if we accept this supposition, we
+raise two further questions: 'Who was the personator?' and 'What was the
+object of the personation?'
+
+"Now, the personator was clearly not Hurst himself, for he would have
+been recognised by his housemaid; he was therefore either Godfrey
+Bellingham or Mr. Jellicoe or some other person; and as no other person
+was mentioned in the newspaper reports I confined my speculations to
+these two.
+
+"And, first, as to Godfrey Bellingham. It did not appear whether he was
+or was not known to the housemaid, so I assumed--wrongly, as it turns
+out--that he was not. Then he might have been the personator. But why
+should he have personated his brother? He could not have already
+committed the murder. There had not been time enough. He would have had
+to leave Woodford before John Bellingham had set out from Charing Cross.
+And even if he had committed the murder, he would have had no object in
+raising this commotion. His cue would have been to remain quiet and know
+nothing. The probabilities were all against the personator being Godfrey
+Bellingham.
+
+"Then could it be Mr. Jellicoe? The answer to this question is contained
+in the answer to the further question: What could have been the object
+of the personation?
+
+"What motive could this unknown person have had in appearing, announcing
+himself as John Bellingham, and forthwith vanishing? There could only
+have been one motive: that, namely, of fixing the date of John
+Bellingham's disappearance--of furnishing a definite moment at which he
+was last seen alive.
+
+"But who was likely to have had such a motive? Let us see.
+
+"I said just now that if Mr. Jellicoe had murdered John Bellingham and
+disposed of the body in the mummy-case, he would have been absolutely
+safe for the time being. But there would be a weak spot in his armour.
+For a month or more the disappearance of his client would occasion no
+remark. But presently, when he failed to return, inquiries would be set
+on foot; and then it would appear that no one had seen him since he left
+Queen Square. Then it would be noted that the last person with whom he
+was seen was Mr. Jellicoe. It might, further, be remembered that the
+mummy had been delivered to the Museum some time _after_ the missing man
+was last seen alive. And so suspicion might arise and be followed by
+disastrous investigations. But supposing it should be made to appear
+that John Bellingham had been seen alive more than a month after his
+interview with Mr. Jellicoe and some weeks after the mummy had been
+deposited in the Museum? Then Mr. Jellicoe would cease to be in any way
+connected with the disappearance, and henceforth would be absolutely
+safe.
+
+"Hence, after carefully considering this part of the newspaper report, I
+came to the conclusion that the mysterious occurrence at Mr. Hurst's
+house had only one reasonable explanation, namely, that the visitor was
+not John Bellingham, but someone personating him; and that that someone
+was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"It remains to consider the case of Godfrey Bellingham and his daughter,
+though I cannot understand how any sane person can have seriously
+suspected either" (here Inspector Badger smiled a sour smile). "The
+evidence against them was negligible, for there was nothing to connect
+them with the affair save the finding of the scarab on their premises;
+and that event, which might have been highly suspicious under other
+circumstances, was robbed of any significance by the fact that the
+scarab was found on a spot which had been passed a few minutes
+previously by the other suspected party, Hurst. The finding of the
+scarab did, however, establish two important conclusions; namely, that
+John Bellingham had probably met with foul play, and that of the four
+persons present when it was found, one at least had had possession of
+the body. As to which of the four was the one, the circumstances
+furnished only a hint, which was this: If the scarab had been purposely
+dropped, the most likely person to find it was the one who dropped it.
+And the person who discovered it was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"Following up this hint, if we ask ourselves what motive Mr. Jellicoe
+could have had for dropping it--assuming him to be the murderer--the
+answer is obvious. It would not be his policy to fix the crime on any
+particular person, but rather to set up a complication of conflicting
+evidence which would occupy the attention of investigators and divert it
+from himself.
+
+"Of course, if Hurst had been the murderer, he would have had a
+sufficient motive for dropping the scarab, so that the case against Mr.
+Jellicoe was not conclusive; but the fact that it was he who found it
+was highly significant.
+
+"This completes the analysis of the evidence contained in the original
+newspaper report describing the circumstances of the disappearance. The
+conclusions that followed from it were, as you will have seen:
+
+"1. That the missing man was almost certainly dead, as proved by the
+finding of the scarab after his disappearance.
+
+"2. That he had probably been murdered by one or more of four persons,
+as proved by the finding of the scarab on the premises occupied by two
+of them and accessible to the others.
+
+"3. That, of those four persons, one--Mr. Jellicoe--was the last person
+who was known to have been in the company of the missing man; had had an
+exceptional opportunity for committing the murder; and was known to have
+delivered a dead body to the Museum subsequently to the disappearance.
+
+"4. That the supposition that Mr. Jellicoe had committed the murder
+rendered all the other circumstances of the disappearance clearly
+intelligible, whereas on any other supposition they were quite
+inexplicable.
+
+"The evidence of the newspaper report, therefore, clearly pointed to the
+probability that John Bellingham had been murdered by Mr. Jellicoe and
+his body concealed in the mummy-case.
+
+"I do not wish to give you the impression that I, then and there,
+believed that Mr. Jellicoe was the murderer. I did not. There was no
+reason to suppose that the report contained all the essential facts, and
+I merely considered it speculatively as a study in probabilities. But I
+did decide that that was the only probable conclusion from the facts
+that were given.
+
+"Nearly two years passed before I heard anything more of the case. Then
+it was brought to my notice by my friend, Doctor Berkeley, and I became
+acquainted with certain new facts, which I will consider in the order in
+which they became known to me.
+
+"The first new light on the case came from the will. As soon as I had
+read that document I felt convinced that there was something wrong. The
+testator's evident intention was that his brother should inherit the
+property, whereas the construction of the will was such as almost
+certainly to defeat that intention. The devolution of the property
+depended on the burial clause--clause two; but the burial arrangements
+would ordinarily be decided by the executor, who happened to be Mr.
+Jellicoe. Thus the will left the disposition of the property under the
+control of Mr. Jellicoe, though his action could have been contested.
+
+"Now, this will, although drawn up by John Bellingham, was executed in
+Mr. Jellicoe's office, as is proved by the fact that it was witnessed by
+two of his clerks. He was the testator's lawyer, and it was his duty to
+insist on the will being properly drawn. Evidently he did nothing of the
+kind, and this fact strongly suggested some kind of collusion on his
+part with Hurst, who stood to benefit by the miscarriage of the will.
+And this was the odd feature in the case; for whereas the party
+responsible for the defective provisions was Mr. Jellicoe, the party who
+benefited was Hurst.
+
+"But the most startling peculiarity of the will was the way in which it
+fitted the circumstances of the disappearance. It looked as if clause
+two had been drawn up with those very circumstances in view. Since,
+however, the will was ten years old, this was impossible. But if clause
+two could not have been devised to fit the disappearance, could the
+disappearance have been devised to fit clause two? That was by no means
+impossible: under the circumstances it looked rather probable. And if it
+had been so contrived, who was the agent in that contrivance? Hurst
+stood to benefit, but there was no evidence that he even knew the
+contents of the will. There remained only Mr. Jellicoe, who had
+certainly connived at the misdrawing of the will for some purpose of his
+own--some dishonest purpose.
+
+"The evidence of the will, then, pointed to Mr. Jellicoe as the agent
+in the disappearance, and, after reading it, I definitely suspected him
+of the crime.
+
+"Suspicion, however, is one thing and proof is another. I had not nearly
+enough evidence to justify me in laying an information, and I could not
+approach the Museum officials without making a definite accusation. The
+great difficulty of the case was that I could discover no motive. I
+could not see any way in which Mr. Jellicoe would benefit by the
+disappearance. His own legacy was secure, whenever and however the
+testator died. The murder and concealment apparently benefited Hurst
+alone; and, in the absence of any plausible motive, the facts required
+to be much more conclusive than they were."
+
+"Did you form absolutely no opinion as to motive?" asked Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+He put the question in a quiet, passionless tone, as if he were
+discussing some _cause célčbre_ in which he had nothing more than a
+professional interest. Indeed, the calm, impersonal interest that he
+displayed in Thorndyke's analysis, his unmoved attention, punctuated by
+little nods of approval at each telling point in the argument, were the
+most surprising features of this astounding interview.
+
+"I did form an opinion," replied Thorndyke, "but it was merely
+speculative, and I was never able to confirm it. I discovered that about
+ten years ago Mr. Hurst had been in difficulties and that he had
+suddenly raised a considerable sum of money, no one knew how or on what
+security. I observed that this event coincided in time with the
+execution of the will, and I surmised that there might be some
+connection between them. But that was only a surmise; and, as the
+proverb has it, 'He discovers who proves.' I could prove nothing, so
+that I never discovered Mr. Jellicoe's motive, and I don't know it now."
+
+"Don't you, really?" said Mr. Jellicoe, in something approaching a tone
+of animation. He laid down the end of his cigarette, and, as he selected
+another from the silver case, he continued: "I think that is the most
+interesting feature of your really remarkable analysis. It does you
+great credit. The absence of motive would have appeared to most persons
+a fatal objection to the theory of, what I may call, the prosecution.
+Permit me to congratulate you on the consistency and tenacity with which
+you have pursued the actual, visible facts."
+
+He bowed stiffly to Thorndyke (who returned his bow with equal
+stiffness), lighted the fresh cigarette, and once more leaned back in
+his chair with the calm, attentive manner of a man who is listening to a
+lecture or a musical performance.
+
+"The evidence, then, being insufficient to act upon," Thorndyke resumed,
+"there was nothing for it but to wait for some new facts. Now, the study
+of a large series of carefully conducted murders brings into view an
+almost invariable phenomenon. The cautious murderer, in his anxiety to
+make himself secure, does too much; and it is this excess of precaution
+that leads to detection. It happens constantly; indeed, I may say that
+it always happens--in those murders that are detected; of those that are
+not we say nothing--and I had strong hopes that it would happen in this
+case. And it did.
+
+"At the very moment when my client's case seemed almost hopeless, some
+human remains were discovered at Sidcup. I read the account of the
+discovery in the evening paper, and, scanty as the report was, it
+recorded enough facts to convince me that the inevitable mistake had
+been made."
+
+"Did it, indeed?" said Mr. Jellicoe. "A mere, inexpert, hearsay report!
+I should have supposed it to be quite valueless from a scientific point
+of view."
+
+"So it was," said Thorndyke. "But it gave the date of the discovery and
+the locality, and it also mentioned what bones had been found. Which
+were all vital facts. Take the question of time. These remains, after
+lying _perdu_ for two years, suddenly come to light just as the
+parties--who have also been lying _perdu_--have begun to take action in
+respect of the will; in fact, within a week or two of the hearing of the
+application. It was certainly a remarkable coincidence. And when the
+circumstances that occasioned the discovery were considered, the
+coincidence became still more remarkable. For these remains were found
+on land actually belonging to John Bellingham, and their discovery
+resulted from certain operations (the clearing of the watercress-beds)
+carried out on behalf of the absent landlord. But by whose orders were
+those works undertaken? Clearly by the orders of the landlord's agent.
+But the landlord's agent was known to be Mr. Jellicoe. Therefore these
+remains were brought to light at this peculiarly opportune moment by the
+action of Mr. Jellicoe. The coincidence, I say again, was very
+remarkable.
+
+"But what instantly arrested my attention on reading the newspaper
+report was the unusual manner in which the arm had been separated; for,
+besides the bones of the arm proper, there were those of what anatomists
+call the 'shoulder-girdle'--the shoulder-blade and collar-bone. This was
+very remarkable. It seemed to suggest a knowledge of anatomy, and yet no
+murderer, even if he possessed such knowledge, would make a display of
+it on such an occasion. It seemed to me that there must be some other
+explanation. Accordingly, when other remains had come to light and all
+had been collected at Woodford, I asked my friend Berkeley to go down
+there and inspect them. He did so, and this is what he found:
+
+"Both arms had been detached in the same peculiar manner; both were
+complete, and all the bones were from the same body. The bones were
+quite clean--of soft structures, I mean. There were no cuts, scratches,
+or marks on them. There was not a trace of adipocere--the peculiar waxy
+soap that forms in bodies that decay in water or in a damp situation.
+The right hand had been detached at the time the arm was thrown into the
+pond, and the left ring finger had been separated and had vanished. This
+latter fact had attracted my attention from the first, but I will leave
+its consideration for the moment and return to it later."
+
+"How did you discover that the hand had been detached?" Mr. Jellicoe
+asked.
+
+"By the submersion marks," replied Thorndyke. "It was lying on the
+bottom of the pond in a position which would have been impossible if it
+had been attached to the arm."
+
+"You interest me exceedingly," said Mr. Jellicoe. "It appears that a
+medico-legal expert finds 'books in the running brooks, sermons in
+bones, and evidence in everything.' But don't let me interrupt you."
+
+"Doctor Berkeley's observations," Thorndyke resumed, "together with the
+medical evidence at the inquest, led me to certain conclusions.
+
+"Let me first state the facts which were disclosed.
+
+"The remains which had been assembled formed a complete human skeleton
+with the exception of the skull, one finger, and the legs from knee to
+ankle, including both knee-caps. This was a very impressive fact; for
+the bones that were missing included all those which could have been
+identified as belonging or not belonging to John Bellingham; and the
+bones that were present were the unidentifiable remainder.
+
+"It had a suspicious appearance of selection.
+
+"But the parts that were present were also curiously suggestive. In all
+cases the mode of dismemberment was peculiar; for an ordinary person
+would have divided the knee-joint leaving the knee-cap attached to the
+thigh, whereas it had evidently been left attached to the shin-bone; and
+the head would most probably have been removed by cutting through the
+neck instead of being neatly detached from the spine. And all these
+bones were also entirely free from marks or scratches such as would
+naturally occur in an ordinary dismemberment, and all were quite free
+from adipocere. And now as to the conclusions which I drew from these
+facts. First, there was the peculiar grouping of the bones. What was the
+meaning of that? Well, the idea of a punctilious anatomist was obviously
+absurd, and I put it aside. But was there any other explanation? Yes,
+there was. The bones had appeared in the natural groups that are held
+together by ligaments; and they had separated at points where they were
+attached principally by muscles. The knee-cap, for instance, which
+really belongs to the thigh, is attached to it by muscle, but to the
+shin-bone by a stout ligament. And so with the bones of the arm; they
+are connected to one another by ligaments; but to the trunk only by
+muscle, excepting at one end of the collar-bone.
+
+"But this was a very significant fact. Ligament decays much more slowly
+than muscle, so that in a body of which the muscles had largely decayed
+the bones might still be held together by ligament. The peculiar
+grouping therefore suggested that the body had been partly reduced to a
+skeleton before it was dismembered; that it had then been merely pulled
+apart and not divided with a knife.
+
+"This suggestion was remarkably confirmed by the total absence of
+knife-cuts or scratches.
+
+"Then there was the fact that all the bones were quite free from
+adipocere. Now, if an arm or a thigh should be deposited in water and
+left undisturbed to decay, it is certain that large masses of adipocere
+would be formed. Probably more than half of the flesh would be converted
+into this substance. The absence of adipocere therefore proved that the
+bulk of the flesh had disappeared or been removed from the bones before
+they were deposited in the pond. That, in fact, it was not a body, but a
+skeleton, that had been deposited.
+
+"But what kind of skeleton? If it was the recent skeleton of a murdered
+man, then the bones had been carefully stripped of flesh so as to leave
+the ligaments intact. But this was highly improbable; for there could be
+no object in preserving the ligaments. And the absence of scratches was
+against this view.
+
+"Then they did not appear to be graveyard bones. The collection was too
+complete. It is very rare to find a graveyard skeleton of which many of
+the small bones are not missing. And such bones are usually more or
+less weathered and friable.
+
+"They did not appear to be bones such as may be bought at an
+osteological dealer's, for these usually have perforations to admit the
+macerating fluid to the marrow cavities. Dealers' bones, too, are very
+seldom all from the same body; and the small bones of the hand are
+drilled with holes to enable them to be strung on catgut.
+
+"They were not dissecting-room bones, as there was no trace of red-lead
+in the openings for the nutrient arteries.
+
+"What the appearances did suggest was that these were parts of a body
+which had decayed in a very dry atmosphere (in which no adipocere would
+be formed), and which had been pulled or broken apart. Also that the
+ligaments which held the body--or rather skeleton--together were brittle
+and friable, as suggested by the detached hand, which had probably
+broken off accidentally. But the only kind of body that completely
+answers this description is an Egyptian mummy. A mummy, it is true, has
+been more or less preserved; but on exposure to the air of such a
+climate as ours it perishes rapidly, the ligaments being the last of the
+soft parts to disappear.
+
+"The hypothesis that these bones were parts of a mummy naturally
+suggested Mr. Jellicoe. If he had murdered John Bellingham and concealed
+his body in the mummy-case, he would have a spare mummy on his hands,
+and that mummy would have been exposed to the air and to somewhat rough
+handling.
+
+"A very interesting circumstance connected with these remains was that
+the ring finger was missing. Now, fingers have on sundry occasions been
+detached from dead hands for the sake of the rings on them. But in such
+cases the object has been to secure a valuable ring uninjured. If this
+hand was the hand of John Bellingham, there was no such object. The
+purpose was to prevent identification; and that purpose would have been
+more easily, and much more completely, achieved by sacrificing the ring,
+by filing through it or breaking it off the finger. The appearances,
+therefore, did not quite agree with the apparent purpose.
+
+"Then, could there be any other purpose with which they agreed better?
+Yes, there could.
+
+"If it had happened that John Bellingham were known to have worn a ring
+on that finger, and especially if that ring fitted tightly, the removal
+of the finger would serve a very useful purpose. It would create an
+impression that the finger had been removed on account of a ring, to
+prevent identification; which impression would, in turn, produce a
+suspicion that the hand was that of John Bellingham. And yet it would
+not be evidence that could be used to establish identity. Now, if Mr.
+Jellicoe were the murderer and had the body hidden elsewhere, vague
+suspicion would be precisely what he would desire, and positive evidence
+what he would wish to avoid.
+
+"It transpired later that John Bellingham did wear a ring on that finger
+and that the ring fitted very tightly. Whence it followed that the
+absence of the finger was an additional point tending to implicate Mr.
+Jellicoe.
+
+"And now let us briefly review this mass of evidence. You will see that
+it consists of a multitude of items, each either trivial or speculative.
+Up to the time of the actual discovery I had not a single crucial fact,
+nor any clue as to motive. But, slight as the individual points of
+evidence were, they pointed with impressive unanimity to one person--Mr.
+Jellicoe. Thus:
+
+"The person who had the opportunity to commit the murder and dispose of
+the body was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"The deceased was last certainly seen alive with Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"An unidentified human body was delivered to the Museum by Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"The only person who could have a motive for personating the deceased
+was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"The only known person who could possibly have done so was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"One of the two persons who could have had a motive for dropping the
+scarab was Mr. Jellicoe. The person who found that scarab was Mr.
+Jellicoe, although, owing to his defective eyesight and his spectacles,
+he was the most unlikely person of those present to find it.
+
+"The person who was responsible for the execution of the defective will
+was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"Then as to the remains. They were apparently not those of John
+Bellingham, but parts of a particular kind of body. But the only person
+who was known to have had such a body in his possession was Mr.
+Jellicoe.
+
+"The only person who could have had any motive for substituting those
+remains for the remains of the deceased was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"Finally, the person who caused the discovery of those remains at that
+singularly opportune moment was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"This was the sum of the evidence that was in my possession up to the
+time of the hearing, and, indeed, for some time after, and it was not
+enough to act upon. But when the case had been heard in Court, it was
+evident either that the proceedings would be abandoned--which was
+unlikely--or that there would be new developments.
+
+"I watched the progress of events with profound interest. An attempt had
+been made (by Mr. Jellicoe or some other person) to get the will
+administered without producing the body of John Bellingham; and that
+attempt had failed. The coroner's jury had refused to identify the
+remains; the Probate Court had refused to presume the death of the
+testator. As affairs stood, the will could not be administered.
+
+"What would be the next move?
+
+"It was virtually certain that it would consist in the production of
+something which would identify the unrecognised remains as those of the
+testator.
+
+"But what would that something be?
+
+"The answer to that question would contain the answer to another
+question: Was my solution of the mystery the true solution?
+
+"If I was wrong, it was possible that some of the undoubtedly genuine
+bones of John Bellingham might presently be discovered; for instance,
+the skull, the knee-cap, or the left fibula, by any of which the remains
+could be positively identified.
+
+"If I was right, only one thing could possibly happen. Mr. Jellicoe
+would have to play the trump card that he had been holding back in case
+the Court should refuse the application; a card that he was evidently
+reluctant to play.
+
+"He would have to produce the bones of the mummy's finger, together
+with John Bellingham's ring. No other course was possible.
+
+"But not only would the bones and the ring have to be found together.
+They would have to be found in a place which was accessible to Mr.
+Jellicoe, and so far under his control that he could determine the exact
+time when the discovery should be made.
+
+"I waited patiently for the answer to my question. Was I right or was I
+wrong?
+
+"And in due course, the answer came.
+
+"The bones and the ring were discovered in the well in the grounds of
+Godfrey Bellingham's late house. That house was the property of John
+Bellingham. Mr. Jellicoe was John Bellingham's agent. Hence it was
+practically certain that the date on which the well was emptied was
+settled by Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"The Oracle had spoken.
+
+"The discovery proved conclusively that the bones were not those of John
+Bellingham (for if they had been the ring would have been unnecessary
+for identification). But if the bones were not John Bellingham's, the
+ring was; from which followed the important corollary that whoever had
+deposited those bones in the well had had possession of the body of John
+Bellingham. And there could be no doubt that that person was Mr.
+Jellicoe.
+
+"On receiving this final confirmation of my conclusions, I applied
+forthwith to Doctor Norbury for permission to examine the mummy of
+Sebek-hotep, with the result that you are already acquainted with."
+
+As Thorndyke concluded, Mr. Jellicoe regarded him thoughtfully for a
+moment, and then said: "You have given us a most complete and lucid
+exposition of your method of investigation, sir. I have enjoyed it
+exceedingly, and should have profited by it hereafter--under other
+circumstances. Are you sure you won't allow me to fill your glass?" He
+touched the stopper of the decanter, and Inspector Badger ostentatiously
+consulted his watch.
+
+"Time is running on, I fear," said Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"It is, indeed," Badger assented emphatically.
+
+"Well, I need not detain you long," said the lawyer. "My statement is a
+mere narration of events. But I desire to make it, and you, no doubt,
+will be interested to hear it."
+
+He opened the silver case and selected a fresh cigarette, which,
+however, he did not light. Inspector Badger produced a funereal
+notebook, which he laid open on his knee; and the rest of us settled
+ourselves in our chairs with no little curiosity to hear Mr. Jellicoe's
+statement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE END OF THE CASE
+
+
+A profound silence had fallen on the room and its occupants. Mr.
+Jellicoe sat with his eyes fixed on the table as if deep in thought, the
+unlighted cigarette in one hand, the other grasping the tumbler of
+water. Presently Inspector Badger coughed impatiently and he looked up.
+"I beg your pardon, gentlemen," he said. "I am keeping you waiting."
+
+He took a sip from the tumbler, opened a matchbox and took out a match,
+but apparently altering his mind, laid it down and commenced:
+
+"The unfortunate affair which has brought you here to-night, had its
+origin ten years ago. At that time my friend Hurst became suddenly
+involved in financial difficulties--am I speaking too fast for you, Mr.
+Badger?"
+
+"No, not at all," replied Badger. "I am taking it down in shorthand."
+
+"Thank you," said Mr. Jellicoe. "He became involved in serious
+difficulties and came to me for assistance. He wished to borrow five
+thousand pounds to enable him to meet his engagements. I had a certain
+amount of money at my disposal, but I did not consider Hurst's security
+satisfactory; accordingly I felt compelled to refuse. But on the very
+next day, John Bellingham called on me with the draft of his will which
+he wished me to look over before it was executed.
+
+"It was an absurd will, and I nearly told him so; but then an idea
+occurred to me in connection with Hurst. It was obvious to me, as soon
+as I had glanced through the will, that, if the burial clause was left
+as the testator had drafted it, Hurst had a very good chance of
+inheriting the property; and, as I was named as the executor, I should
+be able to give full effect to that clause. Accordingly, I asked for a
+few days to consider the will, and I then called upon Hurst and made a
+proposal to him; which was this: That I should advance him five thousand
+pounds without security; that I should ask for no repayment, but that he
+should assign to me any interest that he might have or acquire in the
+estate of John Bellingham up to ten thousand pounds, or two-thirds of
+any sum that he might inherit if over that amount. He asked if John had
+yet made any will, and I replied, quite correctly, that he had not. He
+inquired if I knew what testamentary arrangements John intended to make,
+and again I answered, quite correctly, that I believed that John
+proposed to devise the bulk of his property to his brother, Godfrey.
+
+"Thereupon, Hurst accepted my proposal; I made him the advance and he
+executed the assignment. After a few days' delay, I passed the will as
+satisfactory. The actual document was written from the draft by the
+testator himself; and a fortnight after Hurst had executed the
+assignment, John signed the will in my office. By the provisions of that
+will I stood an excellent chance of becoming virtually the principal
+beneficiary, unless Godfrey should contest Hurst's claim and the Court
+should override the conditions of clause two.
+
+"You will now understand the motives which governed my subsequent
+actions. You will also see, Doctor Thorndyke, how very near to the truth
+your reasoning carried you; and you will understand, as I wish you to
+do, that Mr. Hurst was no party to any of those proceedings which I am
+about to describe.
+
+"Coming now to the interview in Queen Square in October, nineteen
+hundred and two, you are aware of the general circumstances from my
+evidence in Court, which was literally correct up to a certain point.
+The interview took place in a room on the third floor, in which were
+stored the cases which John had brought with him from Egypt. The mummy
+was unpacked, as were some other objects that he was not offering to the
+Museum, but several cases were still unopened. At the conclusion of the
+interview I accompanied Doctor Norbury down to the street door, and we
+stood on the doorstep conversing for perhaps a quarter of an hour. Then
+Doctor Norbury went away and I returned upstairs.
+
+"Now the house in Queen Square is virtually a museum. The upper part is
+separated from the lower by a massive door which opens from the hall and
+gives access to the staircase, and which is fitted with a Chubb
+night-latch. There are two latchkeys, of which John used to keep one and
+I the other. You will find them both in the safe behind me. The
+caretaker had no key and no access to the upper part of the house unless
+admitted by one of us.
+
+"At the time when I came in, after Doctor Norbury had left, the
+caretaker was in the cellar, where I could hear him breaking coke for
+the hot-water furnace. I had left John on the third floor opening some
+of the packing cases by the light of a lamp with a tool somewhat like a
+plasterer's hammer; that is, a hammer with a small axe-blade at the
+reverse of the head. As I stood talking to Doctor Norbury, I could hear
+him knocking out the nails and wrenching up the lids; and when I entered
+the doorway leading to the stairs, I could still hear him. Just as I
+closed the staircase door behind me, I heard a rumbling noise from
+above; then all was still.
+
+"I went up the stairs to the second floor, where, as the staircase was
+all in darkness, I stopped to light the gas. As I turned to ascend the
+next flight, I saw a hand projecting over the edge of the half-way
+landing. I ran up the stairs, and there, on the landing, I saw John
+lying huddled up in a heap at the foot of the top flight. There was a
+wound at the side of his forehead from which a little blood was
+trickling. The case-opener lay on the floor close by him and there was
+blood on the axe-blade. When I looked up the stairs I saw a rag of torn
+matting hanging over the top stair.
+
+"It was quite easy to see what had happened. He had walked quickly out
+on the landing with the case-opener in his hand. His foot had caught in
+the torn matting and he had pitched head foremost down the stairs, still
+holding the case-opener. He had fallen so that his head had come down on
+the upturned edge of the axe-blade; he had then rolled over and the
+case-opener had dropped from his hand.
+
+"I lit a wax match and stooped down to look at him. His head was in a
+very peculiar position, which made me suspect that his neck was broken.
+There was extremely little bleeding from the wound; he was perfectly
+motionless; I could detect no sign of breathing; and I felt no doubt
+that he was dead.
+
+"It was an exceedingly regrettable affair, and it placed me, as I
+perceived at once, in an extremely awkward position. My first impulse
+was to send the caretaker for a doctor and a policeman; but a moment's
+reflection convinced me that there were serious objections to this
+course.
+
+"There was nothing to show that I had not, myself, knocked him down with
+the case-opener. Of course, there was nothing to show that I had; but we
+were alone in the house with the exception of the caretaker, who was
+down in the basement out of ear-shot.
+
+"There would be an inquest. At the inquest, inquiries would be made as
+to the will which was known to exist. But, as soon as the will was
+produced, Hurst would become suspicious. He would probably make a
+statement to the coroner and I should be charged with the murder. Or,
+even if I were not charged, Hurst would suspect me and would probably
+repudiate the assignment; and, under the circumstances, it would be
+practically impossible for me to enforce it. He would refuse to pay and
+I could not take my claim into Court.
+
+"I sat down on the stairs just above poor John's body and considered the
+matter in detail. At the worst, I stood a fair chance of hanging; at the
+best, I stood to lose close upon fifty thousand pounds. These were not
+pleasant alternatives.
+
+"Supposing, on the other hand, I concealed the body and gave out that
+John had gone to Paris. There was, of course, the risk of discovery, in
+which case I should certainly be convicted of the murder. But if no
+discovery occurred, I was not only safe from suspicion, but I secured
+the fifty thousand pounds. In either case there was considerable risk,
+but in one there was the certainty of loss, whereas in the other there
+was a material advantage to justify the risk. The question was whether
+it would be possible to conceal the body. If it were, then the
+contingent profit was worth the slight additional risk. But a human body
+is a very difficult thing to dispose of, especially to a person of so
+little scientific culture as myself.
+
+"It is curious that I considered this question for a quite considerable
+time before the obvious solution presented itself. I turned over at
+least a dozen methods of disposing of the body, and rejected them all as
+impracticable. Then, suddenly, I remembered the mummy upstairs.
+
+"At first it only occurred to me as a fantastic possibility that I could
+conceal the body in the mummy-case. But as I turned over the idea, I
+began to see that it was really practicable; and not only practicable
+but easy; and not only easy but eminently safe. If once the mummy-case
+was in the Museum, I was rid of it for ever.
+
+"The circumstances were, as you, sir, have justly observed, singularly
+favourable. There would be no hue and cry, no hurry, no anxiety; but
+ample time for all the necessary preparations. Then the mummy-case
+itself was curiously suitable. Its length was ample, as I knew from
+having measured it. It was a cartonnage of rather flexible material and
+had an opening behind, secured with a lacing so that it could be opened
+without injury. Nothing need be cut but the lacing, which could be
+replaced. A little damage might be done in extracting the mummy and in
+introducing the deceased; but such cracks as might occur would all be
+at the back and would be of no importance. For here again Fortune
+favoured me. The whole of the back of the mummy-case was coated with
+bitumen, and it would be easy when once the deceased was safely inside
+to apply a fresh coat, which would cover up not only the cracks but also
+the new lacing.
+
+"After careful consideration, I decided to adopt the plan. I went
+downstairs and sent the caretaker on an errand to the Law Courts. Then I
+returned and carried the deceased up to one of the third-floor rooms,
+where I removed his clothes and laid him out on a long packing-case in
+the position in which he would lie in the mummy-case. I folded his
+clothes neatly and packed them, with the exception of his boots, in a
+suit-case that he had been taking to Paris and which contained nothing
+but his night-clothes, toilet articles, and a change of linen. By the
+time I had done this and thoroughly washed the oilcloth on the stairs
+and landing, the caretaker had returned. I informed him that Mr.
+Bellingham had started for Paris and then I went home. The upper part of
+the house was, of course, secured by the Chubb lock, but I had also--_ex
+abundantiâ cautelae_--locked the door of the room in which I had
+deposited the deceased.
+
+"I had, of course, some knowledge of the methods of embalming, but
+principally of those employed by the ancients. Hence, on the following
+day, I went to the British Museum library and consulted the most recent
+works on the subject; and exceedingly interesting they were, as showing
+the remarkable improvements that modern knowledge had effected in this
+ancient art. I need not trouble you with details that are familiar to
+you. The process that I selected as the simplest for a beginner was
+that of formalin injection, and I went straight from the Museum to
+purchase the necessary materials. I did not, however, buy an embalming
+syringe: the book stated that an ordinary anatomical injecting syringe
+would answer the purpose, and I thought it a more discreet purchase.
+
+"I fear that I bungled the injection terribly, although I had carefully
+studied the plates in a treatise on anatomy--Gray's, I think. However,
+if my methods were clumsy, they were quite effectual. I carried out the
+process on the evening of the third day; and when I locked up the house
+that night, I had the satisfaction of knowing that poor John's remains
+were secure from corruption and decay.
+
+"But this was not enough. The great weight of a fresh body as compared
+with that of a mummy would be immediately noticed by those who had the
+handling of the mummy-case. Moreover, the damp from the body would
+quickly ruin the cartonnage and would cause a steamy film on the inside
+of the glass case in which it would be exhibited. And this would
+probably lead to an examination. Clearly, then, it was necessary that
+the remains of the deceased should be thoroughly dried before they were
+enclosed in the cartonnage.
+
+"Here my unfortunate deficiency in scientific knowledge was a great
+drawback. I had no idea how this result would be achieved, and in the
+end was compelled to consult a taxidermist, to whom I represented that I
+wished to collect small animals and reptiles and rapidly dry them for
+convenience of transport. By this person I was advised to immerse the
+dead animals in a jar of methylated spirit for a week and then expose
+them in a current of warm, dry air.
+
+"But the plan of immersing the remains of the deceased in a jar of
+methylated spirit was obviously impracticable. However, I bethought me
+that we had in our collection a porphyry sarcophagus, the cavity of
+which had been shaped to receive a small mummy in its case. I tried the
+deceased in the sarcophagus and found that he just fitted the cavity
+loosely. I obtained a few gallons of methylated spirit which I poured
+into the cavity, just covering the body, and then I put on the lid and
+luted it down air-tight with putty. I trust I do not weary you with
+these particulars?"
+
+"I'll ask you to cut it as short as you can, Mr. Jellicoe," said Badger.
+"It has been a long yarn and time is running on."
+
+"For my part," said Thorndyke, "I find these details deeply interesting
+and instructive. They fill in the outline that I had drawn by
+inference."
+
+"Precisely," said Mr. Jellicoe; "then I will proceed.
+
+"I left the deceased soaking in the spirit for a fortnight and then took
+him out, wiped him dry, and laid him on four cane-bottomed chairs just
+over the hot-water pipes. I turned off the hot water in the other rooms
+so as to concentrate the heat in these pipes, and I let a free current
+of air pass through the room. The result interested me exceedingly. By
+the end of the third day the hands and feet had become quite dry and
+shrivelled and horny--so that the ring actually dropped off the shrunken
+finger--the nose looked like a fold of parchment; and the skin of the
+body was so dry and smooth that you could have engrossed a lease on it.
+For the first day or two I turned the deceased at intervals so that he
+should dry evenly, and then I proceeded to get the case ready. I
+divided the lacing and extracted the mummy with great care--with great
+care as to the case, I mean; for the mummy suffered some injury in the
+extraction. It was very badly embalmed, and so brittle that it broke in
+several places while I was getting it out; and when I unrolled it the
+head separated and both the arms came off.
+
+"On the sixth day after the removal from the sarcophagus, I took the
+bandages that I had removed from Sebek-hotep and very carefully wrapped
+the deceased in them, sprinkling powdered myrrh and gum benzoin freely
+on the body and between the folds of the wrappings to disguise the faint
+odour of the spirit and the formalin that still lingered about the body.
+When the wrappings had been applied, the deceased really had a most
+workmanlike appearance; he would have looked quite well in a glass case
+even without the cartonnage, and I felt almost regretful at having to
+put him out of sight for ever.
+
+"It was a difficult business getting him into the case without
+assistance, and I cracked the cartonnage badly in several places before
+he was safely enclosed. But I got him in at last, and then, when I had
+closed up the case with a new lacing, I applied a fresh layer of bitumen
+which effectually covered up the cracks and the new cord. A dusty cloth
+dabbed over the bitumen when it was dry disguised its newness, and the
+cartonnage with its tenant was ready for delivery. I notified Doctor
+Norbury of the fact, and five days later he came and removed it to the
+Museum.
+
+"Now that the main difficulty was disposed of, I began to consider the
+further difficulty to which you, sir, have alluded with such admirable
+perspicuity. It was necessary that John Bellingham should make one more
+appearance in public before sinking into final oblivion.
+
+"Accordingly, I devised the visit to Hurst's house, which was calculated
+to serve two purposes. It created a satisfactory date for the
+disappearance, eliminating me from any connection with it, and by
+throwing some suspicion on Hurst it would make him more amenable--less
+likely to dispute my claim when he learned the provisions of the will.
+
+"The affair was quite simple. I knew that Hurst had changed his servants
+since I was last at his house, and I knew his habits. On that day I took
+the suit-case to Charing Cross and deposited it in the cloak-room,
+called at Hurst's office to make sure that he was there, and went from
+thence direct to Cannon Street and caught the train to Eltham. On
+arriving at the house, I took the precaution to remove my
+spectacles--the only distinctive feature of my exterior--and was duly
+shown into the study at my request. As soon as the housemaid had left
+the room I quietly let myself out by the French window, which I closed
+behind me but could not fasten, went out at the side gate and closed
+that also behind me, holding the bolt of the latch back with my
+pocket-knife so that I need not slam the gate to shut it.
+
+"The other events of that day, including the dropping of the scarab, I
+need not describe, as they are known to you. But I may fitly make a few
+remarks on the unfortunate tactical error into which I fell in respect
+of the bones. That error arose, as you have doubtless perceived, from
+the lawyer's incurable habit of underestimating the scientific expert. I
+had no idea that mere bones were capable of furnishing so much
+information to a man of science.
+
+"The way in which the affair came about was this: The damaged mummy of
+Sebek-hotep, perishing gradually by exposure to the air, was not only an
+eyesore to me: it was a definite danger. It was the only remaining link
+between me and the disappearance. I resolved to be rid of it and cast
+about for some means of destroying it. And then, in an evil moment, the
+idea of utilising it occurred to me.
+
+"There was an undoubted danger that the Court might refuse to presume
+death after so short an interval; and if the permission should be
+postponed, the will might never be administered during my lifetime.
+Hence, if these bones of Sebek-hotep could be made to simulate the
+remains of the deceased testator, a definite good would be achieved. But
+I knew that the entire skeleton could never be mistaken for his. The
+deceased had broken his knee-caps and damaged his ankle, injuries which
+I assumed would leave some permanent trace. But if a judicious selection
+of the bones were deposited in a suitable place, together with some
+object clearly identifiable as appertaining to the deceased, it seemed
+to me that the difficulty would be met. I need not trouble you with
+details. The course which I adopted is known to you with the attendant
+circumstances, even to the accidental detachment of the right
+hand--which broke off as I was packing the arm in my handbag. Erroneous
+as that course was, it would have been successful but for the unforeseen
+contingency of your being retained in the case.
+
+"Thus, for nearly two years, I remained in complete security. From time
+to time I dropped in at the museum to see if the deceased was keeping
+in good condition; and on those occasions I used to reflect with
+satisfaction on the gratifying circumstance--accidental though it
+was--that his wishes, as expressed (very imperfectly) in clause two, had
+been fully complied with, and that without prejudice to my interests.
+
+"The awakening came on that evening when I saw you at the Temple gate
+talking with Doctor Berkeley. I suspected immediately that something had
+gone amiss and that it was too late to take any useful action. Since
+then, I have waited here in hourly expectation of this visit. And now
+the time has come. You have made the winning move and it remains only
+for me to pay my debts like an honest gambler."
+
+He paused and quietly lit his cigarette. Inspector Badger yawned and put
+away his note-book.
+
+"Have you done, Mr. Jellicoe?" the inspector asked. "I want to carry out
+my contract to the letter, you know, though it's getting devilish late."
+
+Mr. Jellicoe took his cigarette from his mouth and drank a glass of
+water.
+
+"I forgot to ask," he said, "whether you unrolled the mummy--if I may
+apply the term to the imperfectly treated remains of my deceased
+client."
+
+"I did not open the mummy-case," replied Thorndyke.
+
+"You did not!" exclaimed Mr. Jellicoe. "Then how did you verify your
+suspicions?"
+
+"I took an X-ray photograph."
+
+"Ah! Indeed!" Mr. Jellicoe pondered for some moments. "Astonishing!" he
+murmured; "and most ingenious. The resources of science at the present
+day are truly wonderful."
+
+"Is there anything more that you want to say?" asked Badger; "because,
+if you don't, time's up."
+
+"Anything more?" Mr. Jellicoe repeated slowly; "anything more?
+No--I--think--think--the time--is--up. Yes--the--the time--"
+
+He broke off and sat with a strange look fixed on Thorndyke.
+
+His face had suddenly undergone a curious change. It looked shrunken and
+cadaverous and his lips had assumed a peculiar cherry-red colour.
+
+"Is anything the matter, Mr. Jellicoe?" Badger asked uneasily. "Are you
+not feeling well, sir?"
+
+Mr. Jellicoe did not appear to have heard the question, for he returned
+no answer, but sat motionless, leaning back in his chair, with his hands
+spread out on the table and his strangely intent gaze bent on Thorndyke.
+
+Suddenly his head dropped on his breast and his body seemed to collapse;
+and as with one accord we sprang to our feet, he slid forward off his
+chair and disappeared under the table.
+
+"Good Lord! The man's fainted!" exclaimed Badger.
+
+In a moment he was down on his hands and knees, trembling with
+excitement, groping under the table. He dragged the unconscious lawyer
+out into the light and knelt over him, staring into his face.
+
+"What's the matter with him, Doctor?" he asked, looking up at Thorndyke.
+"Is it apoplexy? Or is it a heart attack, think you?"
+
+Thorndyke shook his head, though he stooped and put his fingers on the
+unconscious man's wrist. "Prussic acid or potassium cyanide is what the
+appearances suggest," he replied.
+
+"But can't you do anything?" demanded the inspector.
+
+Thorndyke dropped the arm, which fell limply to the floor.
+
+"You can't do much for a dead man," he said.
+
+"Dead! Then he has slipped through our fingers after all!"
+
+"He has anticipated the sentence. That is all." Thorndyke spoke in an
+even, impassive tone which struck me as rather strange, considering the
+suddenness of the tragedy, as did also the complete absence of surprise
+in his manner. He seemed to treat the occurrence as a perfectly natural
+one.
+
+Not so Inspector Badger; who rose to his feet and stood with his hands
+thrust into his pockets scowling sullenly down at the dead lawyer.
+
+"I was an infernal fool to agree to his blasted conditions," he growled
+savagely.
+
+"Nonsense," said Thorndyke. "If you had broken in, you would have found
+a dead man. As it was you found a live man and obtained an important
+statement. You acted quite properly."
+
+"How do you suppose he managed it?" asked Badger.
+
+Thorndyke held out his hand. "Let us look at his cigarette-case," said
+he.
+
+Badger extracted the little silver case from the dead man's pocket and
+opened it. There were five cigarettes in it, two of which were plain,
+while the other three were gold-tipped. Thorndyke took out one of each
+kind and gently pinched their ends. The gold-tipped one he returned;
+the plain one he tore through, about a quarter of an inch from the end;
+when two little white tabloids dropped out on the table. Badger eagerly
+picked one up and was about to smell it when Thorndyke grasped his
+wrist. "Be careful," said he; and when he had cautiously sniffed at the
+tabloid--held at a safe distance from his nose--he added: "Yes,
+potassium cyanide. I thought so when his lips turned that queer colour.
+It was in that last cigarette; you can see that he has bitten off the
+end."
+
+For some time we stood silently looking down at the still form stretched
+on the floor. Presently Badger looked up.
+
+"As you pass the porter's lodge on your way out," said he, "you might
+just drop in and tell him to send a constable to me."
+
+"Very well," said Thorndyke. "And by the way, Badger, you had better tip
+that sherry back into the decanter and put it under lock and key, or
+else pour it out of the window."
+
+"Gad, yes!" exclaimed the inspector. "I'm glad you mentioned it. We
+might have had an inquest on a constable as well as a lawyer. Good
+night, gentlemen, if you are off."
+
+We went out and left him with his prisoner--passive enough, indeed,
+according to his ambiguously worded promise. As we passed through the
+gateway Thorndyke gave the inspector's message, curtly and without
+comment, to the gaping porter, and then we issued forth into Chancery
+Lane.
+
+We were all silent and very grave, and I thought that Thorndyke seemed
+somewhat moved. Perhaps Mr. Jellicoe's last intent look--which I suspect
+he knew to be the look of a dying man--lingered in his memory as it did
+in mine. Half-way down Chancery Lane he spoke for the first time; and
+then it was only to ejaculate, "Poor devil!"
+
+Jervis took him up. "He was a consummate villain, Thorndyke."
+
+"Hardly that," was the reply. "I should rather say that he was
+non-moral. He acted without malice and without scruple or remorse. His
+conduct exhibited a passionless expediency which was rather dreadful
+because utterly unhuman. But he was a strong man--a courageous,
+self-contained man, and I had been better pleased if it could have been
+ordained that some other hand than mine should let the axe fall."
+
+Thorndyke's compunction may appear strange and inconsistent, but yet his
+feeling was also my own. Great as were the misery and suffering that
+this inscrutable man had brought into the lives of those I loved, I
+forgave him; and in his downfall forgot the callous relentlessness with
+which he had pursued his evil purpose. For he it was who had brought
+Ruth into my life; who had opened for me the Paradise of Love into which
+I had just entered. And so my thoughts turned away from the still shape
+that lay on the floor of the stately old room in Lincoln's Inn, away to
+the sunny vista of the future, where I should walk hand in hand with
+Ruth until my time, too, should come; until I, too, like the grim
+lawyer, should hear the solemn evening bell bidding me put out into the
+darkness of the silent sea.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANISHING MAN***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook,<br>
+    The Vanishing Man, by R. Austin Freeman</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Vanishing Man</p>
+<p>Author: R. Austin Freeman</p>
+<p>Release Date: December 16, 2003  [eBook #10476]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: iso-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANISHING MAN***</p>
+<br>
+<center><h3>E-text prepared by Steven desJardins<br>
+            and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders</h3></center>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full">
+<h1>THE VANISHING MAN</h1>
+
+<center><i>A Detective Romance</i></center>
+<br>
+<center>
+<b>BY  R. AUSTIN FREEMAN </b>
+</center>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="RULE4_1"><!-- RULE4 1 --></a>
+<h2>
+	TO MY FRIEND
+</h2>
+
+<h2>
+A.E.B.
+</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<center>
+1911
+</center>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr>
+<a name="TOC"><!-- TOC --></a>
+<h3>
+	CONTENTS
+</h3>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER
+</h3>
+<b>
+I <a href="#CH1">THE VANISHING MAN</a><br>
+II <a href="#CH2">THE EAVESDROPPER</a><br>
+III <a href="#CH3">JOHN THORNDYKE</a><br>
+IV <a href="#CH4">LEGAL COMPLICATIONS AND A JACKAL</a><br>
+V <a href="#CH5">THE WATERCRESS-BED</a><br>
+VI <a href="#CH6">SIDELIGHTS</a><br>
+VII <a href="#CH7">JOHN BELLINGHAM'S WILL</a><br>
+VIII <a href="#CH8">A MUSEUM IDYLL</a><br>
+IX <a href="#CH9">THE SPHINX OF LINCOLN'S INN</a><br>
+X <a href="#CH10">THE NEW ALLIANCE</a><br>
+XI <a href="#CH11">THE EVIDENCE REVIEWED</a><br>
+XII <a href="#CH12">A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY</a><br>
+XIII <a href="#CH13">THE CROWNER'S QUEST</a><br>
+XIV <a href="#CH14">WHICH CARRIES THE READER INTO THE PROBATE COURT</a><br>
+XV <a href="#CH15">CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE</a><br>
+XVI <a href="#CH16">"O! ARTEMIDORUS, FAREWELL!"</a><br>
+XVII <a href="#CH17">THE ACCUSING FINGER</a><br>
+XVIII <a href="#CH18">JOHN BELLINGHAM</a><br>
+XIX <a href="#CH19">A STRANGE SYMPOSIUM</a><br>
+XX <a href="#CH20">THE END OF THE CASE</a><br>
+</b>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH1"><!-- CH1 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER I
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE VANISHING MAN
+</h3>
+<p>
+The school of St. Margaret's Hospital was fortunate
+in its lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence, or Forensic
+Medicine, as it is sometimes described. At some schools
+the lecturer on this subject is appointed apparently for
+the reason that he lacks the qualifications to lecture
+on any other. But with us it was very different: John
+Thorndyke was not only an enthusiast, a man of profound
+learning and great reputation, but he was an
+exceptional teacher, lively and fascinating in style and
+of endless resources. Every remarkable case that had
+ever been recorded he appeared to have at his fingers'
+ends; every fact&mdash;chemical, physical, biological, or
+even historical&mdash;that could in any way be twisted into
+a medico-legal significance, was pressed into his service;
+and his own varied and curious experiences seemed
+as inexhaustible as the widow's cruse. One of his
+favourite devices for giving life and interest to a
+rather dry subject was that of analysing and commenting
+upon contemporary cases as reported in the papers
+(always, of course, with a due regard to the legal and
+social proprieties); and it was in this way that I first
+became introduced to the astonishing series of events
+that was destined to exercise so great an influence on
+my own life.
+</p>
+<p>
+The lecture which had just been concluded had dealt
+with the rather unsatisfactory subject of survivorship.
+Most of the students had left the theatre, and the remainder
+had gathered round the lecturer's table to
+listen to the informal comments that Dr. Thorndyke
+was wont to deliver on these occasions in an easy,
+conversational manner, leaning against the edge
+of the table and apparently addressing his remarks
+to a stick of blackboard chalk that he held in his
+fingers.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The problem of survivorship," he was saying, in
+reply to a question put by one of the students,
+"ordinarily occurs in cases where the bodies of the
+parties are producible, or where, at any rate, the occurrence
+of death and its approximate time are actually
+known. But an analogous difficulty may arise in a case
+where the body of one of the parties is not forthcoming,
+and the fact of death may have to be assumed on collateral
+evidence.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here, of course, the vital question to be settled is,
+what is the latest instant at which it is certain that this
+person was alive? And the settlement of that question
+may turn on some circumstance of the most trivial
+and insignificant kind. There is a case in this morning's
+paper which illustrates this. A gentleman has
+disappeared rather mysteriously. He was last seen by
+the servant of a relative at whose house he had called.
+Now, if this gentleman should never reappear, dead or
+alive, the question as to what was the latest moment
+at which he was certainly alive will turn upon the
+further question: 'Was he or was he not wearing a
+particular article of jewellery when he called at that
+relative's house?'"
+</p>
+<p>
+He paused with a reflective eye bent upon the stump
+of chalk that he still held; then, noting the expectant
+interest with which we were regarding him, he resumed:
+</p>
+<p>
+"The circumstances in this case are very curious;
+in fact, they are highly mysterious; and if any legal
+issues should arise in respect of them, they are likely
+to yield some very remarkable complications. The
+gentleman who has disappeared, Mr. John Bellingham,
+is a man well known in archaeological circles. He recently
+returned from Egypt, bringing with him a very
+fine collection of antiquities&mdash;some of which, by the
+way, he has presented to the British Museum, where
+they are now on view&mdash;and having made this presentation,
+he appears to have gone to Paris on business. I
+may mention that the gift consisted of a very fine
+mummy and a complete set of tomb-furniture. The
+latter, however, had not arrived from Egypt at the
+time when the missing man left for Paris, but the
+mummy was inspected on the fourteenth of October at
+Mr. Bellingham's house by Dr. Norbury of the British
+Museum, in the presence of the donor and his solicitor,
+and the latter was authorised to hand over the complete
+collection to the British Museum authorities
+when the tomb-furniture arrived; which he has since
+done.
+</p>
+<p>
+"From Paris he seems to have returned on the
+twenty-third of November, and to have gone direct
+from Charing Cross to the house of a relative, a Mr.
+Hurst, who is a bachelor and lives at Eltham. He appeared
+at the house at twenty minutes past five, and
+as Mr. Hurst had not yet come down from town and
+was not expected until a quarter to six, he explained
+who he was and said he would wait in the study and
+write some letters. The housemaid accordingly showed
+him into the study, furnished him with writing materials,
+and left him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"At a quarter to six Mr. Hurst let himself in with
+his latchkey, and before the housemaid had time to
+speak to him he had passed through into the study and
+shut the door.
+</p>
+<p>
+"At six o'clock, when the dinner bell was rung, Mr.
+Hurst entered the dining-room alone, and, observing
+that the table was laid for two, asked the reason.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'I thought Mr. Bellingham was staying to dinner,
+sir,' was 'The housemaid's' reply.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Mr. Bellingham!' exclaimed the astonished host.
+'I didn't know he was here. Why was I not told?'
+</p>
+<p>
+"'I thought he was in the study with you, sir,' said
+the housemaid.
+</p>
+<p>
+"On this a search was made for the visitor, with the
+result that he was nowhere to be found. He had disappeared
+without leaving a trace, and what made the
+incident more odd was that the housemaid was certain
+that he had not gone out by the front door. For since
+neither she nor the cook was acquainted with Mr. John
+Bellingham, she had remained the whole time either
+in the kitchen, which commanded a view of the front
+gate, or in the dining-room, which opened into the hall
+opposite the study door. The study itself has a French
+window opening on a narrow grass plot, across which
+is a side gate that opens into an alley; and it appears
+that Mr. Bellingham must have made his exit by this
+rather eccentric route. At any rate&mdash;and this is the
+important fact&mdash;he was not in the house, and no one
+had seen him leave it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"After a hasty meal Mr. Hurst returned to town
+and called at the office of Mr. Bellingham's solicitor and
+confidential agent, a Mr. Jellicoe, and mentioned the
+matter to him. Mr. Jellicoe knew nothing of his client's
+return from Paris, and the two men at once took the
+train down to Woodford, where the missing man's
+brother, Mr. Godfrey Bellingham, lives. The servant
+who admitted them said that Mr. Godfrey was not at
+home, but that his daughter was in the library, which
+is a detached building situated in a shrubbery beyond
+the garden at the back of the house. Here the two men
+found, not only Miss Bellingham, but also her father,
+who had come in by the back gate.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mr. Godfrey and his daughter listened to Mr.
+Hurst's story with the greatest surprise, and assured
+him that they had neither seen nor heard anything of
+John Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Presently the party left the library to walk up to
+the house; but only a few feet from the library door
+Mr. Jellicoe noticed an object lying in the grass and
+pointed it out to Mr. Godfrey.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The latter picked it up, and they all recognised it
+as a scarab which Mr. John Bellingham had been
+accustomed to wear suspended from his watch-chain.
+There was no mistaking it. It was a very fine scarab
+of the eighteenth dynasty fashioned of lapis lazuli and
+engraved with the cartouche of Amenhotep III. It
+had been suspended by a gold ring fastened to a wire
+which passed through the suspension hole, and the
+ring, though broken, was still in position.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This discovery, of course, only added to the mystery,
+which was still further increased when, on inquiry,
+a suit-case bearing the initials J.B. was found to be
+lying unclaimed in the cloak-room at Charing Cross.
+Reference to the counterfoil of the ticket-book showed
+that it had been deposited about the time of arrival of
+the Continental express on the twenty-third of November,
+so that its owner must have gone straight on to
+Eltham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is how the affair stands at present, and,
+should the missing man never reappear or should his
+body never be found, the question, as you see, which
+will be required to be settled is, 'What is the exact
+time and place, when and where, he was last known
+to be alive?' As to the place, the importance of the
+issues involved in that question are obvious and we
+need not consider them. But the question of time has
+another kind of significance. Cases have occurred, as
+I pointed out in the lecture, in which proof of survivorship
+by less than a minute has secured succession to
+property. Now, the missing man was last seen alive
+at Mr. Hurst's house at twenty minutes past five on
+the twenty-third of November. But he appears to have
+visited his brother's house at Woodford, and, since
+nobody saw him at that house, it is at present uncertain
+whether he went there before or after calling on Mr.
+Hurst. If he went there first, then twenty minutes
+past five on the evening of the twenty-third is the
+latest moment at which he is known to have been alive;
+but if he went there after, there would have to be
+added to this time the shortest possible time in
+which he could travel from the one house to the
+other.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But the question as to which house he visited first
+hinges on the scarab. If he was wearing the scarab
+when he arrived at Mr. Hurst's house, it would be certain
+that he went there first; but if it was not then
+on his watch-chain, a probability would be established
+that he went first to Woodford. Thus, you see, a
+question which may conceivably become of the most
+vital moment in determining the succession of property
+turns on the observation or non-observation by this
+housemaid of an apparently trivial and insignificant
+fact."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Has the servant made any statement on the subject,
+sir?" I ventured to inquire.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Apparently not," replied Dr. Thorndyke; "at
+any rate, there is no reference to any such statement
+in the newspaper report, though, otherwise, the case
+is reported in great detail; indeed, the wealth of detail,
+including plans of the two houses, is quite remarkable
+and well worth noting as being in itself a fact of considerable
+interest."
+</p>
+<p>
+"In what respect, sir, is it of interest?" one of the
+students asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah!" replied Dr. Thorndyke, "I think I must
+leave you to consider that question yourself. This is
+an untried case, and we mustn't make free with the
+actions and motives of individuals."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Does the paper give any description of the missing
+man, sir?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; quite an exhaustive description. Indeed, it
+is exhaustive to the verge of impropriety, considering
+that the man may possibly turn up alive and well at
+any moment. It seems that he has an old Pott's fracture
+of the left ankle, a linear, longitudinal scar on
+each knee&mdash;origin not stated, but easily guessed at&mdash;and
+that he has tattooed on his chest in vermilion a
+very finely and distinctly executed representation of
+the symbolical Eye of Osiris&mdash;or Horus or Ra, as the
+different authorities have it. There certainly ought to
+be no difficulty in identifying the body. But we will
+hope that it won't come to that.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And now I must really be running away, and so
+must you; but I would advise you all to get copies of
+the paper and file them when you have read the remarkably
+full details. It is a most curious case, and
+it is highly probable that we shall hear of it again.
+Good afternoon, gentlemen."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. Thorndyke's advice appealed to all who heard
+it, for medical jurisprudence was a live subject at St.
+Margaret's and all of us were keenly interested in it.
+As a result, we sallied forth in a body to the nearest
+newsvendor's, and, having each provided himself with
+a copy of the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, adjourned together to
+the Common Room to devour the report and thereafter
+to discuss the bearings of the case, unhampered
+by those considerations of delicacy that afflicted our
+more squeamish and scrupulous teacher.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH2"><!-- CH2 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER II
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE EAVESDROPPER
+</h3>
+<p>
+It is one of the canons of correct conduct, scrupulously
+adhered to (when convenient) by all well-bred persons,
+that an acquaintance should be initiated by a proper
+introduction. To this salutary rule, which I have disregarded
+to the extent of an entire chapter, I now
+hasten to conform; and the more so inasmuch as nearly
+two years have passed since my first informal appearance.
+</p>
+<p>
+Permit me, then, to introduce Paul Berkeley, M.B.,
+etc., recently&mdash;very recently&mdash;qualified, faultlessly attired
+in the professional frock-coat and tall hat, and,
+at the moment of introduction, navigating with anxious
+care a perilous strait between a row of well-filled coal-sacks
+and a colossal tray piled high with kidney potatoes.
+</p>
+<p>
+The passage of this strait landed me on the terra
+firma of Fleur-de-Lys Court, where I halted for a moment
+to consult my visiting list. There was only one
+more patient for me to see this morning, and he lived at
+49 Nevill's Court, wherever that might be. I turned
+for information to the presiding deity of the coal shop.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Can you direct me, Mrs. Jablett, to Nevill's
+Court?"
+</p>
+<p>
+She could and she did, grasping me confidentially by
+the arm (the mark remained on my sleeve for weeks)
+and pointing a shaking forefinger at the dead wall
+ahead. "Nevill's Court," said Mrs. Jablett, "is a
+alley, and you goes into it through a archway. It
+turns out of Fetter Lane on the right 'and as you goes
+up, oppersight Bream's Buildings."
+</p>
+<p>
+I thanked Mrs. Jablett and went on my way, glad
+that the morning round was nearly finished, and vaguely
+conscious of a growing appetite and of a desire to wash
+in hot water.
+</p>
+<p>
+The practice which I was conducting was not my
+own. It belonged to poor Dick Barnard, an old St.
+Margaret's man of irrepressible spirits and indifferent
+physique, who had started only the day before for a
+trip down the Mediterranean on board a tramp engaged
+in the currant trade; and this, my second morning's
+round, was in some sort a voyage of geographical discovery.
+</p>
+<p>
+I walked on briskly up Fetter Lane until a narrow,
+arched opening, bearing the superscription "Nevill's
+Court," arrested my steps, and here I turned to encounter
+one of those surprises that lie in wait for the
+wanderer in London byways. Expecting to find the
+grey squalor of the ordinary London court, I looked
+out from under the shadow of the arch past a row of
+decent little shops through a vista full of light and
+colour&mdash;a vista of ancient, warm-toned roofs and walls
+relieved by sunlit foliage. In the heart of London a
+tree is always a delightful surprise; but here were not
+only trees, but bushes and even flowers. The narrow
+footway was bordered by little gardens, which, with
+their wooden palings and well-kept shrubs, gave to the
+place an air of quaint and sober rusticity; and even
+as I entered a bevy of work-girls, with gaily-coloured
+blouses and hair aflame in the sunlight, brightened up
+the quiet background like the wild flowers that spangle
+a summer hedgerow.
+</p>
+<p>
+In one of the gardens I noticed that the little paths
+were paved with what looked like circular tiles, but
+which, on inspection, I found to be old-fashioned stone
+ink-bottles, buried bottom upwards; and I was meditating
+upon the quaint conceit of the forgotten scrivener
+who had thus adorned his habitation&mdash;a law-writer
+perhaps, or an author, or perchance even a poet&mdash;when
+I perceived the number that I was seeking inscribed
+on a shabby door in a high wall. There was no bell
+or knocker, so, lifting the latch, I pushed the door
+open and entered.
+</p>
+<p>
+But if the court itself had been a surprise, this was a
+positive wonder, a dream. Here, within earshot of the
+rumble of Fleet Street, I was in an old-fashioned garden
+enclosed by high walls and, now that the gate was
+shut, cut off from all sight and knowledge of the urban
+world that seethed without. I stood and gazed in delighted
+astonishment. Sun-gilded trees and flower-beds
+gay with blossom; lupins, snap-dragons, nasturtiums,
+spiry foxgloves, and mighty hollyhocks formed the
+foreground; over which a pair of sulphur-tinted butterflies
+flitted, unmindful of a buxom and miraculously
+clean white cat which pursued them, dancing across
+the borders and clapping her snowy paws fruitlessly
+in mid-air. And the background was no less wonderful:
+a grand old house, dark-eaved and venerable, that
+must have looked down on this garden when ruffled
+dandies were borne in sedan chairs through the court,
+and gentle Izaak Walton, stealing forth from his shop
+in Fleet Street, strolled up Fetter Lane to "go a-angling"
+at Temple Mills.
+</p>
+<p>
+So overpowered was I by this unexpected vision that
+my hand was on the bottom knob of a row of bell-pulls
+before I recollected myself; and it was not until a
+most infernal jangling from within recalled me to my
+business that I observed underneath it a small brass
+plate inscribed "Miss Oman."
+</p>
+<p>
+The door opened with some suddenness, and a short,
+middle-aged woman surveyed me hungrily.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have I rung the wrong bell?" I asked&mdash;foolishly
+enough, I must admit.
+</p>
+<p>
+"How can I tell?" she demanded. "I expect you
+have. It's the sort of thing a man would do&mdash;ring the
+wrong bell and then say he's sorry."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't go as far as that," I retorted. "It seems
+to have had the desired effect, and I've made your
+acquaintance into the bargain."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Whom do you want to see?" she asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mr. Bellingham."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you the doctor?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am <i>a</i> doctor."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Follow me upstairs," said Miss Oman, "and don't
+tread on the paint."
+</p>
+<p>
+I crossed the spacious hall, and, preceded by my
+conductress, ascended a noble oak staircase, treading
+carefully on a ribbon of matting that ran up the middle.
+On the first-floor landing Miss Oman opened a door
+and, pointing to the room, said: "Go in there and
+wait; I'll tell her you're here."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I said <i>Mr</i>. Bellingham&mdash;" I began; but the door
+slammed on me, and Miss Oman's footsteps retreated
+rapidly down the stairs.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was at once obvious to me that I was in a very
+awkward position. The room into which I had been
+shown communicated with another, and though the
+door of communication was shut, I was unpleasantly
+aware of a conversation that was taking place in the
+adjoining room. At first, indeed, only a vague mutter,
+with a few disjointed phrases, came through the door,
+but suddenly an angry voice rang out clear and painfully
+distinct:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I did! And I say it again. Bribery! Collusion!
+That's what it amounts to. You want to square
+me!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nothing of the kind, Godfrey," was the reply in a
+lower tone; but at this point I coughed emphatically
+and moved a chair, and the voices subsided once more
+into an indistinct murmur.
+</p>
+<p>
+To distract my attention from my unseen neighbours
+I glanced curiously about the room and speculated
+upon the personalities of its occupants. A very curious
+room it was, with its pathetic suggestion of decayed
+splendour and old-world dignity: a room full of interest
+and character and of contrasts and perplexing
+contradictions. For the most part it spoke of unmistakable
+though decent poverty. It was nearly bare of
+furniture, and what little there was was of the cheapest&mdash;a
+small kitchen table and three Windsor chairs (two
+of them with arms); a threadbare string carpet on the
+floor, and a cheap cotton cloth on the table; these,
+with a set of bookshelves, frankly constructed of
+grocer's boxes, formed the entire suite. And yet,
+despite its poverty, the place exhaled an air of homely
+if rather ascetic comfort, and the taste was irreproachable.
+The quiet russet of the tablecloth struck a pleasant
+harmony with the subdued bluish green of the
+worn carpet; the Windsor chairs and the legs of the
+table had been carefully denuded of their glaring varnish
+and stained a sober brown; and the austerity of
+the whole was relieved by a ginger-jar filled with fresh-cut
+flowers and set in the middle of the table.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the contrasts of which I have spoken were most
+singular and puzzling. There were the bookshelves,
+for instance, home-made and stained at the cost of a
+few pence, but filled with recent and costly works on
+archaeology and ancient art. There were the objects
+on the mantelpiece: a facsimile in bronze&mdash;not bronzed
+plaster&mdash;of the beautiful head of Hypnos and a pair of
+fine Ushabti figures. There were the decorations of the
+walls, a number of etchings&mdash;signed proofs, every one
+of them&mdash;of Oriental subjects, and a splendid facsimile
+reproduction of an Egyptian papyrus. It was incongruous
+in the extreme, this mingling of costly refinements
+with the barest and shabbiest necessaries of life,
+of fastidious culture with manifest poverty. I could
+make nothing of it. What manner of man, I wondered,
+was this new patient of mine? Was he a miser, hiding
+himself and his wealth in this obscure court? An
+eccentric savant? A philosopher? Or&mdash;more probably&mdash;a
+crank? But at this point my meditations were
+interrupted by the voice from the adjoining room, once
+more raised in anger.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I say that you <i>are</i> making an accusation!
+You are implying that I made away with him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not at all," was the reply; "but I repeat that it
+is your business to ascertain what has become of him.
+The responsibility rests upon you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Upon me!" rejoined the first voice. "And what
+about you? Your position is a pretty fishy one if it
+comes to that."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What!" roared the other. "Do you insinuate
+that I murdered my own brother?"
+</p>
+<p>
+During this amazing colloquy I had stood gaping
+with sheer astonishment. Suddenly I recollected myself,
+and, dropping into a chair, set my elbows on my
+knees and slapped my hands over my ears; and thus
+I must have remained for a full minute when I became
+aware of the closing of a door behind me.
+</p>
+<p>
+I sprang to my feet and turned in some embarrassment
+(for I must have looked unspeakably ridiculous)
+to confront the sombre figure of a rather tall and
+strikingly handsome girl, who, as she stood with her
+hand on the knob of the door, saluted me with a formal
+bow. In an instantaneous glance I noted how perfectly
+she matched her strange surroundings. Black-robed,
+black-haired, with black-grey eyes and a grave,
+sad face of ivory pallor, she stood, like one of old
+Terborch's portraits, a harmony in tones so low as to be
+but a step removed from monochrome. Obviously a
+lady in spite of the worn and rusty dress, and something
+in the poise of the head and the set of the straight
+brows hinted at a spirit that adversity had hardened
+rather than broken.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I must ask you to forgive me for keeping you waiting,"
+she said; and as she spoke a certain softening
+at the corners of the austere mouth reminded me of
+the absurd position in which she had found me.
+</p>
+<p>
+I murmured that the trifling delay was of no consequence
+whatever; that I had, in fact, been rather
+glad of the rest; and I was beginning somewhat
+vaguely to approach the subject of the invalid when the
+voice from the adjoining room again broke forth with
+hideous distinctness.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I tell you I'll do nothing of the kind! Why, confound
+you, it's nothing less than a conspiracy that
+you're proposing!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Bellingham&mdash;as I assumed her to be&mdash;stepped
+quickly across the floor, flushing angrily, as well she
+might; but, as she reached the door, it flew open and
+a small, spruce, middle-aged man burst into the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Your father is mad, Ruth!" he exclaimed; "absolutely
+stark mad! And I refuse to hold any further
+communication with him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The present interview was not of his seeking,"
+Miss Bellingham replied coldly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, it was not," was the wrathful rejoinder; "it
+was my mistaken generosity. But there&mdash;what is the
+use of talking? I've done my best for you and I'll do
+no more. Don't trouble to let me out; I can find my
+way. Good morning." With a stiff bow and a quick
+glance at me, the speaker strode out of the room,
+banging the door after him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I must apologise for this extraordinary reception,"
+said Miss Bellingham; "but I believe medical men are
+not easily astonished. I will introduce you to your
+patient now." She opened the door and, as I followed
+her into the adjoining room, she said: "Here is another
+visitor for you, dear. Doctor&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Berkeley," said I. "I am acting for my friend
+Doctor Barnard."
+</p>
+<p>
+The invalid, a fine-looking man of about fifty-five,
+who sat propped up in bed with a pile of pillows, held
+out an excessively shaky hand, which I grasped cordially,
+making a mental note of the tremor.
+</p>
+<p>
+"How do you do, sir?" said Mr. Bellingham. "I
+hope Doctor Barnard is not ill."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, no," I answered; "he has gone for a trip
+down the Mediterranean on a currant ship. The chance
+occurred rather suddenly, and I bustled him off before
+he had time to change his mind. Hence my rather
+unceremonious appearance, which I hope you will forgive."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not at all," was the hearty response. "I'm delighted
+to hear that you sent him off; he wanted a
+holiday, poor man. And I am delighted to make your
+acquaintance, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is very good of you," I said; whereupon he
+bowed as gracefully as a man may who is propped up
+in bed with a heap of pillows; and having thus exchanged
+broadsides of civility, so to speak, we&mdash;or, at
+least, I&mdash;proceeded to business.
+</p>
+<p>
+"How long have you been laid up?" I asked cautiously,
+not wishing to make too evident the fact that
+my principal had given me no information respecting
+his case.
+</p>
+<p>
+"A week to-day," he replied. "The <i>fons et origo
+mali</i> was a hansom-cab which upset me opposite the
+Law Courts&mdash;sent me sprawling in the middle of the
+road. My own fault, of course&mdash;at least, the cabby
+said so, and I suppose he knew. But that was no consolation
+to me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Were you much hurt?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, not really; but the fall bruised my knee rather
+badly and gave me a deuce of a shake up. I'm too old
+for that sort of thing, you know."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Most people are," said I.
+</p>
+<p>
+"True; but you can take a cropper more gracefully
+at twenty than at fifty-five. However, the knee is getting
+on quite well&mdash;you shall see it presently&mdash;and
+you observe that I am giving it complete rest. But
+that isn't the whole of the trouble or the worst of it.
+It's my confounded nerves. I'm as irritable as the
+devil and as nervous as a cat, and I can't get a decent
+night's rest."
+</p>
+<p>
+I recalled the tremulous hand that he had offered
+me. He did not look like a drinker, but still&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you smoke much?" I inquired diplomatically.
+</p>
+<p>
+He looked at me slyly and chuckled. "That's a
+very delicate way to approach the subject, Doctor,"
+he said. "No, I don't smoke much, and I don't crook
+my little finger. I saw you look at my shaky hand
+just now&mdash;oh, it's all right; I'm not offended. It's a
+doctor's business to keep his eyelids lifting. But my
+hand is steady enough as a rule, when I'm not upset,
+but the least excitement sets me shaking like a jelly.
+And the fact is that I have just had a deucedly unpleasant
+interview&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think," Miss Bellingham interrupted, "Doctor
+Berkeley and, in fact, the neighbourhood at large, are
+aware of the fact."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Bellingham laughed rather shamefacedly. "I'm
+afraid I did lose my temper," he said; "but I am an
+impulsive old fellow, Doctor, and when I'm put out I'm
+apt to speak my mind&mdash;a little too bluntly, perhaps."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And audibly," his daughter added. "Do you
+know that Doctor Berkeley was reduced to the necessity
+of stopping his ears?" She glanced at me, as
+she spoke, with something like a twinkle in her solemn
+grey eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did I shout?" Mr. Bellingham asked, not very
+contritely, I thought, though he added: "I'm very
+sorry, my dear; but it won't happen again. I think
+we've seen the last of that good gentleman."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am sure I hope so," she rejoined, adding: "And
+now I will leave you to your talk; I shall be in the
+next room if you should want me."
+</p>
+<p>
+I opened the door for her, and when she had passed
+out with a stiff little bow I seated myself by the bedside
+and resumed the consultation. It was evidently
+a case of nervous breakdown, to which the cab accident
+had, no doubt, contributed. As to the other antecedents,
+they were no concern of mine, though Mr. Bellingham
+seemed to think otherwise, for he resumed:
+"That cab business was the last straw, you know, and
+it finished me off, but I have been going down the hill
+for a long time. I've had a lot of trouble during the
+last two years. But I suppose I oughtn't to pester
+you with the details of my personal affairs."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Anything that bears on your present state of health
+is of interest to me if you don't mind telling it," I
+said.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mind!" he exclaimed. "Did you ever meet an
+invalid who didn't enjoy talking about his own health?
+It's the listener who minds, as a rule."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, the present listener doesn't," I said.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then," said Mr. Bellingham, "I'll treat myself to
+the luxury of telling you all my troubles; I don't often
+get the chance of a confidential grumble to a responsible
+man of my own class. And I really have some excuse
+for railing at Fortune, as you will agree when I tell
+you that, a couple of years ago, I went to bed one
+night a gentleman of independent means and excellent
+prospects and woke up in the morning to find myself
+practically a beggar. Not a cheerful experience that,
+you know, at my time of life, eh?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," I agreed, "nor at any other."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And that was not all," he continued; "for, at the
+same moment, I lost my only brother, my dearest,
+kindest friend. He disappeared&mdash;vanished off the face
+of the earth; but perhaps you have heard of the affair.
+The confounded papers were full of it at the time."
+</p>
+<p>
+He paused abruptly, noticing, no doubt, a sudden
+change in my face. Of course, I recollected the case
+now. Indeed, ever since I had entered the house some
+chord of memory had been faintly vibrating, and now
+his last words had struck out the full note.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," I said, "I remember the incident, though I
+don't suppose I should but for the fact that our lecturer
+on medical jurisprudence drew my attention to
+it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Indeed," said Mr. Bellingham, rather uneasily, as
+I fancied. "What did he say about it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He referred to it as a case that was calculated to
+give rise to some very pretty legal complications."
+</p>
+<p>
+"By Jove!" exclaimed Mr. Bellingham, "that man
+was a prophet! Legal complications, indeed! But
+I'll be bound he never guessed at the sort of infernal
+tangle that has actually gathered round the affair. By
+the way, what was his name?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thorndyke," I replied. "Doctor John Thorndyke."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thorndyke," Mr. Bellingham repeated in a musing,
+retrospective tone. "I seem to remember that name.
+Yes, of course. I have heard a legal friend of mine, a
+Mr. Marchmont, speak of him in reference to the case
+of a man whom I knew slightly years ago&mdash;a certain
+Jeffrey Blackmore, who also disappeared very mysteriously.
+I remember now that Doctor Thorndyke
+unravelled that case with most remarkable ingenuity."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I daresay he would be very much interested to hear
+about your case," I suggested.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I daresay he would," was the reply; "but one
+can't take up a professional man's time for nothing,
+and I couldn't afford to pay him. And that reminds
+me that I'm taking up your time by gossiping about
+my purely personal affairs."
+</p>
+<p>
+"My morning round is finished," said I, "and, moreover,
+your personal affairs are highly interesting. I
+suppose I mustn't ask what is the nature of the legal
+entanglement?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not unless you are prepared to stay here for the
+rest of the day and go home a raving lunatic. But I'll
+tell you this much: the trouble is about my poor
+brother's will. In the first place, it can't be administered
+because there is no sufficient evidence that my
+brother is dead; and in the second place, if it could,
+all the property would go to people who were never
+intended to benefit. The will itself is the most diabolically
+exasperating document that was ever produced
+by the perverted ingenuity of a wrong-headed
+man. That's all. Will you have a look at my knee?"
+</p>
+<p>
+As Mr. Bellingham's explanation (delivered in a
+rapid <i>crescendo</i> and ending almost in a shout) had left
+him purple-faced and trembling, I thought it best to
+bring our talk to an end. Accordingly I proceeded
+to inspect the injured knee, which was now nearly well,
+and to overhaul my patient generally; and having given
+him detailed instructions as to his general conduct, I
+rose to take my leave.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And remember," I said as I shook his hand, "no
+tobacco, no coffee, no excitement of any kind. Lead
+a quiet, bovine life."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's all very well," he grumbled, "but supposing
+people come here and excite me?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Disregard them," said I, "and read <i>Whitaker's
+Almanack</i>." And with this parting advice I passed
+out into the other room.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Bellingham was seated at the table with a pile
+of blue-covered note-books before her, two of which
+were open, displaying pages closely written in a small,
+neat handwriting. She rose as I entered and looked
+at me inquiringly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I heard you advising my father to read <i>Whitaker's
+Almanack</i>," she said. "Was that as a curative measure?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Entirely," I replied. "I recommended it for its
+medicinal virtues, as an antidote to mental excitement."
+</p>
+<p>
+She smiled faintly. "It certainly is not a highly
+emotional book," she said, and then asked: "Have
+you any other instructions to give?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I might give the conventional advice&mdash;to
+maintain a cheerful outlook and avoid worry; but I
+don't suppose you would find it very helpful."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," she answered bitterly; "it is a counsel of
+perfection. People in our position are not a very
+cheerful class, I am afraid; but still they don't seek
+out worries from sheer perverseness. The worries come
+unsought. But, of course, you can't enter into that."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can't give any practical help, I fear, though I do
+sincerely hope that your father's affairs will straighten
+themselves out soon."
+</p>
+<p>
+She thanked me for my good wishes and accompanied
+me down to the street door, where, with a bow
+and a rather stiff handshake, she gave me my <i>cong&eacute;</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+Very ungratefully the noise of Fetter Lane smote on
+my ears as I came out through the archway, and very
+squalid and unrestful the little street looked when contrasted
+with the dignity and monastic quiet of the old
+garden. As to the surgery, with its oilcloth floor and
+walls made hideous with gaudy insurance show-cards
+in sham gilt frames, its aspect was so revolting that I
+flew to the day-book for distraction, and was still
+busily entering the morning's visits when the bottle-boy,
+Adolphus, entered stealthily to announce lunch.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH3"><!-- CH3 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER III
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+JOHN THORNDYKE
+</h3>
+<p>
+That the character of an individual tends to be reflected
+in his dress is a fact familiar to the least
+observant. That the observation is equally applicable
+to aggregates of men is less familiar, but equally true.
+Do not the members of the fighting professions, even to
+this day, deck themselves in feathers, in gaudy colours
+and gilded ornaments, after the manner of the African
+war-chief or the "Redskin brave," and thereby indicate
+the place of war in modern civilisation? Does not the
+Church of Rome send her priests to the altar in habiliments
+that were fashionable before the fall of the
+Roman Empire, in token of her immovable conservatism?
+And, lastly, does not the Law, lumbering on in
+the wake of progress, symbolise its subjection to precedent
+by head-gear reminiscent of the days of good
+Queen Anne?
+</p>
+<p>
+I should apologise for obtruding upon the reader
+these somewhat trite reflections; which were set going
+by the quaint stock-in-trade of the wig-maker's shop in
+the cloisters of the Inner Temple, whither I had strayed
+on a sultry afternoon in quest of shade and quiet. I
+had halted opposite the little shop window, and, with
+my eyes bent dreamily on the row of wigs, was pursuing
+the above train of thought when I was startled
+by a deep voice saying softly in my ear: "I'd have
+the full-bottomed one if I were you."
+</p>
+<p>
+I turned swiftly and rather fiercely, and looked into
+the face of my old friend and fellow-student, Jervis,
+behind whom, regarding us with a sedate smile, stood
+my former teacher, Dr. John Thorndyke. Both men
+greeted me with a warmth that I felt to be very flattering,
+for Thorndyke was quite a great personage, and
+even Jervis was several years my academic senior.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You are coming in to have a cup of tea with us,
+I hope," said Thorndyke; and as I assented gladly, he
+took my arm and led me across the court in the direction
+of the Treasury.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But why that hungry gaze at those forensic vanities,
+Berkeley?" he asked. "Are you thinking of
+following my example and Jervis's&mdash;deserting the bedside
+for the Bar?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What! Has Jervis gone into the law?" I exclaimed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Bless you, yes!" replied Jervis. "I have become
+parasitical on Thorndyke! 'The big fleas have little
+fleas,' you know. I am the additional fraction trailing
+after the whole number in the rear of a decimal
+point."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't you believe him, Berkeley," interposed
+Thorndyke. "He is the brains of the firm. I supply
+the respectability and moral worth. But you haven't
+answered my question. What are you doing here on
+a summer afternoon staring into a wigmaker's window?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am Barnard's locum; he is in practice in Fetter
+Lane."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I know," said Thorndyke; "we meet him occasionally,
+and very pale and peaky he has been looking
+of late. Is he taking a holiday?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. He has gone for a trip to the Isles of Greece
+in a currant ship."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then," said Jervis, "you are actually a local G.P.
+I thought you were looking beastly respectable."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And, judging from your leisured manner when we
+encountered you," added Thorndyke, "the practice is
+not a strenuous one. I suppose it is entirely local?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," I replied. "The patients mostly live in the
+small streets and courts within a half-mile radius of
+the surgery, and the abodes of some of them are pretty
+squalid. Oh! and that reminds me of a very strange
+coincidence. It will interest you, I think."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Life is made up of strange coincidences," said
+Thorndyke. "Nobody but a reviewer of novels is ever
+really surprised at a coincidence. But what is yours?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is connected with a case that you mentioned to
+us at the hospital about two years ago, the case of a
+man who disappeared under rather mysterious circumstances.
+Do you remember it? The man's name was
+Bellingham."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The Egyptologist? Yes, I remember the case quite
+well. What about it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The brother is a patient of mine. He is living in
+Nevill's Court with his daughter, and they seem to be
+as poor as church mice."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Really," said Thorndyke, "this is quite interesting.
+They must have come down in the world rather suddenly.
+If I remember rightly, the brother was living
+in a house of some pretensions standing in its own
+grounds."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, that is so. I see you recollect all about the
+case."
+</p>
+<p>
+"My dear fellow," said Jervis, "Thorndyke never
+forgets a likely case. He is a sort of medico-legal
+camel. He gulps down the raw facts from the newspapers
+or elsewhere, and then, in his leisure moments,
+he calmly regurgitates them and has a quiet chew at
+them. It is a quaint habit. A case crops up in the
+papers or in one of the courts, and Thorndyke swallows
+it whole. Then it lapses and everyone forgets it. A
+year or two later it crops up in a new form, and, to
+your astonishment, you find that Thorndyke has got it
+all cut and dried. He has been ruminating on it
+periodically in the interval."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You notice," said Thorndyke, "that my learned
+friend is pleased to indulge in mixed metaphors. But
+his statement is substantially true, though obscurely
+worded. You must tell us more about the Bellinghams
+when we have fortified you with a cup of tea."
+</p>
+<p>
+Our talk had brought us to Thorndyke's chambers,
+which were on the first floor of No. 5A King's Bench
+Walk, and as we entered the fine, spacious, panelled
+room we found a small, elderly man, neatly dressed in
+black, setting out the tea-service on the table. I
+glanced at him with some curiosity. He hardly looked
+like a servant, in spite of his neat, black clothes; in
+fact, his appearance was rather puzzling, for while his
+quiet dignity and his serious, intelligent face suggested
+some kind of professional man, his neat, capable hands
+were those of a skilled mechanic.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke surveyed the tea-tray thoughtfully and
+then looked at his retainer. "I see you have put three
+tea-cups, Polton," he said. "Now, how did you know
+I was bringing someone in to tea?"
+</p>
+<p>
+The little man smiled a quaint, crinkly smile of
+gratification as he explained:
+</p>
+<p>
+"I happened to look out of the laboratory window
+as you turned the corner, sir."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How disappointingly simple," said Jervis. "We
+were hoping for something abstruse and telepathic."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Simplicity is the soul of efficiency, sir," replied
+Polton as he checked the tea-service to make sure
+that nothing was forgotten, and with this remarkable
+aphorism he silently evaporated.
+</p>
+<p>
+"To return to the Bellingham case," said Thorndyke,
+when he had poured out the tea. "Have you
+picked up any facts relating to the parties&mdash;any facts,
+I mean, of course, that it would be proper for you to
+mention?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have learned one or two things that there is no
+harm in repeating. For instance, I gather that Godfrey
+Bellingham&mdash;my patient&mdash;lost all his property quite
+suddenly about the time of the disappearance."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is really odd," said Thorndyke. "The opposite
+condition would be quite understandable, but one
+doesn't see exactly how this can have happened, unless
+there was an allowance of some sort."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, that was what struck me. But there seem to
+be some queer features in the case, and the legal position
+is evidently getting complicated. There is a will,
+for example, which is giving trouble."
+</p>
+<p>
+"They will hardly be able to administer the will
+without either proof or presumption of death," Thorndyke
+remarked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly. That's one of the difficulties. Another
+is that there seems to be some fatal defect in the drafting
+of the will itself. I don't know what it is, but I
+expect I shall hear sooner or later. By the way, I
+mentioned the interest that you had taken in the case,
+and I think Bellingham would have liked to consult
+you, but, of course, the poor devil has no money."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is awkward for him if the other interested
+parties have. There will probably be legal proceedings
+of some kind, and as the law takes no account of
+poverty, he is likely to go to the wall. He ought to
+have advice of some sort."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see how he is to get it," said I.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Neither do I," Thorndyke admitted. "There are
+no hospitals for impecunious litigants; it is assumed
+that only persons of means have a right to go to law.
+Of course, if we knew the man and the circumstances
+we might be able to help him; but, for all we know to
+the contrary, he may be an arrant scoundrel."
+</p>
+<p>
+I recalled the strange conversation that I had overheard,
+and wondered what Thorndyke would have
+thought of it if it had been allowable for me to repeat
+it. Obviously it was not, however, and I could only
+give my own impressions.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He doesn't strike me as that," I said; "but, of
+course, one never knows. Personally, he impressed me
+rather favourably, which is more than the other man
+did."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What other man?" asked Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There was another man in the case, wasn't there?
+I forget his name. I saw him at the house and didn't
+much like the look of him. I suspect he's putting some
+sort of pressure on Bellingham."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Berkeley knows more about this than he is telling
+us," said Jervis. "Let us look up the report and see
+who this stranger is." He took down from a shelf a
+large volume of newspaper-cuttings and laid it on the
+table.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You see," said he, as he ran his finger down the
+index, "Thorndyke files all the cases that are likely to
+come to something, and I know he had expectations
+respecting this one. I fancy he had some ghoulish
+hope that the missing gentleman's head might turn up
+in somebody's dust-bin. Here we are; the other man's
+name is Hurst. He is apparently a cousin, and it
+was at his house that the missing man was last seen
+alive."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So you think Mr. Hurst is moving in the matter?"
+said Thorndyke, when he had glanced over the report.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is my impression," I replied, "though I really
+know nothing about it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," said Thorndyke, "if you should learn what
+is being done and should have permission to speak of
+it, I shall be very interested to hear how the case progresses;
+and if an unofficial opinion on any point would
+be of service, I think there would be no harm in my
+giving it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It would certainly be of great value if the other
+parties are taking professional advice," I said; and
+then, after a pause, I asked: "Have you given this
+case much consideration?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke reflected. "No," he said, "I can't say
+that I have. I turned it over rather carefully when the
+report first appeared, and I have speculated on it occasionally
+since. It is my habit, as Jervis was telling
+you, to utilise odd moments of leisure (such as a railway journey,
+for instance) by constructing theories to
+account for the facts of such obscure cases as have
+come to my notice. It is a useful habit, I think, for,
+apart from the mental exercise and experience that one
+gains from it, an appreciable proportion of these cases
+ultimately come into my hands, and then the previous
+consideration of them is so much time gained."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have you formed any theory to account for the
+facts in this case?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; I have several theories, one of which I especially
+favour, and I am waiting with great interest
+such new facts as may indicate to me which of these
+theories is probably the correct one."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's no use your trying to pump him, Berkeley,"
+said Jervis. "He is fitted with an information-valve
+that opens inwards. You can pour in as much as you
+like, but you can't get any out."
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke chuckled. "My learned friend is, in the
+main, correct," he said. "You see, I may be called
+upon any day to advise on this case, in which event I
+should feel remarkably foolish if I had already expounded
+my views in detail. But I should like to hear
+what you and Jervis make of the case as reported in the
+newspapers."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There now," exclaimed Jervis, "what did I tell
+you? He wants to suck our brains."
+</p>
+<p>
+"As far as my brain is concerned," I said, "the
+process of suction isn't likely to yield much except a
+vacuum, so I will resign in favour of you. You are a
+full-blown lawyer, whereas I am only a simple G.P."
+</p>
+<p>
+Jervis filled his pipe with deliberate care and lighted
+it. Then, blowing a slender stream of smoke into the
+air, he said:
+</p>
+<p>
+"If you want to know what I make of the case from
+that report, I can tell you in one word&mdash;nothing.
+Every road seems to end in a cul-de-sac."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, come!" said Thorndyke, "this is mere laziness.
+Berkeley wants to witness a display of your
+forensic wisdom. A learned counsel may be in a fog&mdash;he
+very often is&mdash;but he doesn't state the fact baldly;
+he wraps it up in a decent verbal disguise. Tell us how
+you arrive at your conclusion. Show us that you have
+really weighed the facts."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well," said Jervis, "I will give you a masterly
+analysis of the case&mdash;leading to nothing." He continued
+to puff at his pipe for a time with slight embarrassment,
+as I thought&mdash;and I fully sympathised with
+him. Finally he blew a little cloud and commenced:
+</p>
+<p>
+"The position appears to be this: Here is a man
+who is seen to enter a certain house, who is shown into
+a certain room and shut in. He is not seen to come
+out, and yet, when the room is next entered, it is found
+to be empty; and that man is never seen again, alive or
+dead. That is a pretty tough beginning.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, it is evident that one of three things must
+have happened. Either he must have remained in that
+room, or at least in that house, alive; or he must have
+died, naturally or otherwise, and his body have been
+concealed; or he must have left the house unobserved.
+Let us take the first case. This affair happened nearly
+two years ago. Now, he couldn't have remained alive
+in the house for two years. He would have been noticed.
+The servants, for instance, when cleaning out the rooms,
+would have observed him."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here Thorndyke interposed with an indulgent smile
+at his junior: "My learned friend is treating the inquiry
+with unbecoming levity. We accept the conclusion
+that the man did not remain in the house
+alive."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well. Then did he remain in it dead? Apparently
+not. The report says that as soon as the man
+was missed, Hurst and the servants together searched
+the house thoroughly. But there had been no time or
+opportunity to dispose of the body, whence the only
+possible conclusion is that the body was not there.
+Moreover, if we admit the possibility of his having
+been murdered&mdash;for that is what concealment of the
+body would imply&mdash;there is the question: Who could
+have murdered him? Not the servants, obviously, and
+as to Hurst&mdash;well, of course, we don't know what his
+relations with the missing man have been&mdash;at least, I
+don't."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Neither do I," said Thorndyke. "I know nothing
+beyond what is in the newspaper report and what
+Berkeley has told us."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then we know nothing. He may have had a motive
+for murdering the man or he may not. The point is
+that he doesn't seem to have had the opportunity.
+Even if we suppose that he managed to conceal the
+body temporarily, still there was the final disposal of
+it. He couldn't have buried it in the garden with the
+servants about; neither could he have burned it. The
+only conceivable method by which he could have got
+rid of it would have been that of cutting it up into
+fragments and burying the dismembered parts in some
+secluded spots or dropping them into ponds or rivers.
+But no remains of the kind have been found, as some
+of them probably would have been by now, so that
+there is nothing to support this suggestion; indeed, the
+idea of murder, in this house at least, seems to be excluded
+by the search that was made the instant the
+man was missed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then to take the third alternative: Did he leave
+the house unobserved? Well, it is not impossible, but
+it would be a queer thing to do. He may have been
+an impulsive or eccentric man. We can't say. We
+know nothing about him. But two years have elapsed
+and he has never turned up, so that if he left the house
+secretly he must have gone into hiding and be hiding
+still. Of course, he may have been the sort of lunatic
+who would behave in that manner or he may not.
+We have no information as to his personal character.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then there is the complication of the scarab that
+was picked up in the grounds of his brother's house at
+Woodford. That seems to show that he visited that
+house at some time. But no one admits having seen
+him there; and it is uncertain, therefore, whether he
+went first to his brother's house or to Hurst's. If he
+was wearing the scarab when he arrived at the Eltham
+house, he must have left that house unobserved and
+gone to Woodford; but if he was not wearing it he
+probably went from Woodford to Eltham and there
+finally disappeared. As to whether he was or was not
+wearing the scarab when he was last seen alive by
+Hurst's housemaid, there is at present no evidence.
+</p>
+<p>
+"If he went to his brother's house after his visit to
+Hurst, the disappearance is more understandable if we
+don't mind flinging accusations of murder about rather
+casually; for the disposal of the body would be much
+less difficult in that case. Apparently no one saw him
+enter the house, and, if he did enter, it was by a back
+gate which communicated with the library&mdash;a separate
+building some distance from the house. In that case
+it would have been physically possible for the Bellinghams
+to have made away with him. There was plenty
+of time to dispose of the body unobserved&mdash;temporarily,
+at any rate. Nobody had seen him come to the house,
+and nobody knew that he was there&mdash;if he <i>was</i> there;
+and apparently no search was made either at the time
+or afterwards. In fact, if it could be shown that the
+missing man ever left Hurst's house alive, or that he
+was wearing the scarab when he arrived there, things
+would look rather fishy for the Bellinghams&mdash;for, of
+course, the girl must have been in it if the father was.
+But there's the crux: there is no proof that the man
+ever did leave Hurst's house alive. And if he didn't&mdash;but
+there! as I said at first, whichever turning you
+take, you find that it ends in a blind alley."
+</p>
+<p>
+"A lame ending to a masterly exposition," was
+Thorndyke's comment.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I know," said Jervis. "But what would you have?
+There are quite a number of possible solutions, and
+one of them must be the true one. But how are we
+to judge which it is? I maintain that until we know
+something of the parties and the financial and other
+interests involved we have no data."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There," said Thorndyke, "I disagree with you entirely.
+I maintain that we have ample data. You
+say that we have no means of judging which of the
+various possible solutions is the true one; but I think
+that if you will read the report carefully and thoughtfully
+you will find that the facts now known to us
+point clearly to one explanation, and one only. It
+may not be the true explanation, and I don't suppose
+it is. But we are now dealing with the matter speculatively,
+academically, and I contend that our data
+yield a definite conclusion. What do you say, Berkeley?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I say that it is time for me to be off; the evening
+consultations begin at half-past six."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," said Thorndyke, "don't let us keep you
+from your duties, with poor Barnard currant-picking
+in the Grecian Isles. But come in and see us again.
+Drop in when you like, after your work is done. You
+won't be in our way even if we are busy, which we
+very seldom are after eight o'clock."
+</p>
+<p>
+I thanked Dr. Thorndyke most heartily for making
+me free of his chambers in this hospitable fashion and
+took my leave, setting forth homewards by way of
+Middle Temple Lane and the Embankment; not a very
+direct route for Fetter Lane, it must be confessed; but
+our talk had revived my interest in the Bellingham
+household and put me in a reflective vein.
+</p>
+<p>
+From the remarkable conversation that I had overheard
+it was evident that the plot was thickening.
+Not that I supposed that these two respectable gentlemen
+really suspected one another of having made away
+with the missing man; but still, their unguarded words,
+spoken in anger, made it clear that each had allowed
+the thought of sinister possibilities to enter his mind&mdash;a
+dangerous condition that might easily grow into
+actual suspicion. And then the circumstances really
+were highly mysterious, as I realised with especial vividness
+now after listening to my friend's analysis of the
+evidence.
+</p>
+<p>
+From the problem itself my mind travelled, not for
+the first time during the last few days, to the handsome
+girl who had seemed in my eyes the high-priestess
+of this temple of mystery in the quaint little court.
+What a strange figure she made against this strange
+background, with her quiet, chilly, self-contained manner,
+her pale face, so sad and worn, her black, straight
+brows and solemn grey eyes, so inscrutable, mysterious,
+Sibylline. A striking, even impressive, personality
+this, I reflected, with something in it sombre and
+enigmatic that attracted and yet repelled.
+</p>
+<p>
+And here I recalled Jervis's words: "The girl must
+have been in it if the father was." It was a dreadful
+thought, even though only speculatively uttered, and
+my heart rejected it; rejected it with an indignation
+that rather surprised me. And this notwithstanding
+that the sombre black-robed figure that my memory
+conjured up was one that associated itself appropriately
+enough with the idea of mystery and tragedy.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH4"><!-- CH4 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER IV
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+LEGAL COMPLICATIONS AND A JACKAL
+</h3>
+<p>
+My meditations brought me by a circuitous route, and
+ten minutes late, to the end of Fetter Lane, where,
+exchanging my rather abstracted air for the alert
+manner of a busy practitioner, I strode forward briskly
+and darted into the surgery with knitted brows, as
+though just released from an anxious case. But there
+was only one patient waiting, and she saluted me as I
+entered with a snort of defiance.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here you are, then?" said she.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You are perfectly correct, Miss Oman," I replied;
+"in fact, you have put the case in a nutshell. What
+can I have the pleasure of doing for you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nothing," was the answer. "My medical adviser is
+a lady; but I've brought a note from Mr. Bellingham.
+Here it is," and she thrust the envelope into my hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+I glanced through the note and learned that my
+patient had had a couple of bad nights and a very
+harassing day. "Could I have something to give me
+a night's rest?" it concluded.
+</p>
+<p>
+I reflected a few moments. One is not very ready
+to prescribe sleeping draughts for unknown patients,
+but still, insomnia is a very distressing condition. In
+the end, I temporised with a moderate dose of bromide,
+deciding to call and see if more energetic measures were
+necessary.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He had better take a dose of this at once, Miss
+Oman," said I, as I handed her the bottle, "and I will
+look in later and see how he is."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I expect he will be glad to see you," she answered,
+"for he is all alone to-night and very dumpy. Miss
+Bellingham is out. But I must remind you that he's a
+poor man and pays his way. You must excuse my mentioning
+it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am much obliged to you for the hint, Miss Oman,"
+I rejoined. "It isn't necessary for me to see him, but
+I should like just to look in and have a chat."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, it will do him good. You have your points,
+though punctuality doesn't seem to be one of them,"
+and with this parting shot Miss Oman bustled away.
+</p>
+<p>
+Half-past eight found me ascending the great, dim
+staircase of the house in Nevill's Court preceded by
+Miss Oman, by whom I was ushered into the room.
+Mr. Bellingham, who had just finished some sort of
+meal, was sitting hunched up in his chair gazing
+gloomily into the empty grate. He brightened up as I
+entered, but was evidently in very low spirits.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't mean to drag you out after your day's
+work was finished," he said, "though I am very glad
+to see you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You haven't dragged me out. I heard you were
+alone, so I just dropped in for a few minutes'
+gossip."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is really kind of you," he said heartily.
+"But I'm afraid you'll find me rather poor company.
+A man who is full of his own highly disagreeable affairs
+is not a desirable companion."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You mustn't let me disturb you if you'd rather be
+alone," said I, with a sudden fear that I was intruding.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, you won't disturb me," he replied; adding,
+with a laugh: "It's more likely to be the other way
+about. In fact, if I were not afraid of boring you to
+death I would ask you to let me talk my difficulties
+over with you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You won't bore me," I said. "It is generally interesting
+to share another man's experiences without
+their inconveniences. 'The proper study of mankind
+is&mdash;man,' you know, especially to a doctor."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Bellingham chuckled grimly. "You make me
+feel like a microbe," he said. "However, if you would
+care to take a peep at me through your microscope, I
+will crawl on to the stage for your inspection, though
+it is not <i>my</i> actions that furnish the materials for your
+psychological studies. I am only a passive agent. It
+is my poor brother who is the <i>Deus ex machina</i>, who,
+from his unknown grave, as I fear, pulls the strings of
+this infernal puppet-show."
+</p>
+<p>
+He paused, and for a space gazed thoughtfully into
+the grate as if he had forgotten my presence. At
+length he looked up, and resumed:
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is a curious story, Doctor&mdash;a very curious story.
+Part of it you know&mdash;the middle part. I will tell it
+you from the beginning, and then you will know as
+much as I do; for, as to the end, that is known to no
+one. It is written, no doubt, in the book of destiny,
+but the page has yet to be turned.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The mischief began with my father's death. He
+was a country clergyman of very moderate means, a
+widower with two children, my brother John and me.
+He managed to send us both to Oxford, after which
+John went into the Foreign Office and I was to have
+gone into the Church. But I suddenly discovered that
+my views on religion had undergone a change that made
+this impossible, and just about this time my father
+came into a quite considerable property. Now, as it
+was his expressed intention to leave the estate equally
+divided between my brother and me, there was no need
+for me to take up any profession for a livelihood.
+Archaeology was already the passion of my life, and I
+determined to devote myself henceforth to my favourite
+study, in which, by the way, I was following a family
+tendency; for my father was an enthusiastic student
+of ancient Oriental history, and John was, as you know,
+an ardent Egyptologist.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then my father died quite suddenly, and left no
+will. He had intended to have one drawn up, but had
+put it off until it was too late. And since nearly all
+the property was in the form of real estate, my brother
+inherited practically the whole of it. However, in
+deference to the known wishes of my father, he made
+me an allowance of five hundred a year, which was
+about a quarter of the annual income, I urged him to
+assign me a lump sum, but he refused to do this. Instead,
+he instructed his solicitor to pay me the allowance
+in quarterly instalments during the rest of his
+life; and it was understood that, on his death, the
+entire estate should devolve on me, or if I died first,
+on my daughter Ruth. Then, as you know, he disappeared
+suddenly, and as the circumstances suggested
+that he was dead, and there was no evidence that he
+was alive, his solicitor&mdash;a Mr. Jellicoe&mdash;found himself
+unable to continue the payment of the allowance. On
+the other hand, as there was no positive evidence that
+my brother was dead, it was impossible to administer
+the will."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You say that the circumstances suggested that
+your brother was dead. What circumstances were
+they?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Principally the suddenness and completeness of the
+disappearance. His luggage, as you may remember,
+was found lying unclaimed at the railway station; and
+there was another circumstance even more suggestive.
+My brother drew a pension from the Foreign Office, for
+which he had to apply in person, or, if abroad, produce
+proof that he was alive on the date when the payment
+became due. Now, he was exceedingly regular in this
+respect; in fact, he had never been known to fail,
+either to appear in person or to transmit the necessary
+documents to his agent, Mr. Jellicoe. But from the
+moment when he vanished so mysteriously to the present
+day, nothing whatever has been heard of him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's a very awkward position for you," I said,
+"but I should think there will not be much difficulty
+in obtaining the permission of the Court to presume
+death and to proceed to prove the will."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Bellingham made a wry face. "I expect you
+are right," he said, "but, unfortunately, that doesn't
+help me much. You see, Mr. Jellicoe, having waited
+a reasonable time for my brother to reappear, took a
+very unusual but, I think, in the special circumstances,
+a very proper step: he summoned me and the other
+interested party to his office and communicated to us
+the provisions of the will. And very extraordinary
+provisions they turned out to be. I was thunderstruck
+when I heard them. And the exasperating thing is
+that I feel sure my poor brother imagined that he had
+made everything perfectly safe and simple."
+</p>
+<p>
+"They generally do," I said, rather vaguely.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose they do," said Mr. Bellingham; "but
+poor John has made the most infernal hash of his will,
+and I am certain that he has utterly defeated his own
+intentions. You see, we are an old London family.
+The house in Queen Square where my brother nominally
+lived, but actually kept his collection, has been
+occupied by us for generations, and most of the Bellinghams
+are buried in St. George's burial-ground close
+by, though some members of the family are buried in
+other churchyards in the neighbourhood. Now, my
+brother&mdash;who, by the way, was a bachelor&mdash;had a
+strong feeling for the family traditions, and he stipulated,
+not unnaturally, in his will that he should be
+buried in St. George's burial-ground among his ancestors,
+or, at least, in one of the places of burial
+appertaining to his native parish. But instead of
+simply expressing the wish and directing his executors
+to carry it out, he made it a condition affecting the
+operation of the will."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Affecting it in what respect?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"In a very vital respect," answered Mr. Bellingham.
+"The bulk of the property he bequeathed to me, or if
+I predeceased him, to my daughter Ruth. But the
+bequest was subject to the condition that I have mentioned&mdash;that
+he should be buried in a certain place&mdash;and
+if that condition was not fulfilled, the bulk of the
+property was to go to my cousin, George Hurst."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But in that case," said I, "as you can't produce
+the body, neither of you can get the property."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am not so sure of that," he replied. "If my
+brother is dead, it is pretty certain that he is not buried
+in St. George's or any of the other places mentioned,
+and the fact can easily be proved by production of the
+registers. So that a permission to presume death
+would result in the handing over to Hurst of almost
+the entire estate."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who is the executor?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah!" he exclaimed, "there is another muddle.
+There are two executors; Jellicoe is one, and the other
+is the principal beneficiary&mdash;Hurst or myself, as the
+case may be. But, you see, neither of us can become
+an executor until the Court has decided which of us is
+the principal beneficiary."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But who is to apply to the Court? I thought that
+was the business of the executors."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly. That is Hurst's difficulty. We were discussing
+it when you called the other day, and a very
+animated discussion it was," he added, with a grim
+smile. "You see, Jellicoe naturally refuses to move
+in the matter alone. He says he must have the support
+of the other executor. But Hurst is not at present the
+other executor; neither am I. But the two of us together
+are the co-executor, since the duty devolves
+upon one or other of us, in any case."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's a complicated position," I said.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is; and the complication has elicited a very curious
+proposal from Hurst. He points out&mdash;quite correctly,
+I am afraid&mdash;that as the conditions as to burial
+have not been complied with, the property must come
+to him, and he proposes a very neat little arrangement,
+which is this: That I shall support him and
+Jellicoe in their application for permission to presume
+death and administer the will, and that he shall pay
+me four hundred a year for life; the arrangement to
+hold good <i>in all eventualities</i>."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What does he mean by that?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He means," said Bellingham, fixing me with a
+ferocious scowl, "that if the body should turn up at
+any future time, so that the conditions as to burial
+should be able to be carried out, he should still retain
+the property and pay me the four hundred a year."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The deuce!" said I. "He seems to know how to
+drive a bargain."
+</p>
+<p>
+"His position is that he stands to lose four hundred
+a year for the term of my life if the body is never
+found, and he ought to stand to win if it is."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And I gather that you have refused his offer?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; very emphatically, and my daughter agrees
+with me; but I am not sure that I have done the right
+thing. A man should think twice, I suppose, before
+he burns his boats."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have you spoken to Mr. Jellicoe about the
+matter?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I have been to see him to-day. He is a cautious
+man, and he doesn't advise me one way or the
+other. But I think he disapproves of my refusal; in
+fact, he remarked that a bird in the hand is worth two
+in the bush, especially when the whereabouts of the
+bush is unknown."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you think he will apply to the Court without
+your sanction?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He doesn't want to; but I suppose, if Hurst puts
+pressure on him, he will have to. Besides, Hurst, as an
+interested party, could apply on his own account, and
+after my refusal he probably will; at least, that is
+Jellicoe's opinion."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The whole thing is a most astonishing muddle,"
+I said, "especially when one remembers that your
+brother had a lawyer to advise him. Didn't Mr. Jellicoe
+point out to him how absurd the provisions were?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, he did. He tells me that he implored my
+brother to let him draw up a will embodying the matter
+in a reasonable form. But John wouldn't listen to
+him. Poor old fellow! he could be very pig-headed when
+he chose."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And is Hurst's proposal still open?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, thanks to my peppery temper. I refused it
+very definitely, and sent him off with a flea in his ear.
+I hope I have not made a false step; I was quite taken
+by surprise when Hurst made the proposal and got
+rather angry. You remember, my brother was last
+seen alive at Hurst's house&mdash;but there, I oughtn't to
+talk like that, and I oughtn't to pester you with my
+confounded affairs when you have come in for a
+friendly chat, though I gave you fair warning, you
+remember."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, but you have been highly entertaining. You
+don't realise what an interest I take in your case."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Bellingham laughed somewhat grimly. "My
+case!" he repeated. "You speak as if I were some
+rare and curious sort of criminal lunatic. However,
+I'm glad you find me amusing. It's more than I find
+myself."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't say amusing; I said interesting. I view
+you with deep respect as the central figure of a stirring
+drama. And I am not the only person who regards
+you in that light. Do you remember my speaking to
+you of Doctor Thorndyke?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, of course I do."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, oddly enough, I met him this afternoon and
+we had a long talk at his chambers. I took the liberty
+of mentioning that I had made your acquaintance.
+Did I do wrong?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. Certainly not. Why shouldn't you tell him?
+Did he remember my infernal case, as you call it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Perfectly, in all its details. He is quite an enthusiast,
+you know, and uncommonly keen to hear how
+the case develops."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So am I, for that matter," said Mr. Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wonder," said I, "if you would mind my telling
+him what you have told me to-night. It would interest
+him enormously."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Bellingham reflected awhile with his eyes fixed
+on the empty grate. Presently he looked up, and said
+slowly:
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know why I should. It's no secret; and
+if it were, I hold no monopoly in it. No; tell him, if
+you think he'd care to hear about it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You needn't be afraid of his talking," I said. "He
+is as close as an oyster; and the facts may mean more
+to him than to us. He may be able to give a useful
+hint or two."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, I'm not going to pick his brains," Mr. Bellingham
+said quickly and with some wrath. "I'm not the
+sort of man who goes round cadging for free professional
+advice. Understand that clearly, Doctor."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do," I answered hastily. "That wasn't what I
+meant at all. Is that Miss Bellingham coming in?
+I heard the front door shut."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, that will be my girl, I expect; but don't run
+away. You're not afraid of her, are you?" he added
+as I hurriedly picked up my hat.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm not sure that I'm not," I answered. "She is
+a rather majestic young lady."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Bellingham chuckled and smothered a yawn,
+and at that moment his daughter entered the room;
+and, in spite of her shabby black dress and a shabbier
+handbag that she carried, I thought her appearance
+and manner fully justified my description.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You come in, Miss Bellingham," I said as she
+shook my hand with cool civility, "to find your father
+yawning and me taking my departure. So I have my
+uses, you see. My conversation is the infallible cure
+for insomnia."
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Bellingham smiled. "I believe I am driving you
+away," she said.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not at all," I replied hastily. "My mission was
+accomplished, that was all."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sit down for a few minutes, Doctor," urged Mr.
+Bellingham, "and let Ruth sample the remedy. She
+will be affronted if you run away as soon as she comes
+in."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, you mustn't let me keep you up," I said.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, I'll let you know when I fall asleep," he replied,
+with a chuckle; and with this understanding I
+sat down again&mdash;not at all unwillingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+At this moment Miss Oman entered with a small
+tray and a smile of which I should not have supposed
+her to be capable.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You'll take your toast and cocoa while they're hot,
+dear, won't you?" she said coaxingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I will, Phyllis, thank you," Miss Bellingham
+answered. "I am only just going to take off my hat,"
+and she left the room, followed by the astonishingly
+transfigured spinster.
+</p>
+<p>
+She returned almost immediately as Mr. Bellingham
+was in the midst of a profound yawn, and sat down to
+her frugal meal, when her father mystified me considerably
+by remarking:
+</p>
+<p>
+"You're late to-night, chick. Have the Shepherd
+Kings been giving trouble?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," she replied; "but I thought I might as well
+get them done. So I dropped in at the Ormond Street
+library on my way home and finished them."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then they are ready for stuffing now?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes." As she answered she caught my astonished
+eye (for a stuffed Shepherd King is undoubtedly a
+somewhat surprising phenomenon) and laughed softly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We mustn't talk in riddles like this," she said,
+"before Doctor Berkeley, or he will turn us both into
+pillars of salt. My father is referring to my work," she
+explained to me.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you a taxidermist, then?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+She hastily set down the cup that she was raising to
+her lips and broke into a ripple of quiet laughter.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am afraid my father has misled you with his
+irreverent expressions. He will have to atone by explaining."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You see, Doctor," said Mr. Bellingham, "Ruth is
+a literary searcher&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, don't call me a 'searcher'!" Miss Bellingham
+protested. "It suggests the female searcher at a
+police-station. Say investigator."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well, investigator or investigatrix, if you like.
+She hunts up references and bibliographies at the
+Museum for people who are writing books. She looks
+up everything that has been written on a given subject,
+and then, when she has crammed herself to bursting-point
+with facts, she goes to her client and disgorges
+and crams him or her, and he or she finally disgorges
+into the Press."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a disgusting way to put it!" said his daughter.
+"However, that is what it amounts to. I am a
+literary jackal, a collector of provender for the literary
+lions. Is that quite clear?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Perfectly. But I don't think that, even now, I
+quite understand about the stuffed Shepherd Kings."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, it was not the Shepherd Kings who were to be
+stuffed. It was the author! That was mere obscurity
+of speech on the part of my father. The position is
+this: A venerable archdeacon wrote an article on the
+patriarch Joseph&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And didn't know anything about him," interrupted
+Mr. Bellingham, "and got tripped up by a specialist
+who did, and then got shirty&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nothing of the kind," said Miss Bellingham. "He
+knew as much as venerable archdeacons ought to know;
+but the expert knew more. So the archdeacon commissioned
+me to collect the literature on the state of
+Egypt at the end of the seventeenth dynasty, which I
+have done; and to-morrow I shall go and stuff him,
+as my father expresses it, and then&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And then," Mr. Bellingham interrupted, "the archdeacon
+will rush forth and pelt that expert with Shepherd
+Kings and Seqenen-Ra and the whole tag-rag and
+bobtail of the seventeenth dynasty. Oh, there'll be
+wigs on the green, I can tell you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I expect there will be quite a lively little
+skirmish," said Miss Bellingham. And thus dismissing
+the subject, she made an energetic attack on the toast
+while her father refreshed himself with a colossal
+yawn.
+</p>
+<p>
+I watched her with furtive admiration and deep and
+growing interest. In spite of her pallor, her weary
+eyes, and her drawn and almost haggard face, she was
+an exceedingly handsome girl; and there was in her
+aspect a suggestion of purpose, of strength and character
+that marked her off from the rank and file of
+womanhood. I noted this as I stole an occasional
+glance at her or turned to answer some remark addressed
+to me; and I noted, too, that her speech, despite
+a general undertone of depression, was yet not without
+a certain caustic, ironical humour. She was certainly
+a rather enigmatical young person, but very decidedly
+interesting.
+</p>
+<p>
+When she had finished her repast she put aside the
+tray and, opening the shabby handbag, asked:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you take any interest in Egyptian history?
+We are as mad as hatters on the subject. It seems to
+be a family complaint."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know much about it," I answered. "Medical
+studies are rather engrossing and don't leave much
+time for general reading."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Naturally," she said. "You can't specialise in
+everything. But if you would care to see how the
+business of a literary jackal is conducted, I will show
+you my notes."
+</p>
+<p>
+I accepted the offer eagerly (not, I fear, from pure
+enthusiasm for the subject), and she brought forth
+from the bag four blue-covered, quarto note-books, each
+dealing with one of the four dynasties from the fourteenth
+to the seventeenth. As I glanced through the
+neat and orderly extracts with which they were filled
+we discussed the intricacies of the peculiarly difficult
+and confused period that they covered, gradually lowering
+our voices as Mr. Bellingham's eyes closed and his
+head fell against the back of his chair. We had just
+reached the critical reign of Apepa II when a resounding
+snore broke in upon the studious quiet of the room
+and sent us both into a fit of silent laughter.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Your conversation has done its work," she whispered
+as I stealthily picked up my hat, and together
+we stole on tiptoe to the door, which she opened without
+a sound. Once outside, she suddenly dropped her
+bantering manner and said quite earnestly:
+</p>
+<p>
+"How kind it was of you to come and see him to-night!
+You have done him a world of good, and I am
+most grateful. Good night!"
+</p>
+<p>
+She shook hands with me really cordially, and I took
+my way down the creaking stairs in a whirl of happiness
+that I was quite at a loss to account for.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH5"><!-- CH5 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER V
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE WATERCRESS-BED
+</h3>
+<p>
+Barnard's practice, like most others, was subject to
+those fluctuations that fill the struggling practitioner
+alternately with hope and despair. The work came in
+paroxysms with intervals of almost complete stagnation.
+One of these intermissions occurred on the day
+after my visit to Nevill's Court, with the result that by
+half-past eleven I found myself wondering what I
+should do with the remainder of the day. The better
+to consider this weighty problem, I strolled down to the
+Embankment, and, leaning on the parapet, contemplated
+the view across the river; the grey stone bridge
+with its perspective of arches, the picturesque pile of
+the shot-towers, and beyond, the shadowy shapes of
+the Abbey and St. Stephen's.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a pleasant scene, restful and quiet, with a
+touch of life and a hint of sober romance, when a barge
+swept down through the middle arch of the bridge with
+a lugsail hoisted to a jury mast and a white-aproned
+woman at the tiller. Dreamily I watched the craft
+creep by upon the moving tide, noted the low freeboard,
+almost awash, the careful helmswoman, and the
+dog on the forecastle yapping at the distant shore&mdash;and
+thought of Ruth Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+What was there about this strange girl that had made
+so deep an impression on me? That was the question
+that I propounded to myself, and not for the first time.
+Of the fact itself there was no doubt. But what was
+the explanation? Was it her unusual surroundings?
+Her occupation and rather recondite learning? Her
+striking personality and exceptional good looks? Or
+her connection with the dramatic mystery of her lost
+uncle?
+</p>
+<p>
+I concluded that it was all of these. Everything
+connected with her was unusual and arresting; but
+over and above these circumstances there was a certain
+sympathy and personal affinity of which I was
+strongly conscious and of which I dimly hoped that she,
+perhaps, was a little conscious, too. At any rate, I was
+deeply interested in her; of that there was no doubt
+whatever. Short as our acquaintance had been, she
+held a place in my thoughts that had never been held
+by any other woman.
+</p>
+<p>
+From Ruth Bellingham my reflections passed by a
+natural transition to the curious story that her father
+had told me. It was a queer affair, that ill-drawn will,
+with the baffled lawyer protesting in the background.
+It almost seemed as if there must be something behind
+it all, especially when I remembered Mr. Hurst's very
+singular proposal. But it was out of <i>my</i> depth; it was
+a case for a lawyer, and to a lawyer it should go. This
+very night, I resolved, I would go to Thorndyke and
+give him the whole story as it had been told to me.
+</p>
+<p>
+And then there happened one of those coincidences
+at which we all wonder when they occur, but which are
+so frequent as to have become enshrined in a proverb.
+For, even as I formed the resolution, I observed two
+men approaching from the direction of Blackfriars,
+and recognised in them my quondam teacher and his
+junior.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was just thinking about you," I said as they
+came up.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very flattering," replied Jervis; "but I thought
+you had to talk of the devil."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Perhaps," suggested Thorndyke, "he was talking
+to himself. But why were you thinking of us, and what
+was the nature of your thoughts?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"My thoughts had reference to the Bellingham case.
+I spent the whole of last evening at Nevill's Court."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ha! And are there any fresh developments?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, by Jove! there are. Bellingham gave me a
+full and detailed description of the will; and a pretty
+document it seems to be."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did he give you permission to repeat the details
+to me?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. I asked specifically if I might and he had no
+objection whatever."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Good. We are lunching at Soho to-day as Polton
+has his hands full. Come with us and share our table
+and tell us your story as we go. Will that suit
+you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+It suited me admirably in the present state of the
+practice, and I accepted the invitation with undissembled
+glee.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well," said Thorndyke; "then let us walk
+slowly and finish with matters confidential before we
+plunge into the madding crowd."
+</p>
+<p>
+We set forth at a leisurely pace along the broad
+pavement and I commenced my narration. As well as I
+could remember, I related the circumstances that had
+led up to the present disposition of the property and
+then proceeded to the actual provisions of the will;
+to all of which my two friends listened with rapt
+interest, Thorndyke occasionally stopping me to jot
+down a memorandum in his pocket-book.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, the fellow must have been a stark lunatic!"
+Jervis exclaimed, when I had finished. "He seems to
+have laid himself out with the most devilish ingenuity
+to defeat his own ends."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is not an uncommon peculiarity with testators,"
+Thorndyke remarked. "A direct and perfectly
+intelligible will is rather the exception. But we can
+hardly judge until we have seen the actual document.
+I suppose Bellingham hasn't a copy?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know," said I; "but I will ask him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"If he has one, I should like to look through it,"
+said Thorndyke. "The provisions are very peculiar,
+and, as Jervis says, admirably calculated to defeat the
+testator's wishes if they have been correctly reported.
+And, apart from that, they have a remarkable bearing
+on the circumstances of the disappearance. I daresay
+you noticed that."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I noticed that it is very much to Hurst's advantage
+that the body has not been found."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, of course. But there are some other points
+that are very significant. However, it would be
+premature to discuss the terms of the will until we have
+seen the actual document or a certified copy."
+</p>
+<p>
+"If there is a copy extant," I said, "I will try to get
+hold of it. Bellingham is terribly afraid of being
+suspected of a desire to get professional advice
+gratis."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That," said Thorndyke, "is natural enough, and
+not discreditable. But you must overcome his scruples
+somehow. I expect you will be able to. You are a
+plausible young gentleman, as I remember of old, and
+you seem to have established yourself as quite the
+friend of the family."
+</p>
+<p>
+"They are rather interesting people," I explained;
+"very cultivated and with a strong leaning towards
+archaeology. It seems to be in the blood."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "a family tendency,
+probably due to contact and common surroundings rather
+than heredity. So you like Godfrey Bellingham?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. He is a trifle peppery and impulsive, but
+quite an agreeable, genial old buffer."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And the daughter," said Jervis, "what is she
+like?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, she is a learned lady; works up bibliographies
+and references at the Museum."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah!" Jervis exclaimed, with deep disfavour, "I
+know the breed. Inky fingers; no chest to speak of;
+all side and spectacles."
+</p>
+<p>
+I rose artlessly at the gross and palpable bait.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You're quite wrong," I exclaimed indignantly,
+contrasting Jervis's hideous presentment with the comely
+original. "She is an exceedingly good-looking girl,
+and her manners all that a lady's should be. A little
+stiff, perhaps, but then I am only an acquaintance&mdash;almost a stranger."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But," Jervis persisted, "what is she like, in
+appearance I mean. Short? fat? sandy? Give us
+intelligible details."
+</p>
+<p>
+I made a rapid mental inventory, assisted by my
+recent cogitations.
+</p>
+<p>
+"She is about five feet seven, slim but rather plump,
+very erect in carriage and graceful in movements;
+black hair, loosely parted in the middle and falling very
+prettily away from the forehead; pale, clear
+complexion, dark grey eyes, straight eyebrows, straight,
+well-shaped nose, short mouth, rather full; round chin&mdash;what
+the deuce are you grinning at, Jervis?" For
+my friend had suddenly unmasked his batteries and
+now threatened, like the Cheshire Cat, to dissolve into
+a mere abstraction of amusement.
+</p>
+<p>
+"If there is a copy of that will, Thorndyke," he said,
+"we shall get it. I think you agree with me, reverend
+senior?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have already said," was the reply, "that I put
+my trust in Berkeley. And now let us dismiss professional
+topics. This is our hostelry."
+</p>
+<p>
+He pushed open an unpretentious glazed door and
+we followed him into the restaurant, whereof the atmosphere
+was pervaded by an appetising meatiness
+mingled with less agreeable suggestions of the destructive
+distillation of fat.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was some two hours later when I wished my friends
+adieu under the golden-leaved plane trees of King's
+Bench Walk.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I won't ask you to come in now," said Thorndyke,
+"as we have some consultations this afternoon. But
+come in and see us soon; don't wait for that copy of
+the will."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," said Jervis. "Drop in in the evening when
+your work is done; unless, of course, there is more
+attractive society elsewhere&mdash;Oh, you needn't turn that
+colour, my dear child; we have all been young once;
+there is even a tradition that Thorndyke was young
+some time back in the pre-dynastic period."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't take any notice of him, Berkeley," said
+Thorndyke. "The egg-shell is sticking to his head
+still. He'll know better when he is my age."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Methuselah!" exclaimed Jervis; "I hope I shan't
+have to wait as long as that!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke smiled benevolently at his irrepressible
+junior, and, shaking my hand cordially, turned into the
+entry.
+</p>
+<p>
+From the Temple I wended northward to the adjacent
+College of Surgeons, where I spent a couple of
+profitable hours examining the "pickles," and refreshing
+my memory on the subjects of pathology and
+anatomy; marvelling afresh (as every practical anatomist
+must marvel) at the incredibly perfect technique
+of the dissections, and inwardly paying a respectful
+tribute to the founder of the collection. At length, the
+warning of the clock, combined with an increasing craving
+for tea, drove me forth and bore me towards the
+scene of my, not very strenuous, labours. My mind
+was still occupied with the contents of the cases and
+the great glass jars, so that I found myself at the corner
+of Fetter Lane without a very clear idea of how
+I had got there. But at that point I was aroused from
+my reflections rather abruptly by a raucous voice in
+my ear.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Orrible discovery at Sidcup!"
+</p>
+<p>
+I turned wrathfully&mdash;for a London street-boy's yell,
+let off at point-blank range, is, in effect, like the smack
+of an open hand&mdash;but the inscription on the staring
+yellow poster that was held up for my inspection
+changed my anger into curiosity.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horrible discovery in a watercress-bed!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, let, prigs deny it if they will, but there is something
+very attractive in a "horrible discovery." It
+hints at tragedy, at mystery, at romance. It promises
+to bring into our grey and commonplace life that element
+of the dramatic which is the salt that our existence
+is savoured withal. "In a watercress-bed," too! The
+rusticity of the background seemed to emphasise the
+horror of the discovery, whatever it might be.
+</p>
+<p>
+I bought a copy of the paper, and, tucking it under
+my arm, hurried on to the surgery, promising myself
+a mental feast of watercress; but as I opened the door
+I found myself confronted by a corpulent woman of
+piebald and pimply aspect who saluted me with a deep
+groan. It was the lady from the coal shop in Fleur-de-Lys
+Court.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Good evening, Mrs. Jablett," I said briskly; "not
+come about yourself, I hope."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I have," she answered, rising and following
+me gloomily into the consulting-room; and then, when
+I had seated her in the patient's chair and myself at the
+writing-table, she continued: "It's my inside, you
+know, Doctor."
+</p>
+<p>
+The statement lacked anatomical precision and
+merely excluded the domain of the skin specialist. I
+accordingly waited for enlightenment and speculated on
+the watercress-beds, while Mrs. Jablett regarded me
+expectantly with a dim and watery eye.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah!" I said, at length; "it's your&mdash;your inside,
+is it, Mrs. Jablett?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yus. <i>And</i> my 'ead," she added, with a voluminous
+sigh that filled the apartment with odorous reminiscences
+of "unsweetened."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Your head aches, does it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Somethink chronic!" said Mrs. Jablett. "Feels
+as if it was a-opening and a-shutting, a-opening and
+a-shutting, and when I sit down I feel as if I should
+<i>bust</i>."
+</p>
+<p>
+This picturesque description of her sensations&mdash;not
+wholly inconsistent with her figure&mdash;gave the clue to
+Mrs. Jablett's sufferings. Resisting a frivolous impulse
+to reassure her as to the elasticity of the human integument,
+I considered her case in exhaustive detail, coasting
+delicately round the subject of "unsweetened," and
+finally sent her away, revived in spirits and grasping
+a bottle of Mist. Sodae cum Bismutho from Barnard's
+big stock-jar. Then I went back to investigate the
+Horrible Discovery; but before I could open the paper,
+another patient arrived (<i>Impetigo contagiosa</i>, this time,
+affecting the "wide and arch&egrave;d-front sublime" of a
+juvenile Fetter Laner), and then yet another, and so
+on through the evening until, at last, I forgot the
+watercress-beds altogether. It was only when I had purified
+myself from the evening consultations with hot water
+and a nail-brush and was about to sit down to a frugal
+supper, that I remembered the newspaper and fetched
+it from the drawer of the consulting-room table, where
+it had been hastily thrust out of sight. I folded it into
+a convenient form, and, standing it upright against the
+water-jug, read the report at my ease as I supped.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was plenty of it. Evidently the reporter had
+regarded it as a "scoop," and the editor had backed
+him up with ample space and hair-raising head-lines.
+</p>
+<p><b>
+"HORRIBLE DISCOVERY IN A WATERCRESS-BED AT SIDCUP!
+</b></p>
+<p>
+"A startling discovery was made yesterday afternoon
+in the course of clearing out a watercress-bed near
+the erstwhile rural village of Sidcup in Kent; a
+discovery that will occasion many a disagreeable qualm
+to those persons who have been in the habit of regaling
+themselves with this refreshing esculent. But before
+proceeding to a description of the circumstances of the
+actual discovery or of the objects found&mdash;which, however,
+it may be stated at once, are nothing more or less
+than the fragments of a dismembered human body&mdash;it
+will be interesting to trace the remarkable chain of
+coincidences by virtue of which the discovery was made.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The beds in question have been laid out in a small
+artificial lake fed by a tiny streamlet which forms one
+of the numerous tributaries of the River Cray. Its
+depth is greater than is usual in watercress-beds, otherwise
+the gruesome relics could never have been concealed
+beneath its surface, and the flow of water
+through it, though continuous, is slow. The tributary
+streamlet meanders through a succession of pasture
+meadows, in one of which the beds themselves are situated,
+and here throughout most of the year the fleecy
+victims of the human carnivore carry on the industry
+of converting grass into mutton. Now it happened some
+years ago that the sheep frequenting these pastures
+became affected with the disease known as 'liver-rot';
+and here we must make a short digression into the
+domain of pathology.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Liver-rot' is a disease of quite romantic antecedents.
+Its cause is a small, flat worm&mdash;the liver-fluke&mdash;which
+infests the liver and bile-ducts of the affected
+sheep.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now how does the worm get into the sheep's liver?
+That is where the romance comes in. Let us see.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The cycle of transformations begins with the deposit
+of the eggs of the fluke in some shallow stream or
+ditch running through pasture lands. Now each egg
+has a sort of lid, which presently opens and lets out a
+minute, hairy creature who swims away in search of a
+particular kind of water-snail&mdash;the kind called by
+naturalists <i>Limnaea truncatula</i>. If he finds a snail, he
+bores his way into its flesh and soon begins to grow and
+wax fat. Then he brings forth a family&mdash;of tiny worms
+quite unlike himself, little creatures called <i>rediae</i>, which
+soon give birth to families of young <i>rediae</i>. So they
+may go on for several generations, but at last there
+comes a generation of <i>rediae</i> which, instead of giving
+birth to fresh <i>rediae</i>, produce families of totally different
+offspring; big-headed, long-tailed creatures like miniature
+tadpoles, called by the learned <i>cercariae</i>. The
+<i>cercariae</i> soon wriggle their way out of the body of the
+snail, and then complications arise: for it is the habit
+of this particular snail to leave the water occasionally
+and take a stroll in the fields. Thus the <i>cercariae</i>, escaping
+from the snail, find themselves on the grass, whereupon
+they promptly drop their tails and stick themselves
+to the grass-blades. Then comes the unsuspecting
+sheep to take his frugal meal, and, cropping the
+grass, swallows it, <i>cercariae</i> and all. But the latter,
+when they find themselves in the sheep's stomach, make
+their way straight to the bile-ducts, up which they
+travel to the liver. Here, in a few weeks, they grow up
+into full-blown flukes and begin the important business
+of producing eggs.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Such is the pathological romance of 'liver-rot';
+and now what is its connection with this mysterious
+discovery? It is this. After the outbreak of 'liver-rot,'
+above referred to, the ground landlord, a Mr.
+John Bellingham, instructed his solicitor to insert a
+clause in the lease of the beds directing that the latter
+should be periodically cleared and examined by an expert
+to make sure that they were free from the noxious
+water-snails. The last lease expired about two years
+ago, and since then the beds have been out of cultivation;
+but, for the safety of the adjacent pastures, it
+was considered necessary to make the customary periodical
+inspection, and it was in the course of cleaning the
+beds for this purpose that the present discovery was
+made.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The operation began two days ago. A gang of
+three men proceeded systematically to grub up the
+plants and collect the multitudes of water-snails that
+they might be examined by the expert to see if any of
+the obnoxious species were present. They had cleared
+nearly half the beds when, yesterday afternoon, one
+of the men working in the deepest part came upon some
+bones, the appearance of which excited his suspicion.
+Thereupon he called his mates, and they carefully
+picked away the plants piecemeal, a process that soon
+laid bare an unmistakable human hand lying on the
+mud amongst the roots. Fortunately they had the
+wisdom not to disturb the remains, but at once sent
+off a message to the police. Very soon, an inspector
+and a sergeant, accompanied by the divisional surgeon,
+arrived on the scene, and were able to view the remains
+lying as they had been found. And now another very
+strange fact came to light; for it was seen that the
+hand&mdash;a left one&mdash;lying on the mud was minus its third
+finger. This is regarded by the police as a very important
+fact as bearing on the question of identification,
+seeing that the number of persons having the third
+finger of the left hand missing must be quite small.
+After a thorough examination on the spot, the bones
+were carefully collected and conveyed to the mortuary,
+where they now lie awaiting further inquiries.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The divisional surgeon, Dr. Brandon, in an interview
+with our representative, made the following statements:
+</p>
+<p>
+"'The bones found are those of the left arm of a
+middle-aged or elderly man about five feet eight inches
+in height. All the bones of the arm are present, including
+the scapula, or shoulder-blade, and the clavicle, or
+collar-bone, but the three bones of the third finger are
+missing.'
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Is this a deformity or has the finger been cut
+off?' our correspondent asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'The finger has been amputated,' was the reply.
+'If it had been absent from birth, the corresponding
+hand bone, or metacarpal, would have been wanting
+or deformed, whereas it is present and quite normal.'
+</p>
+<p>
+"'How long have the bones been in the water?'
+was the next question.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'More than a year, I should say. They are quite
+clean; there is not a vestige of the soft structures
+left.'
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Have you any theory as to how the arm came to
+be deposited where it was found?'
+</p>
+<p>
+"'I should rather not answer that question,' was
+the guarded response.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'One more question,' our correspondent urged.
+'The ground landlord, Mr. John Bellingham; is not
+he the gentleman who disappeared so mysteriously
+some time ago?'
+</p>
+<p>
+"'So I understand,' Dr. Brandon replied.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Can you tell me if Mr. Bellingham had lost the
+third finger of his left hand?'
+</p>
+<p>
+"'I cannot say,' said Dr. Brandon; and he added
+with a smile, 'you had better ask the police.'
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is how the matter stands at present. But we
+understand that the police are making active inquiries
+for any missing man who has lost the third finger of his
+left hand, and if any of our readers know of such a person,
+they are earnestly requested to communicate at
+once, either with us or with the authorities.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Also we believe that a systematic search is to be
+made for further remains."
+</p>
+<p>
+I laid the newspaper down and fell into a train of
+reflection. It was certainly a most mysterious affair.
+The thought that had evidently come to the reporter's
+mind stole naturally into mine. Could these remains
+be those of John Bellingham? It was obviously possible,
+though I could not but see that the fact of the
+bones having been found on his land, while it undoubtedly
+furnished the suggestion, did not in any way
+add to its probability. The connection was accidental
+and in no wise relevant.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then, too, there was the missing finger. No reference
+to any such injury or deformity had been made in the
+original report of the disappearance, though it could
+hardly have been overlooked. But it was useless to
+speculate without facts. I should be seeing Thorndyke
+in the course of the next few days, and, undoubtedly,
+if the discovery had any bearing upon the disappearance
+of John Bellingham, I should hear of it. With
+which reflection I rose from the table, and, adopting
+the advice contained in the spurious Johnsonian quotation
+proceeded to "take a walk in Fleet Street" before
+settling down for the evening.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH6"><!-- CH6 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER VI
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+SIDELIGHTS
+</h3>
+<p>
+The association of coal with potatoes is one upon
+which I have frequently speculated, without arriving
+at any more satisfactory explanation than that both
+products are of the earth, earthy. Of the connection
+itself Barnard's practice furnished several instances
+besides Mrs. Jablett's establishment in Fleur-de-Lys
+Court, one of which was a dark and mysterious cavern
+a foot below the level of the street, that burrowed
+under an ancient house on the west side of Fetter Lane
+&mdash;a crinkly, timber house of the three-decker type that
+leaned back drunkenly from the road as if about to sit
+down in its own back yard.
+</p>
+<p>
+Passing this repository of the associated products
+about ten o'clock in the morning, I perceived in the
+shadow of the cavern no less a person than Miss Oman.
+She saw me at the same moment, and beckoned peremptorily
+with a hand that held a large Spanish onion. I
+approached with a deferential smile.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a magnificent onion, Miss Oman! and how
+generous of you to offer it to me&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wasn't offering it to you. But there! Isn't it
+just like a man&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Isn't what just like a man?" I interrupted. "If
+you mean the onion&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't!" she snapped; "and I wish you wouldn't
+talk such a parcel of nonsense. A grown man and a
+member of a serious profession, too! You ought to
+know better."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose I ought," I said reflectively. And she
+continued:
+</p>
+<p>
+"I called in at the surgery just now."
+</p>
+<p>
+"To see me?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What else should I come for? Do you suppose
+that I called to consult the bottle-boy?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Certainly not, Miss Oman. So you find the lady
+doctor no use, after all?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Oman gnashed her teeth at me (and very fine
+teeth they were, too).
+</p>
+<p>
+"I called," she said majestically, "on behalf of Miss
+Bellingham."
+</p>
+<p>
+My facetiousness evaporated instantly. "I hope
+Miss Bellingham is not ill," I said with a sudden anxiety
+that elicited a sardonic smile from Miss Oman.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," was the reply, "she is not ill, but she has cut
+her hand rather badly. It's her right hand, too, and
+she can't afford to lose the use of it, not being a great,
+hulking, lazy, lolloping man. So you had better go
+and put some stuff on it."
+</p>
+<p>
+With this advice, Miss Oman whisked to the right-about
+and vanished into the depths of the cavern like
+the Witch of Wokey, while I hurried on to the surgery
+to provide myself with the necessary instruments and
+materials, and thence proceeded to Nevill's Court.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Oman's juvenile maid-servant, who opened the
+door to me, stated the existing conditions with epigrammatic
+conciseness:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mr. Bellingham is hout, sir; but Miss Bellingham
+is hin."
+</p>
+<p>
+Having thus delivered herself she retreated towards
+the kitchen and I ascended the stairs, at the head of
+which I found Miss Bellingham awaiting me with her
+right hand encased in what looked like a white boxing-glove.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am glad you have come," she said. "Phyllis&mdash;Miss
+Oman, you know&mdash;has kindly bound up my hand,
+but I should like you to see that it is all right."
+</p>
+<p>
+We went into the sitting-room, where I laid out my
+paraphernalia on the table while I inquired into the
+particulars of the accident.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is most unfortunate that it should have
+happened just now," she said, as I wrestled with one of
+those remarkable feminine knots that, while they seem
+to defy the utmost efforts of human ingenuity to untie,
+yet have a singular habit of untying themselves at
+inopportune moments.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why just now, in particular?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Because I have some specially important work to
+do. A very learned lady who is writing a historical
+book has commissioned me to collect all the literature
+relating to the Tell el Amarna letters&mdash;the cuneiform
+tablets, you know, of Amenhotep the Fourth."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," I said soothingly, "I expect your hand will
+soon be well."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, but that won't do. The work has to be done
+immediately. I have to send in the completed notes
+not later than this day week, and it will be quite
+impossible. I am dreadfully disappointed."
+</p>
+<p>
+By this time I had unwound the voluminous
+wrappings and exposed the injury&mdash;a deep gash in the
+palm that must have narrowly missed a good-sized
+artery. Obviously the hand would be useless for fully
+a week.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose," she said, "you couldn't patch it up
+so that I could write with it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+I shook my head.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, Miss Bellingham. I shall have to put it on a
+splint. We can't run any risks with a deep wound like
+this."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then I shall have to give up the commission, and
+I don't know how my client will get the work done in
+the time. You see, I am pretty well up in the literature
+of Ancient Egypt; in fact, I was to receive special
+payment on that account. And it would have been
+such an interesting task, too. However, it can't be
+helped."
+</p>
+<p>
+I proceeded methodically with the application of the
+dressings, and meanwhile reflected. It was evident that
+she was deeply disappointed. Loss of work meant loss
+of money, and it needed but a glance at her rusty
+black dress to see that there was little margin for that.
+Possibly, too, there was some special need to be met.
+Her manner seemed almost to imply that there was.
+And at this point I had a brilliant idea.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm not sure that it can't be helped," said I.
+</p>
+<p>
+She looked at me inquiringly, and I continued: "I
+am going to make a proposition, and I shall ask you
+to consider it with an open mind."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That sounds rather portentous," said she; "but
+I promise. What is it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is this: When I was a student I acquired the
+useful art of writing shorthand. I am not a lightning
+reporter, you understand, but I can take matter down
+from dictation at quite respectable speed."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I have several hours free every day&mdash;usually,
+the whole of the afternoon up to six or half-past&mdash;and
+it occurs to me that if you were to go to the Museum
+in the mornings you could get out your books, look up
+passages (you could do that without using your right
+hand), and put in book-marks. Then I could come
+along in the afternoon and you could read out the
+selected passages to me, and I could take them down in
+shorthand. We should get through as much in a couple
+of hours as you could in a day using longhand."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, but how kind of you, Doctor Berkeley!" she
+exclaimed. "How very kind! Of course, I couldn't
+think of taking up all your leisure in that way; but I
+do appreciate your kindness very much."
+</p>
+<p>
+I was rather chapfallen at this very definite refusal,
+but persisted feebly:
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wish you would. It may seem rather cheek for a
+comparative stranger like me to make such a proposal
+to a lady; but if you'd been a man&mdash;in these special
+circumstances&mdash;I should have made it all the same, and
+you would have accepted as a matter of course."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I doubt that. At any rate, I am not a man. I
+sometimes wish I were."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, I am sure you are much better as you are!"
+I exclaimed, with such earnestness that we both laughed.
+And at this moment Mr. Bellingham entered the room
+carrying several large and evidently brand-new books
+in a strap.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I'm sure!" he exclaimed genially; "here
+are pretty goings on. Doctor and patient giggling like
+a pair of schoolgirls! What's the joke?"
+</p>
+<p>
+He thumped his parcel of books down on the table
+and listened smilingly while my unconscious witticism
+was expounded.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The Doctor's quite right," he said. "You'll do as
+you are, chick; but the Lord knows what sort of man
+you would make. You take his advice and let well
+alone."
+</p>
+<p>
+Finding him in this genial frame of mind, I ventured
+to explain my proposition to him and to enlist his
+support. He considered it with attentive approval,
+and when I had finished turned to his daughter.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What is your objection, chick?" he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It would give Doctor Berkeley such a fearful lot
+of work," she answered.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It would give him a fearful lot of pleasure," I said.
+"It would, really."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then why not?" said Mr. Bellingham. "We don't
+mind being under an obligation to the Doctor, do we?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, it wasn't that!" she exclaimed hastily.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then take him at his word. He means it. It is a
+kind action and he'll like doing it, I'm sure. That's
+all right, Doctor; she accepts, don't you, chick?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, if you say so, I do; and most thankfully."
+</p>
+<p>
+She accompanied the acceptance with a gracious
+smile that was in itself a large payment on account,
+and when we had made the necessary arrangements,
+I hurried away in a state of the most perfect satisfaction
+to finish my morning's work and order an early
+lunch.
+</p>
+<p>
+When I called for her a couple of hours later I found
+her waiting in the garden with the shabby handbag,
+of which I relieved her, and we set forth together,
+watched jealously by Miss Oman, who had accompanied
+her to the gate.
+</p>
+<p>
+As I walked up the court with this wonderful maid
+by my side I could hardly believe in my good fortune.
+By her presence and my own resulting happiness the
+mean surroundings became glorified and the commonest
+objects transfigured into things of beauty. What a
+delightful thoroughfare, for instance, was Fetter Lane,
+with its quaint charm and mediaeval grace! I snuffed
+the cabbage-laden atmosphere and seemed to breathe
+the scent of the asphodel. Holborn was even as the
+Elysian Fields; the omnibus that bore us westward
+was a chariot of glory; and the people who swarmed
+verminously on the pavements bore the semblance of
+the children of light.
+</p>
+<p>
+Love is a foolish thing judged by workaday standards,
+and the thoughts and actions of lovers foolish
+beyond measure. But the workaday standard is the
+wrong one, after all; for the utilitarian mind does but
+busy itself with the trivial and transitory interests of
+life, behind which looms the great and everlasting reality
+of the love of man and woman. There is more significance
+in a nightingale's song in the hush of a summer
+night than in all the wisdom of Solomon (who, by the
+way, was not without his little experiences of the tender
+passion).
+</p>
+<p>
+The janitor in the little glass box by the entrance
+to the library inspected us and passed us on, with a
+silent benediction, to the lobby, whence (when I had
+handed my stick to a bald-headed demigod and
+received a talismanic disc in exchange) we entered the
+enormous rotunda of the reading-room.
+</p>
+<p>
+I have often thought that, if some lethal vapour of
+highly preservative properties&mdash;such as formaldehyde,
+for instance&mdash;could be shed into the atmosphere of
+this apartment, the entire and complete collection of
+books and bookworms would be well worth preserving,
+for the enlightenment of posterity, as a sort of anthropological
+appendix to the main collection of the
+Museum. For, surely, nowhere else in the world are so
+many strange and abnormal human beings gathered
+together in one place. And a curious question that
+must have occurred to many observers is: Whence do
+these singular creatures come, and whither do they go
+when the very distinct-faced clock (adjusted to literary
+eye-sight) proclaims closing time? The tragic-faced
+gentleman, for instance, with the corkscrew ringlets
+that bob up and down like spiral springs as he walks?
+Or the short, elderly gentleman in the black cassock and
+bowler hat, who shatters your nerves by turning suddenly
+and revealing himself as a middle-aged woman?
+Whither do they go? One never sees them elsewhere.
+Do they steal away at closing time into the depths of
+the Museum and hide themselves until morning in
+sarcophagi or mummy cases? Or do they creep through
+spaces in the book-shelves and spend the night behind
+the volumes in a congenial atmosphere of leather and
+antique paper? Who can say? What I do know is
+that when Ruth Bellingham entered the reading-room
+she appeared in comparison with these like a creature
+of another order; even as the head of Antinous, which
+formerly stood (it has since been moved) amidst the
+portrait-busts of the Roman Emperors, seemed like the
+head of a god set in a portrait gallery of illustrious
+baboons.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What have we got to do?" I asked when we had
+found a vacant seat. "Do you want to look up the
+catalogue?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I have the tickets in my bag. The books are
+waiting in the 'kept books' department."
+</p>
+<p>
+I placed my hat on the leather-covered shelf, dropped
+her gloves into it&mdash;how delightfully intimate and
+companionable it seemed!&mdash;altered the numbers on the
+tickets, and then we proceeded together to the "kept
+books" desk to collect the volumes that contained the
+material for our day's work.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a blissful afternoon. Two and a half hours of
+happiness unalloyed did I spend at that shiny, leather-clad
+desk, guiding my nimble pen across the pages of
+the note-book. It introduced me to a new world&mdash;a
+world in which love and learning, sweet intimacy and
+crusted archaeology, were mingled into the oddest, most
+whimsical, and most delicious confection that the mind
+of man can conceive. Hitherto, these recondite
+histories had been far beyond my ken. Of the wonderful
+heretic, Amenhotep the Fourth, I had barely heard&mdash;at
+the most he had been a mere name; the Hittites a
+mythical race of undetermined habitat; while cuneiform
+tablets had presented themselves to my mind merely as
+an uncouth kind of fossil biscuit suited to the digestion
+of a pre-historic ostrich.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now all this was changed. As we sat with our chairs
+creaking together and she whispered the story of those
+stirring times into my receptive ear&mdash;talking is strictly
+forbidden in the reading-room&mdash;the disjointed
+fragments arranged themselves into a romance of supreme
+fascination. Egyptian, Babylonian, Aramaean, Hittite,
+Memphis, Babylon, Hamath, Megiddo&mdash;I swallowed
+them all thankfully, wrote them down and asked for
+more. Only once did I disgrace myself. An elderly
+clergyman of ascetic and acidulous aspect had passed
+us with a glance of evident disapproval, clearly setting
+us down as intruding philanderers; and when I
+contrasted the parson's probable conception of the whispered
+communications that were being poured into my
+ear so tenderly and confidentially with the dry reality,
+I chuckled aloud. But my fair task-mistress only
+paused, with her finger on the page, smilingly to rebuke
+me, and then went on with the dictation. She was
+certainly a Tartar for work.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a proud moment for me when, in response to
+my interrogative "Yes?" my companion said "That
+is all" and closed the book. We had extracted the
+pith and marrow of six considerable volumes in two
+hours and a half.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have been better than your word," she said.
+"It would have taken me two full days of really hard
+work to make the notes that you have written down
+since we commenced. I don't know how to thank
+you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There's no need to. I've enjoyed myself and polished
+up my shorthand. What is the next thing? We
+shall want some books for to-morrow, shan't we?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. I have made out a list, so if you will come
+with me to the catalogue desk I will look out the numbers
+and ask you to write the tickets."
+</p>
+<p>
+The selection of a fresh batch of authorities occupied
+us for another quarter of an hour, and then, having
+handed in the volumes that we had squeezed dry, we
+took our way out of the reading-room.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Which way shall we go?" she asked as we passed
+out of the gate, where stood a massive policeman, like
+the guardian angel at the gate of Paradise (only, thank
+Heaven! he bore no flaming sword forbidding reentry).
+</p>
+<p>
+"We are going," I replied, "to Museum Street, where
+is a milkshop in which one can get an excellent cup
+of tea."
+</p>
+<p>
+She looked as if she would have demurred, but eventually
+followed obediently, and we were soon seated side
+by side at a little marble-topped table, retracing the
+ground that we had covered in the afternoon's work
+and discussing various points of interest over a joint
+teapot.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have you been doing this sort of work long?" I
+asked as she handed me my second cup of tea.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Professionally," she answered, "only about two
+years; since we broke up our home, in fact. But long
+before that I used to come to the Museum with my
+Uncle John&mdash;the one who disappeared, you know, in
+that dreadfully mysterious way&mdash;and help him to look
+up references. We were quite good friends, he and I."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose he was a very learned man?" I suggested.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, in a certain way; in the way of the better-class
+collector he was very learned indeed. He knew
+the contents of every museum in the world, in so far
+as they were connected with Egyptian antiquities, and
+had studied them specimen by specimen. Consequently,
+as Egyptology is largely a museum science, he
+was a learned Egyptologist. But his real interest was
+in things rather than events. Of course, he knew a
+great deal&mdash;a very great deal&mdash;about Egyptian history,
+but still he was, before all, a collector."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what will happen to his collection if he is
+really dead?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The greater part of it goes to the British Museum
+by his will, and the remainder he has left to his solicitor,
+Mr. Jellicoe."
+</p>
+<p>
+"To Mr. Jellicoe! Why, what will Mr. Jellicoe do
+with Egyptian antiquities?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, he is an Egyptologist, too, and quite an enthusiast.
+He has a really fine collection of scarabs and
+other small objects such as it is possible to keep in
+a private house. I have always thought that it was
+his enthusiasm for everything Egyptian that brought
+him and my uncle together on terms of such intimacy;
+though I believe he is an excellent lawyer, and he is
+certainly a very discreet, cautious man."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is he? I shouldn't have thought so, judging by
+your uncle's will."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, but that was not Mr. Jellicoe's fault. He assures
+us that he entreated my uncle to let him draw up
+a fresh document with more reasonable provisions. But
+he says Uncle John was immovable; and he really <i>was</i>
+a rather obstinate man. Mr. Jellicoe repudiates any
+responsibility in the matter. He washes his hands of
+the whole affair, and says that it is the will of a lunatic.
+And so it is. I was glancing through it only a night or
+two ago, and really I cannot conceive how a sane man
+could have written such nonsense."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have a copy, then?" I asked eagerly, remembering
+Thorndyke's parting instructions.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. Would you like to see it? I know my father
+has told you about it, and it is worth reading as a
+curiosity of perverseness."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should very much like to show it to my friend,
+Doctor Thorndyke," I replied. "He said that he would
+be interested to read it and learn the exact provisions;
+and it might be well to let him, and hear what he has
+to say about it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I see no objection," she rejoined; "but you know
+what my father is: his horror, I mean, of what he calls
+'cadging for advice gratis.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, but he need have no scruples on that score.
+Doctor Thorndyke wants to see the will because the case
+interests him. He is an enthusiast, you know, and he
+put the request as a personal favour to himself."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is very nice and delicate of him, and I will
+explain the position to my father. If he is willing for
+Doctor Thorndyke to see the copy, I will send or bring
+it over this evening. Have we finished?"
+</p>
+<p>
+I regretfully admitted that we had, and, when I had
+paid the modest reckoning, we sallied forth, turning
+back with one accord into Great Russell Street to avoid
+the noise and bustle of the larger thoroughfare.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What sort of man was your uncle?" I asked presently,
+as we walked along the quiet, dignified street.
+And then I added hastily: "I hope you don't think me
+inquisitive, but, to my mind, he presents himself as a
+kind of mysterious abstraction; the unknown quantity
+of a legal problem."
+</p>
+<p>
+"My Uncle John," she answered reflectively, "was
+a very peculiar man, rather obstinate, very self-willed,
+what people call 'masterful,' and decidedly wrong-headed
+and unreasonable."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is certainly the impression that the terms
+of his will convey," I said.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; and not the will only. There was the absurd
+allowance that he made my father. That was a ridiculous
+arrangement, and very unfair, too. He ought to
+have divided up the property as my grandfather intended.
+And yet he was by no means ungenerous,
+only he would have his own way, and his own way was
+very commonly the wrong way.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I remember," she continued, after a short pause,
+"a very odd instance of his wrong-headedness and
+obstinacy. It was a small matter, but very typical of
+him. He had in his collection a beautiful little ring
+of the eighteenth dynasty. It was said to have belonged
+to Queen Ti, the mother of our friend Amenhotep
+the Fourth; but I don't think that could have
+been so, because the device on it was the Eye of Osiris,
+and Ti, as you know, was an Aten-worshipper. However,
+it was a very charming ring, and Uncle John,
+who had a queer sort of devotion to the mystical Eye
+of Osiris, commissioned a very clever goldsmith to make
+two exact copies of it, one for himself and one for me.
+The goldsmith naturally wanted to take the measurements
+of our fingers, but this Uncle John would not
+hear of; the rings were to be exact copies, and an
+exact copy must be the same size as the original. You
+can imagine the result; my ring was so loose that
+I couldn't keep it on my finger, and Uncle John's
+was so tight that, though he did manage to get it on,
+he was never able to get it off again. And it was only
+the circumstance that his left hand was decidedly
+smaller than his right that made it possible for him to
+wear it at all."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So you never wore your copy?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. I wanted to have it altered to make it fit,
+but he objected strongly; so I put it away, and have
+it in a box still."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He must have been an extraordinarily pig-headed
+old fellow," I remarked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; he was very tenacious. He annoyed my father
+a good deal, too, by making unnecessary alterations in
+the house in Queen Square when he fitted up his museum.
+We have a certain sentiment with regard to that house.
+Our people have lived in it ever since it was built, when
+the square was first laid out in the reign of Queen Anne,
+after whom the square was named. It is a dear old
+house. Would you like to see it? We are quite near it
+now."
+</p>
+<p>
+I assented eagerly. If it had been a coal-shed or
+a fried-fish shop I would still have visited it with
+pleasure, for the sake of prolonging our walk; but I
+was also really interested in this old house as a part of
+the background of the mystery of the vanished John
+Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+We crossed into Cosmo Place, with its quaint row
+of the, now rare, cannon-shaped iron posts, and passing
+through stood for a few moments looking into the
+peaceful, stately old square. A party of boys disported
+themselves noisily on the range of stone posts
+that form a bodyguard round the ancient lamp-surmounted
+pump, but otherwise the place was wrapped
+in dignified repose suited to its age and station. And
+very pleasant it looked on this summer afternoon, with
+the sunlight gilding the foliage of its wide-spreading
+plane trees and lighting up the warm-toned brick of
+the house-fronts. We walked slowly down the shady
+west side, near the middle of which my companion
+halted.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is the house," she said. "It looks gloomy
+and forsaken now; but it must have been a delightful
+house in the days when my ancestors could look out of
+the windows through the open end of the square across
+the fields and meadows to the heights of Hampstead
+and Highgate."
+</p>
+<p>
+She stood at the edge of the pavement looking up
+with a curious wistfulness at the old house; a very
+pathetic figure, I thought, with her handsome face and
+proud carriage, her threadbare dress and shabby gloves,
+standing at the threshold of the home that had been
+her family's for generations, that should now have been
+hers, and that was shortly to pass away into the hands
+of strangers.
+</p>
+<p>
+I, too, looked up at it with a strange interest, impressed
+by something gloomy and forbidding in its
+aspect. The windows were shuttered from basement
+to attic, and no sign of life was visible. Silent, neglected,
+desolate, it breathed an air of tragedy. It
+seemed to mourn in sackcloth and ashes for its lost
+master. The massive door within the splendid carven
+portico was crusted with grime, and seemed to have
+passed out of use as completely as the ancient lamp-irons
+or the rusted extinguishers wherein the footmen
+were wont to quench their torches when some Bellingham
+dame was borne up the steps in her gilded chair,
+in the days of good Queen Anne.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was in a somewhat sobered frame of mind that
+we presently turned away and started homeward by
+way of Great Ormond Street. My companion was
+deeply thoughtful, relapsing for a while into that sombreness
+of manner that had so impressed me when I
+first met her. Nor was I without a certain sympathetic
+pensiveness; as if, from the great, silent house, the
+spirit of the vanished man had issued forth to bear us
+company.
+</p>
+<p>
+But still it was a delightful walk, and I was sorry
+when at last we arrived at the entrance to Nevill's
+Court, and Miss Bellingham halted and held out her
+hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Good-bye," she said; "and many, many thanks
+for your invaluable help. Shall I take the bag?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"If you want it. But I must take out the note-books."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why must you take them?" she asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, haven't I got to copy the notes out into longhand?"
+</p>
+<p>
+An expression of utter consternation spread over her
+face; in fact, she was so completely taken aback that
+she forgot to release my hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Heavens!" she exclaimed. "How idiotic of me!
+But it is impossible, Doctor Berkeley! It will take
+you hours!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is perfectly possible, and it is going to be done;
+otherwise the notes would be useless. Do you want the
+bag?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, of course not. But I am positively appalled.
+Hadn't you better give up the idea?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And is this the end of our collaboration?" I exclaimed
+tragically, giving her hand a final squeeze
+(whereby she became suddenly aware of its position,
+and withdrew it rather hastily). "Would you throw
+away a whole afternoon's work? I won't, certainly;
+so, good-bye until to-morrow. I shall turn up in the
+reading-room as early as I can. You had better take
+the tickets. Oh, and you won't forget about the copy
+of the will for Doctor Thorndyke, will you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; if my father agrees, you shall have it this
+evening."
+</p>
+<p>
+She took the tickets from me, and, thanking me yet
+again, retired into the court.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH7"><!-- CH7 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER VII
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+JOHN BELLINGHAM'S WILL
+</h3>
+<p>
+The task upon which I had embarked so lightheartedly,
+when considered in cold blood, did certainly appear,
+as Miss Bellingham had said, rather appalling. The
+result of two and a half hours' pretty steady work at an
+average speed of nearly a hundred words a minute,
+would take some time to transcribe into longhand;
+and if the notes were to be delivered punctually on the
+morrow, the sooner I got to work the better.
+</p>
+<p>
+Recognising this truth, I lost no time, but, within
+five minutes of my arrival at the surgery, was seated
+at the writing-table with my copy before me busily converting
+the sprawling, inexpressive characters into
+good, legible round-hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+The occupation was by no means unpleasant, apart
+from the fact that it was a labour of love; for the
+sentences, as I picked them up, were fragrant with
+reminiscences of the gracious whisper in which they
+had first come to me. And then the matter itself was
+full of interest. I was gaining a fresh outlook on life,
+was crossing the threshold of a new world (which was
+<i>her</i> world); and so the occasional interruptions from
+patients, while they gave me intervals of enforced rest,
+were far from welcome.
+</p>
+<p>
+The evening wore on without any sign from Nevill's
+Court, and I began to fear that Mr. Bellingham's
+scruples had proved insurmountable. Not, I am afraid,
+that I was so much concerned for the copy of the will
+as for the possibility of a visit, no matter howsoever
+brief, from my fair employer; and when, on the stroke
+of half-past seven, the surgery door flew open with
+startling abruptness, my fears were allayed and my
+hopes shattered simultaneously. For it was Miss
+Oman who stalked in, holding out a blue foolscap
+envelope with a warlike air as if it were an ultimatum.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I've brought you this from Mr. Bellingham," she
+said. "There's a note inside."
+</p>
+<p>
+"May I read the note, Miss Oman?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Bless the man!" she exclaimed. "What else
+would you do with it? Isn't that what I brought it
+for?"
+</p>
+<p>
+I supposed it was; and, thanking her for her gracious
+permission, I glanced through the note&mdash;a few lines
+authorising me to show the copy of the will to Dr.
+Thorndyke. When I looked up from the paper I
+found her eyes fixed on me with an expression critical
+and rather disapproving.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You seem to be making yourself mighty agreeable
+in a certain quarter," she remarked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I make myself universally agreeable. It is my
+nature to."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ha!" she snorted.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't you find me rather agreeable?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oily," said Miss Oman. And then, with a sour
+smile at the open note-books, she remarked:
+</p>
+<p>
+"You've got some work to do now; quite a change
+for you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"A delightful change, Miss Oman. 'For Satan
+findeth'&mdash;but no doubt you are acquainted with the
+philosophical works of Doctor Watts?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"If you are referring to 'idle hands,'" she replied,
+"I'll give you a bit of advice, Don't you keep that
+hand idle any longer than is really necessary. I have
+my suspicions about that splint&mdash;oh, you know what
+I mean," and before I had time to reply, she had taken
+advantage of the entrance of a couple of patients to
+whisk out of the surgery with the abruptness that had
+distinguished her arrival.
+</p>
+<p>
+The evening consultations were considered to be over
+by half-past eight; at which time Adolphus was wont,
+with exemplary punctuality, to close the outer door
+of the surgery. To-night he was not less prompt
+than usual; and having performed this, his last daily
+office, and turned down the surgery gas, he reported
+the fact and took his departure.
+</p>
+<p>
+As his retreating footsteps died away and the slamming
+of the outer door announced his final disappearance,
+I sat up and stretched myself. The envelope
+containing the copy of the will lay on the table, and I
+considered it thoughtfully. It ought to be conveyed
+to Thorndyke with as little delay as possible, and, as
+it certainly could not be trusted out of my hands, it
+ought to be conveyed by me.
+</p>
+<p>
+I looked at the note-books. Nearly two hours' work
+had made a considerable impression on the matter that
+I had to transcribe, but still, a great deal of the task
+yet remained to be done. However, I reflected, I could
+put in a couple of hours more before going to bed and
+there would be an hour or two to spare in the morning.
+Finally I locked the note-books, open as they were,
+in the writing-table drawer, and slipping the envelope
+into my pocket, set out for the Temple.
+</p>
+<p>
+The soft chime of the Treasury clock was telling out,
+in confidential tones, the third quarter as I wrapped
+with my stick on the forbidding "oak" of my friends'
+chambers. There was no response, nor had I perceived
+any gleam of light from the windows as I approached,
+and I was considering the advisability of trying the
+laboratory on the next floor, when footsteps on the
+stone stairs and familiar voices gladdened my ear.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hallo, Berkeley!" said Thorndyke, "do we find
+you waiting like a Peri at the gates of Paradise?
+Polton is upstairs, you know, tinkering at one of his
+inventions. If you ever find the nest empty, you had
+better go up and bang at the laboratory door. He's
+always there in the evenings."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I haven't been waiting long," said I, "and I was
+just thinking of rousing him up when you came."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That was right," said Thorndyke, turning up the
+gas. "And what news do you bring? Do I see a
+blue envelope sticking out of your pocket?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You do."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is it a copy of the will?" he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+I answered "yes," and added that I had full permission
+to show it to him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What did I tell you?" exclaimed Jervis. "Didn't
+I say that he would get the copy for us if it existed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"We admit the excellence of your prognosis," said
+Thorndyke, "but there is no need to be boastful.
+Have you read through the document, Berkeley?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I haven't taken it out of the envelope."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then it will be equally new to us all, and we shall
+see if it tallies with your description."
+</p>
+<p>
+He placed three easy chairs at a convenient distance
+from the light, and Jervis, watching him with a smile,
+remarked:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now Thorndyke is going to enjoy himself. To
+him, a perfectly unintelligible will is a thing of beauty
+and a joy for ever; especially if associated with some
+kind of recondite knavery."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know," said I, "that this will is particularly
+unintelligible. The mischief seems to be that it
+is rather too intelligible. However, here it is," and I
+handed the envelope to Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose that we can depend on this copy," said
+the latter, as he drew out the document and glanced
+at it. "Oh, yes," he added, "I see it is copied by
+Godfrey Bellingham, compared with the original and
+certified correct. In that case I will get you to read it
+out slowly, Jervis, and I will make a rough copy to
+keep for reference. Let us make ourselves comfortable
+and light our pipes before we begin."
+</p>
+<p>
+He provided himself with a writing-pad, and, when
+we had seated ourselves and got our pipes well alight,
+Jervis opened the document, and with a premonitory
+"hem!" commenced the reading.
+</p>
+<p>
+"In the name of God Amen. This is the last will and
+testament of me John Bellingham of number 141 Queen
+Square in the parish of St. George Bloomsbury London
+in the county of Middlesex Gentleman made this twenty
+first day of September in the year of our Lord one
+thousand eight hundred and ninety-two.
+</p>
+<p>
+"1. I give and bequeath unto Arthur Jellicoe of
+number 184 New Square Lincoln's Inn London in the
+county of Middlesex Attorney-at-law the whole of my
+collection of seals and scarabs and those my cabinets
+marked B, C, and D together with the contents thereof
+and the sum of two thousand pounds sterling free of
+legacy duty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Unto the Trustees of the British Museum the
+residue of my collection of antiquities.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Unto my cousin George Hurst of The Poplars Eltham
+in the county of Kent the sum of five thousand
+pounds free of legacy duty and unto my brother Godfrey
+Bellingham or if he should die before the occurrence
+of my death unto his daughter Ruth Bellingham
+the residue of my estate and effects real and personal
+subject to the conditions set forth hereinafter namely:
+</p>
+<p>
+"2. That my body shall be deposited with those of
+my ancestors in the churchyard appertaining to the
+church and parish of St. George the Martyr or if that
+shall not be possible, in some other churchyard, cemetery,
+burial ground, church, chapel or other authorised
+place for the reception of the bodies of the dead situate
+within or appertaining to the parishes of St. Andrew
+above the Bars and St. George the Martyr or St.
+George Bloomsbury and St. Giles in the Fields. But if
+the conditions in this clause be not carried out then
+</p>
+<p>
+"3. I give and devise the said residue of my estate
+and effects unto my cousin George Hurst aforesaid
+and I hereby revoke all wills and codicils made by me
+at any time heretofore and I appoint Arthur Jellicoe
+aforesaid to be the executor of this my will jointly with
+the principal beneficiary and residuary legatee that is
+to say with the aforesaid Godfrey Bellingham if the
+conditions set forth hereinbefore in clause 2 shall be
+duly carried out but with the aforesaid George Hurst
+if the said conditions in the said clause 2 be not carried
+out.
+</p>
+<center>
+"JOHN BELLINGHAM.
+</center>
+<p>
+"Signed by the said testator John Bellingham in
+the presence of us present at the same time who at his
+request and in his presence and in the presence of each
+other have subscribed our names as witnesses.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Frederick Wilton, 16 Medford Road, London, N.,
+clerk.
+</p>
+<p>
+"James Barker, 32 Wadbury Crescent, London,
+S.W., clerk."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," said Jervis, laying down the document as
+Thorndyke detached the last sheet from his writing-pad,
+"I have met with a good many idiotic wills, but
+this one can give them all points. I don't see how it is
+ever going to be administered. One of the two executors
+is a mere abstraction&mdash;a sort of algebraical problem
+with no answer."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think that difficulty could be overcome," said
+Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see how," retorted Jervis. "If the body
+is deposited in a certain place, A is the executor; if it
+is somewhere else, B is the executor. But, as you cannot
+produce the body, and no one has the least idea where
+it is, it is impossible to prove either that it is or that it
+is not in any specified place."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You are magnifying the difficulty, Jervis," said
+Thorndyke. "The body may, of course, be anywhere
+in the entire world, but the place where it is lying is
+either inside or outside the general boundary of these
+two parishes. If it has been deposited within the
+boundary of those two parishes, the fact must be ascertainable
+by examining the burial certificates issued
+since the date when the missing man was last seen alive
+and by consulting the registers of those specified places
+of burial. I think that if no record can be found of
+any such interment within the boundary of those two
+parishes, that fact will be taken by the Court as proof
+that no such interment has taken place, and that therefore
+the body must have been deposited elsewhere.
+Such a decision would constitute George Hurst the
+co-executor and residuary legatee."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is cheerful for your friends, Berkeley," Jervis
+remarked, "for we may take it as pretty certain that
+the body has not been deposited in any of the places
+named."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," I agreed gloomily, "I'm afraid there is very
+little doubt of that. But what an ass the fellow must
+have been to make such a to-do about his beastly
+carcass? What the deuce could it have mattered
+to him where it was dumped, when he had done
+with it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke chuckled softly. "Thus the irreverent
+youth of to-day," said he. "But yours is hardly a fair
+comment, Berkeley. Our training makes us materialists,
+and puts us a little out of sympathy with those in
+whom primitive beliefs and emotions survive. A worthy
+priest who came to look at our dissecting-room expressed
+surprise to me that students, thus constantly
+in the presence of relics of mortality, should be able to
+think of anything but the resurrection and the life hereafter.
+He was a bad psychologist. There is nothing
+so dead as a dissecting-room 'subject'; and the contemplation
+of the human body in the process of being
+quietly taken to pieces&mdash;being resolved into its structural
+units like a worn-out clock or an old engine in the
+Mr. Rapper's yard&mdash;is certainly not conducive to a vivid
+realisation of the doctrine of the resurrection."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; but this absurd anxiety to be buried in some
+particular place has nothing to do with religious belief;
+it is mere silly sentiment."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is sentiment, I admit," said Thorndyke, "but
+I wouldn't call it silly. The feeling is so widespread in
+time and space that we must look on it with respect
+as something inherent in human nature. Think&mdash;as
+doubtless John Bellingham did&mdash;of the ancient Egyptians,
+whose chief aspiration was that of everlasting
+repose for the dead. See the trouble they took to
+achieve it. Think of the Great Pyramid, or that of
+Amenemhat the Fourth with its labyrinth of false passages
+and its sealed and hidden sepulchral chamber.
+Think of Jacob, borne after death all those hundreds
+of weary miles in order that he might sleep with his
+fathers, and then remember Shakespeare and his solemn
+adjuration to posterity to let him rest undisturbed in
+his grave. No, Berkeley, it is not a silly sentiment.
+I am as indifferent as you as to what becomes of my
+body 'when I have done with it,' to use your irreverent
+phrase; but I recognise the solicitude that some other
+men display on the subject as a natural feeling that has
+to be taken seriously."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But even so," I said, "if this man had a hankering
+for a freehold residence in some particular bone-yard,
+he might have gone about the business in a more reasonable
+way."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There I am entirely with you," Thorndyke replied.
+"It is the absurd way in which this provision is worded
+that not only creates all the trouble but also makes the
+whole document so curiously significant in view of the
+testator's disappearance."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How significant?" Jervis demanded eagerly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Let us consider the provisions of the will point by
+point," said Thorndyke; "and first note that the
+testator commanded the services of a very capable
+lawyer."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But Mr. Jellicoe disapproved of the will," said
+I; "in fact, he protested strongly against the form
+of it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"We will bear that in mind, too," Thorndyke replied.
+"And now with reference to what we may call
+the contentious clauses: the first thing that strikes us
+is their preposterous injustice. Godfrey's inheritance
+is made conditional on a particular disposal of the
+testator's body. But this is a matter not necessarily
+under Godfrey's control. The testator might have
+been lost at sea, or killed in a fire or explosion, or have
+died abroad and been buried where his grave could not
+be identified. There are numerous probable contingencies
+besides the improbable one that has happened,
+that might prevent the body from being recovered.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But even if the body had been recovered, there
+is another difficulty. The places of burial in the
+parishes named have all been closed for many years.
+It would be impossible to reopen any of them without
+a special faculty, and I doubt whether such a faculty
+would be granted. Possibly cremation might meet the
+difficulty, but even that is doubtful; and, in any case,
+the matter would not be in the control of Godfrey
+Bellingham. Yet, if the required interment should
+prove impossible, he is to be deprived of his legacy."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is a monstrous and absurd injustice," I exclaimed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is," Thorndyke agreed; "but this is nothing to
+the absurdity that comes to light when we consider
+clauses two and three in detail. Observe that the
+testator presumably wished to be buried in a certain place;
+also he wished that his brother should benefit under
+the will. Let us take the first point and see how he
+has set about securing the accomplishment of what he
+desired. Now, if we read clauses two and three carefully,
+we shall see that he has rendered it virtually
+impossible that his wishes can be carried out. He desires
+to be buried in a certain place and makes Godfrey
+responsible for his being so buried. But he gives Godfrey
+no power or authority to carry out the provision,
+and places insuperable obstacles in his way. For until
+Godfrey is an executor, he has no power or authority
+to carry out the provisions: and until the provisions
+are carried out, he does not become an executor."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is a preposterous muddle," exclaimed Jervis.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, but that is not the worst of it," Thorndyke
+continued. "The moment John Bellingham dies, his
+dead body has come into existence; and it is 'deposited'
+for the time being, wherever he happens to
+have died. But unless he should happen to have died
+in one of the places of burial mentioned&mdash;which is in
+the highest degree unlikely&mdash;his body will be, for the
+time being, 'deposited' in some place other than those
+specified. In that case clause two is&mdash;for the time
+being&mdash;not complied with, and consequently George
+Hurst becomes, automatically, the co-executor.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But will George Hurst carry out the provisions of
+clause two? Probably not. Why should he? The
+will contains no instructions to that effect. It throws
+the whole duty on Godfrey. On the other hand, if he
+should carry out clause two, what happens? He ceases
+to be an executor and he loses a legacy of some seventy
+thousand pounds. We may be pretty certain that he
+will do nothing of the kind. So that, on considering
+the two clauses, we see that the wishes of the testator
+could only be carried out in the unlikely event of his
+dying in one of the burial-places mentioned, or his body
+being conveyed immediately after death to a public
+mortuary in one of the said parishes. In any other
+event, it is virtually certain that he will be buried in
+some place other than that which he desired, and that
+his brother will be left absolutely without provision
+or recognition."
+</p>
+<p>
+"John Bellingham could never have intended that,"
+I said.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Clearly not," agreed Thorndyke; "the provisions
+of the will furnish internal evidence that he did not.
+You note that he bequeathed five thousand pounds to
+George Hurst, in the event of clause two being carried
+out; but he has made no bequest to his brother in the
+event of its not being carried out. Obviously, he had
+not entertained the possibility of this contingency at
+all. He assumed, as a matter of course, that the conditions
+of clause two would be fulfilled, and regarded
+the conditions themselves as a mere formality."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But," Jervis objected, "Jellicoe must have seen
+the danger of a miscarriage and pointed it out to his
+client."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly," said Thorndyke. "There is the mystery.
+We understand that he objected strenuously,
+and that John Bellingham was obdurate. Now it is
+perfectly understandable that a man should adhere
+obstinately to the most stupid and perverse disposition
+of his property; but that a man should persist
+in retaining a particular form of words after it has been
+proved to him that the use of such form will almost
+certainly result in the defeat of his own wishes; that,
+I say, is a mystery that calls for very careful consideration."
+</p>
+<p>
+"If Jellicoe had been an interested party," said
+Jervis, "one would have suspected him of lying low.
+But the form of clause two doesn't affect him at all."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," said Thorndyke; "the person who stands to
+profit by the muddle is George Hurst. But we understand
+that he was unacquainted with the terms of the
+will, and there is certainly nothing to suggest that he
+is in any way responsible for it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The practical question is," said I, "what is going
+to happen? and what can be done for the Bellinghams?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The probability is," Thorndyke replied, "that the
+next move will be made by Hurst. He is the party
+immediately interested. He will probably apply to the
+Court for permission to presume death and administer
+the will."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what will the Court do?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke smiled drily. "Now you are asking a
+very pretty conundrum. The decisions of Courts depend
+on idiosyncrasies of temperament that no one can
+foresee. But one may say that a Court does not lightly
+grant permission to presume death. There will be a
+rigorous inquiry&mdash;and a decidedly unpleasant one, I
+suspect&mdash;and the evidence will be reviewed by the judge
+with a strong predisposition to regard the testator
+as being still alive. On the other hand, the known
+facts point very distinctly to the probability that he
+is dead; and, if the will were less complicated and all
+the interested parties were unanimous in supporting the
+application, I don't see why it might not be granted.
+But it will clearly be to the interest of Godfrey to
+oppose the application, unless he can show that the
+conditions of clause two have been complied with&mdash;which
+it is virtually certain that he can not; and he
+may be able to bring forward reasons for believing
+John to be still alive. But even if he is unable to do
+this, inasmuch as it is pretty clear that he was intended
+to be the chief beneficiary, his opposition is likely to
+have considerable weight with the Court."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, is it?" I exclaimed eagerly. "Then that accounts
+for a very peculiar proceeding on the part of
+Hurst. I have stupidly forgotten to tell you about it.
+He has been trying to come to a private agreement
+with Godfrey Bellingham."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Indeed!" said Thorndyke. "What sort of agreement?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"His proposal was this: that Godfrey should support
+him and Jellicoe in an application to the Court for
+permission to presume death and to administer the
+will, and that, if it was successful, Hurst should pay
+him four hundred pounds a year for life: the arrangement
+to hold good in all eventualities."
+</p>
+<p>
+"By which he means?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That if the body should be discovered at any
+future time, so that the conditions of clause two could
+be carried out, Hurst should still retain the property
+and continue to pay Godfrey the four hundred a year
+for life."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hey ho!" exclaimed Thorndyke; "that is a queer
+proposal; a very queer proposal indeed."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not to say fishy," added Jervis. "I don't fancy
+the Court would look with approval on that little
+arrangement."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The law does not look with much favour on any
+little arrangements that aim at getting behind the provisions
+of a will," Thorndyke replied; "though there
+would be nothing to complain of in this proposal if it
+were not for the reference to 'all eventualities.' If a
+will is hopelessly impracticable, it is not unreasonable
+or improper for the various beneficiaries to make such
+private arrangements among themselves as may seem
+necessary to avoid useless litigation and delay in administering
+the will. If, for instance, Hurst had proposed
+to pay four hundred a year to Godfrey so long
+as the body remained undiscovered on condition that,
+in the event of its discovery, Godfrey should pay him
+a like sum for life, there would have been nothing to
+comment upon. It would have been an ordinary sporting
+chance. But the reference to 'all eventualities' is
+an entirely different matter. Of course, it may be mere
+greediness, but all the same, it suggests some very
+curious reflections."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, it does," said Jervis. "I wonder if he has
+any reason to expect that the body will be found?
+Of course it doesn't follow that he has. He may be
+merely taking the opportunity offered by the other
+man's poverty to make sure of the bulk of the property
+whatever happens. But it is uncommonly sharp practice,
+to say the least."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do I understand that Godfrey declined the proposal?"
+Thorndyke asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, he did, very emphatically; and I fancy that
+the two gentlemen proceeded to exchange opinions on
+the circumstances of the disappearance with more frankness
+than delicacy."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah," said Thorndyke, "that is a pity. If the case
+comes into Court, there is bound to be a good deal of
+unpleasant discussion and still more unpleasant comment
+in the newspapers. But if the parties themselves
+begin to express suspicions of one another there is no
+telling where the matter will end."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, by Jove!" said Jervis. "If they begin flinging
+accusations of murder about, the fat will be in the fire
+with a vengeance. That way lies the Old Bailey."
+</p>
+<p>
+"We must try to prevent them from making an
+unnecessary scandal," said Thorndyke. "It may be
+that an exposure will be unavoidable, and that must
+be ascertained in advance. But to return to your
+question, Berkeley, as to what is to be done. Hurst
+will probably make some move pretty soon. Do you
+know if Jellicoe will act with him?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, he won't. He declines to take any steps without
+Godfrey's assent&mdash;at least, that is what he says
+at present. His attitude is one of correct neutrality."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is satisfactory, so far," said Thorndyke,
+"though he may alter his tone when the case comes
+into Court. From what you said just now I gathered
+that Jellicoe would prefer to have the will administered
+and be quit of the whole business; which is natural
+enough, especially as he benefits under the will to the
+extent of two thousand pounds and a valuable collection.
+Consequently, we may fairly assume that, even
+if he maintains an apparent neutrality, his influence
+will be exerted in favour of Hurst rather than of Bellingham;
+from which it follows that Bellingham ought
+certainly to be properly advised, and, when the case
+goes into Court, properly represented."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He can't afford either the one or the other," said
+I. "He's as poor as an insolvent church mouse and
+as proud as the devil. He wouldn't accept professional
+aid that he couldn't pay for."
+</p>
+<p>
+"H'm," grunted Thorndyke, "that's awkward. But
+we can't allow the case to go 'by default,' so to speak&mdash;to
+fail for the mere lack of technical assistance. Besides,
+it is one of the most interesting cases that I have
+ever met with, and I am not going to see it bungled.
+He couldn't object to a little general advice in a
+friendly, informal way&mdash;<i>amicus curiae</i>, as old Brodribb
+is so fond of saying; and there is nothing to prevent us
+from pushing forward the preliminary inquiries."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Of what nature would they be?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, to begin with, we have to satisfy ourselves
+that the conditions of clause two have not been complied
+with: that John Bellingham has not been buried
+within the parish boundaries mentioned. Of course he
+has not, but we must not take anything for granted.
+Then we have to satisfy ourselves that he is not still
+alive and accessible. It is perfectly possible that he is,
+after all, and it is our business to trace him, if he is
+still in the land of the living. Jervis and I can carry out
+these investigations without saying anything to Bellingham;
+my learned brother will look through the register
+of burials&mdash;not forgetting the cremations&mdash;in the metropolitan
+area, and I will take the other matter in hand."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You really think that John Bellingham may still
+be alive?" said I.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Since his body has not been found, it is obviously
+a possibility. I think it in the highest degree improbable,
+but the improbable has to be investigated
+before it can be excluded."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It sounds like a rather hopeless quest," I remarked.
+"How do you propose to begin?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think of beginning at the British Museum. The
+people there may be able to throw some light on his
+movements. I know that there are some important
+excavations in progress at Heliopolis&mdash;in fact, the
+Director of the Egyptian Department is out there at
+the present moment; and Doctor Norbury, who is
+taking his place temporarily, is an old friend of John
+Bellingham's. I shall call on him and try to discover
+if there is anything that might have induced Bellingham
+suddenly to go abroad&mdash;to Heliopolis, for instance.
+Also, he may be able to tell me what it was that took
+the missing man to Paris on that last, rather mysterious
+journey. That might turn out to be an important
+clue. And meanwhile, Berkeley, you must endeavour
+tactfully to reconcile your friend to the idea of letting
+us give an eye to the case. Make it clear to him that
+I am doing this entirely for the enlargement of my own
+knowledge."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But won't you have to be instructed by a solicitor?"
+I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, of course, nominally; but only as a matter
+of etiquette. We shall do all the actual work. Why
+do you ask?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was thinking of the solicitor's costs, and I was
+going to mention that I have a little money of my
+own&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then keep it, my dear fellow. You'll want it when
+you go into practice. There will be no difficulty about
+the solicitor; I shall ask one of my friends to act
+nominally as a personal favour to me&mdash;Marchmont
+would take the case for us, Jervis, I am sure."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Jervis. "Or old Brodribb, if we put it
+to him <i>amicus curiae</i>."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is excessively kind of both of you to take this
+benevolent interest in the case of my friends," I said;
+"and it is to be hoped that they won't be foolishly
+proud and stiff-necked about it. It's rather the way
+with poor gentlefolk."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'll tell you what!" exclaimed Jervis. "I have a
+most brilliant idea. You shall give us a little supper
+at your rooms and invite the Bellinghams to meet us.
+Then you and I will attack the old gentleman, and
+Thorndyke shall exercise his persuasive powers on the
+lady. These chronic and incurable old bachelors, you
+know, are quite irresistible."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You observe that my respected junior condemns
+me to lifelong celibacy," Thorndyke remarked. "But,"
+he added, "his suggestion is quite a good one. Of
+course, we mustn't put any sort of pressure on Bellingham
+to employ us&mdash;for that is what it amounts to, even
+if we accept no payment&mdash;but a friendly talk over the
+supper-table would enable us to put the matter delicately
+and yet convincingly."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said I, "I see that, and I like the idea immensely.
+But it won't be possible for several days,
+because I've got a job that takes up all my spare time&mdash;and
+that I ought to be at work on now," I added,
+with a sudden qualm at the way in which I had forgotten
+the passage of time in the interest of Thorndyke's
+analysis.
+</p>
+<p>
+My two friends looked at me inquiringly, and I felt
+it necessary to explain about the injured hand and the
+Tell el Amarna tablets; which I accordingly did, rather
+shyly and with a nervous eye upon Jervis. The slow
+grin, however, for which I was watching, never came;
+on the contrary, he not only heard me through quite
+gravely, but when I had finished said with some warmth,
+and using my old hospital pet name:
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'll say one thing for you, Polly; you're a good
+chum, and you always were. I hope your Nevill's
+Court friends appreciate the fact."
+</p>
+<p>
+"They are far more appreciative than the occasion
+warrants," I answered. "But to return to this supper
+question: how will this day week suit you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It will suit me," Thorndyke answered, with a glance
+at his junior.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And me too," said the latter; "so, if it will do
+for the Bellinghams, we will consider it settled; but
+if they can't come you must fix another night."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well," I said, rising and knocking out my
+pipe, "I will issue the invitation to-morrow. And
+now I must be off to have another slog at those notes."
+</p>
+<p>
+As I walked homewards I speculated cheerfully on
+the prospect of entertaining my friends under my own
+(or rather Barnard's) roof, if they could be lured out
+of their eremitical retirement. The idea had, in fact,
+occurred to me already, but I had been deterred by
+the peculiarities of Barnard's housekeeper. For Mrs.
+Gummer was one of those housewives who make up
+for an archaic simplicity of production by preparations
+on the most portentous and alarming scale. But this
+time I would not be deterred. If only the guests could
+be enticed into my humble lair, it would be easy to
+furnish the raw materials of the feast from outside;
+and the consideration of ways and means occupied me
+pleasantly until I found myself once more at my writing-table,
+confronted by my voluminous notes on the incident
+of the North Syrian War.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH8"><!-- CH8 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER VIII
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+A MUSEUM IDYLL
+</h3>
+<p>
+Whether it was that practice revived a forgotten
+skill on my part, or that Miss Bellingham had over-estimated
+the amount of work to be done, I am unable
+to say. But whichever may have been the explanation,
+the fact is that the fourth afternoon saw our task
+so nearly completed that I was fain to plead that a
+small remainder might be left over to form an excuse
+for yet one more visit to the reading-room.
+</p>
+<p>
+Short, however, as had been the period of our
+collaboration, it had been long enough to produce a
+great change in our relations to one another. For there
+is no friendship so intimate and satisfying as that engendered
+by community of work, and none&mdash;between
+man and woman, at any rate&mdash;so frank and wholesome.
+</p>
+<p>
+Every day I had arrived to find a pile of books with
+the places duly marked and the blue covered quarto
+note-books in readiness. Every day we had worked
+steadily at the allotted task, had then handed in the
+books and gone forth together to enjoy a most companionable
+tea in the milk-shop; thereafter to walk
+home by way of Queen Square, talking over the day's
+work and discussing the state of the world in the far-off
+days when Ahkhenaten was king and the Tell el Amarna
+tablets were a-writing.
+</p>
+<p>
+It had been a pleasant time, so pleasant, that as I
+handed in the books for the last time, I sighed to think
+that it was over; that not only was the task finished,
+but that the recovery of my fair patient's hand, from
+which I had that morning removed the splint, had put
+an end to the need of my help.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What shall we do?" I asked, as we came out into
+the central hall; "it is too early for tea. Shall we go
+and look at some of the galleries?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why not?" she answered. "We might look over
+some of the things connected with what we have been
+doing. For instance, there is a relief of Ahkhenaten
+upstairs in the Third Egyptian Room; we might go
+and look at that."
+</p>
+<p>
+I fell in eagerly with the suggestion, placing myself
+under her experienced guidance, and we started by way
+of the Roman Gallery, past the long row of extremely
+commonplace and modern-looking Roman Emperors.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know," she said, pausing for a moment
+opposite a bust labelled "Trajan" (but obviously a
+portrait of Phil May), "how I am ever even to thank
+you for all that you have done? to say nothing of
+repayment."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There is no need to do either," I replied. "I
+have enjoyed working with you, so I have had my
+reward. But still," I added, "if you want to do me
+a great kindness, you have it in your power."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"In connection with my friend Doctor Thorndyke.
+I told you he was an enthusiast. Now he is,
+for some reason, most keenly interested in everything
+relating to your uncle, and I happen to know that,
+if any legal proceedings should take place, he would
+very much like to keep a friendly eye on the case."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what do you want me to do?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I want you, if an opportunity should occur for
+him to give your father advice or help of any kind,
+to use your influence with your father in favour of,
+rather than in opposition to, his accepting it&mdash;always
+assuming that you have no real feeling against his
+doing so."
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Bellingham looked at me thoughtfully for a
+few moments, and then laughed softly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"So the great kindness that I am to do you is to
+let you do me a further kindness through your friend!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," I protested; "that is where you are quite
+mistaken. It isn't benevolence on Doctor Thorndyke's
+part; it is professional enthusiasm."
+</p>
+<p>
+She smiled sceptically.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You don't believe in it," I said; "but consider
+other cases. Why does a surgeon get out of bed on
+a winter's night to do an emergency operation at a
+hospital? He doesn't get paid for it. Do you think
+it is altruism?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, of course. Isn't it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Certainly not. He does it because it is his job,
+because it is his business to fight with disease&mdash;and
+win."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see much difference," she said. "It is work
+done for love instead of for payment. However, I
+will do what you ask if the opportunity arises; but
+I shan't suppose that I am repaying your kindness
+to me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't mind, so long as you do it," I said, and we
+walked on for some time in silence.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Isn't it odd," she said presently, "how our talk
+always seems to come back to my uncle? Oh, and
+that reminds me that the things he gave to the Museum
+are in the same room as the Ahkhenaten relief. Would
+you like to see them?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Of course I should."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then we will go and look at them first." She
+paused, and then, rather shyly and with a rising colour,
+she continued: "And I think I should like to introduce
+you to a very dear friend of mine&mdash;with your permission,
+of course."
+</p>
+<p>
+This last addition she made hastily, seeing, I suppose,
+that I looked rather glum at the suggestion. Inwardly
+I consigned her friend to the devil, especially if
+of the masculine gender; outwardly I expressed my
+felicity at making the acquaintance of any person
+whom she should honour with her friendship. Whereat,
+to my discomfiture, she laughed enigmatically; a very
+soft laugh, low-pitched and musical, like the cooing of
+a glorified pigeon.
+</p>
+<p>
+I strolled on by her side, speculating a little anxiously
+on the coming introduction. Was I being conducted
+to the lair of one of the savants attached to the establishment?
+and would he add a superfluous third
+to our little party of two, so complete and companionable,
+<i>solus cum sola</i>, in this populated wilderness?
+Above all, would he turn out to be a comely young
+man, and bring my aerial castles tumbling about my
+ears? The shy look and the blush with which she had
+suggested the introduction were ominous indications,
+upon which I mused gloomily as we ascended the stairs
+and passed through the wide doorway. I glanced
+apprehensively at my companion, and met a quiet,
+inscrutable smile; and at that moment she halted outside
+a wall-case and faced me.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is my friend," she said. "Let me present
+you to Artemidorus, late of the Fayyum. Oh, don't
+smile!" she pleaded. "I am quite serious. Have you
+never heard of pious Catholics who cherish a devotion
+to some long-departed saint? That is my feeling towards
+Artemidorus, and if you only knew what comfort
+he has shed into the heart of a lonely woman; what
+a quiet, unobtrusive friend he has been to me in my
+solitary, friendless days, always ready with a kindly
+greeting on his gentle, thoughtful face, you would like
+him for that alone. And I want you to like him and
+to share our silent friendship. Am I very silly, very
+sentimental?"
+</p>
+<p>
+A wave of relief had swept over me, and the mercury
+of my emotional thermometer, which had shrunk almost
+into the bulb, leaped up to summer heat. How charming
+it was of her and how sweetly intimate, to wish
+to share this mystical friendship with me! And what
+a pretty conceit it was, too, and how like this strange,
+inscrutable maiden, to come here and hold silent converse
+with this long-departed Greek. And the pathos
+of it all touched me deeply amidst the joy of this newborn
+intimacy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you scornful?" she asked, with a shade of
+disappointment, as I made no reply.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, indeed I am not," I answered earnestly. "I
+want to make you aware of my sympathy and my
+appreciation without offending you by seeming to exaggerate,
+and I don't know how to express it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, never mind about the expression, so long as
+you feel it. I thought you would understand," and
+she gave me a smile that made me tingle to my finger-tips.
+</p>
+<p>
+We stood awhile gazing in silence at the mummy&mdash;for
+such, indeed, was her friend Artemidorus. But not
+an ordinary mummy. Egyptian in form, it was entirely
+Greek in feeling; and brightly coloured as it
+was, in accordance with the racial love of colour, the
+tasteful refinement with which the decoration of the
+case was treated made those around look garish and
+barbaric. But the most striking feature was a charming
+panel portrait which occupied the place of the
+usual mask. This painting was a revelation to me.
+Except that it was executed in tempera instead of
+oil, it differed in no respect from modern work. There
+was nothing archaic or even ancient about it. With
+its freedom of handling and its correct rendering of
+light and shade, it might have been painted yesterday;
+indeed, enclosed in an ordinary gilt frame, it might
+have passed without remark in an exhibition of modern
+portraits.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Bellingham observed my admiration and smiled
+approvingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is a charming little portrait, isn't it?" she said;
+"and such a sweet face, too; so thoughtful and human
+with just a shade of melancholy. But the whole thing
+is full of charm. I fell in love with it the first time
+I saw it. And it is so Greek!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, it is, in spite of the Egyptian gods and
+symbols."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Rather because of them, I think," said she. "There
+we have the typical Greek attitude, the genial, cultivated
+eclecticism that appreciated the fitness of even
+the most alien forms of art. There is Anubis standing
+beside the bier; there are Isis and Nephthys, and there
+below, Horus and Tahuti. But we can't suppose that
+Artemidorus worshipped or believed in those gods.
+They are there because they are splendid decoration
+and perfectly appropriate in character. The real feeling
+of those who loved the dead man breaks out in
+the inscription." She pointed to a band below the
+pectoral, where, in gilt capital letters, was written the
+two words, "&Alpha;&Rho;&Tau;&Epsilon;&Mu;&Iota;&Delta;&Omega;&Rho;&Epsilon;
+&Epsilon;&Upsilon;&Psi;&Upsilon;&Chi;&Iota;."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," I said, "it is very dignified and very human."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And so sincere and full of real emotion," she added.
+"I find it unspeakably touching. 'O Artemidorus,
+farewell!' There is the real note of human grief, the
+sorrow of eternal parting. How much finer it is than
+the vulgar boastfulness of the Semitic epitaphs, or
+our own miserable, insincere make-believe of the 'Not
+lost but gone before' type. He was gone from them
+for ever; they would look on his face and hear his
+voice no more; they realised that this was their last
+farewell. Oh, there is a world of love and sorrow in
+those two simple words!"
+</p>
+<p>
+For some time neither of us spoke. The glamour
+of this touching memorial of a long-buried grief had
+stolen over me, and I was content to stand silent by
+my beloved companion and revive, with a certain pensive
+pleasure, the ghosts of human emotions over which
+so many centuries had rolled. Presently she turned
+to me with a frank smile. "You have been weighed
+in the balance of friendship," she said, "and not found
+wanting. You have the gift of sympathy, even with
+a woman's sentimental fancies."
+</p>
+<p>
+I suspected that a good many men would have developed
+this precious quality under the circumstances,
+but I refrained from saying so. There is no use in
+crying down one's own wares. I was glad enough to
+have earned her good opinion so easily, and when she
+at length turned away from the case and passed
+through into the adjoining room, it was a very complacent
+young man who bore her company.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here is Ahkhenaten&mdash;or Khu-en-aten, as the
+authorities here render the hieroglyphics." She indicated
+a fragment of a coloured relief labelled:
+"Portion of a painted stone tablet with a portrait
+figure of Amen-hetep IV," and we stopped to look at
+the frail, effeminate figure of the great king, with his
+large cranium, his queer, pointed chin and the Aten
+rays stretching out their weird hands as if caressing
+him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We mustn't stay here if you want to see my uncle's
+gift, because this room closes at four to-day." With
+this admonition she moved on to the other end of the
+room, where she halted before a large floor-case containing
+a mummy and a large number of other objects.
+A black label with white lettering set forth the various
+contents with a brief explanation as follows:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mummy of Sebek-hotep, a scribe of the twenty-second
+dynasty, together with the objects found in
+the tomb. These include the four Canopic jars, in
+which the internal organs were deposited, the Ushabti
+figures, tomb provisions and various articles that had
+belonged to the deceased; his favourite chair, his head-rest,
+his ink-palette, inscribed with his name and the
+name of the king, Osorkon I, in whose reign he lived,
+and other smaller articles. Presented by John Bellingham, Esq."
+</p>
+<p>
+"They have put all the objects together in one case,"
+Miss Bellingham explained, "to show the contents of
+an ordinary tomb of the better class. You see that the
+dead man was provided with all his ordinary comforts:
+provisions, furniture, the ink-palette that he had been
+accustomed to use in writing on papyri, and a staff
+of servants to wait on him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where are the servants?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The little Ushabti figures," she answered; "they
+were the attendants of the dead, you know, his servants
+in the under-world. It was a quaint idea, wasn't it?
+But it was all very complete and consistent, and quite
+reasonable, too, if once one accepts the belief in the
+persistence of the individual apart from the body."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," I agreed, "and that is the only fair way to
+judge a religious system, by taking the main beliefs
+for granted. But what a business it must have been,
+bringing all these things from Egypt to London."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It was worth the trouble, though, for it is a fine
+and instructive collection. And the work is all very
+good of its kind. You notice that the Ushabti figures
+and the heads that form the stoppers of the Canopic
+jars are quite finely modelled. The mummy itself, too,
+is rather handsome, though that coat of bitumen on
+the back doesn't improve it. But Sebek-hotep must
+have been a fine-looking man."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The mask on the case is a portrait, I suppose?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; in fact, it is rather more. To some extent
+it is the actual face of the man himself. This mummy
+is enclosed in what is called a cartonnage, that is a
+case moulded on the figure. The cartonnage, was formed
+of a number of layers of linen or papyrus united by
+glue or cement, and when the case had been fitted
+to the mummy it was moulded to the body, so that the
+general form of the features and limbs was often
+apparent. After the cement was dry the case was
+covered with a thin layer of stucco and the face
+modelled more completely, and then the decorations
+and inscriptions were painted on. So that, you see,
+in a cartonnage, the body was sealed up like a nut in
+its shell, unlike the more ancient forms in which the
+mummy was merely rolled up and enclosed in a wooden
+coffin."
+</p>
+<p>
+At this moment there smote upon our ears a politely
+protesting voice announcing in sing-song tones that
+it was closing time; and simultaneously a desire for
+tea suggested the hospitable milk-shop. With leisurely
+dignity that ignored the official who shepherded us
+along the galleries, we made our way to the entrance,
+still immersed in conversation on matters sepulchral.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was rather earlier than our usual hour for leaving
+the Museum and, moreover, it was our last day&mdash;for
+the present. Wherefore we lingered over our tea to
+an extent that caused the milk-shop lady to view us
+with some disfavour, and when at length we started
+homeward, we took so many short cuts that six o'clock
+found us no nearer our destination than Lincoln's Inn
+Fields; whither we had journeyed by a slightly indirect
+route that traversed (among other places) Russell
+Square, Red Lion Square, with the quaint passage of
+the same name, Bedford Row, Jockey's Fields, Hand
+Court, and Great Turnstile.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was in the latter thoroughfare that our attention
+was attracted by a flaming poster outside a newsvendor's
+bearing the startling inscription:
+</p>
+<p><b>
+"MORE MEMENTOES OF MURDERED MAN."
+</b></p>
+<p>
+Miss Bellingham glanced at the poster and shuddered.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horrible! Isn't it?" she said. "Have you read
+about them?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I haven't been noticing the papers the last few,
+days," I replied.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, of course you haven't. You've been slaving
+at those wretched notes. We don't very often see the
+papers, at least we don't take them in, but Miss Oman
+has kept us supplied during the last day or two. She
+is a perfect little ghoul; she delights in horrors of
+every kind, and the more horrible the better."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But," I asked, "what is it that they have found?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, they are the remains of some poor creature
+who seems to have been murdered and cut in pieces.
+It is dreadful. It made me shudder to read of it, for
+I couldn't help thinking of poor Uncle John, and, as
+for my father, he was really quite upset."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are these the bones that were found in a watercress-bed
+at Sidcup?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. But they have found several more. The
+police have been most energetic. They seem to have
+been making a systematic search, and the result has
+been that they have discovered several portions of the
+body, scattered about in very widely separated places&mdash;Sidcup,
+Lee, St. Mary Cray; and yesterday it was
+reported that an arm had been found in one of the
+ponds called 'the Cuckoo Pits,' close to our old home."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What! in Essex?" I exclaimed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, in Epping Forest, quite near Woodford.
+Isn't it dreadful to think of it? They were probably
+hidden when we were living there. I think it was that
+that horrified my father so much. When he read it he
+was so upset that he gathered up the whole bundle
+of newspapers and tossed them out of the window; and
+they blew over the wall, and poor Miss Oman had to
+rush out and pursue them up the court."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you think he suspects that these remains may
+be those of your uncle?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think so, though he has said nothing to that
+effect, and, of course, I have not made any such suggestion
+to him. We always preserve the fiction between
+ourselves of believing that Uncle John is still
+alive."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But you don't think he is, do you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I am afraid I don't; and I feel pretty sure
+that my father doesn't think so either, but he doesn't
+like to admit it to me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you happen to remember what bones have been
+found?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I don't. I know that an arm was found in
+the Cuckoo Pits, and I think a thigh-bone was dredged
+up out of a pond near St. Mary Cray. But Miss Oman
+will be able to tell you all about it, if you are interested.
+She will be delighted to meet a kindred spirit," Miss
+Bellingham added, with a smile.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know that I want to claim spiritual kinship
+with a ghoul," said I; "especially such a very sharp-tempered
+ghoul."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, don't disparage her, Doctor Berkeley!" Miss
+Bellingham pleaded. "She isn't really bad-tempered;
+only a little prickly on the surface. I oughtn't to have
+called her a ghoul; she is just the sweetest, most
+affectionate, most unselfish little angelic human hedgehog
+that you could find if you travelled the wide world
+through. Do you know that she has been working her
+fingers to the bone making an old dress of mine presentable
+because she is so anxious that I shall look
+nice at your little supper-party."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You are sure to do that, in any case," I said; "but
+I withdraw my remark as to her temper unreservedly.
+And I really didn't mean it, you know; I have always
+liked the little lady."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's right; and now won't you come in and have
+a few minutes' chat with my father? We are quite
+early, in spite of the short cuts."
+</p>
+<p>
+I assented readily, and the more so inasmuch as I
+wanted a few words with Miss Oman on the subject of
+catering and did not want to discuss it before my
+friends. Accordingly I went in and gossiped with Mr.
+Bellingham, chiefly about the work that we had done
+at the Museum, until it was time for me to return to
+the surgery.
+</p>
+<p>
+Having taken my leave, I walked down the stairs
+with reflective slowness and as much creaking of my
+boots as I could manage; with the result, hopefully
+anticipated, that as I approached the door of Miss
+Oman's room it opened and the lady's head protruded.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'd change my cobbler if I were you," she said.
+</p>
+<p>
+I thought of the "angelic human hedgehog," and
+nearly sniggered in her face.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am sure you would, Miss Oman, instantly; though,
+mind you, the poor fellow can't help his looks."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You are a very flippant young man," she said
+severely. Whereat I grinned, and she regarded me
+silently with a baleful glare. Suddenly I remembered
+my mission and became serious and sober.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Miss Oman," I said, "I very much want to take
+your advice on a matter of some importance&mdash;to me,
+at least." (That ought to fetch her, I thought.) The
+"advice fly"&mdash;strangely neglected by Izaak Walton&mdash;is
+guaranteed to kill in any weather. And it did fetch
+her. She rose in a flash and gorged it, cock's feathers,
+worsted body and all.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What is it about?" she asked eagerly. "But don't
+stand out there where everybody can hear but me.
+Come in and sit down."
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, I didn't want to discuss the matter here, and,
+besides, there was not time. I therefore assumed an
+air of mystery.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can't, Miss Oman. I'm due at the surgery now.
+But if you should be passing and should have a few
+minutes to spare, I should be greatly obliged if you
+would look in. I really don't quite know how to act."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I expect not. Men very seldom do. But
+you're better than most, for you know when you are
+in difficulties and have the sense to consult a woman.
+But what is it about? Perhaps I might be thinking
+it over."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, you know," I began evasively, "it's a simple
+matter, but I can't very well&mdash;no, by Jove!" I added,
+looking at my watch, "I must run, or I shall keep the
+multitude waiting." And with this I bustled away,
+leaving her literally dancing with curiosity.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH9"><!-- CH9 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER IX
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE SPHINX OF LINCOLN'S INN
+</h3>
+<p>
+At the age of twenty-six one cannot claim to have
+attained to the position of a person of experience.
+Nevertheless, the knowledge of human nature accumulated
+in that brief period sufficed to make me feel pretty
+confident that, at some time during the evening, I should
+receive a visit from Miss Oman. And circumstances
+justified my confidence; for the clock yet stood at two
+minutes to seven when a premonitory tap at the surgery
+door heralded her arrival.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I happened to be passing," she explained, and I
+forbore to smile at the coincidence, "so I thought I
+might as well drop in and hear what you wanted to
+ask me about."
+</p>
+<p>
+She seated herself in the patients' chair and, laying
+a bundle of newspapers on the table, glared at me
+expectantly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you, Miss Oman," I said. "It is very good
+of you to look in on me. I am ashamed to give you
+all this trouble about such a trifling matter."
+</p>
+<p>
+She rapped her knuckles impatiently on the table.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Never mind about the trouble," she exclaimed
+tartly. "What&mdash;is&mdash;it&mdash;that&mdash;you&mdash;want&mdash;to&mdash;<i>ask</i>&mdash;me about?"
+</p>
+<p>
+I stated my difficulties in respect of the supper-party,
+and, as I proceeded, an expression of disgust
+and disappointment spread over her countenance.
+"I don't see why you need have been so mysterious
+about it," she said glumly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't mean to be mysterious; I was only anxious
+not to make a mess of the affair. It's all very fine to
+assume a lofty scorn of the pleasures of the table, but
+there is great virtue in a really good feed, especially
+when low-living and high-thinking have been the order
+of the day."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Coarsely put," said Miss Oman, "but perfectly
+true."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well. Now, if I leave the management to
+Mrs. Gummer, she will probably provide a tepid Irish
+stew with flakes of congealed fat on it, and a plastic
+suet-pudding or something of that kind, and turn the
+house upside-down in getting it ready. So I thought
+of having a cold spread and getting the things in from
+outside. But I don't want it to look as if I had been
+making enormous preparations."
+</p>
+<p>
+"They won't think the things came down from
+heaven," said Miss Oman.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I suppose they won't. But you know what I
+mean. Now, where do you advise me to go for the raw
+materials of conviviality?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Oman reflected. "You'd better let me do your
+shopping and manage the whole business," was her
+final verdict.
+</p>
+<p>
+This was precisely what I had wanted, and I accepted
+thankfully, regardless of the feelings of Mrs. Gummer.
+I handed her two pounds, and, after some protests at
+my extravagance, she bestowed them in her purse; a
+process that occupied time, since that receptacle, besides
+and time-stained bills, already bulged with a lading of
+draper's samples, ends of tape, a card of linen buttons,
+another of hooks and eyes, a lump of beeswax, a rat-eaten
+stump of lead-pencil, and other trifles that I
+have forgotten. As she closed the purse at the imminent
+risk of wrenching off its fastenings she looked at
+me severely and pursed up her lips.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You're a very plausible young man," she remarked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What makes you say that?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Philandering about museums," she continued,
+"with handsome young ladies on the pretence of work.
+Work, indeed! Oh, I heard her telling her father
+about it. She thinks you were perfectly enthralled by
+the mummies and dried cats and chunks of stone and
+all the other trash. She doesn't know what humbugs
+men are."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Really, Miss Oman&mdash;" I began.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, don't talk to me!" she snapped. "I can see
+it all. You can't impose on <i>me</i>. I can see you staring
+into those glass cases, egging her on to talk and listening
+open-mouthed and bulging-eyed and sitting at her
+feet&mdash;now, didn't you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know about sitting at her feet," I said,
+"though it might easily have come to that with those
+infernal slippery floors; but I had a very jolly time,
+and I mean to go again if I can. Miss Bellingham is
+the cleverest and most accomplished woman I have ever
+spoken to."
+</p>
+<p>
+This was a poser for Miss Oman, whose admiration
+and loyalty, I knew, were only equalled by my own.
+She would have liked to contradict me, but the thing
+was impossible. To cover her defeat she snatched up
+the bundle of newspapers and began to open them out.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What sort of stuff is 'hibernation'?" she demanded
+suddenly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hibernation!" I exclaimed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. They found a patch of it on a bone that was
+discovered in a pond at St. Mary Cray, and a similar
+patch on one that was found at some place in Essex.
+Now, I want to know what 'hibernation' is."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You must mean 'eburnation,'" I said, after a
+moment's reflection.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The newspapers say 'hibernation,' and I suppose
+they know what they are talking about. If you don't
+know what it is, don't be ashamed to say so."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, then, I don't."
+</p>
+<p>
+"In that case you'd better read the papers and find
+out," she said, a little illogically. And then: "Are
+you fond of murders? I am, awfully."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a shocking little ghoul you must be!" I exclaimed.
+</p>
+<p>
+She stuck out her chin at me. "I'll trouble you,"
+she said, "to be a little more respectful in your language.
+Do you realise that I am old enough to be
+your mother?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Impossible!" I ejaculated.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Fact," said Miss Oman.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, anyhow," said I, "age is not the only qualification.
+And, besides, you are too late for the billet.
+The vacancy's filled."
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Oman slapped the papers down on the table
+and rose abruptly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You had better read the papers and see if you can
+learn a little sense," she said severely as she turned to
+go. "Oh, and don't forget the finger!" she added
+eagerly. "That is really thrilling."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The finger?" I repeated.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. They found a hand with one finger missing.
+The police think it is a highly important clue. I don't
+know quite what they mean; but you read the account
+and tell me what you think."
+</p>
+<p>
+With this parting injunction she bustled out through
+the surgery, and I followed to bid her a ceremonious
+adieu on the doorstep. I watched her little figure tripping
+with quick, bird-like steps down Fetter Lane,
+and was about to turn back into the surgery when my
+attention was attracted by the evolutions of an elderly
+gentleman on the opposite side of the street. He was
+a somewhat peculiar-looking man, tall, gaunt, and bony,
+and the way in which he carried his head suggested
+to the medical mind a pronounced degree of near sight
+and a pair of "deep" spectacle glasses. Suddenly
+he espied me and crossed the road with his chin thrust
+forward and a pair of keen blue eyes directed at me
+through the centres of his spectacles.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wonder if you can and will help me," said he,
+with a courteous salute. "I wish to call on an acquaintance,
+and I have forgotten his address. It is in
+some court, but the name of that court has escaped
+me for the moment. My friend's name is Bellingham.
+I suppose you don't chance to know it? Doctors know
+a great many people, as a rule."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you mean Mr. Godfrey Bellingham?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah! Then you do know him. I have not consulted
+the oracle in vain. He is a patient of yours, no
+doubt?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A patient and a personal friend. His address is
+Forty-nine Nevill's Court."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you, thank you. Oh, and as you are a
+friend, perhaps you can inform me as to the customs
+of the household. I am not expected, and I do not
+wish to make an untimely visit. What are Mr. Bellingham's
+habits as to his evening meal? Would this be
+a convenient time to call?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I generally make my evening visits a little later
+than this&mdash;say about half-past eight; they have
+finished their meal by then."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah! half-past eight, then? Then I suppose I had
+better take a walk until that time. I don't want to
+disturb them."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Would you care to come in and smoke a cigar until
+it is time to make your call? If you would, I could
+walk over with you and show you the house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is very kind of you," said my new acquaintance,
+with an inquisitive glance at me through his spectacles.
+"I think I should like to sit down. It's a dull
+affair, mooning about the streets, and there isn't time
+to go back to my chambers&mdash;in Lincoln's Inn."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wonder," said I, as I ushered him into the room
+lately vacated by Miss Oman, "if you happen to be
+Mr. Jellicoe?"
+</p>
+<p>
+He turned his spectacles full on me with a keen,
+suspicious glance. "What makes you think I am Mr.
+Jellicoe?" he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, only that you live in Lincoln's Inn."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ha! I see. I live in Lincoln's Inn; Mr. Jellicoe
+lives in Lincoln's Inn; therefore I am Mr. Jellicoe.
+Ha! ha! Bad logic, but a correct conclusion. Yes,
+I am Mr. Jellicoe. What do you know about
+me?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mighty little, excepting that you were the late
+John Bellingham's man of business."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The '<i>late</i> John Bellingham,' hey! How do you
+know he is the late John Bellingham?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"As a matter of fact, I don't; only I rather understood
+that that was your own belief."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You understood! Now, from whom did you
+'understand' that? From Godfrey Bellingham?
+H'm! And how did he know what I believe? I never
+told him. It is a very unsafe thing, my dear sir, to
+expound another man's beliefs."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then you think that John Bellingham is alive?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do I? Who said so? I did not, you know."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But he must be either dead or alive."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I am entirely with you.
+You have stated an undeniable truth."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is not a very illuminating one, however," I replied,
+laughing.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Undeniable truths often are not," he retorted.
+"They are apt to be extremely general. In fact, I
+would affirm that the certainty of the truth of a
+given proposition is directly proportional to its
+generality."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose that is so," said I.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Undoubtedly. Take an instance from your own
+profession. Given a million normal human beings
+under twenty, and you can say with certainty that a
+majority of them will die before reaching a certain
+age, that they will die in certain circumstances and of
+certain diseases. Then take a single unit from that
+million, and what can you predict concerning him?
+Nothing. He may die to-morrow; he may live to a
+couple of hundred. He may die of a cold in the head
+or a cut finger, or from falling off the cross of St.
+Paul's. In a particular case you can predict nothing."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is perfectly true," said I. And then, realising
+that I had been led away from the topic of John Bellingham, I
+ventured to return to it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That was a very mysterious affair&mdash;the disappearance
+of John Bellingham, I mean."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why mysterious?" asked Mr. Jellicoe. "Men disappear
+from time to time, and when they reappear, the
+explanations that they give (when they give any) seem
+to be more or less adequate."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But the circumstances were surely rather mysterious."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What circumstances?" asked Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I mean the way in which he vanished from Mr.
+Hurst's house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"In what way did he vanish from it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, of course, I don't know."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Precisely. Neither do I. Therefore I can't say
+whether that way was a mysterious one or not."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is not even certain that he did leave it," I remarked,
+rather recklessly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly," said Mr. Jellicoe. "And if he did not,
+he is there still. And if he is there still, he has not
+disappeared&mdash;in the sense understood. And if he has
+not disappeared, there is no mystery."
+</p>
+<p>
+I laughed heartily, but Mr. Jellicoe preserved a
+wooden solemnity and continued to examine me through
+his spectacles (which I, in my turn, inspected and
+estimated at about minus five dioptres). There was
+something highly diverting about this grim lawyer, with
+his dry contentiousness and almost farcical caution.
+His ostentatious reserve encouraged me to ply him with
+fresh questions, the more indiscreet the better.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose," said I, "that, under these circumstances,
+you would hardly favour Mr. Hurst's proposal
+to apply for permission to presume death?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Under what circumstances?" he inquired.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was referring to the doubt you have expressed as
+to whether John Bellingham is, after all, really dead."
+</p>
+<p>
+"My dear sir," said he, "I fail to see your point.
+If it were certain that the man was alive, it would be
+impossible to presume that he was dead; and if it were
+certain that he was dead, presumption of death would
+still be impossible. You do not presume a certainty.
+The uncertainty is of the essence of the transaction."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But," I persisted, "if you really believe that he
+may be alive, I should hardly have thought that you
+would take the responsibility of presuming his death
+and dispersing his property."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't," said Mr. Jellicoe. "I take no responsibility.
+I act in accordance with the decision of the
+Court and have no choice in the matter."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But the Court may decide that he is dead and he
+may nevertheless be alive."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not at all. If the Court decides that he is presumably
+dead, then he is presumably dead. As a mere
+irrelevant, physical circumstance he may, it is true, be
+alive. But legally speaking, and for testamentary purposes,
+he is dead. You fail to perceive the distinction,
+no doubt?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am afraid I do," I admitted.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; members of your profession usually do. That
+is what makes them such bad witnesses in a court of
+law. The scientific outlook is radically different from
+the legal. The man of science relies on his own knowledge
+and observation and judgment, and disregards
+testimony. A man comes to you and tells you he is
+blind in one eye. Do you accept his statement? Not
+in the least. You proceed to test his eyesight with
+some infernal apparatus of coloured glasses, and you
+find that he can see perfectly well with both eyes.
+Then you decide that he is not blind in one eye; that
+is to say, you reject his testimony in favour of facts
+of your own ascertaining."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But surely that is the rational method of coming
+to a conclusion?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"In science, no doubt. Not in law. A court of law
+must decide according to the evidence which is before
+it; and that evidence is of the nature of sworn testimony.
+If a witness is prepared to swear that black is
+white, and no evidence to the contrary is offered, the
+evidence before the Court is that black is white, and
+the Court must decide accordingly. The judge and the
+jury may think otherwise&mdash;they may even have private
+knowledge to the contrary&mdash;but they have to decide
+according to the evidence."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you mean to say that a judge would be justified
+in giving a decision which he knew privately to be contrary
+to the facts? Or that he might sentence a man
+whom he knew to be innocent?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Certainly. It has been done. There is a case of a
+judge who sentenced a man to death and allowed the
+execution to take place, notwithstanding that he&mdash;the
+judge&mdash;had actually seen the murder committed by
+another man. But that was carrying correctness of
+procedure to the verge of pedantry."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It was, with a vengeance," I agreed. "But to
+return to the case of John Bellingham. Supposing that
+after the Court has decided that he is dead he should
+turn up alive? What then?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah! It would then be his turn to make an application,
+and the Court, having fresh evidence laid before
+it, would probably decide that he was alive."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And meantime his property would have been dispersed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Probably. But you will observe that the presumption
+of death would have arisen out of his own
+proceedings. If a man acts in such a way as to create
+a belief that he is dead, he must put up with the consequences."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, that is reasonable enough," said I. And then,
+after a pause, I asked: "Is there any immediate likelihood
+of proceedings of the kind being commenced?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I understood from what you said just now that
+Mr. Hurst was contemplating some action of the kind.
+No doubt you had your information from a reliable
+quarter." This answer Mr. Jellicoe delivered without
+moving a muscle, regarding me with the fixity of a
+spectacled figure-head.
+</p>
+<p>
+I smiled feebly. The operation of pumping Mr.
+Jellicoe was rather like the sport of boxing with a
+porcupine, being chiefly remarkable as a demonstration
+of the power of passive resistance. I determined, however,
+to make one more effort, rather, I think, for the
+pleasure of witnessing his defensive manoeuvres than
+with the expectation of getting anything out of him.
+I accordingly "opened out" on the subject of the
+"remains."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have you been following these remarkable discoveries
+of human bones that have been appearing in
+the papers?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+He looked at me stonily for some moments, and then
+replied:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Human bones are rather more within your province
+than mine, but, now that you mention it, I think I
+recall having read of some such discoveries. They were
+disconnected bones, I believe?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; evidently parts of a dismembered body."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So I should suppose. No, I have not followed the
+accounts. As we get on in life our interests tend to
+settle into grooves, and my groove is chiefly connected
+with conveyancing. These discoveries would be of
+more interest to a criminal lawyer."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I thought that you might, perhaps, have connected
+them with the disappearance of your client."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why should I? What could be the nature of the
+connection?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," I said, "these are the bones of a
+man&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; and my client was a man with bones. That
+is a connection, certainly, though not a very specific
+or distinctive one. But perhaps you had something
+more particular in your mind."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I had," I replied. "The fact that some of the
+bones were actually found on land belonging to your
+client seemed to me rather significant."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did it, indeed?" said Mr. Jellicoe. He reflected
+for a few moments, gazing steadily at me the while,
+and then continued: "In that I am unable to follow
+you. It would have seemed to me that the finding of
+human remains upon a certain piece of land might conceivably
+throw a <i>prima facie</i> suspicion upon the owner
+or occupant of that land as being the person who deposited
+them. But the case that you suggest is the
+one case in which this would be impossible. A man
+cannot deposit his own dismembered remains."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, of course not. I was not suggesting that he
+deposited them himself, but merely that the fact of
+their being deposited on his land, in a way, connected
+these remains with him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Again," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I fail to follow you,
+unless you are suggesting that it is customary for
+murderers who mutilate bodies to be punctilious in depositing
+the dismembered remains upon land belonging
+to their victims. In which case I am sceptical as to
+your facts. I am not aware of the existence of any
+such custom. Moreover, it appears that only a portion
+of the body was deposited on Mr. Bellingham's land,
+the remaining portions having been scattered broadcast
+over a wide area. How does that agree with your
+suggestion?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It doesn't, of course," I admitted. "But there is
+another fact that I think you will admit to be more
+significant. The first remains that were discovered were
+found at Sidcup. Now, Sidcup is close to Eltham; and
+Eltham is the place where Mr. Bellingham was last seen
+alive."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what is the significance of this? Why do you
+connect the remains with one locality rather than the
+various other localities in which other portions of the
+body have been found?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," I replied, rather gravelled by this very
+pertinent question, "the appearances seem to suggest
+that the person who deposited these remains started
+from the neighbourhood of Eltham, where the missing
+man was last seen."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Jellicoe shook his head. "You appear," said
+he, "to be confusing the order of deposition with the
+order of discovery. What evidence is there that the
+remains found at Sidcup were deposited before those
+found elsewhere?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know that there is any," I admitted.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then," said he, "I don't see how you support
+your suggestion that the person started from the
+neighbourhood of Eltham."
+</p>
+<p>
+On consideration, I had to admit that I had nothing
+to offer in support of my theory; and having thus shot
+my last arrow in this very unequal contest, I thought
+it time to change the subject.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I called in at the British Museum the other day,"
+said I, "and had a look at Mr. Bellingham's last gift
+to the nation. The things are very well shown in that
+central case."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. I was very pleased with the position they
+have given to the exhibit, and so would my poor old
+friend have been. I wished, as I looked at the case, that
+he could have seen it. But perhaps he may, after all."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am sure I hope he will," said I, with more sincerity,
+perhaps, than the lawyer gave me credit for.
+For the return of John Bellingham would most effectually
+have cut the Gordian knot of my friend Godfrey's
+difficulties. "You are a good deal interested in Egyptology
+yourself, aren't you?" I added.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Greatly interested," replied Mr. Jellicoe, with more
+animation than I had thought possible in his wooden
+face. "It is a fascinating subject, the study of this
+venerable civilisation, extending back to the childhood
+of the human race, preserved for ever for our instruction
+in its own unchanging monuments like a fly in a
+block of amber. Everything connected with Egypt is
+full of an impressive solemnity. A feeling of permanence,
+of stability, defying time and change, pervades
+it. The place, the people, and the monuments
+alike breathe of eternity."
+</p>
+<p>
+I was mightily surprised at this rhetorical outburst
+on the part of this dry and taciturn lawyer. But I
+liked him the better for the touch of enthusiasm that
+made him human, and determined to keep him astride
+of his hobby.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yet," said I, "the people must have changed in
+the course of centuries."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, that is so. The people who fought against
+Cambyses were not the race that marched into Egypt
+five thousand years before&mdash;the dynastic people whose
+portraits we see on the early monuments. In those fifty
+centuries the blood of Hyksos and Syrians and Ethiopians
+and Hittites, and who can say how many more
+races, must have mingled with that of the old Egyptians.
+But still the national life went on without a
+break; the old culture leavened the new peoples, and
+the immigrant strangers ended by becoming Egyptians.
+It is a wonderful phenomenon. Looking back on it
+from our own time, it seems more like a geological
+period than the life-history of a single nation. Are
+you at all interested in the subject?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, decidedly, though I am completely ignorant
+of it. The fact is that my interest is of quite recent
+growth. It is only of late that I have been sensible of
+the glamour of things Egyptian."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Since you made Miss Bellingham's acquaintance,
+perhaps?" suggested Mr. Jellicoe, himself as unchanging
+in aspect as an Egyptian effigy.
+</p>
+<p>
+I suppose I must have reddened&mdash;I certainly resented
+the remark&mdash;for he continued in the same even
+tone: "I made the suggestion because I know that she
+takes an intelligent interest in the subject and is, in
+fact, quite well informed on it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; she seems to know a great deal about the
+antiquities of Egypt, and I may as well admit that your
+surmise was correct. It was she who showed me her
+uncle's collection."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So I had supposed," said Mr. Jellicoe. "And a
+very instructive collection it is, in a popular sense;
+very suitable for exhibition in a public museum, though
+there is nothing in it of unusual interest to the expert.
+The tomb furniture is excellent of its kind and the
+cartonnage case of the mummy is well made and rather
+finely decorated."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I thought it quite handsome. But can you
+explain to me why, after taking all that trouble to
+decorate it, they should have disfigured it with those
+great smears of bitumen?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah!" said Mr. Jellicoe, "that is quite an interesting
+question. It is not unusual to find mummy-cases
+smeared with bitumen; there is a mummy of a priestess
+in the next gallery which is completely coated with
+bitumen excepting the gilded face. Now, this bitumen
+was put on for a purpose&mdash;for the purpose of obliterating
+the inscriptions and thus concealing the identity of
+the deceased from the robbers and desecrators of tombs.
+And there is the oddity of this mummy of Sebek-hotep.
+Evidently there was an intention of obliterating the
+inscriptions. The whole of the back is covered thickly
+with bitumen, and so are the feet. Then the workers
+seem to have changed their minds and left the inscriptions
+and decoration untouched. Why they intended
+to cover it, and why, having commenced, they left it
+partially covered only, is a mystery. The mummy was
+found in its original tomb and quite undisturbed, so far
+as tomb-robbers are concerned. Poor Bellingham was
+greatly puzzled as to what the explanation could be."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Speaking of bitumen," said I, "reminds me of a
+question that has occurred to me. You know that this
+substance has been used a good deal by modern painters
+and that it has a very dangerous peculiarity; I mean
+its tendency to liquefy, without any very obvious reason,
+long after it has dried."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I know. Isn't there some story about a
+picture of Reynolds' in which bitumen had been used?
+A portrait of a lady, I think. The bitumen softened,
+and one of the lady's eyes slipped down on to her
+cheek; and they had to hang the portrait upside down
+and keep it warm until the eye slipped back into its
+place. But what was your question?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was wondering whether the bitumen used by the
+Egyptian artists has ever been known to soften after
+this great lapse of time."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I think it has. I have heard of instances in
+which the bitumen coatings of mummy cases have softened
+under certain circumstances and become quite
+'tacky.' But, bless my soul! here am I gossiping
+with you and wasting your time, and it is nearly a
+quarter to nine!"
+</p>
+<p>
+My guest rose hastily, and I, with many apologies
+for having detained him, proceeded to fulfil my promise
+to guide him to his destination. As we sallied forth
+together the glamour of Egypt faded by degrees, and
+when he shook my hand stiffly at the gate of the Bellinghams'
+house, all his vivacity and enthusiasm had
+vanished, leaving the taciturn lawyer, dry, uncommunicative,
+and not a little suspicious.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH10"><!-- CH10 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER X
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE NEW ALLIANCE
+</h3>
+<p>
+The "Great Lexicographer"&mdash;tutelary deity of my
+adopted habitat&mdash;has handed down to shuddering posterity
+a definition of the act of eating which might
+have been framed by a dyspeptic ghoul. "Eat: to
+devour with the mouth." It is a shocking view to take
+of so genial a function: cynical, indelicate, and finally
+unforgivable by reason of its very accuracy. For,
+after all, that is what eating amounts to, if one must
+needs express it with such crude brutality. But if "the
+ingestion of alimentary substances"&mdash;to ring a modern
+change upon the older formula&mdash;is in itself a process
+material even unto carnality, it is undeniable that it
+forms a highly agreeable accompaniment to more
+psychic manifestations.
+</p>
+<p>
+And so, as the lamplight, re-enforced by accessory
+candles, falls on the little table in the first-floor room
+looking on Fetter Lane&mdash;only now the curtains are
+drawn&mdash;the conversation is not the less friendly and
+bright for a running accompaniment executed with
+knives and forks, for clink of goblet and jovial gurgle
+of wine-flask. On the contrary, to one of us, at least&mdash;to
+wit, Godfrey Bellingham&mdash;the occasion is one of
+uncommon festivity, and his boyish enjoyment of the
+simple feast makes pathetic suggestions of hard
+times, faced uncomplainingly, but keenly felt nevertheless.
+</p>
+<p>
+The talk flitted from topic to topic, mainly concerning
+itself with matters artistic, and never for one moment
+approaching the critical subject of John Bellingham's
+will. From the stepped pyramid of Sakkara
+with its encaustic tiles to mediaeval church floors; from
+Elizabethan woodwork to Mycaenaean pottery, and
+thence to the industrial arts of the Stone Age and
+the civilisation of the Aztecs. I began to suspect that
+my two legal friends were so carried away by the interest
+of the conversation that they had forgotten the
+secret purpose of the meeting, for the dessert had been
+placed on the table (by Mrs. Gummer with the manner
+of a bereaved dependant dispensing funeral bakemeats),
+and still no reference had been made to the "case."
+But it seemed that Thorndyke was but playing a waiting
+game; was only allowing the intimacy to ripen while
+he watched for the opportunity. And that opportunity
+came, even as Mrs. Gummer vanished spectrally with
+a tray of plates and glasses.
+</p>
+<p>
+"So you had a visitor last night, Doctor," said Mr.
+Bellingham. "I mean my friend Jellicoe. He told us
+he had seen you, and mighty curious he was about you.
+I have never known Jellicoe to be so inquisitive before.
+What did you think of him?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A quaint old cock. I found him highly amusing.
+We entertained one another for quite a long time with
+cross questions and crooked answers; I affecting eager
+curiosity, he replying with a defensive attitude of
+universal ignorance. It was a most diverting encounter."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He needn't have been so close," Miss Bellingham
+remarked, "seeing that all the world will be regaled
+with our affairs before long."
+</p>
+<p>
+"They are proposing to take the case into Court,
+then?" said Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Mr. Bellingham. "Jellicoe came to tell
+me that my cousin, Hurst, has instructed his solicitors
+to make the application and to invite me to join him.
+Actually he came to deliver an ultimatum from Hurst&mdash;But,
+I mustn't disturb the harmony of this festive gathering
+with litigious discords."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, why mustn't you?" asked Thorndyke.
+"Why is a subject in which we are all keenly interested
+to be <i>tabu</i>? You don't mind telling us about it, do
+you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, of course not. But what do you think of a
+man who buttonholes a doctor at a dinner-party to
+retail a list of his ailments?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It depends on what his ailments are," replied
+Thorndyke. "If he is a chronic dyspeptic and wishes
+to expound the virtues of Doctor Snaffler's Purple Pills
+for Pimply People, he is merely a bore. But if he
+chances to suffer from some rare and choice disease,
+such as Trypanosomiasis or Acromegaly, the doctor
+will be delighted to listen."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then are we to understand," Miss Bellingham
+asked, "that we are rare and choice products, in a
+legal sense?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Undoubtedly," replied Thorndyke. "The case of
+John Bellingham is, in many respects, unique. It will
+be followed with the deepest interest by the profession
+at large, and especially by medical jurists."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How gratifying that should be to us!" said Miss
+Bellingham. "We may even attain undying fame in
+textbooks and treatises; and yet we are not so very
+much puffed up with our importance."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," said her father; "we could do without the
+fame quite well, and so, I think, could Hurst. Did
+Berkeley tell you of the proposal that he made?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "and I gather from what
+you say that he has repeated it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. He sent Jellicoe to give me another chance,
+and I was tempted to take it; but my daughter was
+strongly against any compromise, and probably she is
+right. At any rate, she is more concerned than I am."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What view did Mr. Jellicoe take?" Thorndyke
+asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, he was very cautious and reserved, but he
+didn't disguise his feeling that I should be wise to take
+a certainty in lieu of a very problematical fortune. He
+would certainly like me to agree, for he naturally
+wishes to get the affair settled and pocket his legacy."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And have you definitely refused?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; quite definitely. So Hurst will apply for
+permission to presume death and prove the will, and
+Jellicoe will support him; he says he has no choice."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose I shall oppose the application, though I
+don't quite know on what grounds."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Before you take any definite steps," said Thorndyke,
+"you ought to give the matter very careful consideration.
+I take it that you have very little doubt
+that your brother is dead. And if he is dead, any
+benefit that you may receive under the will must be
+conditional on the previous assumption or proof of
+death. But perhaps you have taken advice?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I have not. As our friend the Doctor has
+probably told you, my means&mdash;or rather, the lack of
+them&mdash;do not admit of my getting professional advice.
+Hence my delicacy about discussing the case with you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then do you propose to conduct your case in
+person?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; if it is necessary for me to appear in Court,
+as I suppose it will be, if I oppose the application."
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke reflected for a few moments, and then
+said gravely:
+</p>
+<p>
+"You had much better not appear in person to conduct
+your case, Mr. Bellingham, for several reasons.
+To begin with, Mr. Hurst is sure to be represented by
+a capable counsel, and you will find yourself quite unable
+to meet the sudden exigencies of a contest in Court.
+You will be out-manoeuvred. Then there is the judge
+to be considered."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But surely one can rely on the judge dealing fairly
+with a man who is unable to afford a solicitor and
+counsel?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Undoubtedly, as a rule, a judge will give an unrepresented
+litigant every assistance and consideration.
+English judges in general are high-minded men with
+a deep sense of their great responsibilities. But you
+cannot afford to take any chances. You must consider
+the exceptions. A judge has been a counsel, and he
+may carry to the bench some of the professional prejudices
+of the bar. Indeed, if you consider the absurd
+licence permitted to counsel in their treatment of witnesses,
+and the hostile attitude adopted by some judges
+towards medical and other scientific men who have to
+give their evidence, you will see that the judicial mind
+is not always quite as judicial as one would wish,
+especially when the privileges and immunities of the
+profession are concerned. Now, your appearance in
+person to conduct your case must, unavoidably, cause
+some inconvenience to the Court. Your ignorance of
+procedure and legal details must occasion some delay;
+and if the judge should happen to be an irritable man
+he might resent the inconvenience and delay. I don't
+say that that would affect his decision&mdash;I don't think
+it would&mdash;but I am sure that it would be wise to avoid
+giving offence to the judge. And, above all, it is most
+desirable to be able to detect and reply to any manoeuvres
+on the part of the opposing counsel, which you
+certainly would not be able to do."
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is excellent advice, Doctor Thorndyke," said
+Bellingham, with a grim smile; "but I am afraid I
+shall have to take my chance."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not necessarily," said Thorndyke. "I am going
+to make a little proposal, which I will ask you to consider
+without prejudice as a mutual accommodation.
+You see, your case is one of exceptional interest&mdash;it
+will become a textbook case, as Miss Bellingham has
+prophesied; and, since it lies within my specialty, it
+will be necessary for me, in any case, to follow it in
+the closest detail. Now, it would be much more satisfactory
+to me to study it from within than from without,
+to say nothing of the credit which would accrue
+to me if I should be able to conduct it to a successful
+issue. I am therefore going to ask you to put your case
+in my hands and let me see what can be done with it.
+I know this is an unusual course for a professional man
+to take, but I think it is not improper under the circumstances."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Bellingham pondered in silence for a few moments,
+and then, after a glance at his daughter, began
+rather hesitatingly: "It is exceedingly generous of you,
+Doctor Thorndyke&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pardon me," interrupted Thorndyke, "it is not.
+My motives, as I have explained, are purely egoistic."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Bellingham laughed uneasily and again glanced
+at his daughter, who, however, pursued her occupation
+of peeling a pear with calm deliberation and without
+lifting her eyes. Getting no help from her, he asked:
+"Do you think that there is any possibility whatever
+of a successful issue?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, a remote possibility&mdash;very remote, I fear, as
+things look at present; but if I thought the case absolutely
+hopeless I should advise you to stand aside and
+let events take their course."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Supposing the case to come to a favourable termination,
+would you allow me to settle your fees in the
+ordinary way?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"If the choice lay with me," replied Thorndyke, "I
+should say 'yes' with pleasure. But it does not. The
+attitude of the profession is very definitely unfavourable
+to 'speculative' practice. You may remember
+the well-known firm of Dodson and Fogg, who gained
+thereby much profit, but little credit. But why discuss
+contingencies of this kind? If I bring your case to a
+successful issue I shall have done very well for myself.
+We shall have benefited one another mutually. Come
+now, Miss Bellingham, I appeal to you. We have eaten
+salt together, to say nothing of pigeon pie and other
+cates. Won't you back me up, and at the same time
+do a kindness to Doctor Berkeley?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, is Doctor Berkeley interested in our decision?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Certainly he is, as you will appreciate when I tell
+you that he actually tried to bribe me secretly out of
+his own pocket."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you?" she asked, looking at me with an expression
+that rather alarmed me.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, not exactly," I replied, mighty hot and uncomfortable,
+and wishing Thorndyke at the devil with
+his confidences. "I merely mentioned that the&mdash;the&mdash;solicitor's
+costs, you know, and that sort of thing&mdash;but
+you needn't jump on me, Miss Bellingham; Doctor
+Thorndyke did all that was necessary in that way."
+</p>
+<p>
+She continued to look at me thoughtfully as I stammered
+out my excuses, and then said: "I wasn't going
+to. I was only thinking that poverty has its compensations.
+You are all so very good to us; and, for my
+part, I should accept Doctor Thorndyke's generous
+offer most gratefully, and thank him for making it so
+easy for us."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well, my dear," said Mr. Bellingham; "we
+will enjoy the sweets of poverty, as you say&mdash;we have
+sampled the other kind of thing pretty freely&mdash;and do
+ourselves the pleasure of accepting a great kindness,
+most delicately offered."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you," said Thorndyke. "You have justified
+my faith in you, Miss Bellingham, and in the power
+of Doctor Berkeley's salt. I understand that you place
+your affairs in my hands?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Entirely and thankfully," replied Mr. Bellingham.
+"Whatever you think best to be done we agree to
+beforehand."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then," said I, "let us drink success to the Cause.
+Port, if you please, Miss Bellingham; the vintage is
+not recorded, but it is quite wholesome, and a suitable
+medium for the sodium chloride of friendship." I filled
+her glass, and, when the bottle had made its circuit, we
+stood up and solemnly pledged the new alliance.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There is just one thing that I would say before we
+dismiss the subject for the present," said Thorndyke.
+"It is a good thing to keep one's own counsel. When
+you get formal notice from Mr. Hurst's solicitors that
+proceedings are being commenced, you may refer them
+to Mr. Marchmont of Gray's Inn, who will nominally
+act for you. He will actually have nothing to do, but
+we must preserve the fiction that I am instructed by a
+solicitor. Meanwhile, and until the case goes into
+Court, I think it very necessary that neither Mr.
+Jellicoe nor anyone else should know that I am to be
+connected with it. We must keep the other side in the
+dark, if we can."
+</p>
+<p>
+"We will be as secret as the grave," said Mr. Bellingham;
+"and, as a matter of fact, it will be quite easy,
+since it happens, by a curious coincidence, that I am
+already acquainted with Mr. Marchmont. He acted for
+Stephen Blackmore, you remember, in that case that
+you unravelled so wonderfully. I knew the Blackmores."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you?" said Thorndyke. "What a small world
+it is! And what a remarkable affair that was! The
+intricacies and cross-issues made it quite absorbingly
+interesting; and it is noteworthy for me in another respect,
+for it was one of the first cases in which I was
+associated with Doctor Jervis."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, and a mighty useful associate I was," remarked
+Jervis, "though I did pick up one or two facts
+by accident. And, by the way, the Blackmore case had
+certain points in common with your case, Mr. Bellingham.
+There was a disappearance and a disputed will,
+and the man who vanished was a scholar and an
+antiquarian."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Cases in our specialty are apt to have certain general
+resemblances," said Thorndyke; and as he spoke
+he directed a keen glance at his junior, the significance
+of which I partly understood when he abruptly changed
+the subject.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The newspaper reports of your brother's disappearance,
+Mr. Bellingham, were remarkably full of detail.
+There were even plans of your house and that of Mr.
+Hurst. Do you know who supplied the information?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I don't," replied Mr. Bellingham. "I know
+that I didn't. Some newspaper men came to me for
+information, but I sent them packing. So, I understand,
+did Hurst; and as for Jellicoe, you might as
+well cross-examine an oyster."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," said Thorndyke, "the Press-men have queer
+methods of getting 'copy'; but still, someone must
+have given them that description of your brother and
+those plans. It would be interesting to know who it
+was. However, we don't know; and now let us dismiss
+these legal topics, with suitable apologies for having
+introduced them."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And perhaps," said I, "we may as well adjourn to
+what we will call the drawing-room&mdash;it is really Barnard's
+den&mdash;and leave the housekeeper to wrestle with
+the debris."
+</p>
+<p>
+We migrated to the cheerfully shabby little apartment,
+and, when Mrs. Gummer had served coffee, with
+gloomy resignation (as who should say: "If you will
+drink this sort of stuff I suppose you must, but don't
+blame <i>me</i> for the consequences"), I settled Mr. Bellingham
+in Barnard's favourite lop-sided easy chair&mdash;the
+depressed seat of which suggested its customary use
+by an elephant of sedentary habits&mdash;and opened the
+diminutive piano.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wonder if Miss Bellingham would give us a little
+music?" I said.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wonder if she could?" was the smiling response.
+"Do you know," she continued, "I have not touched
+a piano for nearly two years? It will be quite an interesting
+experiment&mdash;to me; but if it fails, you will
+be the sufferers. So you must choose."
+</p>
+<p>
+"My verdict," said Mr. Bellingham, "is <i>fiat experimentum</i>,
+though I won't complete the quotation, as
+that would seem to disparage Doctor Barnard's piano.
+But before you begin, Ruth, there is one rather disagreeable
+matter that I want to dispose of, so that I
+may not disturb the harmony with it later."
+</p>
+<p>
+He paused, and we all looked at him expectantly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose, Doctor Thorndyke," he said, "you read
+the newspapers?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't," replied Thorndyke. "But I ascertain,
+for purely business purposes, what they contain."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then," said Mr. Bellingham, "you have probably
+met with some accounts of the finding of certain human
+remains, apparently portions of a mutilated body?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I have seen those reports and filed them for
+future reference."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly. Well, now, it can hardly be necessary
+for me to tell you that those remains&mdash;the mutilated
+remains of some poor murdered creature, as there can
+be no doubt they are&mdash;have seemed to have a very
+dreadful significance for me. You will understand what
+I mean; and I want to ask you if&mdash;if they have made
+a similar suggestion to you."
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke paused before replying, with his eyes bent
+thoughtfully on the floor, and we all looked at him
+anxiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is very natural," he said at length, "that you
+should associate these remains with the mystery of
+your brother's disappearance. I should like to say
+that you are wrong in doing so, but if I did I should
+be uncandid. There are certain facts that do, undoubtedly,
+seem to suggest a connection, and, up to
+the present, there are no definite facts of a contrary
+significance."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Bellingham sighed deeply and shifted uncomfortably
+in his chair.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is a horrible affair!" he said huskily; "horrible!
+Would you mind, Doctor Thorndyke, telling us just
+how the matter stands in your opinion&mdash;what the
+probabilities are, for and against?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Again Thorndyke reflected awhile, and it seemed to
+me that he was not very willing to discuss the subject.
+However, the question had been asked pointedly, and
+eventually he answered:
+</p>
+<p>
+"At the present stage of the investigation it is not
+very easy to state the balance of probabilities. The
+matter is still quite speculative. The bones which have
+been found hitherto (for we are dealing with a skeleton,
+not with a body) have been exclusively those which
+are useless for personal identification; which is, in itself,
+a rather curious and striking fact. The general character
+and dimensions of the bones seem to suggest a
+middle-aged man of about your brother's height, and
+the date of deposition appears to be in agreement with
+the date of his disappearance."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is it known, then, when they were deposited?"
+Mr. Bellingham asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"In the case of those found at Sidcup it seems possible
+to deduce an approximate date. The watercress-bed
+was cleaned out about two years ago, so they could
+not have been lying there longer than that; and their
+condition suggests that they could not have been there
+much less than two years, as there is apparently not a
+vestige of the soft structures left. Of course, I am
+speaking from the newspaper reports only; I have no
+direct knowledge of the matter."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have they found any considerable part of the body
+yet? I haven't been reading the papers myself. My
+little friend, Miss Oman, brought a great bundle of 'em
+for me to read, but I couldn't stand it; I pitched the
+whole boiling of 'em out of the window."
+</p>
+<p>
+I thought I detected a slight twinkle in Thorndyke's
+eye, but he answered quite gravely:
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think I can give you the particulars from memory,
+though I won't guarantee the dates. The original discovery
+was made, apparently quite accidentally, at
+Sidcup on the fifteenth of July. It consisted of a complete
+left arm, minus the third finger and including the
+bones of the shoulder&mdash;the shoulder-blade and collar-bone.
+This discovery seems to have set the local population,
+especially the juvenile part of it, searching all
+the ponds and streams of the neighbourhood&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Cannibals!" interjected Mr. Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"With the result that there was dredged up out of
+a pond near St. Mary Cray, in Kent, a right thigh-bone.
+There is a slight clue to identity in respect of this
+bone, since the head of it has a small patch of what is
+called 'eburnation'&mdash;that is a sort of porcelain-like
+polish that occurs on the parts of bones that form a
+joint when the natural covering of cartilage is destroyed
+by disease. It is produced by the unprotected surface
+of one bone grinding against the similarly unprotected
+surface of another."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And how," Mr. Bellingham asked, "would that help
+the identification?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It would indicate," replied Thorndyke, "that the
+deceased had probably suffered from rheumatoid arthritis&mdash;what
+is commonly known as rheumatic gout&mdash;and he
+would probably have limped slightly and complained
+of some pain in the right hip."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am afraid that doesn't help us much," said Mr.
+Bellingham; "for, you see, John had a pretty pronounced
+limp from another cause, an old injury to his
+left ankle; and as to complaining of pain&mdash;well, he
+was a hardy old fellow and not much given to making
+complaints of any kind. But don't let me interrupt
+you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The next discovery," continued Thorndyke, "was
+made near Lee, by the police this time. They seem to
+have developed sudden activity in the matter, and in
+searching the neighbourhood of West Kent they dragged
+out of a pond near Lee the bones of a right foot. Now,
+if it had been the left instead of the right we might
+have had a clue, as I understand that your brother had
+fractured his left ankle, and there might have been
+some traces of the injury on the foot itself."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Mr. Bellingham, "I suppose there might.
+The injury was described as a Pott's fracture."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly. Well, now, after this discovery at Lee
+it seems that the police set on foot a systematic search
+of all the ponds and small pieces of water around London,
+and on the twenty-third, they found in the Cuckoo
+Pits in Epping Forest, not far from Woodford, the
+bones of a right arm (including those of the shoulder,
+as before), which seem to be part of the same body."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Mr. Bellingham, "I heard of that.
+Quite close to my old house. Horrible! horrible! It
+gave me the shudders to think of it&mdash;to think that poor
+old John may have been waylaid and murdered when
+he was actually coming to see me. He may even have
+got into the grounds by the back gate, if it was left unfastened,
+and been followed in there and murdered.
+You remember that a scarab from his watch-chain was
+found there? But is it clear that this arm was the
+fellow of the arm that was found at Sidcup?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It seems to agree in character and dimensions,"
+said Thorndyke, "and the agreement is strongly supported
+by a discovery that was made two days later."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What is that?" Mr. Bellingham demanded.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is the lower half of a trunk which the police
+dredged out of a rather deep pond on the skirts of the
+forest at Loughton&mdash;Staple's Pond, it is called. The
+bones found were the pelvis&mdash;that is, the two hipbones&mdash;and
+six vertebrae, or joints of the backbone.
+Having discovered these, the police dammed the stream
+and pumped the pond dry, but no other bones were
+found; which is rather odd, as there should have been
+a pair of ribs belonging to the upper vertebra&mdash;the
+twelfth dorsal vertebra. It suggests some curious questions
+as to the method of dismemberment; but I mustn't
+go into unpleasant details. The point is that the cavity
+of the right hip-joint showed a patch of eburnation
+corresponding to that on the head of the right thigh-bone
+that was found at St. Mary Cray. So there can
+be very little doubt that these bones are all part of
+the same body."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I see," grunted Mr. Bellingham; and he added,
+after a moment's thought: "Now, the question is, Are
+these bones the remains of my brother John? What
+do you say, Doctor Thorndyke?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I say that the question cannot be answered on the
+facts at present known to us. It can only be said that
+they may be, and that some of the circumstances suggest
+that they are. But we can only wait for further
+discoveries. At any moment the police may light upon
+some portion of the skeleton which will settle the question
+definitely one way or the other."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose," said Mr. Bellingham, "I can't be of any
+service to you in the matter of identification?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Indeed you can," said Thorndyke, "and I was
+going to ask you to assist me. What I want you to do
+is this: Write down a full description of your brother,
+including every detail known to you, together with an
+account of every illness or injury from which you know
+him to have suffered; and also the names and, if possible,
+the addresses of any doctors, surgeons, or dentists
+who may have attended him at any time. The dentists
+are particularly important, as their information would
+be invaluable if the skull belonging to these bones
+should be discovered."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Bellingham shuddered.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's a shocking idea," he said; "but, of course,
+you are quite right. You must have the facts if you
+are to form an opinion. I will write out what you want
+and send it to you without delay. And now, for God's
+sake, let us throw off this nightmare, for a little while,
+at least! What is there, Ruth, among Doctor Barnard's
+music that you can manage?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Barnard's collection in general inclined to the severely
+classical, but we disinterred from the heap a few lighter
+works of an old-fashioned kind, including a volume of
+Mendelssohn's <i>Lieder ohne Worte</i>, and with one of these
+Miss Bellingham made trial of her skill, playing it with
+excellent taste and quite adequate execution. That, at
+least, was her father's verdict; for, as to me, I found
+it the perfection of happiness merely to sit and look at
+her&mdash;a state of mind that would have been in no wise
+disturbed even by <i>Silvery Waves</i> or <i>The Maiden's
+Prayer</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thus with simple, homely music, and conversation
+always cheerful and sometimes brilliant, slipped away
+one of the pleasantest evenings of my life, and slipped
+away all too soon. St. Dunstan's clock was the fly in
+the ointment, for it boomed out intrusively the hour
+of eleven just as my guests were beginning thoroughly
+to appreciate one another; and thereby carried the sun
+(with a minor paternal satellite) out of the firmament
+of my heaven. For I had, in my professional capacity,
+given strict injunctions that Mr. Bellingham should on
+no account sit up late; and now, in my social capacity,
+I had smilingly to hear "the doctor's orders" quoted.
+It was a scurvy return for all my care.
+</p>
+<p>
+When Mr. and Miss Bellingham departed, Thorndyke
+and Jervis would have gone too; but noting my
+bereaved condition, and being withal compassionate and
+tender of heart, they were persuaded to stay awhile
+and bear me company in a consolatory pipe.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH11"><!-- CH11 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XI
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE EVIDENCE REVIEWED
+</h3>
+<p>
+"So the game has opened," observed Thorndyke, as he
+struck a match. "The play has begun with a cautious
+lead off by the other side. Very cautious, and not
+very confident."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why do you say 'not very confident'?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, it is evident that Hurst&mdash;and, I fancy,
+Jellicoe too&mdash;is anxious to buy off Bellingham's opposition,
+and at a pretty long price, under the circumstances.
+And when we consider how very little Bellingham
+has to offer against the presumption of his
+brother's death, it looks as if Hurst hadn't much to say
+on his side."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," said Jervis, "he can't hold many trumps or
+he wouldn't be willing to pay four hundred a year for
+his opponent's chance; and that is just as well, for it
+seems to me that our own hand is a pretty poor one."
+</p>
+<p>
+"We must look through our hand and see what we
+do hold," said Thorndyke. "Our trump card at present&mdash;a
+rather small one, I am afraid&mdash;is the obvious
+intention of the testator that the bulk of the property
+should go to his brother."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose you will begin your inquiries now," said I.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We began them some time ago&mdash;the day after you
+brought us the will, in fact. Jervis has been through
+the registers and has ascertained that no interment
+under the name of John Bellingham has taken place
+since the disappearance; which was just what we expected.
+He has also discovered that some other person
+has been making similar inquiries; which, again, is what
+we expected."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And your own investigations?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have given negative results for the most part. I
+found Doctor Norbury, at the British Museum, very
+friendly and helpful; so friendly, in fact, that I am
+thinking whether I may not be able to enlist his help
+in certain private researches of my own, with reference
+to the changes effected by time in the physical properties
+of certain substances."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh; you haven't told me about that," said Jervis.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No: I haven't really commenced to plan my experiments
+yet, and they will probably lead to nothing
+when I do. It occurred to me that, possibly, in the
+course of time, certain molecular changes might take
+place in substances such as wood, bone, pottery, stucco,
+and other common materials, and that these changes
+might alter their power of conducting or transmitting
+molecular vibrations. Now, if this should turn out to
+be the case, it would be a fact of considerable importance,
+medico-legal and otherwise; for it would be
+possible to determine approximately the age of any
+object of known composition by testing its reactions
+to electricity, heat, light and other molecular vibrations.
+I thought of seeking Doctor Norbury's assistance because
+he can furnish me with materials for experiment
+of such great age that the reactions, if any, should
+be extremely easy to demonstrate. But to return to
+our case. I learned from him that John Bellingham
+had certain friends in Paris&mdash;collectors and museum
+officials&mdash;whom he was in the habit of visiting for the
+purpose of study and exchange of specimens. I have
+made inquiries of all of these, and none of them had
+seen him during his last visit. In fact, I have not yet
+discovered anyone who had seen Bellingham in Paris
+on this occasion. So his visit there remains a mystery
+for the present."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It doesn't seem to be of much importance, since
+he undoubtedly came back," I remarked; but to this
+Thorndyke demurred.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is impossible to estimate the importance of the
+unknown," said he.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, how does the matter stand," asked Jervis,
+"on the evidence that we have? John Bellingham
+disappeared on a certain date. Is there anything to
+show what was the manner of his disappearance?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The facts in our possession," said Thorndyke,
+"which are mainly those set forth in the newspaper
+report, suggest several alternative possibilities; and in
+view of the coming inquiry&mdash;for they will, no doubt,
+have to be gone into in Court, to some extent&mdash;it may
+be worth while to consider them. There are five conceivable
+hypotheses"&mdash;here Thorndyke checked them
+on his fingers as he proceeded&mdash;"First, he may still be
+alive. Second, he may have died and been buried
+without identification. Third, he may have been murdered
+by some unknown person. Fourth, he may have
+been murdered by Hurst and his body concealed. Fifth,
+he may have been murdered by his brother. Let us
+examine these possibilities seriatim.
+</p>
+<p>
+"First, he may still be alive. If he is, he must either
+have disappeared voluntarily, have lost his memory
+suddenly and not been identified, or have been imprisoned&mdash;on
+a false charge or otherwise. Let us take
+the first case&mdash;that of voluntary disappearance. Obviously,
+its improbability is extreme."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Jellicoe doesn't think so," said I. "He thinks it
+quite on the cards that John Bellingham is alive. He
+says that it is not a very unusual thing for a man to
+disappear for a time."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then why is he applying for a presumption of
+death?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Just what I asked him. He says that it is the correct
+thing to do; that the entire responsibility rests
+on the Court."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is all nonsense," said Thorndyke. "Jellicoe
+is the trustee for his absent client, and, if he thinks that
+client is alive, it is his duty to keep the estate intact;
+and he knows that perfectly well. We may take it that
+Jellicoe is of the same opinion as I am: that John
+Bellingham is dead."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Still," I urged, "men do disappear from time to
+time, and turn up again after years of absence."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, but for a definite reason. Either they are
+irresponsible vagabonds who take this way of shuffling
+off their responsibilities, or they are men who have been
+caught in a net of distasteful circumstances. For instance,
+a civil servant or a solicitor or a tradesman finds
+himself bound for life to a locality and an occupation
+of intolerable monotony. Perhaps he has an ill-tempered
+wife, who, after the amiable fashion of a certain
+type of woman, thinking that her husband is pinned
+down without a chance of escape, gives a free rein to
+her temper. The man puts up with it for years, but at
+last it becomes unbearable. Then he suddenly disappears;
+and small blame to him. But this was not
+Bellingham's case. He was a wealthy bachelor with
+an engrossing interest in life, free to go whither he
+would and to do whatsoever he wished. Why should
+he disappear? The thing is incredible.
+</p>
+<p>
+"As to his having lost his memory and remained
+unidentified, that, also, is incredible in the case of a
+man who had visiting-cards and letters in his pocket,
+whose linen was marked, and who was being inquired
+for everywhere by the police. As to his being in prison,
+we may dismiss that possibility, inasmuch as a prisoner,
+both before and after conviction, would have full opportunity
+of communicating with his friends.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The second possibility, that he may have died suddenly
+and been buried without identification, is highly
+improbable; but, as it is conceivable that the body
+might have been robbed and the means of identification
+thus lost, it remains as a possibility that has to be
+considered, remote as it is.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The third hypothesis, that he may have been murdered
+by some unknown person, is, under the circumstances,
+not wildly improbable; but, as the police were
+on the look out and a detailed description of the missing
+man's person was published in the papers, it would
+involve the complete concealment of the body. But
+this would exclude the most probable form of the
+crime&mdash;the casual robbery with violence. It is therefore
+possible, but highly improbable.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The fourth hypothesis is that Bellingham was
+murdered by Hurst. Now the one fact which militates
+against this view is that Hurst apparently had no
+motive for committing the murder. We are assured
+by Jellicoe that no one but himself knew the contents
+of the will, and if this is so&mdash;but, mind, we have no
+evidence that it is so&mdash;Hurst would have no reason to
+suppose that he had anything material to gain by his
+cousin's death. Otherwise the hypothesis presents no
+inherent improbabilities. The man was last seen alive
+at Hurst's house. He was seen to enter it and he was
+never seen to leave it&mdash;we are still taking the facts as
+stated in the newspapers, remember&mdash;and it now appears
+that he stands to benefit enormously by that
+man's death."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But," I objected, "you are forgetting that, directly
+the man was missed, Hurst and the servants together
+searched the entire house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. What did they search for?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, for Mr. Bellingham, of course."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly; for Mr. Bellingham. That is, for a living
+man. Now how do you search a house for a living
+man? You look in all the rooms. When you look in a
+room, if he is there, you see him; if you do not see him,
+you assume that he is not there. You don't look under
+the sofa or behind the piano, you don't pull out large
+drawers or open cupboards. You just look into the
+rooms. That is what these people seem to have done.
+And they did not see Mr. Bellingham. But Mr. Bellingham's
+corpse might have been stowed away out of sight
+in any one of the rooms that they looked into."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is a grim thought," said Jervis; "But it is
+perfectly true. There is no evidence that the man was
+not lying dead in the house at the very time of the
+search."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But even so," said I, "there was the body to be
+disposed of somehow. Now how could he possibly have
+got rid of the body without being observed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah!" said Thorndyke, "now we are touching on a
+point of crucial importance. If anyone should ever
+write a treatise on the art of murder&mdash;not an exhibition
+of literary fireworks like De Quincey's, but a genuine
+working treatise&mdash;he might leave all other technical
+details to take care of themselves if he could describe
+some really practicable plan for disposing of the body.
+That is, and always has been, the great stumbling-block
+to the murderer: to get rid of the body. The human
+body," he continued, thoughtfully regarding his pipe,
+just as, in the days of my pupilage, he was wont to
+regard the black-board chalk, "is a very remarkable
+object. It presents a combination of properties that
+makes it singularly difficult to conceal permanently.
+It is bulky and of an awkward shape, it is heavy, it is
+completely incombustible, it is chemically unstable, and
+its decomposition yields great volumes of highly odorous
+gases, and it nevertheless contains identifiable structures
+of the highest degree of permanence. It is extremely
+difficult to preserve unchanged, and it is still
+more difficult completely to destroy. The essential
+permanence of the human body is well shown in the
+classical case of Eugene Aram; but a still more striking
+instance is that of Seqenen-Ra the Third, one of the
+last kings of the seventeenth Egyptian dynasty. Here,
+after a lapse of some four thousand years, it has been
+possible to determine, not only the cause of death and
+the manner of its occurrence, but the way in which the
+king fell, the nature of the weapon with which the fatal
+wound was inflicted, and even the position of the assailant.
+And the permanence of the body under other
+conditions is admirably shown in the case of Doctor
+Parkman, of Boston, U.S.A., in which identification
+was actually effected by means of remains collected
+from the ashes of a furnace."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then we may take it," said Jervis, "that the world
+has not yet seen the last of John Bellingham."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think we may regard that as almost a certainty,"
+replied Thorndyke. "The only question&mdash;and a very
+important one&mdash;is as to when the reappearance may
+take place. It may be to-morrow or it may be centuries
+hence, when all the issues involved have been
+forgotten."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Assuming," said I, "for the sake of argument, that
+Hurst did murder him and that the body was concealed
+in the study at the time the search was made. How
+could it have been disposed of? If you had been in
+Hurst's place, how would you have gone to work?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke smiled at the bluntness of my question.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You are asking me for an incriminating statement,"
+said he, "delivered in the presence of a witness too.
+But, as a matter of fact, there is no use in speculating
+<i>a priori</i>; we should have to reconstruct a purely
+imaginary situation, the circumstances of which are unknown
+to us, and we should almost certainly reconstruct it
+wrong. What we may fairly assume is that no reasonable
+person, no matter how immoral, would find himself
+in the position that you suggest. Murder is usually a
+crime of impulse, and the murderer a person of feeble
+self-control. Such persons are most unlikely to make
+elaborate and ingenious arrangements for the disposal
+of the bodies of their victims. Even the cold-blooded
+perpetrators of the most carefully planned murders
+appear, as I have said, to break down at this point.
+The almost insuperable difficulty of getting rid of a
+human body is not appreciated until the murderer suddenly
+finds himself face to face with it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"In the case that you are suggesting, the choice
+would seem to lie between burial on the premises or
+dismemberment and dispersal of the fragments; and
+either method would be pretty certain to lead to discovery."
+</p>
+<p>
+"As illustrated by the remains of which you were
+speaking to Mr. Bellingham," Jervis remarked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly," Thorndyke answered, "though we could
+hardly imagine a reasonably intelligent criminal adopting
+a watercress-bed as a hiding-place."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. That was certainly an error of judgment.
+By the way, I thought it best to say nothing while you
+were talking to Bellingham, but I noticed that, in discussing
+the possibility of those being the bones of his
+brother, you made no comment on the absence of the
+third finger of the left hand. I am sure you didn't overlook
+it, but isn't it a point of some importance?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"As to identification? Under the present circumstances,
+I think not. If there were a man missing who
+had lost that finger it would, of course, be an important
+fact. But I have not heard of any such man. Or,
+again, if there were any evidence that the finger had
+been removed before death, it would be highly important.
+But there is no such evidence. It may have
+been cut off after death, and there is where the real
+significance of its absence lies."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't quite see what you mean," said Jervis.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I mean that, if there is no report of any missing
+man who had lost that particular finger, the probability
+is that the finger was removed after death. And then
+arises the interesting question of motive. Why should
+it have been removed? It could hardly have become
+detached accidentally. What do you suggest?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," said Jervis, "it might have been a peculiar
+finger; a finger, for instance, with some characteristic
+deformity, such as an ankylosed joint, which would be
+easy to identify."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; but that explanation introduces the same
+difficulty. No person with a deformed or ankylosed
+finger has been reported as missing."
+</p>
+<p>
+Jervis puckered up his brows and looked at me.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm hanged if I see any other explanation," he said.
+"Do you, Berkeley?"
+</p>
+<p>
+I shook my head.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't forget which finger it is that is missing,"
+said Thorndyke. "The third finger on the left
+hand."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, I see!" said Jervis. "The ring-finger. You
+mean it may have been removed for the sake of a ring
+that wouldn't come off."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. It would not be the first instance of the kind.
+Fingers have been severed from dead hands&mdash;and even
+from living ones&mdash;for the sake of rings that were too
+tight to be drawn off. And the fact that it is the left
+hand supports this suggestion; for a ring that was
+inconveniently tight would be worn by preference on
+the left hand, as that is usually slightly smaller than
+the right. What is the matter, Berkeley?"
+</p>
+<p>
+A sudden light had burst upon me, and I suppose
+my countenance betrayed the fact.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am a confounded fool!" I exclaimed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, don't say that," said Jervis. "Give your
+friends a chance."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I ought to have seen this long ago and told you
+about it. John Bellingham did wear a ring, and it was
+so tight that, when once he had got it on, he could
+never get it off again."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you happen to know on which hand he wore
+it?" Thorndyke asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. It was the left hand; because Miss Bellingham,
+who told me about it, said that he would never
+have been able to get the ring on at all but for the fact
+that his left hand was slightly smaller than his right."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There it is, then," said Thorndyke. "With this
+new fact in our possession, the absence of this finger
+furnishes the starting-point of some very curious speculations."
+</p>
+<p>
+"As, for instance?" said Jervis.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah, under the circumstances, I must leave you to
+pursue those speculations independently. I am now
+acting for Mr. Bellingham."
+</p>
+<p>
+Jervis grinned and was silent for a while, refilling his
+pipe thoughtfully; but when he had got it alight he
+resumed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"To return to the question of the disappearance;
+you don't consider it highly improbable that Bellingham
+might have been murdered by Hurst?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, don't imagine that I am making an accusation.
+I am considering the various probabilities merely in
+the abstract. The same reasoning applies to the Bellinghams.
+As to whether any of them did commit the
+murder, that is a question of personal character. I
+certainly do not suspect the Bellinghams after having
+seen them, and with regard to Hurst, I know nothing,
+or at least very little, to his disadvantage."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you know anything?" asked Jervis.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," Thorndyke said, with some hesitation, "it
+seems a thought unkind to rake up the little details
+of a man's past, and yet it has to be done. I have, of
+course, made the usual routine inquiries concerning
+the parties to this affair, and this is what they have
+brought to light:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hurst, as you know, is a stockbroker&mdash;a man of
+good position and reputation; but, about ten years
+ago, he seems to have committed an indiscretion, to
+put it mildly, which nearly got him into rather serious
+difficulties. He appears to have speculated rather
+heavily and considerably beyond his means, for when
+a sudden spasm of the market upset his calculations,
+it turned out that he had been employing his clients'
+capital and securities. For a time it looked as if there
+was going to be serious trouble; then, quite unexpectedly,
+he managed to raise the necessary amount
+in some way and settle all claims. Whence he got the
+money has never been discovered to this day, which
+is a curious circumstance, seeing that the deficiency was
+rather over five thousand pounds; but the important
+fact is that he did get it and that he paid up all that he
+owed. So that he was only a potential defaulter, so to
+speak; and, discreditable as the affair undoubtedly was,
+it does not seem to have any direct bearing on this
+present case."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," Jervis agreed, "though it makes one consider
+his position with more attention than one would otherwise."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Undoubtedly," said Thorndyke. "A reckless
+gambler is a man whose conduct cannot be relied on.
+He is subject to sudden vicissitudes of fortune which
+may force him into other kinds of wrongdoing. Many
+an embezzlement has been preceded by an unlucky
+plunge on the turf."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Assuming the responsibility for this disappearance
+to lie between Hurst and&mdash;and the Bellinghams," said
+I, with an uncomfortable gulp as I mentioned the name
+of my friends, "to which side does the balance of
+probability incline?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"To the side of Hurst, I should say, without doubt,"
+replied Thorndyke. "The case stands thus&mdash;on the
+facts presented to us: Hurst appears to have had no
+motive for killing the deceased (as we will call him);
+but the man was seen to enter his house, was never seen
+to leave it, and was never again seen alive. Bellingham,
+on the other hand, had a motive, as he believed himself
+to be the principal beneficiary under the will. But
+the deceased was not seen at his house, and there is no
+evidence that he went to the house or to the neighbourhood
+of the house, excepting the scarab that was found
+there. But the evidence of the scarab is vitiated by
+the fact that Hurst was present when it was picked up,
+and that it was found on a spot over which Hurst had
+passed only a few minutes previously. Until Hurst is
+cleared, it seems to me that the presence of the scarab
+proves nothing against the Bellinghams."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then your opinions on the case," said I, "are based
+entirely on the facts that have been made public."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, mainly. I do not necessarily accept those
+facts just as they are presented, and I may have certain
+views of my own on the case. But if I have, I do not
+feel in a position to discuss them. For the present,
+discussion has to be limited to the facts and inferences
+offered by the parties concerned."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There!" exclaimed Jervis, rising to knock out his
+pipe, "that is where Thorndyke has you. He lets you
+think you're in the very thick of the 'know' until one
+fine morning you wake up and discover that you have
+only been a gaping outsider; and then you are mightily
+astonished&mdash;and so are the other side, too, for that
+matter. But we must really be off now, mustn't we,
+reverend senior?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose we must," replied Thorndyke; and, as
+he drew on his gloves, he asked: "Have you heard
+from Barnard lately?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, yes," I answered. "I wrote to him at Smyrna
+to say that the practice was flourishing and that I was
+quite happy and contented, and that he might stay
+away as long as he liked. He writes by return that he
+will prolong his holiday if an opportunity offers, but
+will let me know later."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Gad," said Jervis, "it was a stroke of luck for
+Barnard that Bellingham happened to have such a
+magnificent daughter&mdash;there! don't mind me, old man.
+You go in and win&mdash;she's worth it, isn't she, Thorndyke?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Miss Bellingham is a very charming young lady,"
+replied Thorndyke. "I am most favourably impressed
+by both the father and the daughter, and I only trust
+that we may be able to be of some service to them."
+With this sedate little speech Thorndyke shook my
+hand, and I watched my two friends go on their way
+until their fading shapes were swallowed up in the
+darkness of Fetter Lane.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH12"><!-- CH12 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XII
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
+</h3>
+<p>
+It was some two or three mornings after my little
+supper-party that, as I stood in the consulting-room
+brushing my hat preparatory to starting on my morning
+round, Adolphus appeared at the door to announce
+two gentlemen waiting in the surgery. I told him to
+bring them in, and a moment later Thorndyke entered,
+accompanied by Jervis. I noted that they looked uncommonly
+large in the little apartment, especially
+Thorndyke, but I had no time to consider this phenomenon,
+for the latter, when he had shaken my hand,
+proceeded at once to explain the object of their visit.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We have come to ask a favour, Berkeley," he said;
+"to ask you to do us a very great service in the interests
+of your friends, the Bellinghams."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You know I shall be delighted," I said warmly.
+"What is it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I will explain. You know&mdash;or perhaps you don't&mdash;that
+the police have collected all the bones that have
+been discovered and deposited them in the mortuary
+at Woodford, where they are to be viewed by the
+coroner's jury. Now, it has become imperative that I
+should have more definite and reliable information
+about them than I can get from the newspapers. The
+natural thing would be for me to go down and examine
+them myself, but there are circumstances that make it
+very desirable that my connection with the case should
+not leak out. Consequently, I can't go myself, and,
+for the same reason, I can't send Jervis. On the other
+hand, as it is now stated pretty openly that the police
+consider the bones to be almost certainly those of John
+Bellingham, it would seem perfectly natural that you,
+as Godfrey Bellingham's doctor, should go down to
+view them on his behalf."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should like to go," I said. "I would give anything
+to go; but how is it to be managed? It would
+mean a whole day off and leaving the practice to take
+care of itself."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think that could be arranged," said Thorndyke;
+"and the matter is really important for two reasons.
+One is that the inquest opens to-morrow, and someone
+certainly ought to be there to watch the proceedings
+on Godfrey's behalf; and the other is that our client
+has received notice from Hurst's solicitors that the
+application would be heard in the Probate Court in a
+few days."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Isn't that rather sudden?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It certainly suggests that there has been a good
+deal more activity than we were given to understand.
+But you see the importance of the affair. The inquest
+will be a sort of dress rehearsal for the Probate Court,
+and it is quite essential that we should have a chance
+of estimating the management."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I see that. But how are we to manage about
+the practice?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"We shall find you a substitute."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Through a medical agent?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Jervis. "Turcival will find us a man;
+in fact, he has done it. I saw him this morning; he
+has a man who is waiting up in town to negotiate for
+the purchase of a practice and who would do the job
+for a couple of guineas. Quite a reliable man. Only
+say the word, and I will run off to Adam Street and
+engage him definitely."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well. You engage the locum tenens, and I
+will be prepared to start for Woodford as soon as he
+turns up."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Excellent!" said Thorndyke. "That is a great
+weight off my mind. And if you could manage to drop
+in this evening and smoke a pipe with us we could talk
+over the plan of campaign and let you know what
+items of information we are particularly in want of."
+</p>
+<p>
+I promised to turn up at King's Bench Walk as soon
+after half-past eight as possible, and my two friends
+then took their departure, leaving me to set out in
+high spirits on my scanty round of visits.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is surprising what different aspects things present
+from different points of view; how relative are our
+estimates of the conditions and circumstances of life.
+To the urban workman&mdash;the journeyman baker or
+tailor, for instance, labouring year in year out in a
+single building&mdash;a holiday ramble on Hampstead Heath
+is a veritable voyage of discovery; whereas to the sailor
+the shifting panorama of the whole wide world is but
+the commonplace of the day's work.
+</p>
+<p>
+So I reflected as I took my place in the train at
+Liverpool Street on the following day. There had been
+a time when a trip by rail to the borders of Epping
+Forest would have been far from a thrilling experience;
+now, after vegetating in the little world of Fetter
+Lane, it was quite an adventure.
+</p>
+<p>
+The enforced inactivity of a railway journey is
+favourable to thought, and I had much to think about.
+The last few weeks had witnessed momentous changes
+in my outlook. New interests had arisen, new friendships
+had grown up; and, above all, there had stolen
+into my life that supreme influence that, for good or
+for evil, according to my fortune, was to colour and
+pervade it even to its close. Those few days of companionable
+labour in the reading-room, with the homely
+hospitalities of the milk-shop and the pleasant walks
+homeward through the friendly London streets, had
+called into existence a new world&mdash;a world in which
+the gracious personality of Ruth Bellingham was the
+one dominating reality. And thus, as I leaned back in
+a corner of the railway carriage with an unlighted pipe
+in my hand, the events of the immediate past, together
+with those more problematical ones of the impending
+future, occupied me rather to the exclusion of the business
+of the moment, which was to review the remains
+collected in the Woodford mortuary, until, as the train
+approached Stratford, the odours of the soap and bone-manure
+factories poured in at the open window and
+(by a natural association of ideas) brought me back to
+the object of my quest.
+</p>
+<p>
+As to the exact purpose of this expedition, I was not
+very clear; but I knew that I was acting as Thorndyke's
+proxy and thrilled with pride at the thought.
+But what particular light my investigations were to
+throw upon the intricate Bellingham case I had no
+very definite idea. With a view to fixing the course
+of procedure in my mind, I took Thorndyke's written
+instructions from my pocket and read them over carefully.
+They were very full and explicit, making ample
+allowance for my lack of experience in medico-legal
+matters:&mdash;
+</p>
+<br>
+<blockquote>
+<i>
+1. Do not appear to make minute investigations or
+in any way excite remark.<br>
+<br>
+
+2. Ascertain if all the bones belonging to each region
+are present, and if not, which are missing.<br>
+<br>
+
+3. Measure the extreme length of the principal bones
+and compare those of opposite sides.<br>
+<br>
+
+4. Examine the bones with reference to the age, sex,
+and muscular development of the deceased.<br>
+<br>
+
+5. Note the presence or absence of signs of constitutional
+disease, local disease of bone or adjacent structures,
+old or recent injuries, and any other departures
+from the normal or usual.<br>
+<br>
+
+6. Observe the presence or absence of adipocere and
+its position, if present.<br>
+<br>
+
+7. Note any remains of tendons, ligaments, or other
+soft structures.<br>
+<br>
+
+8. Examine the Sidcup hand with reference to the
+question as to whether the finger was separated before
+or after death.<br>
+<br>
+
+9. Estimate the probable period of submersion and
+note any changes (as, e.g., mineral or organic staining)
+due to the character of the water or mud.<br>
+<br>
+
+10. Ascertain the circumstances (immediate and remote)
+that led to the discovery of the bones and the
+names of the persons concerned in those circumstances.<br>
+<br>
+
+11. Commit all information to writing as soon as
+possible, and make plans and diagrams on the spot, if
+circumstances permit.<br>
+<br>
+
+12. Preserve an impassive exterior; listen attentively
+but without eagerness; ask as few questions as
+possible; pursue any inquiry that your observations on
+the spot may suggest.
+</i>
+</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>
+These were my instructions, and, considering that I
+was going merely to inspect a few dry bones, they
+appeared rather formidable; in fact, the more I read
+them over the greater became my misgivings as to my
+qualifications for the task.
+</p>
+<p>
+As I approached the mortuary it became evident that
+some, at least, of Thorndyke's admonitions were by no
+means unnecessary. The place was in charge of a
+police-sergeant, who watched my approach suspiciously;
+and some half-dozen men, obviously newspaper
+reporters, hovered about the entrance like a pack
+of jackals. I presented the coroner's order which Mr.
+Marchmont had obtained, and which the sergeant read
+with his back against the wall, to prevent the newspaper
+men from looking over his shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>
+My credentials being found satisfactory, the door
+was unlocked and I entered, accompanied by three
+enterprising reporters, whom, however, the sergeant
+summarily ejected and locked out, returning to usher
+me into the presence and to observe my proceedings
+with intelligent but highly embarrassing
+interest.
+</p>
+<p>
+The bones were laid out on a large table and covered
+with a sheet, which the sergeant slowly turned back,
+watching my face intently as he did so to note the impression
+that the spectacle made upon me. I imagine
+that he must have been somewhat disappointed by my
+impassive demeanour, for the remains suggested to me
+nothing more than a rather shabby set of "student's
+osteology." The whole collection had been set out (by
+the police-surgeon, as the sergeant informed me) in
+their proper anatomical order; notwithstanding which
+I counted them over carefully to make sure that none
+were missing, checking them by the list with which
+Thorndyke had furnished me.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I see you have found the left thigh-bone," I remarked,
+observing that this did not appear in the list.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said the sergeant; "that turned up yesterday
+evening in a big pond called Baldwin's Pond in the
+Sand-pit plain, near Little Monk Wood."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is that near here?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"In the forest up Loughton way," was the reply.
+</p>
+<p>
+I made a note of the fact (on which the sergeant
+looked as if he was sorry he had mentioned it), and
+then turned my attention to a general consideration of
+the bones before examining them in detail. Their
+appearance would have been improved and examination
+facilitated by a thorough scrubbing, for they were
+just as they had been taken from their respective
+resting-places, and it was difficult to decide whether
+their reddish-yellow colour was an actual stain or due
+to a deposit on the surface. In any case, as it affected
+them all alike, I thought it an interesting feature and
+made a note of it. They bore numerous traces of their
+sojourn in the various ponds from which they had been
+recovered, but these gave me little help in determining
+the length of time during which they had been submerged.
+They were, of course, encrusted with mud, and
+little wisps of pond-weed stuck to them in places; but
+these facts furnished only the vaguest measure of time.
+</p>
+<p>
+Some of the traces were, indeed, more informing. To
+several of the bones, for instance, there adhered the
+dried egg-clusters of the common pond-snail, and in
+one of the hollows of the right shoulder-blade (the
+"infra-spinous fossa") was a group of the mud-built
+tubes of the red river-worm. These remains gave proof
+of a considerable period of submersion, and since they
+could not have been deposited on the bones until all the
+flesh had disappeared, they furnished evidence that
+some time&mdash;a month or two, at any rate&mdash;had elapsed
+since this had happened. Incidentally, too, their distribution
+showed the position in which the bones had
+lain, and though this appeared to be of no importance
+in the existing circumstances, I made careful notes of
+the situation of each adherent body, illustrating their
+position by rough sketches.
+</p>
+<p>
+The sergeant watched my proceedings with an indulgent
+smile.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You're making a regular inventory, sir," he remarked,
+"as if you were going to put 'em up for auction.
+I shouldn't think those snails' eggs would be much
+help in identification. And all that has been done already,"
+he added as I produced my measuring-tape.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No doubt," I replied; "but my business is to make
+independent observations, to check the others, if necessary."
+And I proceeded to measure each of the principal
+bones separately and to compare those of the
+opposite sides. The agreement in dimensions and
+general characteristics of the pairs of bones left little
+doubt that all were parts of one skeleton, a conclusion
+that was confirmed by the eburnated patch on the head
+of the right thigh-bone and the corresponding patch
+in the socket of the right hip-bone. When I had finished
+my measurements I went over the entire series of
+bones in detail, examining each with the closest attention
+for any of those signs which Thorndyke had
+indicated, and eliciting nothing but a monotonously
+reiterated negative. They were distressingly and disappointingly
+normal.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, sir, and what do you make of 'em?" the
+sergeant asked cheerfully as I shut up my note-book
+and straightened my back. "Whose bones are they?
+Are they Mr. Bellingham's, think ye?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should be very sorry to say whose bones they
+are," I replied. "One bone is very much like another,
+you know."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose it is," he agreed; "but I thought that,
+with all that measuring and all those notes, you might
+have arrived at something definite." Evidently he was
+disappointed in me; and I was somewhat disappointed
+in myself when I contrasted Thorndyke's elaborate instructions
+with the meagre result of my investigations.
+For what did my discoveries amount to? And how
+much was the inquiry advanced by the few entries in
+my note-book?
+</p>
+<p>
+The bones were apparently those of a man of fair
+though not remarkable muscular development; over
+thirty years of age, but how much older I was unable
+to say. His height I judged roughly to be five feet
+eight inches, but my measurements would furnish data
+for a more exact estimate by Thorndyke. Beyond this
+the bones were quite uncharacteristic. There were no
+signs of disease either local or general, no indications
+of injuries either old or recent, no departures of any
+kind from the normal or usual; and the dismemberment
+had been effected with such care that there was
+not a single scratch on any of the separated surfaces.
+Of adipocere (the peculiar waxy or soapy substance
+that is commonly found in bodies that have slowly decayed
+in damp situations) there was not a trace; and
+the only remnant of the soft structures was a faint
+indication, like a spot of dried glue, of the tendon on
+the tip of the right elbow.
+</p>
+<p>
+The sergeant was in the act of replacing the sheet,
+with the air of a showman who has just given an exhibition,
+when there came a sharp rapping on the
+mortuary door. The officer finished spreading the sheet
+with official precision, and having ushered me out into
+the lobby, turned the key and admitted three persons,
+holding the door open after they had entered for me to
+go out. But the appearance of the new-comers inclined
+me to linger. One of them was a local constable, evidently
+in official charge; a second was a labouring man,
+very muddy and wet, who carried a small sack; while in
+the third I thought I scented a professional brother.
+</p>
+<p>
+The sergeant continued to hold the door open.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nothing more I can do for you, sir?" he asked
+genially.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is that the divisional surgeon?" I inquired.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. I am the divisional surgeon," the new-comer
+answered. "Did you want anything of me?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"This," said the sergeant, "is a medical gentleman
+who has got permission from the coroner to inspect the
+remains. He is acting for the family of the deceased&mdash;I
+mean, for the family of Mr. Bellingham," he
+added in answer to an inquiring glance from the
+surgeon.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I see," said the latter. "Well, they have found
+the rest of the trunk, including, I understand, the ribs
+that were missing from the other part. Isn't that so,
+Davis?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, sir," replied the constable. "Inspector Badger
+says all the ribs is here, and all the bones of the neck
+as well."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The inspector seems to be an anatomist," I remarked.
+</p>
+<p>
+The sergeant grinned. "He's a very knowing gentleman,
+is Mr. Badger. He came down here this morning
+quite early and spent a long time looking over the
+bones and checking them by some notes in his pocket-book.
+I fancy he's got something on, but he was
+precious close about it."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here the sergeant shut up rather suddenly&mdash;perhaps
+contrasting his own conduct with that of his superior.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Let us have these new bones out on the table,"
+said the police-surgeon. "Take that sheet off, and
+don't shoot them out as if they were coals. Hand them
+out carefully."
+</p>
+<p>
+The labourer fished out the wet and muddy bones
+one by one from the sack, and as he laid them on the
+table the surgeon arranged them in their proper relative
+positions.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This has been a neatly executed job," he remarked;
+"none of your clumsy hacking with a chopper or a saw.
+The bones have been cleanly separated at the joints.
+The fellow who did this must have had some anatomical
+knowledge, unless he was a butcher, which, by the way,
+is not impossible. He has used his knife uncommonly
+skilfully, and you notice that each arm was taken off
+with the scapula attached, just as a butcher takes off a
+shoulder of mutton. Are there any more bones in that
+bag?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, sir," replied the labourer, wiping his hands
+with an air of finality on the posterior aspect of his
+trousers; "that's the lot."
+</p>
+<p>
+The surgeon looked thoughtfully at the bones as
+he gave a final touch to their arrangement, and remarked:
+</p>
+<p>
+"The inspector is right. All the bones of the neck
+are there. Very odd. Don't you think so?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You mean&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I mean that this very eccentric murderer seems to
+have given himself such an extraordinary amount of
+trouble for no reason that one can see. There are
+these neck vertebrae, for instance. He must have carefully
+separated the skull from the atlas instead of just
+cutting through the neck. Then there is the way he
+divided the trunk; the twelfth ribs have just come in
+with this lot, but the twelfth dorsal vertebra to which
+they belong was attached to the lower half. Imagine
+the trouble he must have taken to do that, and without
+cutting or hacking the bones about, either. It is extraordinary.
+This is rather interesting, by the way. Handle it carefully."
+</p>
+<p>
+He picked up the breast-bone daintily&mdash;for it was
+covered with wet mud&mdash;and handed it to me with the
+remark: "That is the most definite piece of evidence
+we have."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You mean," I said, "that the union of the two
+parts into a single mass fixes this as the skeleton of an
+elderly man?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, that is the obvious suggestion, which is confirmed
+by the deposit of bone in the rib-cartilages. You
+can tell the inspector, Davis, that I have checked this
+lot of bones and that they are all here."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Would you mind writing it down, sir?" said the
+constable. "Inspector Badger said I was to have
+everything in writing."
+</p>
+<p>
+The surgeon took out his pocket-book, and, while he
+was selecting a suitable piece of paper, he asked: "Did
+you form any opinion as to the height of the deceased?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I thought he would be about five feet eight"
+(here I caught the sergeant's eyes fixed on me with a
+knowing leer).
+</p>
+<p>
+"I made it five eight and a half," said the police-surgeon;
+"but we shall know better when we have
+seen the lower leg-bones. Where was this lot found,
+Davis?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"In the pond just off the road in Lord's Bushes, sir,
+and the inspector has gone off now to&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Never mind where he's gone," interrupted the
+sergeant. "You just answer questions and attend to
+your business."
+</p>
+<p>
+The sergeant's reproof conveyed a hint to me on
+which I was not slow to act. Friendly as my professional
+colleague was, it was clear that the police were
+disposed to treat me as an interloper who was to be
+kept out of the "know" as far as possible. Accordingly
+I thanked my colleague and the sergeant for their
+courtesy, and bidding them adieu until we should meet
+at the inquest, took my departure and walked away
+quickly until I found an inconspicuous position from
+which I could keep the door of the mortuary in view.
+A few moments later I saw Constable Davis emerge
+and stride away up the road.
+</p>
+<p>
+I watched his rapidly diminishing figure until he had
+gone as far as I considered desirable, and then I set
+forth in his wake. The road led straight away from
+the village, and in less than half a mile entered the
+outskirts of the forest. Here I quickened my pace to
+close up somewhat, and it was well that I did so, for
+suddenly he diverged from the road into a green lane,
+where for a while I lost sight of him. Still hurrying
+forward, I again caught sight of him just as he turned
+off into a narrow path that entered a beech wood with
+a thickish undergrowth of holly, along which I followed
+him for several minutes, gradually decreasing the distance
+between us, until suddenly there fell on my ear
+a rhythmical, metallic sound like the clank of a pump.
+Soon after I caught the sound of men's voices, and then
+the constable struck off the path into the wood.
+</p>
+<p>
+I now advanced more cautiously, endeavouring to
+locate the search party by the sound of the pump, and
+when I had done this I made a little detour so that I
+might approach from the opposite direction to that
+from which the constable had appeared.
+</p>
+<p>
+Still guided by the noise of the pump, I at length
+came out into a small opening among the trees and
+halted to survey the scene. The centre of the opening
+was occupied by a small pond, not more than a dozen
+yards across, by the side of which stood a builder's
+handcart. The little two-wheeled vehicle had evidently
+been used to convey the appliances which were deposited
+on the ground near it, and which consisted of a large
+tub&mdash;now filled with water&mdash;a shovel, a rake, a sieve,
+and a portable pump, the latter being fitted with a
+long delivery hose. There were three men besides the
+constable, one of whom was working the handle of the
+pump, while another was glancing at a paper that the
+constable had just delivered to him. He looked up
+sharply as I appeared, and viewed me with unconcealed
+disfavour.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hallo, sir!" said he. "You can't come here."
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, seeing that I actually was here, this was clearly
+a mistake, and I ventured to point out the fallacy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I can't allow you to stay here. Our business
+is of a private nature."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I know exactly what your business is, Inspector
+Badger."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, do you?" said he, surveying me with a foxy
+smile. "And I expect I know what yours is, too. But
+we can't have any of you newspaper gentry spying on
+us just at present, so you just be off."
+</p>
+<p>
+I thought it best to undeceive him at once, and accordingly,
+having explained who I was, I showed him
+the coroner's permit, which he read with manifest
+annoyance.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is all very well, sir," said he as he handed me
+back the paper, "but it doesn't authorise you to come
+spying on the proceedings of the police. Any remains
+that we discover will be deposited in the mortuary,
+where you can inspect them to your heart's content;
+but you can't stay here and watch us."
+</p>
+<p>
+I had no defined object in keeping a watch on the
+inspector's proceedings; but the sergeant's indiscreet
+hint had aroused my curiosity, which was further excited
+by Mr. Badger's evident desire to get rid of me.
+Moreover, while we had been talking, the pump had
+stopped (the muddy floor of the pond being now pretty
+fully exposed), and the inspector's assistant was handling
+the shovel impatiently.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, I put it to you, Inspector," said I, persuasively,
+"is it politic of you to allow it to be said that
+you refused an authorised representative of the family
+facilities for verifying any statements that you may
+make hereafter?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What do you mean?" he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I mean that if you should happen to find some bone
+which could be identified as part of the body of Mr.
+Bellingham, that fact would be of more importance to
+his family than to anyone else. You know that there
+is a very valuable estate and a rather difficult will."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't know it, and I don't see the bearing of it
+now" (neither did I, for that matter); "but if you
+make such a point of being present at the search, I
+can't very well refuse. Only you mustn't get in our
+way, that's all."
+</p>
+<p>
+On hearing this conclusion, his assistant, who looked
+like a plain-clothes officer, took up his shovel and
+stepped into the mud that formed the bottom of the
+pond, stooping as he went and peering among the
+masses of weed that had been left stranded by the withdrawal
+of the water. The inspector watched him
+anxiously, cautioning him from time to time to "look
+out where he was treading"; the labourer left the
+pump and craned forward from the margin of the mud,
+and the constable and I looked on from our respective
+points of vantage. For some time the search was fruitless.
+Once the searcher stooped and picked up what
+turned out to be a fragment of decayed wood; then
+the remains of a long-deceased jay were discovered,
+examined, and rejected. Suddenly the man bent down
+by the side of a small pool that had been left in one
+of the deeper hollows, stared intently into the mud,
+and stood up.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There's something here that looks like a bone, sir,"
+he sang out.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't grub about, then," said the inspector.
+"Drive your shovel right into the mud where you saw
+it and bring it to the sieve."
+</p>
+<p>
+The man followed out these instructions, and as he
+came shorewards with a great pile of the slimy mud on
+his shovel we all converged on the sieve, which the
+inspector took up and held over the tub, directing the
+constable and labourer to "lend a hand," meaning
+thereby that they were to crowd round the tub and
+exclude me as completely as possible. This, in fact,
+they did very effectively with his assistance, for, when
+the shovelful of mud had been deposited on the sieve,
+the four men leaned over it and so nearly hid it from
+view that it was only by craning over, first on one side
+and then on the other, that I was able to catch an occasional
+glimpse of it and to observe it gradually melting
+away as the sieve, immersed in the water, was shaken
+to and fro.
+</p>
+<p>
+Presently the inspector raised the sieve from the
+water and stooped over it more closely to examine its
+contents. Apparently the examination yielded no very
+conclusive results, for it was accompanied by a series
+of rather dubious grunts.
+</p>
+<p>
+At length the officer stood up, and turning to me
+with a genial but foxy smile, held out the sieve for
+my inspection.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Like to see what we have found, Doctor?" said he.
+</p>
+<p>
+I thanked him and stooped over the sieve. It contained
+the sort of litter of twigs, skeleton leaves, weed,
+pond-snails, dead shells, and fresh-water mussels that
+one would expect to strain out from the mud of an
+ancient pond; but in addition to these there were
+three small bones which at the first glance gave me
+quite a start until I saw what they were.
+</p>
+<p>
+The inspector looked at me inquiringly. "H'm?"
+said he.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," I replied. "Very interesting."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Those will be human bones, I fancy; h'm?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should say so, undoubtedly," I answered.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now," said the inspector, "could you say, off-hand,
+which finger those bones belong to?"
+</p>
+<p>
+I smothered a grin (for I had been expecting this
+question), and answered:
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can say off-hand that they don't belong to any
+finger. They are the bones of the left great toe."
+</p>
+<p>
+The inspector's jaw dropped. "The deuce they
+are!" he muttered. "H'm. I thought they looked
+a bit stout."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I expect," said I, "that if you go through the mud
+close to where this came from you'll find the rest of
+the foot."
+</p>
+<p>
+The plain-clothes man proceeded at once to act on
+my suggestion, taking the sieve with him to save time.
+And sure enough, after filling it twice with the mud
+from the bottom of the pool, the entire skeleton of the
+foot was brought to light.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now you're happy, I suppose," said the inspector
+when I had checked the bones and found them all
+present.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should be more happy," I replied, "if I knew
+what you were searching for in this pond. You weren't
+looking for the foot, were you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was looking for anything that I might find," he
+answered. "I shall go on searching until we have the
+whole body. I shall go through all the streams and
+ponds around here, except Connaught Water. That
+I shall leave to the last, as it will be a case of dredging
+from a boat and isn't so likely as the smaller ponds.
+Perhaps the head will be there; it's deeper than any
+of the others."
+</p>
+<p>
+It now occurred to me that as I had learned all that
+I was likely to learn, which was little enough, I might
+as well leave the inspector to pursue his researches unembarrassed
+by my presence. Accordingly I thanked
+him for his assistance and departed by the way I had
+come.
+</p>
+<p>
+But as I retraced my steps along the shady path I
+speculated profoundly on the officer's proceedings. My
+examination of the mutilated hand had yielded the
+conclusion that the finger had been removed either
+after death or shortly before, but more probably after.
+Someone else had evidently arrived at the same conclusion,
+and had communicated his opinion to Inspector
+Badger; for it was clear that that gentleman was in
+full cry after the missing finger. But why was he
+searching for it here when the hand had been found at
+Sidcup? And what did he expect to learn from it
+when he found it? There is nothing particularly characteristic
+about a finger, or, at least, the bones of one;
+and the object of the present researches was to determine
+the identity of the person of whom these bones
+were the remains. There was something mysterious
+about the affair, something suggesting that Inspector
+Badger was in possession of private information of
+some kind. But what information could he have?
+And whence could he have obtained it? These were
+questions to which I could find no answer, and I was
+still fruitlessly revolving them when I arrived at the
+modest inn where the inquest was to be held, and where
+I proposed to fortify myself with a correspondingly
+modest lunch as a preparation for my attendance at
+that inquiry.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH13"><!-- CH13 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XIII
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE CROWNER'S QUEST
+</h3>
+<p>
+The proceedings of that fine old institution, the
+coroner's court, are apt to have their dignity impaired
+by the somewhat unjudicial surroundings amidst which
+they are conducted. The present inquiry was to be
+held in a long room attached to the inn, ordinarily
+devoted, as its various appurtenances testified, to gatherings
+of a more convivial character.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hither I betook myself after a protracted lunch and
+a meditative pipe, and, being the first to arrive&mdash;the
+jury having already been sworn and conducted to the
+mortuary to view the remains&mdash;whiled away the time
+by considering the habits of the customary occupants
+of the room by the light of the objects contained in it.
+A wooden target with one or two darts sticking in it
+hung on the end wall and invited the Robin Hoods of
+the village to try their skill; a system of incised marks
+on the oaken table made sinister suggestions of shove-halfpenny;
+and a large open box, filled with white
+wigs, gaudily coloured robes and wooden spears, swords
+and regalia, crudely coated with gilded paper, obviously
+appertained to the puerile ceremonials of the Order of
+Druids.
+</p>
+<p>
+I had exhausted the interest of these relics and had
+transferred my attentions to the picture gallery when
+the other spectators and the witnesses began to arrive.
+Hastily I seated myself in the only comfortable chair
+besides the one placed at the head of the table, presumably
+for the coroner; and I had hardly done so
+when the latter entered accompanied by the jury. Immediately
+after them came the sergeant, Inspector
+Badger, one or two plain-clothes men, and finally the
+divisional surgeon.
+</p>
+<p>
+The coroner took his seat at the head of the table
+and opened his book, and the jury seated themselves
+on a couple of benches on one side of the long table.
+I looked with some interest at the twelve "good men
+and true." They were a representative group of British
+tradesmen, quiet, attentive, and rather solemn; but
+my attention was particularly attracted by a small
+man with a very large head and a shock of upstanding
+hair whom I had diagnosed, after a glance at his intelligent
+but truculent countenance and the shiny knees
+of his trousers, as the village cobbler. He sat between
+the broad-shouldered foreman, who looked like a blacksmith,
+and a dogged, red-faced man whose general
+aspect of prosperous greasiness suggested the calling
+of a butcher.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The inquiry, gentlemen," the coroner commenced,
+"upon which we are now entering concerns itself with
+two questions. The first is that of identity: Who was
+this person whose body we have just viewed? The
+second is, How, when, and by what means did he come
+by his death? We will take the identity first and begin
+with the circumstances under which the body was discovered."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here the cobbler stood up and raised an excessively
+dirty hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I rise, Mr. Chairman," said he, "to a point of
+order." The other jurymen looked at him curiously
+and some of them, I regret to say, grinned. "You
+have referred, sir," he continued, "to the body which
+we have just viewed. I wish to point out that we have
+not viewed a body: we have viewed a collection of
+bones."
+</p>
+<p>
+"We will refer to them as the remains, if you prefer
+it," said the coroner.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do prefer it," was the reply, and the objector sat
+down.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well," rejoined the coroner, and he proceeded
+to call the witnesses, of whom the first was the labourer
+who had discovered the bones in the watercress-bed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you happen to know how long it was since the
+beds had been cleaned out previously?" the coroner
+asked, when the witness had told the story of the discovery.
+</p>
+<p>
+"They was cleaned out by Mr. Tapper's orders just
+before he gave them up. That will be a little better
+than two years ago. In May it were. I helped to
+clean 'em. I worked on this very same place and there
+wasn't no bones there then."
+</p>
+<p>
+The coroner glanced at the jury. "Any questions,
+gentlemen?" he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+The cobbler directed an intimidating scowl at the
+witness and demanded:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Were you searching for bones when you came on
+these remains?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Me!" exclaimed the witness. "What should I
+be searching for bones for?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't prevaricate," said the cobbler sternly; "answer
+the question: Yes or no."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; of course I wasn't."
+</p>
+<p>
+The juryman shook his enormous head dubiously as
+though implying that he would let it pass this time
+but it mustn't happen again; and the examination of
+the witnesses continued, without eliciting anything that
+was new to me or giving rise to any incident, until
+the sergeant had described the finding of the right arm
+in the Cuckoo Pits.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Was this an accidental discovery?" the coroner
+asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. We had instructions from Scotland Yard to
+search any likely ponds in this neighbourhood."
+</p>
+<p>
+The coroner discreetly forbore to press this matter
+any farther, but my friend the cobbler was evidently
+on the qui vive, and I anticipated a brisk cross-examination
+for Mr. Badger when his turn came. The inspector
+was apparently of the same opinion, for I saw
+him cast a glance of the deepest malevolence at the
+too inquiring disciple of St. Crispin. In fact, his turn
+came next, and the cobbler's hair stood up with unholy
+joy.
+</p>
+<p>
+The finding of the lower half of the trunk in Staple's
+Pond at Loughton was the inspector's own achievement,
+but he was not boastful about it. The discovery,
+he remarked, followed naturally on the previous one in
+the Cuckoo Pits.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Had you any private information that led you to
+search this particular neighbourhood?" the cobbler
+asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We had no private information whatever," replied
+Badger.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now I put it to you," pursued the juryman, shaking
+a forensic, and very dirty, forefinger at the inspector;
+"here are certain remains found at Sidcup; here are
+certain other remains found at St. Mary Cray, and
+certain others at Lee. All those places are in Kent.
+Now isn't it very remarkable that you should come
+straight down to Epping Forest, which is in Essex, and
+search for those bones and find 'em?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"We were making a systematic search of all likely
+places," replied Badger.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly," said the cobbler, with a ferocious grin,
+"that's just my point. I say, isn't it very funny that,
+after finding remains in Kent some twenty miles from
+here with the River Thames between, you should come
+here to look for the bones and go straight to Staple's
+Pond, where they happen to be&mdash;and find 'em?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It would have been more funny," Badger replied
+sourly, "if we'd gone straight to a place where they
+happened <i>not</i> to be&mdash;and found them."
+</p>
+<p>
+A gratified snigger arose from the other eleven good
+men and true, and the cobbler grinned savagely; but
+before he could think of a suitable rejoinder the coroner
+interposed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The question is not very material," he said, "and
+we mustn't embarrass the police by unnecessary inquiries."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's my belief," said the cobbler, "that he knew
+they were there all the time."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The witness has stated that he had no private
+information," said the coroner; and he proceeded to
+take the rest of the inspector's evidence, watched closely
+by the critical juror.
+</p>
+<p>
+The account of the finding of the remains having been
+given in full, the police-surgeon was called and sworn;
+the jurymen straightened their backs with an air of
+expectancy, and I turned over a page of my note-book.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have examined the bones at present lying in
+the mortuary and forming the subject of this inquiry?"
+the coroner asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Will you kindly tell us what you have observed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I find that the bones are human bones, and are, in
+my opinion, all parts of the same person. They form
+a skeleton which is complete with the exception of the
+skull, the third finger of the left hand, the knee-caps,
+and the leg-bones&mdash;I mean the bones between the knees
+and the ankles."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is there anything to account for the absence of the
+missing finger?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. There is no deformity and no sign of its having
+been amputated during life. In my opinion it was
+removed after death."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Can you give us any description of the deceased?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should say that these are the bones of an elderly
+man, probably over sixty years of age, about five feet
+eight and a half inches in height, of rather stout build,
+fairly muscular, and well preserved. There are no signs
+of disease excepting some old-standing rheumatic gout
+of the right hip-joint."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Can you form any opinion as to the cause of
+death?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. There are no marks of violence or signs of
+injury. But it will be impossible to form any opinion
+as to the cause of death until we have seen the skull."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you note anything else of importance?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. I was struck by the appearance of anatomical
+knowledge and skill on the part of the person who dismembered
+the body. The knowledge of anatomy is
+proved by the fact that the corpse has been divided
+into definite anatomical regions. For instance, the
+bones of the neck are complete and include the top
+joint of the backbone known as the atlas; whereas a
+person without anatomical knowledge would probably
+take off the head by cutting through the neck. Then
+the arms have been separated with the scapula (or
+shoulder-blade) and clavicle (or collar-bone) attached,
+just as an arm would be removed for dissection.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The skill is shown by the neat way in which the
+dismemberment has been carried out. The parts have
+not been rudely hacked asunder, but have been separated
+at the joints so skilfully that I have not discovered
+a single scratch or mark of the knife on any
+of the bones."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Can you suggest any class of person who would be
+likely to possess the knowledge and skill to which you
+refer?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It would, of course, be possessed by a surgeon or
+medical student, and possibly by a butcher."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You think that the person who dismembered this
+body may have been a surgeon or a medical student?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; or a butcher. Someone accustomed to the
+dismemberment of bodies and skilful with the knife."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here the cobbler suddenly rose to his feet.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I rise, Mr. Chairman," said he, "to protest against
+the statement that has just been made."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What statement?" demanded the coroner.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Against the aspersion," continued the cobbler, with
+an oratorical flourish, "that has been cast upon a
+honourable calling."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't understand you," said the coroner.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Doctor Summers has insinuated that this murder
+was committed by a butcher. Now a member of that
+honourable calling is sitting on this jury&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You let me alone," growled the butcher.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I will not let you alone," persisted the cobbler.
+"I desire&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, shut up, Pope!" This was from the foreman,
+who, at the same moment, reached out an enormous
+hairy hand with which he grabbed the cobbler's coat-tails
+and brought him into a sitting posture with a
+thump that shook the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+But Mr. Pope, though seated, was not silenced. "I
+desire," said he, "to have my protest put on record."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can't do that," said the coroner, "and I can't
+allow you to interrupt the witnesses."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am acting," said Mr. Pope, "in the interests of
+my friend here and the members of a honourable&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+But here the butcher turned on him savagely, and,
+in a hoarse stage-whisper, exclaimed:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Look here, Pope; you've got too much of what the
+cat licks&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Gentlemen! gentlemen!" the coroner protested,
+sternly; "I cannot permit this unseemly conduct. You
+are forgetting the solemnity of the occasion and your
+own responsible positions. I must insist on more decent
+and decorous behaviour."
+</p>
+<p>
+There was profound silence, in the midst of which
+the butcher concluded in the same hoarse whisper:
+</p>
+<p>
+"&mdash;licks 'er paws with."
+</p>
+<p>
+The coroner cast a withering glance at him, and
+turning to the witness, resumed the examination.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Can you tell us, Doctor, how long a time has elapsed
+since the death of the deceased?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should say not less than eighteen months, but
+probably more. How much more it is impossible from
+inspection alone to say. The bones are perfectly clean&mdash;that
+is, clean of all soft structures&mdash;and will remain
+substantially in their present condition for many years."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The evidence of the man who found the remains
+in the watercress-bed suggests that they could not have
+been there more than two years. Do the appearances,
+in your opinion, agree with that view?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; perfectly."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There is one more point, Doctor; a very important
+one. Do you find anything in any of the bones, or all
+of them together, which would enable you to identify
+them as the bones of any particular individual?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," replied Dr. Summers; "I found no peculiarity
+that could furnish the means of personal identification."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The description of a missing individual has been
+given to us," said the coroner; "a man, fifty-nine
+years of age, five feet eight inches in height, healthy,
+well preserved, rather broad in build, and having an
+old Pott's fracture of the left ankle. Do the remains
+that you have examined agree with that description?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, in so far as agreement is possible. There is
+no disagreement."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The remains might be those of that individual?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"They might; but there is no positive evidence that
+they are. The description would apply to a large proportion
+of elderly men, except as to the fracture."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You found no signs of such a fracture?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. Pott's fracture affects the bone called the
+fibula. That is one of the bones that has not yet been
+found, so there is no evidence on that point. The left
+foot was quite normal, but then it would be in any
+case, unless the fracture had resulted in great deformity."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You estimated the height of the deceased as half
+an inch greater than that of the missing person. Does
+that constitute a disagreement?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; my estimate is only approximate. As the
+arms are complete and the legs are not, I have based
+my calculations on the width across the two arms.
+But measurement of the thigh-bones gives the same
+result. The length of the thigh-bones is one foot seven
+inches and five-eighths."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So the deceased might not have been taller than
+five feet eight?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is so: from five feet eight to five feet nine."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you. I think that is all we want to ask
+you, Doctor; unless the jury wish to put any questions."
+</p>
+<p>
+He glanced uneasily at that august body, and instantly
+the irrepressible Pope rose to the occasion.
+</p>
+<p>
+"About that finger that is missing," said the cobbler.
+"You say that it was cut off after death."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is my opinion."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, can you tell us why it was cut off?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I cannot."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, come now, Doctor Summers, you must have
+formed some opinion on the subject."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here the coroner interposed. "The Doctor is only
+concerned with evidence arising out of the actual examination
+of the remains. Any personal opinions or
+conjectures that he may have formed are not evidence,
+and he must not be asked about them."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, sir," objected Pope, "we want to know why
+that finger was cut off. It couldn't have been took off
+for no reason. May I ask, sir, if the person who is missing
+had anything peculiar about that finger?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nothing is stated to that effect in the written
+description," replied the coroner.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Perhaps," suggested Pope, "Inspector Badger can
+tell us."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think," said the coroner, "we had better not ask
+the police too many questions. They will tell us anything
+that they wish to be made public."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, very well," snapped the cobbler. "If it's a
+matter of hushing it up I've got no more to say; only I
+don't see how we are to arrive at a verdict if we don't
+have the facts put before us."
+</p>
+<p>
+All the witnesses having now been examined, the
+coroner proceeded to sum up and address the
+jury.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have heard the evidence, gentlemen, of the
+various witnesses, and you will have perceived that it
+does not enable us to answer either of the questions
+that form the subject of this inquiry. We now know
+that the deceased was an elderly man, about sixty years
+of age, and about five feet eight or nine in height; and
+that his death took place from eighteen months to two
+years ago. That is all we know. From the treatment
+to which the body has been subjected we may form
+certain conjectures as to the circumstances of his
+death. But we have no actual knowledge. We do not
+know who the deceased was or how he came by his
+death. Consequently, it will be necessary to adjourn
+this inquiry until fresh facts are available, and as soon
+as that is the case, you will receive due notice that
+your attendance is required."
+</p>
+<p>
+The silence of the Court gave place to the confused
+noise of moving chairs and a general outbreak of eager
+talk, amidst which I rose and made my way out into
+the street. At the door I encountered Dr. Summers,
+whose dog-cart was waiting close by.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you going back to town now?" he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," I answered; "as soon as I can catch a
+train."
+</p>
+<p>
+"If you jump into my cart I'll run you down in
+time for the five-one. You'll miss it if you walk."
+</p>
+<p>
+I accepted his offer thankfully, and a minute later
+was spinning briskly down the road to the station.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Queer little devil, that man, Pope," Dr. Summers
+remarked. "Quite a character; socialist, labourite,
+agitator, general crank; anything for a row."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," I answered, "that was what his appearance
+suggested. It must be trying for the coroner to get a
+truculent rascal like that on a jury."
+</p>
+<p>
+Summers laughed. "I don't know. He supplies the
+comic relief. And then, you know, those fellows have
+their uses. Some of his questions were pretty pertinent."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So Badger seemed to think."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, by Jove," chuckled Summers, "Badger didn't
+like him a bit; and I suspect the worthy inspector was
+sailing pretty close to the wind in his answers."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You think he really has some private information?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Depends upon what you mean by 'information.'
+The police are not a speculative body. They wouldn't
+be taking all this trouble unless they had a pretty
+straight tip from somebody. How are Mr. and Miss
+Bellingham? I used to know them slightly when they
+lived here."
+</p>
+<p>
+I was considering a discreet answer to this question
+when we swept into the station yard. At the same
+moment the train drew up at the platform, and, with
+a hurried hand-shake and hastily spoken thanks, I
+sprang from the dog-cart and darted into the station.
+</p>
+<p>
+During the rather slow journey homewards I read
+over my notes and endeavoured to extract from the
+facts they set forth some significance other than that
+which lay on the surface, but without much success.
+Then I fell to speculating on what Thorndyke would
+think of the evidence at the inquest and whether he
+would be satisfied with the information that I had
+collected. These speculations lasted me, with occasional
+digressions, until I arrived at the Temple and
+ran up the stairs rather eagerly to my friend's
+chambers.
+</p>
+<p>
+But here a disappointment awaited me. The nest
+was empty with the exception of Polton, who appeared
+at the laboratory door in his white apron, with a pair
+of flat-nosed pliers in his hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The Doctor has had to go down to Bristol to consult
+over an urgent case," he explained, "and Doctor
+Jervis has gone with him. They'll be away a day or
+two, I expect, but the Doctor left this note for you."
+</p>
+<p>
+He took a letter from a shelf, where it had been stood
+conspicuously on edge, and handed it to me. It was
+a short note from Thorndyke apologising for his sudden
+departure and asking me to give Polton my notes with
+any comments that I had to make.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You will be interested to learn," he added, "that
+the application will be heard in the Probate Court the
+day after to-morrow. I shall not be present, of course,
+nor will Jervis, so I should like you to attend and keep
+your eyes open for anything that may happen during
+the hearing and that may not appear in the notes that
+Marchmont's clerk will be instructed to take. I have
+retained Dr. Payne to stand by and help you with the
+practice, so that you can attend the Court with a clear
+conscience."
+</p>
+<p>
+This was highly flattering and quite atoned for the
+small disappointment; with deep gratification at the
+trust that Thorndyke had reposed in me, I pocketed
+the letter, handed my notes to Polton, wished him
+"Good evening," and betook myself to Fetter Lane.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH14"><!-- CH14 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XIV
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+WHICH CARRIES THE READER INTO THE PROBATE COURT
+</h3>
+<p>
+The Probate Court wore an air of studious repose
+when I entered with Miss Bellingham and her father.
+Apparently the great and inquisitive public had not
+become aware of the proceedings that were about to
+take place, or had not realised their connection with
+the sensational "Mutilation Case"; but barristers and
+Press-men, better informed, had gathered in some
+strength, and the hum of their conversation filled the
+air like the droning of the voluntary that ushers in a
+cathedral service.
+</p>
+<p>
+As we entered, a pleasant-faced, elderly gentleman
+rose and came forward to meet us, shaking Mr. Bellingham's
+hand cordially and saluting Miss Bellingham
+with a courtly bow.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is Mr. Marchmont, Doctor," said the former,
+introducing me; and the solicitor, having thanked me
+for the trouble I had taken in attending at the inquest,
+led us to a bench, at the farther end of which was
+seated a gentleman whom I recognised as Mr. Hurst.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Bellingham recognised him at the same moment
+and glared at him wrathfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I see that scoundrel is here!" he exclaimed in a
+distinctly audible voice, "pretending that he doesn't
+see me, because he is ashamed to look me in the face,
+but&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hush! hush! my dear sir," exclaimed the horrified
+solicitor; "we mustn't talk like that, especially
+in this place. Let me beg you&mdash;let me entreat you to
+control your feelings, to make no indiscreet remarks;
+in fact, to make no remarks at all," he added, with the
+evident conviction that any remarks that Mr. Bellingham
+might make would be certain to be indiscreet.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Forgive me, Marchmont," Mr. Bellingham replied
+contritely. "I will control myself; I will really be
+quite discreet. I won't even look at him again&mdash;because,
+if I do, I shall probably go over and pull his
+nose."
+</p>
+<p>
+This particular form of discretion did not appear to
+be quite to Mr. Marchmont's liking, for he took the
+precaution of insisting that Miss Bellingham and I
+should sit on the farther side of his client, and thus
+effectually separate him from his enemy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who's the long-nosed fellow talking to Jellicoe?"
+Mr. Bellingham asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is Mr. Loram, K.C., Mr. Hurst's counsel; and
+the convivial-looking gentleman next to him is our
+counsel, Mr. Heath, a most able man and"&mdash;here Mr.
+Marchmont whispered behind his hand&mdash;"fully instructed
+by Doctor Thorndyke."
+</p>
+<p>
+At this juncture the judge entered and took his
+seat; the usher proceeded with great rapidity to swear
+in the jury, and the Court gradually settled down into
+that state of academic quiet which it maintained
+throughout the proceedings, excepting when the noisy
+swing-doors were set oscillating by some bustling clerk
+or reporter.
+</p>
+<p>
+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&mdash;as if in the act of swallowing a large beetle&mdash;which
+was the only outward and visible sign of emotion
+that he ever displayed.
+</p>
+<p>
+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.
+</p>
+<p>
+"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. George Hurst,
+is now applying to the Court for permission to presume
+the death of the testator and prove the will. As the
+time which has elapsed since the testator was last seen
+alive is only two years, the application is based upon
+the circumstances of the disappearance, which were, in
+many respects, very singular, the most remarkable
+feature of that disappearance being, perhaps, its suddenness
+and completeness."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here the judge remarked in a still, small voice that
+"It would, perhaps, have been even more remarkable
+if the testator had disappeared gradually and incompletely."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No doubt, my Lord," agreed Mr. Loram; "but the
+point is that the testator, whose habits had always been
+regular and orderly, disappeared on the date mentioned
+without having made any of the usual provisions
+for the conduct of his affairs, and has not since then
+been seen or heard of."
+</p>
+<p>
+With this preamble Mr. Loram proceeded to give a
+narrative of the events connected with the disappearance
+of John Bellingham, which was substantially
+identical with that which I had read in the newspapers;
+and having laid the actual facts before the jury, he
+went on to discuss their probable import.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, what conclusion," he asked, "will this
+strange, this most mysterious train of events suggest
+to an intelligent person who shall consider it impartially?
+Here is a man who steps forth from the house
+of his cousin or his brother, as the case may be, and
+forthwith, in the twinkling of an eye, vanishes from
+human ken. What is the explanation? Did he steal
+forth and, without notice or hint of his intention, take
+train to some seaport, thence to embark for some distant
+land, leaving his affairs to take care of themselves
+and his friends to speculate vainly as to his whereabouts?
+Is he now in hiding abroad, or even at home,
+indifferent alike to the safety of his own considerable
+property and the peace of mind of his friends? Or is
+it that death has come upon him unawares by sickness,
+by accident, or, more probably, by the hand of some
+unknown criminal? Let us consider the probabilities.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Can he have disappeared by his own deliberate act?
+Why not? it may be asked. Men undoubtedly do
+disappear from time to time, to be discovered by
+chance or to reappear voluntarily after intervals of
+years and find their names almost forgotten and their
+places filled by new-comers. Yes; but there is always
+some reason for a disappearance of this kind, even
+though it be a bad one. Family discords that make
+life a weariness; pecuniary difficulties that make life
+a succession of anxieties; distaste for particular circumstances
+and surroundings from which there seems
+no escape; inherent restlessness and vagabond tendencies,
+and so on.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do any of these explanations apply to the present
+case? No, they do not. Family discords&mdash;at least
+those capable of producing chronic misery&mdash;appertain
+exclusively to the married state. But the testator was
+a bachelor with no encumbrances whatever. Pecuniary
+anxieties can be equally excluded. The testator was in
+easy, in fact, in affluent circumstances. His mode of
+life was apparently agreeable and full of interest and
+activity, and he had full liberty to change it if he
+wished. He had been accustomed to travel, and could
+do so again without absconding. He had reached an
+age when radical changes do not seem desirable. He
+was a man of fixed and regular habits, and his regularity
+was of his own choice and not due to compulsion
+or necessity. When last seen by his friends, as I shall
+prove, he was proceeding to a definite destination with
+the expressed intention of returning for purposes of his
+own appointing. He did return and then vanished,
+leaving those purposes unachieved.
+</p>
+<p>
+"If we conclude that he has voluntarily disappeared
+and is at present in hiding, we adopt an opinion that is
+entirely at variance with all these weighty facts. If,
+on the other hand, we conclude that he has died suddenly,
+or has been killed by an accident or otherwise,
+we are adopting a view that involves no inherent improbabilities
+and that is entirely congruous with the
+known facts; facts that will be proved by the testimony
+of the witnesses whom I shall call. The supposition
+that the testator is dead is not only more probable
+than that he is alive; I submit that it is the only reasonable
+explanation of the circumstances of his disappearance.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But this is not all. The presumption of death
+which arises so inevitably out of the mysterious and
+abrupt manner in which the testator disappeared has
+recently received most conclusive and dreadful confirmation.
+On the fifteenth of July last there were
+discovered at Sidcup the remains of a human arm&mdash;a
+left arm, gentlemen, from the hand of which the
+third, or ring, finger was missing. The doctor who has
+examined that arm will tell you that that finger was
+cut off either after death or immediately before; and
+his evidence will prove conclusively that that arm must
+have been deposited in the place where it was found
+just about the time when the testator disappeared.
+Since that first discovery, other portions of the same
+mutilated body have come to light; and it is a strange
+and significant fact that they have all been found in
+the immediate neighbourhood of Eltham or Woodford.
+You will remember, gentlemen, that it was either at
+Eltham or Woodford that the testator was last seen
+alive.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And now observe the completeness of the coincidence.
+These human remains, as you will be told
+presently by the experienced and learned medical gentleman
+who has examined them most exhaustively, are
+those of a man of about sixty years of age, about
+five feet eight inches in height, fairly muscular and
+well preserved, apparently healthy, and rather stoutly
+built. Another witness will tell you that the missing
+man was about sixty years of age, about five feet eight
+inches in height, fairly muscular and well preserved,
+apparently healthy, and rather stoutly built. And&mdash;another
+most significant and striking fact&mdash;the testator
+was accustomed to wear upon the third finger of his
+left hand&mdash;the very finger that is missing from the
+remains that were found&mdash;a most peculiar ring, which
+fitted so tightly that he was unable to get it off after
+once putting it on; a ring, gentlemen, of so peculiar a
+pattern that had it been found on the body must have
+instantly established the identity of the remains. In a
+word, gentlemen, the remains which have been found
+are those of a man exactly like the testator; they differ
+from him in no respect whatever; they display a mutilation
+which suggests an attempt to conceal an identifying
+peculiarity which he undoubtedly presented; and
+they were deposited in their various hiding-places about
+the time of the testator's disappearance. Accordingly,
+when you have heard these facts proved by the sworn
+testimony of competent witnesses, together with the
+facts relating to the disappearance, I shall ask you for
+a verdict in accordance with that evidence."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Loram sat down, and adjusting a pair of pince-nez,
+rapidly glanced over his brief while the usher was
+administering the oath to the first witness.
+</p>
+<p>
+This was Mr. Jellicoe, who stepped into the box and
+directed a stony gaze at the (apparently) unconscious
+judge. The usual preliminaries having been gone
+through, Mr. Loram proceeded to examine him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You were the testator's solicitor and confidential
+agent, I believe?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was&mdash;and am."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How long have you known him?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Twenty-seven years."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Judging from your experience of him, should you
+say that he was a person likely to disappear voluntarily
+and suddenly to cease to communicate with his
+friends?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Kindly give your reasons for that opinion."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Such conduct on the part of the testator would be
+entirely opposed to his habits and character as they
+are known to me. He was exceedingly regular and
+business-like in his dealings with me. When travelling
+abroad he always kept me informed as to his whereabouts,
+or, if he was likely to be beyond reach of communications,
+he always advised me beforehand. One
+of my duties was to collect a pension which he drew
+from the Foreign Office, and on no occasion, previous
+to his disappearance, has he ever failed to furnish me
+punctually with the necessary documents."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Had he, so far as you know, any reasons for wishing
+to disappear?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No."
+</p>
+<p>
+"When and where did you last see him alive?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"At six o'clock in the evening, on the fourteenth of
+October, nineteen hundred and two, at 141 Queen
+Square, Bloomsbury."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Kindly tell us what happened on that occasion."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The testator had called for me at my office at a
+quarter past three, and asked me to come with him to
+his house to meet Doctor Norbury. I accompanied
+him to 141 Queen Square, and shortly after we arrived
+Doctor Norbury came to look at some antiquities that
+the testator proposed to give to the British Museum.
+The gift consisted of a mummy with the four Canopic
+jars and other tomb-furniture, which the testator
+stipulated should be exhibited together in a single case
+and in the state in which they were then presented.
+Of these objects, the mummy only was ready for inspection.
+The tomb-furniture had not yet arrived in
+England, but was expected within a week. Doctor
+Norbury accepted the gift on behalf of the Museum,
+but could not take possession of the objects until he
+had communicated with the Director and obtained his
+formal authority. The testator accordingly gave me
+certain instructions concerning the delivery of the gift,
+as he was leaving England that evening."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are those instructions relevant to the subject of
+this inquiry?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think they are. The testator was going to Paris,
+and perhaps from thence to Vienna. He instructed
+me to receive and unpack the tomb-furniture on its
+arrival, and to store it, with the mummy, in a particular
+room, where it was to remain for three weeks.
+If he returned within that time he was to hand it over
+in person to the Museum authorities; if he had not returned
+within that time, he desired me to notify the
+Museum authorities that they were at liberty to take
+possession of and remove the collection at their convenience.
+From these instructions I gathered that the
+testator was uncertain as to the length of his absence
+from England and the extent of his journey."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did he state precisely where he was going?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. He said that he was going to Paris and perhaps
+to Vienna, but he gave no particulars and I asked
+for none."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you, in fact, know where he went?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. He left the house at six o'clock wearing a long,
+heavy overcoat and carrying a suit-case and an umbrella.
+I wished him 'Good-bye' at the door and
+watched him walk away as if going towards Southampton
+Row. I have no idea where he went, and I
+never saw him again."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Had he no other luggage than the suit-case?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do not know, but I believe not. He was accustomed
+to travel with the bare necessaries, and to buy
+anything further that he wanted <i>en route</i>."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did he say nothing to the servants as to the probable
+date of his return?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"There were no servants excepting the caretaker.
+The house was not used for residential purposes. The
+testator slept and took his meals at his club, though
+he kept his clothes at the house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you receive any communication from him after
+he left?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. I never heard from him again in any way. I
+waited for three weeks as he had instructed me, and
+then notified the Museum authorities that the collection
+was ready for removal. Five days later Doctor
+Norbury came and took formal possession of it, and it
+was transferred to the Museum forthwith."
+</p>
+<p>
+"When did you next hear of the testator?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"On the twenty-third of November following at a
+quarter past seven in the evening. Mr. George Hurst
+came to my rooms, which are over my office, and informed
+me that the testator had called at his house
+during his absence and had been shown into the study
+to wait for him. That on his&mdash;Mr. Hurst's&mdash;arrival it
+was found that the testator had disappeared without
+acquainting the servants with his intended departure,
+and without being seen by anyone to leave the house.
+Mr. Hurst thought this so remarkable that he had
+hastened up to town to inform me. I also thought it a
+remarkable circumstance, especially as I had received
+no communication from the testator, and we both decided
+that it was advisable to inform the testator's
+brother, Godfrey, of what had happened.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Accordingly Mr. Hurst and I proceeded as quickly
+as possible to Liverpool Street and took the first train
+available to Woodford, where Mr. Godfrey Bellingham
+then resided. We arrived at his house at five minutes
+to nine, and were informed by the servant that he was
+not at home, but that his daughter was in the library,
+which was a detached building situated in the grounds.
+The servant lighted a lantern and conducted us through
+the grounds to the library, where we found Mr. Godfrey
+Bellingham and Miss Bellingham. Mr. Godfrey had
+only just come in and had entered by the back gate,
+which had a bell that rang in the library. Mr. Hurst
+informed Mr. Godfrey of what had occurred, and then
+we all left the library to walk up to the house. A few
+paces from the library I noticed by the light of the
+lantern, which Mr. Godfrey was carrying, a small object
+lying on the lawn. I pointed it out to him and he
+picked it up, and then we all recognised it as a scarab
+that the testator was accustomed to wear on his watch-chain.
+It was fitted with a gold wire passed through
+the suspension hole and a gold ring. Both the wire and
+the ring were in position, but the ring was broken.
+We went to the house and questioned the servants as
+to visitors; but none of them had seen the testator,
+and they all agreed that no visitor whatsoever had
+come to the house during the afternoon, or evening.
+Mr. Godfrey and Miss Bellingham both declared that
+they had neither seen nor heard anything of the
+testator, and were both unaware that he had returned
+to England. As the circumstances were somewhat disquieting,
+I communicated, on the following morning,
+with the police and requested them to make inquiries;
+which they did, with the result that a suit-case, bearing
+the initials 'J.B.', was found to be lying unclaimed in
+the cloak-room at Charing Cross Station. I was able
+to identify the suit-case as that which I had seen the
+testator carry away from Queen Square. I was also
+able to identify some of the contents. I interviewed
+the cloak-room attendant, who informed me that the
+suit-case had been deposited on the twenty-third at
+about 4.15 P.M. He had no recollection of the person
+who deposited it. It remained unclaimed in the possession
+of the railway company for three months, and
+was then surrendered to me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Were there any marks or labels on it showing the
+route by which it had travelled?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"There were no labels on it and no marks other
+than the initials 'J.B.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you happen to know the testator's age?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. He was fifty-nine on the eleventh of October,
+nineteen hundred and two."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Can you tell us what his height was?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. He was exactly five feet eight inches."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What sort of health had he?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"So far as I know his health was good. I am not
+aware that he suffered from any disease. I am only
+judging by his appearance, which was that of a healthy
+man."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Should you describe him as well preserved or otherwise?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should describe him as a well-preserved man for
+his age."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How should you describe his figure?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should describe him as rather broad and stout
+in build, and fairly muscular, though not exceptionally
+so."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Loram made a rapid note of these answers, and
+then said:
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have told us, Mr. Jellicoe, that you have known
+the testator intimately for twenty-seven years. Now,
+did you ever notice whether he was accustomed to
+wear any rings upon his fingers?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He wore upon the third finger of his left hand a
+copy of an antique ring which bore the device of the
+Eye of Osiris. That was the only ring he ever wore as
+far as I know."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did he wear it constantly?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, necessarily; because it was too small for him,
+and having once squeezed it on he was never able to
+get it off again."
+</p>
+<p>
+This was the sum of Mr. Jellicoe's evidence, and at
+its conclusion the witness glanced inquiringly at Mr.
+Bellingham's counsel. But Mr. Heath remained seated,
+attentively considering the notes that he had just made,
+and finding that there was to be no cross-examination,
+Mr. Jellicoe stepped down from the box. I leaned back
+on my bench, and, turning my head, observed Miss
+Bellingham deep in thought.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What do you think of it?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It seems very complete and conclusive," she replied.
+And then, with a sigh, she murmured: "Poor
+old Uncle John! How horrid it sounds to talk of him
+in this cold-blooded, business-like way, as 'the testator,'
+as if he were nothing but a sort of algebraical sign."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There isn't much room for sentiment, I suppose,
+in the proceedings of the Probate Court," I replied.
+To which she assented, and then asked: "Who is this
+lady?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"This lady" was a fashionably dressed young woman
+who had just bounced into the witness-box and was
+now being sworn. The preliminaries being finished,
+she answered Miss Bellingham's question and Mr.
+Loram's by stating that her name was Augustina
+Gwendoline Dobbs, and that she was housemaid to Mr.
+George Hurst, of "The Poplars," Eltham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mr. Hurst lives alone, I believe?" said Mr. Loram.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know what you mean by that," Miss Dobbs
+began; but the barrister explained:
+</p>
+<p>
+"I mean that I believe he is unmarried?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, and what about it?" the witness demanded
+tartly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am asking you a question."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I know that," said the witness viciously; "and I
+say that you've no business to make any such insinuations
+to a respectable young lady when there's a cook-housekeeper
+and a kitchenmaid living in the house,
+and him old enough to be my father&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+Here his lordship flattened his eyelids with startling
+effect, and Mr. Loram interrupted: "I make no insinuations.
+I merely ask, Is your employer, Mr. Hurst,
+an unmarried man, or is he not?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I never asked him," said the witness sulkily.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Please answer my question&mdash;yes or no?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"How can I answer your question? He may be
+unmarried or he may not. How do I know? I'm not a
+private detective."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Loram directed a stupefied gaze at the witness,
+and in the ensuing silence a plaintive voice came from
+the bench:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is the point material?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Certainly, my lord," replied Mr. Loram.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then, as I see that you are calling Mr. Hurst, perhaps
+you had better put the question to him. He will
+probably know."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Loram bowed, and as the judge subsided into
+his normal state of coma he turned to the triumphant
+witness.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you remember anything remarkable occurring
+on the twenty-third of November the year before last?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. Mr. John Bellingham called at our house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How did you know he was Mr. John Bellingham?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't; but he said he was, and I supposed he
+knew."
+</p>
+<p>
+"At what time did he arrive?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"At twenty minutes past five in the evening."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What happened then?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I told him that Mr. Hurst had not come home yet,
+and he said he would wait for him in the study and
+write some letters; so I showed him into the study and
+shut the door."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What happened next?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nothing. Then Mr. Hurst came home at his usual
+time&mdash;a quarter to six&mdash;and let himself in with his
+key. He went straight through into the study, where
+I supposed Mr. Bellingham still was, so I took no
+notice, but laid the table for two. At six o'clock Mr.
+Hurst came into the dining-room&mdash;he has tea in the
+City and dines at six&mdash;and when he saw the table laid
+for two he asked the reason. I said I thought Mr.
+Bellingham was staying to dinner.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Mr. Bellingham!' says he. 'I didn't know he was
+here. Why didn't you tell me?' he says. 'I thought
+he was with you, sir,' I said. 'I showed him into the
+study,' I said. 'Well, he wasn't there when I came
+in,' he said, 'and he isn't there now,' he said. 'Perhaps
+he has gone to wait in the drawing-room,' he said.
+So we went and looked in the drawing-room, but he
+wasn't there. Then Mr. Hurst said he thought Mr.
+Bellingham must have got tired of waiting and gone
+away; but I told him I was quite sure he hadn't, because
+I had been watching all the time. Then he asked
+me if Mr. Bellingham was alone or whether his daughter
+was with him, and I said that it wasn't that Mr. Bellingham
+at all, but Mr. John Bellingham, and then
+he was more surprised than ever. I said we had better
+search the house to make sure whether he was there or
+not, and Mr. Hurst said he would come with me; so we
+went all over the house and looked in all the rooms, but
+there was not a sign of Mr. Bellingham in any of them.
+Then Mr. Hurst got very nervous and upset, and when
+he had just snatched a little dinner he ran off to catch
+the six-thirty train up to town."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You say that Mr. Bellingham could not have left
+the house because you were watching all the time.
+Where were you while you were watching?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was in the kitchen. I could see the front gate
+from the kitchen window."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You say that you laid the table for two. Where
+did you lay it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"In the dining-room, of course."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Could you see the front gate from the dining-room?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, but I could see the study door. The study is
+opposite the dining-room."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you have to come upstairs to get from the
+kitchen to the dining-room?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, of course you do!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then might not Mr. Bellingham have left the house
+while you were coming up the stairs?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, he couldn't have done."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why not?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Because it would have been impossible."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But why would it have been impossible?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Because he couldn't have done it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suggest that Mr. Bellingham left the house quietly
+while you were on the stairs?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, he didn't."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How do you know he did not?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am quite sure he didn't."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What makes you feel sure he did not?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am quite certain he didn't."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But how can you be certain?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Because I should have seen him if he had."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I mean when you were on the stairs."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He was in the study when I was on the stairs."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How do you know he was in the study?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Because I showed him in there and he hadn't come
+out."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Loram paused and took a deep breath, and his
+lordship flattened his eyelids.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is there a side gate to the premises?" the barrister
+resumed wearily.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. It opens into a narrow lane at the side of
+the house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And there is a French window in the study, is there
+not?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; it opens on to the small grass plot opposite
+the side gate."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Were the window and the gate locked, or would
+it have been possible for Mr. Bellingham to let himself
+out into the lane?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The window and the gate both have catches on the
+inside. He could have got out that way, but, of course,
+he didn't."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why not?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, no gentleman would go creeping out by the
+back way like a thief."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you look to see if the French window was shut
+and fastened after you missed Mr. Bellingham?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I looked at it when we shut the house up for the
+night. It was then shut and fastened on the inside."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And the side gate?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That was shut and latched. You have to slam
+the gate to make the latch fasten, so no one could have
+gone out of that gate without being heard."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here the examination-in-chief ended, and Mr. Loram
+sat down with an audible sigh of relief. Miss Dobbs
+was about to step down from the witness-box when Mr.
+Heath rose to cross-examine.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you see Mr. Bellingham in a good light?" he
+asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pretty good. It was dark outside, but the hall-lamp
+was alight."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Kindly look at this"&mdash;here a small object was
+passed across to the witness. "It is a trinket that Mr.
+Bellingham is stated to have carried suspended from
+his watch-guard. Can you remember if he was wearing
+it in that manner when he came to the house?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, he was not."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You are sure of that?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Quite sure."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you. And now I want to ask you about
+the search that you have mentioned. You say that
+you went all over the house. Did you go into the
+study?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No&mdash;at least, not until Mr. Hurst had gone to
+London."
+</p>
+<p>
+"When you did go in, was the window fastened?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Could it have been fastened from the outside?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; there is no handle outside."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What furniture is there in the study?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"There is a writing-table, a revolving-chair, two easy
+chairs, two large bookcases, and a wardrobe that Mr.
+Hurst keeps his overcoats and hats in."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Does the wardrobe lock?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Was it locked when you went in?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm sure I don't know. I don't go about trying
+the cupboards and drawers."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What furniture is there in the drawing-room?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A cabinet, six or seven chairs, a Chesterfield sofa,
+a piano, a silver-table, and one or two occasional
+tables."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is the piano a grand or an upright."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is an upright grand."
+</p>
+<p>
+"In what position is it placed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It stands across a corner near the window."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is there sufficient room behind it for a man to
+conceal himself?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Dobbs was amused and did not dissemble.
+"Oh, yes," she sniggered, "there's plenty of room for
+a man to hide behind it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"When you searched the drawing-room, did you look
+behind the piano?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I didn't!" Miss Dobbs replied scornfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you look under the sofa?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Certainly not!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What did you do, then?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"We opened the door and looked into the room.
+We were not looking for a cat or a monkey; we were
+looking for a middle-aged gentleman."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And am I to take it that your search over the rest
+of the house was conducted in a similar manner?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Certainly. We looked into the rooms, but we did
+not search under the beds or in the cupboards."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are all the rooms in the house in use as living or
+sleeping rooms?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; there is one room on the second floor that is
+used as a store and lumber room, and one on the first
+floor that Mr. Hurst uses to store trunks and things
+that he is not using."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you look in those rooms when you searched
+the house?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have you looked in them since?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have been in the lumber-room since, but not in
+the other. It is always kept locked."
+</p>
+<p>
+At this point an ominous flattening became apparent
+in his lordship's eyelids, but these symptoms passed off
+when Mr. Heath sat down and indicated that he had
+no further questions to ask.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Dobbs once more prepared to step down from
+the witness-box, when Mr. Loram shot up like a jack-in-the-box.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have made certain statements," said he, "concerning
+the scarab which Mr. Bellingham was accustomed
+to wear suspended from his watch-guard. You
+say that he was not wearing it when he came to Mr.
+Hurst's house on the twenty-third of November, nineteen
+hundred and two. Are you quite sure of
+that?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Quite sure."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I must ask you to be very careful in your statement
+on this point. The question is a highly important one.
+Do you swear that the scarab was not hanging from
+his watch-guard?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I do."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you notice the watch-guard particularly?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, not particularly."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then what makes you so sure that the scarab was
+not attached to it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It couldn't have been."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why could it not?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Because if it had been there I should have seen it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What kind of a watch-guard was Mr. Bellingham
+wearing?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, an ordinary sort of watch-guard."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I mean, was it a chain or a ribbon or a strap?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A chain, I think&mdash;or perhaps a ribbon&mdash;or it might
+have been a strap."
+</p>
+<p>
+His lordship flattened his eyelids, but made no further
+sign, and Mr. Loram continued:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you or did you not notice what kind of watch-guard
+Mr. Bellingham was wearing?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I did not. Why should I? It was no business of
+mine."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But yet you are sure about the scarab?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, quite sure."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You noticed that, then?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I didn't. How could I when it wasn't there?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Loram paused and looked helplessly at the witness;
+a suppressed titter arose from the body of the
+Court, and a faint voice from the bench inquired:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you <i>quite</i> incapable of giving a straightforward
+answer?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Dobbs' only reply was to burst into tears;
+whereupon Mr. Loram abruptly sat down and abandoned
+his re-examination.
+</p>
+<p>
+The witness-box vacated by Miss Dobbs was occupied
+successively by Dr. Norbury, Mr. Hurst, and the
+cloak-room attendant, none of whom contributed any
+new facts, but merely corroborated the statements
+made by Mr. Jellicoe and the housemaid. Then came
+the labourer who discovered the bones at Sidcup, and
+who repeated the evidence that he had given at the
+inquest, showing that the remains could not have been
+lying in the watercress-bed more than two years.
+Finally Dr. Summers was called, and, after he had given
+a brief description of the bones that he had examined,
+was asked by Mr. Loram:
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have heard the description that Mr. Jellicoe
+has given of the testator?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Does that description apply to the person whose
+remains you examined?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"In a general way, it does."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I must ask you for a direct answer&mdash;yes or no.
+Does it apply?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. But I ought to say that my estimate of the
+height of the deceased is only approximate."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Quite so. Judging from your examination of those
+remains and from Mr. Jellicoe's description, might those
+remains be the remains of the testator, John Bellingham?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, they might."
+</p>
+<p>
+On receiving this admission Mr. Loram sat down,
+and Mr. Heath immediately rose to cross-examine.
+</p>
+<p>
+"When you examined these remains, Doctor Summers,
+did you discover any personal peculiarities which
+would enable you to identify them as the remains of
+any one individual rather than any other individual of
+similar size, age, and proportions?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. I found nothing that would identify the remains
+as those of any particular individual."
+</p>
+<p>
+As Mr. Heath asked no further questions, the witness
+received his dismissal, and Mr. Loram informed the
+Court that that was his case. The judge bowed somnolently,
+and then Mr. Heath rose to address the Court
+on behalf of the respondent. It was not a long speech,
+nor was it enriched by any displays of florid rhetoric;
+it concerned itself exclusively with a rebutment of the
+arguments of the counsel for the petitioner.
+</p>
+<p>
+Having briefly pointed out that the period of absence
+was too short to give rise of itself to the presumption
+of death, Mr. Heath continued:
+</p>
+<p>
+"The claim therefore rests upon evidence of a positive
+character. My learned friend asserts that the
+testator is presumably dead, and it is for him to prove
+what he has affirmed. Now, has he done this? I submit
+that he has not. He has argued with great force
+and ingenuity that the testator, being a bachelor, a
+solitary man without wife or child, dependent or master,
+public or private office or duty, or any bond, responsibility,
+or any other condition limiting his freedom of
+action, had no reason or inducement for absconding.
+This is my learned friend's argument, and he has conducted
+it with so much skill and ingenuity that he has
+not only succeeded in proving his case; he has proved
+a great deal too much. For if it is true, as my learned
+friend so justly argues, that a man thus unfettered by
+obligations of any kind has no reason for disappearing,
+is it not even more true that he has no reason for <i>not</i>
+disappearing? My friend has urged that the testator
+was at liberty to go where he pleased, when he pleased,
+and how he pleased; and that therefore there was no
+need for him to abscond. I reply, if he was at liberty
+to go away, whither, when, and how he pleased, why do
+we express surprise that he has made use of his liberty?
+My learned friend points out that the testator notified
+to nobody his intention of going away and has acquainted
+no one with his whereabouts; but, I ask, whom
+should he have notified? He was responsible to nobody;
+there was no one dependent upon him; his presence or
+absence was the concern of nobody but himself. If
+circumstances suddenly arising made it desirable that he
+should go abroad, why should he not go? I say there
+was no reason whatever.
+</p>
+<p>
+"My learned friend has said that the testator went
+away leaving his affairs to take care of themselves.
+Now, gentlemen, I ask you if this can fairly be said of
+a man whose affairs are, as they have been for
+years, in the hands of a highly capable, completely
+trustworthy agent who is better acquainted with them
+than the testator himself? Clearly it cannot.
+</p>
+<p>
+"To conclude this part of the argument: I submit
+that the circumstances of the so-called disappearance
+of the testator present nothing out of the ordinary.
+The testator is a man of ample means, without any
+responsibilities to fetter his movements and has been
+in the constant habit of travelling, often into remote
+and distant regions. The mere fact that he has been
+absent somewhat longer than usual affords no ground
+whatever for the drastic proceeding of presuming his
+death and taking possession of his property.
+</p>
+<p>
+"With reference to the human remains which have
+been mentioned in connection with the case I need say
+but little. The attempt to connect them with the
+testator has failed completely. You yourselves have
+heard Doctor Summers state on oath that they cannot
+be identified as the remains of any particular person.
+That would seem to dispose of them effectually. I must
+remark upon a very singular point that has been raised
+by the learned counsel for the petitioner, which is this:
+</p>
+<p>
+"My learned friend points out that these remains
+were discovered near Eltham and near Woodford and
+that the testator was last seen alive at one of these
+two places. This he considers for some reason to be
+a highly significant fact. But I cannot agree with him.
+If the testator had been last seen alive at Woodford
+and the remains had been found at Woodford, or if he
+had disappeared from Eltham and the remains had
+been found at Eltham, that would have had some significance.
+But he can only have been last seen at one
+of the places, whereas the remains have been found at
+both places. Here again my learned friend seems to
+have proved too much."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I need not occupy your time further. I repeat
+that, in order to justify us in presuming the death of
+the testator, clear and positive evidence would be necessary.
+That no such evidence has been brought forward.
+Accordingly, seeing that the testator may return at
+any time and is entitled to find his property intact, I
+shall ask you for a verdict that will secure to him this
+measure of ordinary justice."
+</p>
+<p>
+At the conclusion of Mr. Heath's speech the judge,
+as if awakening from a refreshing nap, opened his eyes;
+and uncommonly shrewd, intelligent eyes they were,
+when the expressive eyelids were duly tucked up out
+of the way. He commenced by reading over a part of
+the will and certain notes&mdash;which he appeared to have
+made in some miraculous fashion with his eyes shut&mdash;and
+then proceeded to review the evidence and the
+counsels' arguments for the instruction of the jury.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Before considering the evidence which you have
+heard, gentlemen," he said, "it will be well for me to
+say a few words to you on the general legal aspects of
+the case which is occupying our attention."
+</p>
+<p>
+"If a person goes abroad or disappears from his
+home and his ordinary places of resort and is absent
+for a long period of time, the presumption of death
+arises at the expiration of seven years from the date
+on which he was last heard of. That is to say, that
+the total disappearance of an individual for seven years
+constitutes presumptive evidence that the said individual
+is dead; and the presumption can be set aside
+only by the production of evidence that he was alive
+at some time within that period of seven years. But
+if, on the other hand, it is sought to presume the death
+of a person who has been absent for a shorter period
+than seven years, it is necessary to produce such evidence
+as shall make it highly probable that the said
+person is dead. Of course, presumption implies supposition
+as opposed to actual demonstration; but,
+nevertheless, the evidence in such a case must be of a
+kind that tends to create a very strong belief that
+death has occurred; and I need hardly say that the
+shorter the period of absence, the more convincing must
+be the evidence.
+</p>
+<p>
+"In the present case, the testator, John Bellingham,
+has been absent somewhat under two years. This is a
+relatively short period, and in itself gives rise to no
+presumption of death. Nevertheless, death has been
+presumed in a case where the period of absence was
+even shorter and the insurance recovered; but here
+the evidence supporting the belief in the occurrence of
+death was exceedingly weighty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The testator in this case was a shipmaster, and his
+disappearance was accompanied by the disappearance
+of the ship and the entire ship's company in the course
+of a voyage from London to Marseilles. The loss of
+the ship and her crew was the only reasonable explanation
+of the disappearance, and, short of actual demonstration,
+the facts offered convincing evidence of the
+death of all persons on board. I mention this case as
+an illustration. You are not dealing with speculative
+probabilities. You are contemplating a very momentous
+proceeding, and you must be very sure of your
+ground. Consider what it is that you are asked to do.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The petitioner asks permission to presume the
+death of the testator in order that the testator's property
+may be distributed among the beneficiaries under
+the will. The granting of such permission involves us in
+the gravest responsibility. An ill-considered decision
+might be productive of a serious injustice to the testator,
+an injustice that could never be remedied. Hence
+it is incumbent upon you to weigh the evidence with the
+greatest care, to come to no decision without the profoundest
+consideration of all the facts.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The evidence that you have heard divides itself into
+two parts&mdash;that relating to the circumstances of the
+testator's disappearance, and that relating to certain
+human remains. In connection with the latter I can
+only express my surprise and regret that the application
+was not postponed until the completion of the
+coroner's inquest, and leave you to consider the evidence.
+You will bear in mind that Doctor Summers has stated
+explicitly that the remains cannot be identified as those
+of any particular individual, but that the testator and
+the unknown deceased had so many points of resemblance
+that they might possibly be one and the same
+person.
+</p>
+<p>
+"With reference to the circumstances of the disappearance,
+you have heard the evidence of Mr. Jellicoe
+to the effect that the testator has on no previous occasion
+gone abroad without informing him as to his proposed
+destination. But in considering what weight you
+are to give to this statement you will bear in mind
+that when the testator set out for Paris after his interview
+with Doctor Norbury he left Mr. Jellicoe without
+any information as to his specific destination, his address
+in Paris, or the precise date when he should
+return, and that Mr. Jellicoe was unable to tell us
+where the testator went or what was his business. Mr.
+Jellicoe was, in fact, for a time without any means of
+tracing the testator or ascertaining his whereabouts.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The evidence of the housemaid, Dobbs, and of Mr.
+Hurst is rather confusing. It appears that the testator
+came to the house, was shown into a certain room, and
+when looked for later was not to be found. A search
+of the premises showed that he was not in the house,
+whence it seems to follow that he must have left it;
+but since no one was informed of his intention to leave,
+and he had expressed the intention of staying to see
+Mr. Hurst, his conduct in thus going away surreptitiously
+must appear somewhat eccentric. The point
+that you have to consider, therefore, is whether a person
+who is capable of thus departing in a surreptitious and
+eccentric manner from a house, without giving notice
+to the servants, is capable also of departing in a surreptitious
+and eccentric manner from his usual places
+of resort without giving notice to his friends or thereafter
+informing them of his whereabouts.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The questions, then, gentlemen, that you have to
+ask yourselves before deciding on your verdict are two:
+first, Are the circumstances of the testator's disappearance
+and his continued absence incongruous with his
+habits and personal peculiarities as they are known to
+you? and second, Are there any facts which indicate
+in a positive manner that the testator is dead? Ask
+yourselves these questions, gentlemen, and the answers
+to them, furnished by the evidence that you have heard,
+will guide you to your decision."
+</p>
+<p>
+Having delivered himself of the above instructions,
+the judge applied himself to the perusal of the will with
+professional gusto, in which occupation he was presently
+disturbed by the announcement of the foreman
+of the jury that a verdict had been agreed upon.
+</p>
+<p>
+The judge sat up and glanced at the jury-box, and
+when the foreman proceeded to state that "We find
+no sufficient reason for presuming the testator, John
+Bellingham, to be dead," he nodded approvingly. Evidently
+that was his opinion, too, as he was careful to
+explain when he conveyed to Mr. Loram the refusal
+of the Court to grant the permission applied for.
+</p>
+<p>
+The decision was a great relief to me, and also, I
+think, to Miss Bellingham; but most of all to her
+father, who, with instinctive good manners, since he
+could not suppress a smile of triumph, rose hastily
+and stumped out of the Court, so that the discomfited
+Hurst should not see him. His daughter and I followed,
+and as we left the Court she remarked, with a
+smile:
+</p>
+<p>
+"So our pauperism is not, after all, made absolute.
+There is still a chance for us in the Chapter of Accidents&mdash;and
+perhaps even for poor old Uncle John."
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH15"><!-- CH15 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XV
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
+</h3>
+<p>
+The morning after the hearing saw me setting forth
+on my round in more than usually good spirits. The
+round itself was but a short one, for my list contained
+only a couple of "chronics," and this, perhaps, contributed
+to my cheerful outlook on life. But there were
+other reasons. The decision of the Court had come as
+an unexpected reprieve and the ruin of my friends'
+prospects was at least postponed. Then, I had learned
+that Thorndyke was back from Bristol and wished me
+to look in on him; and, finally, Miss Bellingham had
+agreed to spend this very afternoon with me, browsing
+round the galleries at the British Museum.
+</p>
+<p>
+I had disposed of my two patients by a quarter to
+eleven, and three minutes later was striding down Mitre
+Court, all agog to hear what Thorndyke had to say
+with reference to my notes on the inquest. The "oak"
+was open when I arrived at his chambers, and a modest
+flourish on the little brass knocker of the inner door
+was answered by my quondam teacher himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+"How good of you, Berkeley," he said, shaking
+hands genially, "to look me up so early. I am all
+alone, just looking through the report of the evidence
+in yesterday's proceedings."
+</p>
+<p>
+He placed an easy chair for me, and, gathering up a
+bundle of type-written papers, laid them aside on the
+table.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Were you surprised at the decision?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," he answered. "Two years is a short period
+of absence; but still, it might easily have gone the other
+way. I am greatly relieved. The respite gives us
+time to carry out our investigations without undue
+hurry."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you find my notes of any use?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Heath did. Polton handed them to him, and they
+were invaluable to him for his cross-examination. I
+haven't seen them yet; in fact, I have only just got
+them back from him. Let us go through them together
+now."
+</p>
+<p>
+He opened a drawer, and taking from it my note-book,
+seated himself, and began to read through my
+notes with grave attention, while I stood and looked
+shyly over his shoulder. On the page that contained
+my sketches of the Sidcup arm, showing the distribution
+of the snails' eggs on the bones, he lingered with a
+faint smile that made me turn hot and red.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Those sketches look rather footy," I said; "but
+I had to put something in my note-book."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You didn't attach any importance, then, to the
+facts that they illustrated?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. The egg-patches were there, so I noted the
+fact. That's all."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I congratulate you, Berkeley. There is not one
+man in twenty who would have the sense to make a
+careful note of what he considers an unimportant or
+irrelevant fact; and the investigator who notes only
+those things that appear significant is perfectly useless.
+He gives himself no material for reconsideration. But
+you don't mean that these egg-patches and worm-tubes
+appeared to you to have no significance at all?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, of course, they show the position in which the
+bones were lying."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly. The arm was lying, fully extended, with
+the dorsal side uppermost. There is nothing remarkable
+in that. But we also learn from these egg-patches
+that the hand had been separated from the arm before
+it was thrown into the pond; and there is something
+very remarkable in that."
+</p>
+<p>
+I leaned over his shoulder and gazed at my sketches,
+amazed at the rapidity with which he had reconstructed
+the limb from my rough drawings of the individual
+bones.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't quite see how you arrived at it, though,"
+I said.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, look at your drawings. The egg-patches
+are on the dorsal surface of the scapula, the humerus,
+and the bones of the fore-arm. But here you have
+shown six of the bones of the hand: two metacarpals,
+the os magnum, and three phalanges; and they all have
+egg-patches on the <i>palmar</i> surface. Therefore the
+hand was lying palm upwards."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But the hand may have been pronated."
+</p>
+<p>
+"If you mean pronated in relation to the arm, that
+is impossible, for the position of the egg-patches shows
+clearly that the bones of the arm were lying in the
+position of supination. Thus the dorsal surface of the
+arm and the palmar surface of the hand respectively
+were uppermost, which is an anatomical impossibility
+so long as the hand is attached to the arm."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But might not the hand have become detached after
+lying in the pond some time?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. It could not have been detached until the
+ligaments had decayed, and if it had been separated
+after the decay of the soft parts, the bones would have
+been thrown into disorder. But the egg-patches are
+all on the palmar surface, showing that the bones were
+still in their normal relative positions. No, Berkeley,
+that hand was thrown into the pond separately from
+the arm."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But why should it have been?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah, there is a very pretty little problem for you to
+consider. And, meantime, let me tell you that your
+expedition has been a brilliant success. You are an
+excellent observer. Your only fault is that when you
+have noted certain facts you don't seem fully to appreciate
+their significance&mdash;which is merely a matter of
+inexperience. As to the facts that you have collected,
+several of them are of prime importance."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am glad you are satisfied," said I, "though I
+don't see that I have discovered much excepting those
+snails' eggs; and they don't seem to have advanced
+matters very much."
+</p>
+<p>
+"A definite fact, Berkeley, is a definite asset. Perhaps
+we may presently find a little space in our Chinese
+puzzle which this fact of the detached hand will just
+drop into. But, tell me, did you find nothing unexpected
+or suggestive about those bones&mdash;as to their
+number and condition, for instance?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I thought it a little queer that the scapula
+and clavicle should be there. I should have expected
+him to cut the arm off at the shoulder-joint."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "so should I; and so it
+has been done in every case of dismemberment that I
+am acquainted with. To an ordinary person, the arm
+seems to join on to the trunk at the shoulder-joint,
+and that is where he would naturally sever it. What
+explanation do you suggest of this unusual mode of
+severing the arm?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you think the fellow could have been a
+butcher?" I asked, remembering Dr. Summers' remark.
+"This is the way a shoulder of mutton is taken
+off."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," replied Thorndyke. "A butcher includes the
+scapula in a shoulder of mutton for a specific purpose,
+namely, to take off a given quantity of meat. And
+also, as a sheep has no clavicle, it is the easiest way
+to detach the limb. But I imagine a butcher would
+find himself in difficulties if he attempted to take off
+a man's arm in that way. The clavicle would be a new
+and perplexing feature. Then, too, a butcher does not
+deal very delicately with his subject; if he has to divide
+a joint, he just cuts through it and does not trouble
+himself to avoid marking the bones. But you note here
+that there is not a single scratch or score on any one
+of the bones, not even where the finger was removed.
+Now, if you have ever prepared bones for a museum,
+as I have, you will remember the extreme care that is
+necessary in disarticulating joints to avoid disfiguring
+the articular ends of the bones with cuts and scratches."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then you think that the person who dismembered
+this body must have had some anatomical knowledge
+and skill?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is what has been suggested. The suggestion
+is not mine."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then I infer that you don't agree?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke smiled. "I am sorry to be so cryptic,
+Berkeley, but you understand that I can't make statements.
+Still, I am trying to lead you to make certain
+inferences from the facts that are in your possession."
+</p>
+<p>
+"If I make the right inference, will you tell me?"
+I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It won't be necessary," he answered, with the same
+quiet smile. "When you have fitted a puzzle together
+you don't need to be told that you have done it."
+</p>
+<p>
+It was most infernally tantalising. I pondered on the
+problem with a scowl of such intense cogitation that
+Thorndyke laughed outright.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It seems to me," I said, at length, "that the identity
+of the remains is the primary question and that
+is a question of fact. It doesn't seem any use to speculate
+about it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly. Either these bones are the remains of
+John Bellingham or they are not. There will be no
+doubt on the subject when all the bones are assembled&mdash;if
+ever they are. And the settlement of that question
+will probably throw light on the further question: Who
+deposited them in the places in which they were found?
+But to return to your observations: did you gather
+nothing from the other bones? From the complete
+state of the neck vertebrae, for instance?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, it did strike me as rather odd that the fellow
+should have gone to the trouble of separating the atlas
+from the skull. He must have been pretty handy with
+the scalpel to have done it as cleanly as he seems to
+have done; but I don't see why he should have gone
+about the business in the most inconvenient way."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You notice the uniformity of method. He has
+separated the head from the spine, instead of cutting
+through the spine lower down, as most persons would
+have done: he removed the arms with the entire shoulder-girdle,
+instead of simply cutting them off at the
+shoulder-joints. Even in the thighs the same peculiarity
+appears; for in neither case was the knee-cap
+found with the thigh-bone, although it seems to have
+been searched for. Now the obvious way to divide the
+leg is to cut through the patellar ligament, leaving
+the knee-cap attached to the thigh. But in this case,
+the knee-cap appears to have been left attached to the
+shank. Can you explain why this person should have
+adopted this unusual and rather inconvenient method?
+Can you suggest a motive for this procedure, or can
+you think of any circumstances which might lead a
+person to adopt this method by preference?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It seems as if he wished, for some reason, to divide
+the body into definite anatomical regions."
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke chuckled. "You are not offering that
+suggestion as an explanation, are you? Because it
+would require more explaining than the original problem.
+And it is not even true. Anatomically speaking,
+the knee-cap appertains to the thigh rather than to
+the shank. It is a sesamoid bone belonging to the thigh
+muscles; yet in this case it has been left attached,
+apparently, to the shank. No, Berkeley, that cat won't
+jump. Our unknown operator was not preparing a
+skeleton as a museum specimen; he was dividing a body
+up into convenient-sized portions for the purpose of
+conveying them to various ponds. Now what circumstances
+might have led him to divide it in this peculiar
+manner?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am afraid I have no suggestion to offer. Have
+you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke suddenly lapsed into ambiguity. "I
+think," he said, "it is possible to conceive such circumstances,
+and so, probably, will you if you think it
+over."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you gather anything of importance from the
+evidence at the inquest?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is difficult to say," he replied. "The whole of
+my conclusions in this case are based on what is virtually
+circumstantial evidence. I have not one single
+fact of which I can say that it admits only of a single
+interpretation. Still, it must be remembered that even
+the most inconclusive facts, if sufficiently multiplied,
+yield a highly conclusive total. And my little pile of
+evidence is growing, particle by particle; but we mustn't
+sit here gossiping at this hour of the day; I have to
+consult with Marchmont and you say that you have
+an early afternoon engagement. We can walk together
+as far as Fleet Street."
+</p>
+<p>
+A minute or two later we went our respective ways,
+Thorndyke towards Lombard Street and I to Fetter
+Lane, not unmindful of those coming events that were
+casting so agreeable a shadow before them.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was only one message awaiting me, and when
+Adolphus had delivered it (amidst mephitic fumes that
+rose from the basement, premonitory of fried plaice), I
+pocketed my stethoscope and betook myself to Gunpowder
+Alley, the aristocratic abode of my patient,
+joyfully threading the now familiar passages of Gough
+Square and Wine Office Court, and meditating pleasantly
+on the curious literary flavour that pervades these
+little-known regions. For the shade of the author of
+<i>Rasselas</i> still seems to haunt the scenes of his Titanic
+labours and his ponderous but homely and temperate
+rejoicings. Every court and alley whispers of books
+and of the making of books; forms of type, trundled
+noisily on trollies by ink-smeared boys, salute the wayfarer
+at odd corners; piles of strawboard, rolls or
+bales of paper, drums of printing-ink or roller-composition
+stand on the pavement outside dark entries;
+basement windows give glimpses into Hadean caverns
+tenanted by legions of printer's devils; and the very
+air is charged with the hum of press and with odours of
+glue and paste and oil. The entire neighbourhood is
+given up to the printer and binder; and even my patient
+turned out to be a guillotine-knife grinder&mdash;a ferocious
+and revolutionary calling strangely at variance with
+his harmless appearance and meek bearing.
+</p>
+<p>
+I was in good time at my tryst, despite the hindrances
+of fried plaice and invalid guillotinists; but, early as
+I was, Miss Bellingham was already waiting in the
+garden&mdash;she had been filling a bowl with flowers&mdash;ready
+to sally forth.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is quite like old times," she said, as we turned
+into Fetter Lane, "to be going to the Museum together.
+It brings back the Tell el Amarna tablets and all your
+kindness and unselfish labour. I suppose we shall walk
+there to-day?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Certainly," I replied; "I am not going to
+share your society with the common mortals who
+ride in omnibuses. That would be sheer, sinful
+waste. Besides, it is more companionable to
+walk."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, it is; and the bustle of the streets makes one
+more appreciative of the quiet of the Museum. What
+are we going to look at when we get there?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You must decide that," I replied. "You know
+the collection much better than I do."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, now," she mused, "I wonder what you would
+like to see; or, in other words, what I should like you
+to see. The old English pottery is rather fascinating,
+especially the Fulham ware. I rather think I shall take
+you to see that."
+</p>
+<p>
+She reflected awhile, and then, just as we reached
+the gate of Staple Inn, she stopped and looked thoughtfully
+down the Gray's Inn Road.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have taken a great interest in our 'case,' as
+Doctor Thorndyke calls it. Would you like to see the
+churchyard where Uncle John wished to be buried? It
+is a little out of our way, but we are not in a hurry,
+are we?"
+</p>
+<p>
+I, certainly, was not. Any deviation that might
+prolong our walk was welcome, and, as to the place&mdash;why,
+all places were alike to me if only she were by my
+side. Besides, the churchyard was really of some interest,
+since it was undoubtedly the "exciting cause" of
+the obnoxious paragraph two of the disputed will. I
+accordingly expressed a desire to make its acquaintance,
+and we crossed to the entrance to Gray's Inn Road.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you ever try," she asked, as we turned down
+the dingy thoroughfare, "to picture to yourself familiar
+places as they looked a couple of hundred years ago?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," I answered, "and very difficult I find it.
+One has to manufacture the materials for reconstruction,
+and then the present aspect of the place will keep
+obtruding itself. But some places are easier to reconstitute
+than others."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is what I find," said she. "Now Holborn,
+for example, is quite easy to reconstruct, though I
+daresay the imaginary form isn't a bit like the original.
+But there are fragments left, like Staple Inn and the
+front of Gray's Inn; and then one has seen prints of
+the old Middle Row and some of the taverns, so that
+one has some material with which to help out one's
+imagination. But this road that we are walking in
+always baffles me. It looks so old and yet is, for the
+most part, so new that I find it impossible to make a
+satisfactory picture of its appearance, say, when Sir
+Roger de Coverley might have strolled in Gray's Inn
+Walks, or farther back, when Francis Bacon had
+chambers in the Inn."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I imagine," said I, "that part of the difficulty is
+in the mixed character of the neighbourhood. Here,
+on the one side, is old Gray's Inn, not much changed
+since Bacon's time&mdash;his chambers are still to be seen,
+I think, over the gateway; and there, on the Clerkenwell
+side, is a dense and rather squalid neighbourhood
+which has grown up over a region partly rural and
+wholly fugitive in character. Places like Bagnigge
+Wells and Hockley in the Hole would not have had
+many buildings that were likely to survive; and in the
+absence of surviving specimens the imagination hasn't
+much to work from."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I daresay you are right," said she. "Certainly,
+the purlieus of old Clerkenwell present a very confused
+picture to me; whereas, in the case of an old street
+like, say, Great Ormond Street, one has only to sweep
+away the modern buildings and replace them with
+glorious old houses like the few that remain, dig up the
+roadway and pavements and lay down cobble-stones,
+plant a few wooden posts, hang up one or two oil-lamps,
+and the transformation is complete. And a very delightful
+transformation it is."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very delightful; which, by the way, is a melancholy
+thought. For we ought to be doing better work than
+our forefathers; whereas what we actually do is to pull
+down the old buildings, clap the doorways, porticoes,
+panelling, and mantels in our museums, and then run
+up something inexpensive and useful and deadly uninteresting
+in their place."
+</p>
+<p>
+My companion looked at me and laughed softly.
+"For a naturally cheerful, and even gay young man,"
+said she, "you are most amazingly pessimistic. The
+mantle of Jeremiah&mdash;if he ever wore one&mdash;seems to
+have fallen on you, but without in the least impairing
+your good spirits excepting in regard to matters architectural."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have much to be thankful for," said I. "Am I
+not taken to the Museum by a fair lady? And does
+she not stay me with mummy cases and comfort me
+with crockery?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pottery," she corrected; and then, as we met a
+party of grave-looking women emerging from a side-street,
+she said: "I suppose those are lady medical
+students."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, on their way to the Royal Free Hospital.
+Note the gravity of their demeanour and contrast it
+with the levity of the male student."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was doing so," she answered, "and wondering
+why professional women are usually so much more
+serious than men."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Perhaps," I suggested, "it is a matter of selection.
+A peculiar type of woman is attracted to the professions,
+whereas every man has to earn his living as a
+matter of course."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I daresay that is the explanation. This is
+our turning."
+</p>
+<p>
+We passed into Heathcote Street, at the end of
+which was an open gate giving entrance to one of those
+disused and metamorphosed burial-grounds that are to
+be met with in the older districts of London; in which
+the dispossessed dead are jostled into corners to make
+room for the living. Many of the headstones were
+still standing, and others, displaced to make room for
+asphalted walks and seats, were ranged around by the
+walls, exhibiting inscriptions made meaningless by their
+removal. It was a pleasant enough place on this summer
+afternoon, contrasted with the dingy street whence
+we had come, though its grass was faded and yellow
+and the twitter of the birds in the trees mingled with
+the hideous Board-school drawl of the children who
+played around the seats and the few remaining tombs.
+</p>
+<p>
+"So this is the last resting-place of the illustrious
+house of Bellingham," said I.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; and we are not the only distinguished people
+who repose in this place. The daughter of no less a
+person than Richard Cromwell is buried here; the tomb
+is still standing&mdash;but perhaps you have been here before,
+and know it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't think I have ever been here before; and
+yet there is something about the place that seems
+familiar." I looked around, cudgelling my brains for
+the key to the dimly reminiscent sensations that the
+place evoked; until, suddenly, I caught sight of a group
+of buildings away to the west, enclosed within a wall
+heightened by a wooden trellis.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, of course!" I exclaimed. "I remember the
+place now. I have never been in this part before, but
+in that enclosure beyond which opens at the end of
+Henrietta Street, there used to be and may be still, for
+all I know, a school of anatomy, at which I attended
+in my first year; in fact, I did my first dissection
+there."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There was a certain gruesome appropriateness in
+the position of the school," remarked Miss Bellingham.
+"It would have been really convenient in the days of
+the resurrection men. Your material would have been
+delivered at your very door. Was it a large school?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The attendance varied according to the time of the
+year. Sometimes I worked there quite alone. I used
+to let myself in with a key and hoist my subject out
+of a sort of sepulchral tank by means of a chain tackle.
+It was a ghoulish business. You have no idea how
+awful the body used to look, to my unaccustomed eyes,
+as it rose slowly out of the tank. It was like the resurrection
+scenes that you see on some old tombstones,
+where the deceased is shown rising out of his coffin
+while the skeleton, Death, falls vanquished with his
+dart shattered and his crown toppling off.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I remember, too, that the demonstrator used to
+wear a blue apron, which created a sort of impression
+of a cannibal butcher's shop. But I am afraid I am
+shocking you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, you are not. Every profession has its unpresentable
+aspects, which ought not to be seen by out-siders.
+Think of a sculptor's studio and of the sculptor
+himself when he is modelling a large figure or group
+in the clay. He might be a bricklayer or a road-sweeper
+if you judge by his appearance. This is the
+tomb I was telling you about."
+</p>
+<p>
+We halted before the plain coffer of stone, weathered
+and wasted by age, but yet kept in decent repair by
+some pious hands, and read the inscription, setting
+forth with modest pride, that here reposed Anna, sixth
+daughter of Richard Cromwell, "The Protector." It
+was a simple monument and commonplace enough, with
+the crude severity of the ascetic age to which it belonged.
+But still, it carried the mind back to those
+stirring times when the leafy shades of Gray's Inn
+Lane must have resounded with the clank of weapons
+and the tramp of armed men; when this bald recreation-ground
+was a rustic churchyard, standing amidst green
+fields and hedgerows, and countrymen leading their
+pack-horses into London through the Lane would stop
+to look in over the wooden gate.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Bellingham looked at me critically as I stood
+thus reflecting, and presently remarked, "I think you
+and I have a good many mental habits in common."
+</p>
+<p>
+I looked up inquiringly, and she continued: "I notice
+that an old tombstone seems to set you meditating.
+So it does me. When I look at an ancient monument,
+and especially an old headstone, I find myself almost
+unconsciously retracing the years to the date that is
+written on the stone. Why do you think that is? Why
+should a monument be so stimulating to the imagination?
+And why should a common headstone be more
+so than any other?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose it is," I answered reflectively, "that a
+churchyard monument is a peculiarly personal thing
+and appertains in a peculiar way to a particular time.
+And the circumstance that it has stood untouched by
+the passing years while everything around has changed,
+helps the imagination to span the interval. And the
+common headstone, the memorial of some dead and
+gone farmer or labourer who lived and died in the
+village hard by, is still more intimate and suggestive.
+The rustic, childish sculpture of the village mason and
+the artless doggerel of the village schoolmaster, bring
+back the time and place and the conditions of life much
+more vividly than the more scholarly inscriptions and
+the more artistic enrichments of monuments of greater
+pretensions. But where are your own family tombstones?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"They are over in that farther corner. There is an
+intelligent, but inopportune, person apparently copying
+the epitaphs. I wish he would go away. I want
+to show them to you."
+</p>
+<p>
+I now noticed, for the first time, an individual engaged,
+note-book in hand, in making a careful survey
+of a group of old headstones. Evidently he was making
+a copy of the inscriptions, for not only was he poring
+attentively over the writing on the face of the stone,
+but now and again he helped out his vision by running
+his fingers over the worn lettering.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is my grandfather's tombstone that he is
+copying now," said Miss Bellingham; and even as she
+spoke, the man turned and directed a searching glance
+at us with a pair of keen, spectacled eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Simultaneously we uttered an exclamation of surprise;
+for the investigator was Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH16"><!-- CH16 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XVI
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+"O! ARTEMIDORUS, FAREWELL!"
+</h3>
+<p>
+Whether or not Mr. Jellicoe was surprised to see us,
+it is impossible to say. His countenance (which served
+the ordinary purposes of a face, inasmuch as it contained
+the principal organs of special sense, with the
+inlets to the alimentary and respiratory tracts) was,
+as an apparatus for the expression of the emotions, a
+total failure. To a thought-reader it would have been
+about as helpful as the face carved upon the handle
+of an umbrella; a comparison suggested, perhaps, by
+a certain resemblance to such an object. He advanced,
+holding his open note-book and pencil, and having
+saluted us with a stiff bow and an old-fashioned flourish
+of his hat, shook hands rheumatically and waited for
+us to speak.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is an unexpected pleasure, Mr. Jellicoe," said
+Miss Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is very good of you to say so," he
+replied.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And quite a coincidence&mdash;that we should all happen
+to come here on the same day."
+</p>
+<p>
+"A coincidence, certainly," he admitted; "and if
+we had all happened not to come&mdash;which must have
+occurred frequently&mdash;that also would have been a
+coincidence."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose it would," said she, "but I hope we are
+not interrupting you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you, no. I had just finished when I had
+the pleasure of perceiving you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You were making some notes in reference to the
+case, I imagine," said I. It was an impertinent question,
+put with malice aforethought for the mere pleasure
+of hearing him evade it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The case?" he repeated. "You are referring,
+perhaps, to Stevens versus the Parish Council?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think Doctor Berkeley was referring to the case
+of my uncle's will," Miss Bellingham said quite gravely,
+though with a suspicious dimpling about the corners
+of her mouth.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Indeed," said Mr. Jellicoe. "There is a case, is
+there; a suit?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I mean the proceedings instituted by Mr. Hurst."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, but that was merely an application to the
+Court, and is, moreover, finished and done with. At
+least, so I understand. I speak, of course, subject to
+correction; I am not acting for Mr. Hurst, you will
+be pleased to remember. As a matter of fact," he
+continued, after a brief pause, "I was just refreshing
+my memory as to the wording of the inscriptions on
+these stones, especially that of your grandfather, Francis
+Bellingham. It has occurred to me that if it should
+appear by the finding of the coroner's jury that your
+uncle is deceased, it would be proper and decorous that
+some memorial should be placed here. But, as the
+burial-ground is closed, there might be some difficulty
+about erecting a new monument, whereas there would
+probably be none in adding an inscription to one already
+existing. Hence these investigations. For if
+the inscription on your grandfather's stone had set
+forth that 'here rests the body of Francis Bellingham,'
+it would have been manifestly improper to add 'also
+that of John Bellingham, son of the above.' Fortunately
+the inscription was more discreetly drafted,
+merely recording the fact that this monument is
+'sacred to the memory of the said Francis,' and not
+committing itself as to the whereabouts of the remains.
+But perhaps I am interrupting you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, not at all," replied Miss Bellingham (which
+was grossly untrue; he was interrupting <i>me</i> most intolerably);
+"we were going to the British Museum and
+just looked in here on our way."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ha," said Mr. Jellicoe, "now, I happen to be going
+to the Museum too, to see Doctor Norbury. I suppose
+that is another coincidence?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Certainly it is," Miss Bellingham replied; and then
+she asked: "Shall we walk there together?" and the
+old curmudgeon actually said "yes"&mdash;confound
+him!
+</p>
+<p>
+We returned to the Gray's Inn Road, where, as there
+was now room for us to walk abreast, I proceeded to
+indemnify myself for the lawyer's unwelcome company
+by leading the conversation back to the subject of the
+missing man.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Was there anything, Mr. Jellicoe, in Mr. John
+Bellingham's state of health that would make it probable
+that he might die suddenly?"
+</p>
+<p>
+The lawyer looked at me suspiciously for a few moments
+and then remarked:
+</p>
+<p>
+"You seem to be greatly interested in John Bellingham
+and his affairs."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am. My friends are deeply concerned in them,
+and the case itself is of more than common interest
+from a professional point of view."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what is the bearing of this particular question?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Surely it is obvious," said I. "If a missing man
+is known to have suffered from some affection, such
+as heart disease, aneurism, or arterial degeneration,
+likely to produce sudden death, that fact will surely be
+highly material to the question as to whether he is
+probably dead or alive."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No doubt you are right," said Mr. Jellicoe. "I
+have little knowledge of medical affairs, but doubtless
+you are right. As to the question itself, I am Mr.
+Bellingham's lawyer, not his doctor. His health is a
+matter that lies outside my jurisdiction. But you
+heard my evidence in Court, to the effect that the testator
+appeared, to my untutored observation, to be a
+healthy man. I can say no more now."
+</p>
+<p>
+"If the question is of any importance," said Miss
+Bellingham, "I wonder they did not call his doctor
+and settle it definitely. My own impression is that he
+was&mdash;or is&mdash;rather a strong and sound man. He certainly
+recovered very quickly and completely after his
+accident."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What accident was that?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, hasn't my father told you? It occurred while
+he was staying with us. He slipped from a high kerb
+and broke one of the bones of the left ankle&mdash;somebody's
+fracture&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pott's?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, that was the name&mdash;Pott's fracture; and he
+broke both his knee-caps as well. Sir Morgan Bennet
+had to perform an operation, or he would have been a
+cripple for life. As it was, he was about again in a few
+weeks, apparently none the worse excepting for a slight
+weakness of the left ankle."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Could he walk upstairs?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, yes; and play golf and ride a bicycle."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You are sure he broke both knee-caps?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Quite sure. I remember that it was mentioned as
+an uncommon injury, and that Sir Morgan seemed
+quite pleased with him for doing it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That sounds rather libellous; but I expect he was
+pleased with the result of the operation. He might
+well be."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here there was a brief lull in the conversation, and,
+even as I was trying to think of a poser for Mr. Jellicoe,
+that gentleman took the opportunity to change the
+subject.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you going to the Egyptian Rooms?" he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," replied Miss Bellingham; "we are going to
+look at the pottery."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ancient or modern?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The old Fulham ware is what chiefly interests us
+at present; that of the seventeenth century. I don't
+know whether you would call that ancient or
+modern."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Neither do I," said Mr. Jellicoe. "Antiquity and
+modernity are terms that have no fixed connotation.
+They are purely relative and their application in a particular
+instance has to be determined by a sort of sliding
+scale. To a furniture collector, a Tudor chair or a
+Jacobean chest is ancient; to an architect, their period
+is modern, whereas an eleventh-century church is
+ancient; but to an Egyptologist, accustomed to remains
+of a vast antiquity, both are products of modern
+periods separated by an insignificant interval. And, I
+suppose," he added, reflectively, "that to a geologist,
+the traces of the very earliest dawn of human history
+appertain only to the recent period. Conceptions of
+time, like all other conceptions, are relative."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You appear to be a disciple of Herbert Spencer,"
+I remarked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am a disciple of Arthur Jellicoe, sir," he retorted.
+And I believed him.
+</p>
+<p>
+By the time we had reached the Museum he had
+become almost genial; and, if less amusing in this
+frame, he was so much more instructive and entertaining
+that I refrained from baiting him, and permitted
+him to discuss his favourite topic unhindered, especially
+since my companion listened with lively interest. Nor,
+when we entered the great hall, did he relinquish possession
+of us, and we followed submissively, as he led
+the way past the winged bulls of Nineveh and the great
+seated statues, until we found ourselves, almost without
+the exercise of our volition, in the upper room
+amidst the glaring mummy cases that had witnessed
+the birth of my friendship with Ruth Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Before I leave you," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I should
+like to show you that mummy that we were discussing
+the other evening; the one, you remember, that my
+friend, John Bellingham, presented to the Museum a
+little time before his disappearance. The point that
+I mentioned is only a trivial one, but it may become
+of interest hereafter if any plausible explanation should
+be forthcoming." He led us along the room until we
+arrived at the case containing John Bellingham's gift,
+where he halted and gazed in at the mummy with the
+affectionate reflectiveness of the connoisseur.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The bitumen coating was what we were discussing,
+Miss Bellingham," said he. "You have seen it, of
+course."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," she answered. "It is a dreadful disfigurement,
+isn't it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Aesthetically it is to be deplored, but it adds a
+certain speculative interest to the specimen. You notice
+that the black coating leaves the principal decoration
+and the whole of the inscription untouched, which
+is precisely the part that one would expect to find
+covered up; whereas the feet and the back, which
+probably bore no writing, are quite thickly encrusted.
+If you stoop down, you can see that the bitumen was
+daubed freely into the lacings of the back, where it
+served no purpose, so that even the strings are embedded."
+He stooped, as he spoke, and peered up
+inquisitively at the back of the mummy, where it was
+visible between the supports.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Has Doctor Norbury any explanation to offer?"
+asked Miss Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"None whatever," replied Mr. Jellicoe. "He finds
+it as great a mystery as I do. But he thinks that we
+may get some suggestion from the Director when he
+comes back. He is a very great authority, as you
+know, and a practical excavator of great experience
+too. But I mustn't stay here talking of these things,
+and keeping you from your pottery. Perhaps I have
+stayed too long already. If I have I ask your pardon,
+and I will now wish you a very good afternoon." With
+a sudden return to his customary wooden impassivity,
+he shook hands with us, bowed stiffly, and took himself
+off towards the curator's office.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a strange man that is," said Miss Bellingham,
+as Mr. Jellicoe disappeared through the doorway
+at the end of the room, "or perhaps I should say,
+a strange being, for I can hardly think of him as a
+man. I have never met any other human creature at
+all like him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He is certainly a queer old fogey," I agreed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, but there is something more than that. He
+is so emotionless, so remote and aloof from all mundane
+concerns. He moves among ordinary men and women,
+but as a mere presence, an unmoved spectator of their
+actions, quite dispassionate and impersonal."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, he is astonishingly self-contained; in fact, he
+seems, as you say, to go to and fro among men, enveloped
+in a sort of infernal atmosphere of his own, like
+Marley's ghost. But he is lively and human enough
+as soon as the subject of Egyptian antiquities is
+broached."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Lively, but not human. He is always, to me, quite
+unhuman. Even when he is most interested, and even
+enthusiastic, he is a mere personification of knowledge.
+Nature ought to have furnished him with an ibis' head
+like Tahuti; then he would have looked his part."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He would have made a rare sensation in Lincoln's
+Inn if she had," said I; and we both laughed heartily
+at the imaginary picture of Tahuti Jellicoe, slender-beaked
+and top-hatted, going about his business in
+Lincoln's Inn and the Law Courts.
+</p>
+<p>
+Insensibly, as we talked, we had drawn near to the
+mummy of Artemidorus, and now my companion halted
+before the case with her thoughtful grey eyes bent
+dreamily on the face that looked out at us. I watched
+her with reverent admiration. How charming she
+looked as she stood with her sweet, grave face turned
+so earnestly to the object of her mystical affection!
+How dainty and full of womanly dignity and grace!
+And then, suddenly, it was borne in upon me that a
+great change had come over her since the day of our
+first meeting. She had grown younger, more girlish,
+and more gentle. At first she had seemed much older
+than I; a sad-faced woman, weary, solemn, enigmatic,
+almost gloomy, with a bitter, ironic humour and a bearing
+distant and cold. Now she was only maidenly and
+sweet; tinged, it is true, with a certain seriousness,
+but frank and gracious and wholly lovable.
+</p>
+<p>
+Could the change be due to our growing friendship?
+As I asked myself the question, my heart leaped with
+a new-born hope. I yearned to tell her all that she was
+to me&mdash;all that I hoped we might be to one another
+in the years to come.
+</p>
+<p>
+At length I ventured to break in upon her reverie.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What are you thinking about so earnestly, fair
+lady?"
+</p>
+<p>
+She turned quickly with a bright smile and sparkling
+eyes that looked frankly into mine. "I was wondering,"
+said she, "if he was jealous of my new friend.
+But what a baby I am to talk such nonsense!"
+</p>
+<p>
+She laughed softly and happily with just an adorable
+hint of shyness.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why should he be jealous?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, you see, before&mdash;we were friends, he had me
+all to himself. I have never had a man-friend before&mdash;except
+my father&mdash;and no really intimate friend at
+all. And I was very lonely in those days, after our
+troubles had befallen. I am naturally solitary, but
+still, I am only a girl; I am not a philosopher. So
+when I felt very lonely, I used to come here and look
+at Artemidorus and make believe that he knew all the
+sadness of my life and sympathised with me. It was
+very silly, I know, but yet, somehow it was a real
+comfort to me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It was not silly of you at all. He must have been
+a good man, a gentle, sweet-faced man who had won
+the love of those who knew him, as this beautiful
+memorial tells us; and it was wise and good of you to
+sweeten the bitterness of your life with the fragrance
+of this human love that blossoms in the dust after the
+lapse of centuries. No, you were not silly, and Artemidorus
+is not jealous of your new friend."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you sure?" She still smiled as she asked the
+question, but her glance was soft&mdash;almost tender&mdash;and
+there was a note of whimsical anxiety in her voice.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Quite sure. I give you my confident assurance."
+</p>
+<p>
+She laughed gaily. "Then," said she, "I am satisfied,
+for I am sure you know. But here is a mighty
+telepathist who can read the thoughts even of a mummy.
+A most formidable companion. But tell me how you
+know."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I know, because it is he who gave you to me to be
+my friend. Don't you remember?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I remember," she answered, softly. "It was
+when you were so sympathetic with my foolish whim
+that I felt we were really friends."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And I, when you confided your pretty fancy to me,
+thanked you for the gift of your friendship, and
+treasured it, and do still treasure it, above everything
+on earth."
+</p>
+<p>
+She looked at me quickly with a sort of nervousness
+in her manner, and cast down her eyes. Then, after a
+few moments' almost embarrassed silence, as if to bring
+our talk back to a less emotional plane, she said:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you notice the curious way in which this memorial
+divides itself up into two distinct parts?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"How do you mean?" I asked, a little disconcerted
+by the sudden descent.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I mean that there is a part of it that is purely
+decorative and a part that is expressive or emotional.
+You notice that the general design and scheme of
+decoration, although really Greek in feeling, follows
+rigidly the Egyptian conventions. But the portrait
+is entirely in the Greek manner, and when they came
+to that pathetic farewell, it had to be spoken in their
+own tongue, written in their own familiar characters."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. I have noticed that and admired the taste
+with which they have kept the inscription so inconspicuous
+as not to clash with the decoration. An obtrusive
+inscription in Greek characters would have
+spoiled the consistency of the whole scheme."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, it would." She assented absently as if she
+were thinking of something else, and once more gazed
+thoughtfully at the mummy. I watched her with deep
+content: noted the lovely contour of her cheek, the
+soft masses of hair that strayed away so gracefully
+from her brow, and thought her the most wonderful
+creature that had ever trod the earth. Suddenly she
+looked at me reflectively.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wonder," she said, "what made me tell you about
+Artemidorus. It was a rather silly, childish sort of
+make-believe, and I wouldn't have told anyone else for
+the world; not even my father. How did I know that
+you would sympathise and understand?"
+</p>
+<p>
+She asked the question in all simplicity with her
+serious, grey eyes looking inquiringly into mine. And
+the answer came to me in a flash, with the beating of
+my own heart.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I will tell you how you knew, Ruth," I whispered
+passionately. "It was because I loved you more than
+anyone in the world has ever loved you, and you felt
+my love in your heart and called it sympathy."
+</p>
+<p>
+I stopped short, for she had blushed scarlet and then
+turned deathly pale. And now she looked at me wildly,
+almost with terror.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have I shocked you, Ruth, dearest?" I exclaimed
+penitently, "have I spoken too soon? If I have, forgive
+me. But I had to tell you. I have been eating my
+heart out for love of you for I don't know how long.
+I think I have loved you from the first day we met.
+Perhaps I shouldn't have spoken yet, but, Ruth, dear,
+if you only knew what a sweet girl you are, you
+wouldn't blame me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't blame you," she said, almost in a whisper;
+"I blame myself. I have been a bad friend to you,
+who have been so loyal and loving to me. I ought not
+to have let this happen. For it can't be, Paul; I can't
+say what you want me to say. We can never be anything
+more to one another than friends."
+</p>
+<p>
+A cold hand seemed to grasp my heart&mdash;a horrible
+fear that I had lost all that I cared for&mdash;all that made
+life desirable.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why can't we?" I asked. "Do you mean that&mdash;that
+the gods have been gracious to some other
+man?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, no," she answered, hastily&mdash;almost indignantly,
+"of course I don't mean that."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then it is only that you don't love me yet. Of
+course you don't. Why should you? But you will,
+dear, some day. And I will wait patiently until that
+day comes and not trouble you with entreaties. I will
+wait for you as Jacob waited for Rachel; and as the
+long years seemed to him but as a few days because
+of the love he bore her, so it shall be with me, if only
+you will not send me away quite without hope."
+</p>
+<p>
+She was looking down, white-faced, with a hardening
+of the lips as if she were in bodily pain. "You don't
+understand," she whispered. "It can't be&mdash;it can
+never be. There is something that makes it impossible,
+now and always. I can't tell you more than
+that."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, Ruth, dearest," I pleaded despairingly, "may
+it not become possible some day? Can it not be made
+possible? I can wait, but I can't give you up. Is there
+no chance whatever that this obstacle may be removed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very little, I fear. Hardly any. No, Paul; it is
+hopeless, and I can't bear to talk about it. Let me
+go now. Let us say good-bye here and see one another
+no more for a while. Perhaps we may be friends again
+some day&mdash;when you have forgiven me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Forgiven you, dearest!" I exclaimed. "There is
+nothing to forgive. And we are friends, Ruth. Whatever
+happens, you are the dearest friend I have on
+earth, or can ever have."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you, Paul," she said faintly. "You are
+very good to me. But let me go, please. I must go.
+I must be alone."
+</p>
+<p>
+She held out a trembling hand, and, as I took it, I
+was shocked to see how terribly agitated and ill she
+looked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"May I not come with you, dear?" I pleaded.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, no!" she exclaimed breathlessly; "I must go
+away by myself. I want to be alone. Good-bye!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Before I let you go, Ruth&mdash;if you must go&mdash;I
+must have a solemn promise from you."
+</p>
+<p>
+Her sad grey eyes met mine and her lips quivered
+with an unspoken question.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You must promise me," I went on, "that if ever
+this barrier that parts us should be removed, you will
+let me know instantly. Remember that I love you
+always, and that I am waiting for you always on this
+side of the grave."
+</p>
+<p>
+She caught her breath in a little quick sob, and
+pressed my hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," she whispered: "I promise. Good-bye."
+She pressed my hand again and was gone; and, as I
+gazed at the empty doorway through which she had
+passed, I caught a glimpse of her reflection in a glass
+case on the landing, where she had paused for a moment
+to wipe her eyes. I felt it, in a manner, indelicate to
+have seen her, and turned away my head quickly;
+and yet I was conscious of a certain selfish satisfaction
+in the sweet sympathy that her grief bespoke.
+</p>
+<p>
+But now that she was gone a horrible sense of desolation
+descended on me. Only now, by the consciousness
+of irreparable loss, did I begin to realise the meaning
+of this passion of love that had stolen unawares
+into my life. How it had glorified the present and
+spread a glamour of delight over the dimly considered
+future: how all pleasures and desires, all hopes and
+ambitions, had converged upon it as a focus; how it
+had stood out as the one great reality behind which
+the other circumstances of life were as a background,
+shimmering, half seen, immaterial, and unreal. And
+now it was gone&mdash;lost, as it seemed, beyond hope; and
+that which was left to me was but the empty frame
+from which the picture had vanished.
+</p>
+<p>
+I have no idea how long I stood rooted to the spot
+where she had left me, wrapped in a dull consciousness
+of pain, immersed in a half-numb reverie. Recent
+events flitted, dream-like, through my mind; our happy
+labours in the reading-room; our first visit to the
+Museum; and this present day that had opened so
+brightly and with such joyous promise. One by one
+these phantoms of a vanished happiness came and went.
+Occasional visitors sauntered into the room&mdash;but the
+galleries were mostly empty that day&mdash;gazed inquisitively
+at my motionless figure, and went their way.
+And still the dull, intolerable ache in my breast went
+on, the only vivid consciousness that was left to me.
+</p>
+<p>
+Presently I raised my eyes and met those of the
+portrait. The sweet, pensive face of the old Greek
+settler looked out at me wistfully as though he would
+offer comfort; as though he would tell me that he,
+too, had known sorrow when he lived his life in the
+sunny Fayyum. And a subtle consolation, like the
+faint scent of old rose leaves, seemed to exhale from
+that friendly face that had looked on the birth of my
+happiness and had seen it wither and fade. I turned
+away, at last, with a silent farewell; and when I looked
+back, he seemed to speed me on my way with gentle
+valediction.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH17"><!-- CH17 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XVII
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE ACCUSING FINGER
+</h3>
+<p>
+Of my wanderings after I left the Museum on that
+black and dismal <i>dies irae</i>, I have but a dim recollection.
+But I must have travelled a quite considerable distance,
+since it wanted an hour or two to the time for
+returning to the surgery, and I spent the interval walking
+swiftly through streets and squares, unmindful of
+the happenings around, intent only on my present misfortune,
+and driven by a natural impulse to seek relief
+in bodily exertion. For mental distress sets up, as it
+were, a sort of induced current of physical unrest; a
+beneficent arrangement, by which a dangerous excess
+of emotional excitement may be transformed into motor
+energy, and so safely got rid of. The motor apparatus
+acts as a safety-valve to the psychical; and if the engine
+races for a while, with the onset of bodily fatigue
+the emotional pressure-gauge returns to a normal reading.
+</p>
+<p>
+And so it was with me. At first I was conscious of
+nothing but a sense of utter bereavement, of the shipwreck
+of all my hopes. But, by degrees, as I threaded
+my way among the moving crowds, I came to a better
+and more worthy frame of mind. After all, I had lost
+nothing that I had ever had. Ruth was still all that
+she had ever been to me&mdash;perhaps even more; and if
+that had been a rich endowment yesterday, why not
+to-day also? And how unfair it would be to her if I
+should mope and grieve over a disappointment that
+was no fault of hers and for which there was no remedy!
+Thus I reasoned with myself, and to such purpose that,
+by the time I reached Fetter Lane, my dejection had
+come to quite manageable proportions and I had formed
+the resolution to get back to the <i>status quo ante bellum</i>
+as soon as possible.
+</p>
+<p>
+About eight o'clock, as I was sitting alone in the
+consulting-room, gloomily persuading myself that I was
+now quite resigned to the inevitable, Adolphus brought
+me a registered packet, at the handwriting on which
+my heart gave such a bound that I had much ado to
+sign the receipt. As soon as Adolphus had retired
+(with undissembled contempt of the shaky signature)
+I tore open the packet, and as I drew out a letter a
+tiny box dropped on the table.
+</p>
+<p>
+The letter was all too short, and I devoured it over
+and over again with the eagerness of a condemned man
+reading a reprieve:&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"My Dear Paul,
+</p>
+<p>
+"Forgive me for leaving you so abruptly this
+afternoon, and leaving you so unhappy, too. I am more
+sane and reasonable now, and so send you greeting and
+beg you not to grieve for that which can never be. It
+is quite impossible, dear friend, and I entreat you, as
+you care for me, never to speak of it again; never
+again to make me feel that I can give so little when
+you have given so much. And do not try to see me
+for a little while. I shall miss your visits, and so will
+my father, who is very fond of you; but it is better
+that we should not meet, until we can take up the old
+relations&mdash;if that can ever be.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am sending you a little keepsake in case we
+should drift apart on the eddies of life. It is the ring
+that I told you about&mdash;the one that my uncle gave
+me. Perhaps you may be able to wear it as you
+have a small hand, but in any case keep it in remembrance
+of our friendship. The device on it is the Eye
+of Osiris, a mystic symbol for which I have a sentimentally
+superstitious affection, as also had my poor
+uncle, who actually bore it tattooed in scarlet on his
+breast. It signifies that the great judge of the dead
+looks down on men to see that justice is done and that
+truth prevails. So I commend you to the good Osiris;
+may his eye be upon you, ever watchful over your
+welfare in the absence of
+</p>
+<p>
+"Your affectionate friend
+</p>
+<center>
+"RUTH."
+</center>
+<p>
+It was a sweet letter, I thought, even if it carried
+little comfort; quiet and reticent like its writer, but
+with an undertone of sincere affection. I laid it down
+at length, and, taking the ring from its box, examined
+it fondly. Though but a copy, it had all the quaintness
+and feeling of the antique original, and, above all,
+it was fragrant with the spirit of the giver. Dainty
+and delicate, wrought of silver and gold, with an inlay
+of copper, I would not have exchanged it for the Koh-i-noor;
+and when I had slipped it on my finger its tiny
+eye of blue enamel looked up at me so friendly and
+companionable that I felt the glamour of the old-world
+superstition stealing over me, too.
+</p>
+<p>
+Not a single patient came in this evening, which was
+well for me (and also for the patient), as I was able
+forthwith to write in reply a long letter; but this I
+shall spare the long-suffering reader excepting its concluding
+paragraph:&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"And now, dearest, I have said my say; once for
+all, I have said it, and I will not open my mouth on
+the subject again (I am not actually opening it now)
+'until the times do alter.' And if the times do never
+alter&mdash;if it shall come to pass, in due course, that we
+two shall sit side by side, white-haired, and crinkly-nosed,
+and lean our poor old chins upon our sticks and
+mumble and gibber amicably over the things that might
+have been if the good Osiris had come up to the
+scratch&mdash;I will still be content, because your friendship,
+Ruth, is better than another woman's love. So
+you see, I have taken my gruel and come up to time
+smiling&mdash;if you will pardon the pugilistic metaphor&mdash;and
+I promise you loyally to do your bidding and never
+again to distress you.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Your faithful and loving friend,
+</p>
+<center>
+"PAUL."
+</center>
+<p>
+This letter I addressed and stamped, and then, with
+a wry grimace which I palmed off on myself (but not
+on Adolphus) as a cheerful smile, I went out and
+dropped it into the post-box; after which I further
+deluded myself by murmuring <i>Nunc dimittis</i> and assuring
+myself that the incident was now absolutely closed.
+</p>
+<p>
+But, despite this comfortable assurance, I was, in
+the days that followed, an exceedingly miserable young
+man. It is all very well to write down troubles of this
+kind as trivial and sentimental. They are nothing of
+the kind. When a man of an essentially serious nature
+has found the one woman of all the world who fulfils
+his highest ideals of womanhood, who is, in fact, a
+woman in ten thousand, to whom he has given all that
+he has to give of love and worship, the sudden wreck
+of all his hopes is no small calamity. And so I found
+it. Resign myself as I would to the bitter reality, the
+ghost of the might-have-been haunted me night and
+day, so that I spent my leisure wandering abstractedly
+about the streets, always trying to banish thought and
+never for an instant succeeding. A great unrest was
+upon me; and when I received a letter from Dick
+Barnard announcing his arrival at Madeira, homeward
+bound, I breathed a sigh of relief. I had no plans for
+the future, but I longed to be rid of the, now irksome,
+routine of the practice&mdash;to be free to come and go
+when and how I pleased.
+</p>
+<p>
+One evening, as I sat consuming with little appetite
+my solitary supper, there fell on me a sudden sense of
+loneliness. The desire that I had hitherto felt to be
+alone with my own miserable reflections gave place to
+a yearning for human companionship. That, indeed,
+which I craved for most was forbidden, and I must
+abide by my lady's wishes; but there were my friends
+in the Temple. It was more than a week since I had
+seen them; in fact, we had not met since the morning
+of that unhappiest day of my life. They would be
+wondering what had become of me. I rose from the
+table, and, having filled my pouch from a tin of
+tobacco, set forth for King's Bench Walk.
+</p>
+<p>
+As I approached the entry of No. 5A in the gathering
+darkness I met Thorndyke himself emerging, encumbered
+with two deck-chairs, a reading-lantern, and a
+book.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, Berkeley!" he exclaimed, "is it indeed thou?
+We have been wondering what had become of you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It <i>is</i> a long time since I looked you up," I
+admitted.
+</p>
+<p>
+He scrutinised me attentively by the light of the
+entry lamp, and then remarked: "Fetter Lane doesn't
+seem to be agreeing with you very well, my son. You
+are looking quite thin and peaky."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I've nearly done with it. Barnard will be
+back in about ten days. His ship is putting in at
+Madeira to coal and take in some cargo, and then he is
+coming home. Where are you going with those
+chairs?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am going to sit down at the end of the Walk by
+the garden railings. It's cooler there than indoors.
+If you will wait a moment I will fetch another chair
+for Jervis, though he won't be back for a little while."
+He ran up the stairs, and presently returned with a
+third chair, and we carried our impedimenta down to
+the quiet corner at the bottom of the Walk.
+</p>
+<p>
+"So your term of servitude is coming to an end,"
+said he when we had placed the chairs and hung the
+lantern on the railings. "Any other news?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. Have you any?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am afraid I have not. All my inquiries have
+yielded negative results. There is, of course, a considerable
+body of evidence, and it all seems to point
+one way. But I am unwilling to make a decisive move
+without something more definite. I am really waiting
+for confirmation or otherwise of my ideas on the subject;
+for some new item of evidence."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't know there was any evidence."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Didn't you?" said Thorndyke. "But you know
+as much as I know. You have all the essential facts;
+but apparently you haven't collated them and extracted
+their meaning. If you had, you would have found
+them curiously significant."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose I mustn't ask what their significance is?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I think not. When I am conducting a case I
+mention my surmises to nobody&mdash;not even to Jervis.
+Then I can say confidently that there has been no
+leakage. Don't think I distrust you. Remember that
+my thoughts are my client's property, and that the
+essence of strategy is to keep the enemy in the dark."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I see that. Of course, I ought not to have
+asked."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You ought not to need to ask," Thorndyke replied,
+with a smile; "you should put the facts together
+and reason from them yourself."
+</p>
+<p>
+While we had been talking I had noticed Thorndyke
+glance at me inquisitively from time to time. Now,
+after an interval of silence, he asked suddenly:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is anything amiss, Berkeley? Are you worrying
+about your friends' affairs?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, not particularly; though their prospects don't
+look very rosy."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Perhaps they are not quite so bad as they look,"
+said he. "But I am afraid something is troubling you.
+All your gay spirits seem to have evaporated." He
+paused for a few moments, and then added: "I don't
+want to intrude on your private affairs, but if I can
+help you by advice or otherwise, remember that we are
+old friends and that you are my academic offspring."
+</p>
+<p>
+Instinctively, with a man's natural reticence, I began
+to mumble a half-articulate disclaimer; and then I
+stopped. After all, why should I not confide in him?
+He was a good man and a wise man, full of human
+sympathy, as I knew, though so cryptic and secretive
+in his professional capacity. And I wanted a friend
+badly just now.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am afraid," I began shyly, "it is not a matter
+that admits of much help, and it's hardly the sort of
+thing that I ought to worry you by talking about&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"If it is enough to make you unhappy, my dear
+fellow, it is enough to merit serious consideration by
+your friend; so, if you don't mind telling me&mdash;&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Of course I don't, sir!" I exclaimed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then fire away; and don't call me 'sir.' We are
+brother practitioners now."
+</p>
+<p>
+Thus encouraged, I poured out the story of my little
+romance; bashfully at first and with halting phrases,
+but, later, with more freedom and confidence. He
+listened with grave attention, and once or twice put a
+question when my narrative became a little disconnected.
+When I had finished he laid his hand softly
+on my arm.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have had rough luck, Berkeley. I don't wonder
+that you are miserable. I am more sorry than I
+can tell you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you," I said. "It's exceedingly good of
+you to listen so patiently, but it's a shame for me to
+pester you with my sentimental troubles."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, Berkeley, you don't think that, and I hope
+you don't think that I do. We should be bad biologists
+and worse physicians if we should under-estimate the
+importance of that which is Nature's chiefest care.
+The one salient biological truth is the paramount importance
+of sex; and we are deaf and blind if we do
+not hear and see it in everything that lives when we
+look abroad upon the world; when we listen to the
+spring song of the birds, or when we consider the lilies
+of the field. And as is man to the lower organisms, so
+is human love to their merely reflex manifestations of
+sex. I will maintain, and you will agree with me, I
+know, that the love of a serious and honourable man
+for a woman who is worthy of him is the most momentous
+of all human affairs. It is the foundation of social
+life, and its failure is a serious calamity, not only to
+those whose lives may be thereby spoilt, but to society
+at large."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's a serious enough matter for the parties concerned,"
+I agreed; "but that is no reason why they
+should bore their friends."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But they don't. Friends should help one another
+and think it a privilege."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, I shouldn't mind coming to you for help, knowing
+you as I do. But no one can help a poor devil in
+a case like this&mdash;and certainly not a medical jurist."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, come, Berkeley!" he protested, "don't rate
+us too low. The humblest of creatures has its uses&mdash;'even
+the little pismire,' you know, as Isaak Walton
+tells us. Why, I have got substantial help from a
+stamp-collector. And then reflect upon the motor-scorcher
+and the earthworm and the blow-fly. All these
+lowly creatures play their parts in the scheme of Nature;
+and shall we cast out the medical jurist as nothing
+worth?"
+</p>
+<p>
+I laughed dejectedly at my teacher's genial irony.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What I meant," said I, "was that there is nothing
+to be done but wait&mdash;perhaps for ever. I don't know
+why she isn't able to marry me, and I mustn't ask her.
+She can't be married already."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Certainly not. She told you explicitly that there
+was no man in the case."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Exactly. And I can think of no other valid reason,
+excepting that she doesn't care enough for me. That
+would be a perfectly sound reason, but then it would
+only be a temporary one, not the insuperable obstacle
+that she assumes to exist, especially as we really got
+on excellently together. I hope it isn't some confounded
+perverse feminine scruple. I don't see how it could be;
+but women are most frightfully tortuous and wrong-headed
+at times."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see," said Thorndyke, "why we should cast
+about for perversely abnormal motives when there is a
+perfectly reasonable explanation staring us in the face."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is there?" I exclaimed. "I see none."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You are, not unnaturally, overlooking some of the
+circumstances that affect Miss Bellingham; but I don't
+suppose she has failed to grasp their meaning. Do you
+realise what her position really is? I mean with regard
+to her uncle's disappearance?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't think I quite understand you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, there is no use in blinking the facts," said
+Thorndyke. "The position is this: If John Bellingham
+ever went to his brother's house at Woodford, it
+is nearly certain that he went there after his visit to
+Hurst. Mind, I say '<i>if</i> he went'; I don't say that I
+believe he did. But it is stated that he appears to
+have gone there; and if he did go, he was never seen
+alive afterwards. Now, he did not go in at the front
+door. No one saw him enter the house. But there
+was a back gate, which John Bellingham knew, and
+which had a bell which rang in the library. And you
+will remember that, when Hurst and Jellicoe called,
+Mr. Bellingham had only just come in. Previous to
+that time Miss Bellingham had been alone in the
+library; that is to say, she was alone in the library at
+the very time when John Bellingham is said to have
+made his visit. That is the position, Berkeley. Nothing
+pointed has been said up to the present. But,
+sooner or later, if John Bellingham is not found, dead
+or alive, the question will be opened. Then it is certain
+that Hurst, in self-defence, will make the most of any
+facts that may transfer suspicion from him to someone
+else. And that someone else will be Miss Bellingham."
+</p>
+<p>
+I sat for some moments literally paralysed with
+horror. Then my dismay gave place to indignation.
+"But, damn it!" I exclaimed, starting up&mdash;"I beg
+your pardon&mdash;but could anyone have the infernal
+audacity to insinuate that that gentle, refined lady
+murdered her uncle?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is what will be hinted, if not plainly asserted;
+and she knows it. And that being so, is it difficult to
+understand why she should refuse to allow you to be
+publicly associated with her? To run the risk of dragging
+your honourable name into the sordid transactions
+of the police-court or the Old Bailey? To invest
+it, perhaps, with a dreadful notoriety?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, don't! for God's sake! It is too horrible!
+Not that I would care for myself. I would be proud
+to share her martyrdom of ignominy, if it had to be;
+but it is the sacrilege, the blasphemy of even thinking
+of her in such terms, that enrages me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "I understand and sympathise
+with you. Indeed, I share your righteous indignation
+at this dastardly affair. So you mustn't
+think me brutal for putting the case so plainly."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't. You have only shown me the danger that
+I was fool enough not to see. But you seem to imply
+that this hideous position has been brought about deliberately."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Certainly I do! This is no chance affair. Either
+the appearances indicate the real events&mdash;which I am
+sure they do not&mdash;or they have been created of a set
+purpose to lead to false conclusions. But the circumstances
+convince me that there has been a deliberate
+plot; and I am waiting&mdash;in no spirit of Christian
+patience, I can tell you&mdash;to lay my hand on the wretch
+who has done this."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What are you waiting for?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am waiting for the inevitable," he replied; "for
+the false move that the most artful criminal invariably
+makes. At present he is lying low; but presently he
+must make a move, and then I shall have him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But he may go on lying low. What will you do
+then?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, that is the danger. We may have to deal
+with the perfect villain who knows when to leave well
+alone. I have never met him, but he may exist, nevertheless."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And then we should have to stand by and see our
+friends go under."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Perhaps," said Thorndyke; and we both subsided
+into gloomy and silent reflection.
+</p>
+<p>
+The place was peaceful and quiet, as only a backwater
+of London can be. Occasional hoots from far-away
+tugs and steamers told of the busy life down
+below in the crowded Pool. A faint hum of traffic was
+borne in from the streets outside the precincts, and the
+shrill voices of newspaper boys came in unceasing
+chorus from the direction of Carmelite Street. They
+were too far away to be physically disturbing, but the
+excited yells, toned down as they were by distance,
+nevertheless stirred the very marrow in my bones, so
+dreadfully suggestive were they of those possibilities
+of the future at which Thorndyke had hinted. They
+seemed like the sinister shadows of coming misfortunes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Perhaps they called up the same association of ideas
+in Thorndyke's mind, for he remarked presently:
+"The newsvendor is abroad to-night like a bird of ill-omen.
+Something unusual has happened: some public
+or private calamity, most likely, and these yelling ghouls
+are out to feast on the remains. The newspaper men
+have a good deal in common with the carrion-birds
+that hover over a battle-field."
+</p>
+<p>
+Again we subsided into silence and reflection. Then,
+after an interval, I asked:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Would it be possible for me to help in any way in
+this investigation of yours?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is exactly what I have been asking myself,"
+replied Thorndyke. "It would be right and proper
+that you should, and I think you might."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How?" I asked eagerly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can't say off-hand; but Jervis will be going away
+for his holiday almost at once&mdash;in fact, he will go off
+actual duty to-night. There is very little doing; the
+long vacation is close upon us, and I can do without
+him. But if you would care to come down here and
+take his place, you would be very useful to me; and
+if there should be anything to be done in the Bellinghams'
+case, I am sure you would make up in enthusiasm
+for any deficiency in experience."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I couldn't really take Jervis's place," said I, "but
+if you would let me help you in any way it would be
+a great kindness. I would rather clean your boots than
+be out of it altogether."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well. Let us leave it that you come here as
+soon as Barnard has done with you. You can have
+Jervis's room, which he doesn't often use nowadays,
+and you will be more happy here than elsewhere, I
+know. I may as well give you my latchkey now. I
+have a duplicate upstairs, and you understand that my
+chambers are yours too from this moment."
+</p>
+<p>
+He handed me the latchkey and I thanked him
+warmly from my heart, for I felt sure that the suggestion
+was made, not for any use that I should be to
+him, but for my own peace of mind. I had hardly
+finished speaking when a quick step on the paved walk
+caught my ear.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here is Jervis," said Thorndyke. "We will let
+him know that there is a locum tenens ready to step
+into his shoes when he wants to be off." He flashed
+the lantern across the path, and a few moments later
+his junior stepped up briskly with a bundle of newspapers
+tucked under his arm.
+</p>
+<p>
+It struck me that Jervis looked at me a little queerly
+when he recognised me in the dim light; also that he
+was a trifle constrained in his manner, as if my presence
+were an embarrassment. He listened to Thorndyke's
+announcement of our newly made arrangement
+without much enthusiasm and with none of his customary
+facetious comments. And again I noticed a
+quick glance at me, half curious, half uneasy, and
+wholly puzzling to me.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's all right," he said when Thorndyke had
+explained the situation. "I daresay you'll find Berkeley
+as useful as me, and, in any case, he'll be better
+here than staying on with Barnard." He spoke with
+unwonted gravity, and there was in his tone a solicitude
+for me that attracted my notice and that of Thorndyke
+as well, for the latter looked at him curiously, though
+he made no comment. After a short silence, however,
+he asked: "And what news does my learned brother
+bring? There is a mighty shouting among the outer
+barbarians, and I see a bundle of newspapers under
+my learned friend's arm. Has anything in particular
+happened?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Jervis looked more uncomfortable than ever. "Well&mdash;yes,"
+he replied hesitatingly, "something has happened&mdash;there!
+It's no use beating about the bush;
+Berkeley may as well learn it from me as from those
+yelling devils outside." He took a couple of papers
+from his bundle and silently handed one to me and
+the other to Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jervis's ominous manner, naturally enough, alarmed
+me not a little. I opened the paper with a nameless
+dread. But whatever my vague fears, they fell far
+short of the occasion; and when I saw those yells from
+without crystallised into scare headlines and flaming
+capitals I turned for a moment sick and dizzy with fear.
+</p>
+<p>
+The paragraph was only a short one, and I read it
+through in less than a minute:
+</p>
+<p><b>
+"THE MISSING FINGER
+</b></p>
+<p><b>
+"DRAMATIC DISCOVERY AT WOODFORD.
+</b></p>
+<p>
+"The mystery that has surrounded the remains of a
+mutilated human body, portions of which have been
+found in various places in Kent and Essex, has received
+a partial and very sinister solution. The police have,
+all along, suspected that these remains were those of
+a Mr. John Bellingham who disappeared under circumstances
+of some suspicion about two years ago. There
+is now no doubt upon the subject, for the finger which
+was missing from the hand that was found at Sidcup
+has been discovered at the bottom of a disused well
+<i>together with a ring</i>, which has been identified as one
+habitually worn by Mr. John Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The house in the garden of which the well is situated
+was the property of the murdered man, and was
+occupied at the time of the disappearance by his
+brother, Mr. Godfrey Bellingham. But the latter left
+it very soon after, and it has been empty ever since.
+Just lately it has been put in repair, and it was in this
+way that the well came to be emptied and cleaned out.
+It seems that Detective-Inspector Badger, who was
+searching the neighbourhood for further remains, heard
+of the emptying of the well and went down in the
+bucket to examine the bottom, where he found the three
+bones and the ring.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thus the identity of the body is established beyond
+all doubt, and the question that remains is, Who killed
+John Bellingham? It may be remembered that a
+trinket, apparently broken from his watch-chain, was
+found in the grounds of this house on the day that he
+disappeared, and that he was never again seen alive.
+What may be the import of these facts time will show."
+</p>
+<p>
+That was all; but it was enough. I dropped the
+paper to the ground and glanced round furtively at
+Jervis, who sat gazing gloomily at the toes of his boots.
+It was horrible; It was incredible! The blow was so
+crushing that it left my faculties numb, and for a while
+I seemed unable even to think intelligibly.
+</p>
+<p>
+I was aroused by Thorndyke's voice&mdash;calm, business-like,
+composed:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Time will show, indeed! But meanwhile we must
+go warily. And don't be unduly alarmed, Berkeley.
+Go home, take a good dose of bromide with a little
+stimulant, and turn in. I am afraid this has been
+rather a shock to you."
+</p>
+<p>
+I rose from my chair like one in a dream and held
+out my hand to Thorndyke; and even in the dim light
+and in my dazed condition I noticed that his face bore
+a look that I had never seen before: the look of a
+granite mask of Fate&mdash;grim, stern, inexorable.
+</p>
+<p>
+My two friends walked with me as far as the gateway
+at the top of Inner Temple Lane, and as we reached
+the entry a stranger, coming quickly up the Lane, overtook
+and passed us. In the glare of the lamp outside
+the porter's lodge he looked at us quickly over his
+shoulder, and though he passed on without halt or
+greeting, I recognised him with a certain dull surprise
+which I did not understand then and do not understand
+now. It was Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+I shook hands once more with my friends and strode
+out into Fleet Street, but as soon as I was outside the
+gate I made direct for Nevill's Court. What was in
+my mind I do not know; only that some instinct of
+protection led me there, where my lady lay unconscious
+of the hideous menace that hung over her. At the
+entrance to the court a tall, powerful man was lounging
+against the wall, and he seemed to look at me
+curiously as I passed; but I hardly noticed him and
+strode forward into the narrow passage. By the shabby
+gateway of the house I halted and looked up at such
+of the windows as I could see over the wall. They
+were all dark. All the inmates, then, were in bed.
+Vaguely comforted by this, I walked on to the New
+Street end of the court and looked out. Here, too,
+a man&mdash;a tall, thick-set man&mdash;was loitering; and, as
+he looked inquisitively into my face, I turned and reentered
+the court, slowly retracing my steps. As I
+again reached the gate of the house I stopped to look
+up once more at the windows, and turning, I found the
+man whom I had last noticed close behind me. Then,
+in a flash of dreadful comprehension, I understood.
+These two men were plain-clothes policemen.
+</p>
+<p>
+For a moment a blind fury possessed me. An insane
+impulse urged me to give battle to this intruder; to
+avenge upon his person the insult of his presence.
+Fortunately the impulse was but momentary, and I
+recovered myself without making any demonstration.
+But the appearance of those two policemen brought
+the peril into the immediate present, imparted to it a
+horrible actuality. A chilly sweat of terror stood on
+my forehead, and my ears were ringing when I walked
+with faltering steps out into Fetter Lane.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH18"><!-- CH18 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XVIII
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+JOHN BELLINGHAM
+</h3>
+<p>
+The next few days were a very nightmare of horror
+and gloom. Of course, I repudiated my acceptance of
+the decree of banishment that Ruth had passed upon
+me. I was her friend, at least, and in time of peril
+my place was at her side. Tacitly&mdash;though thankfully
+enough, poor girl!&mdash;she had recognised the fact and
+made me once more free of the house.
+</p>
+<p>
+For there was no disguising the situation. Newspaper
+boys yelled the news up and down Fleet Street
+from morning to night; soul-shaking posters grinned
+on gaping crowds; and the newspapers fairly wallowed
+in the "Shocking details." It is true that no direct
+accusations were made; but the original reports of the
+disappearance were reprinted with such comments as
+made me gnash my teeth with fury.
+</p>
+<p>
+The wretchedness of those days will live in my memory
+until my dying day. Never can I forget the dread
+that weighed me down, the horrible suspense, the fear
+that clutched at my heart as I furtively scanned the
+posters in the streets. Even the wretched detectives
+who prowled about the entrances to Nevill's Court became
+grateful to my eyes, for, embodying as they did
+the hideous menace that hung over my dear lady, their
+presence at least told me that the blow had not yet
+fallen. Indeed, we came, after a time, to exchange
+glances of mutual recognition, and I thought that they
+seemed to be sorry for her and for me, and had no great
+liking for their task. Of course, I spent most of my
+leisure at the old house, though my heart ached more
+there than elsewhere; and I tried, with but poor success,
+I fear, to maintain a cheerful, confident manner,
+cracking my little jokes as of old, and even essaying
+to skirmish with Miss Oman. But this last experiment
+was a dead failure; and when she had suddenly broken
+down in a stream of brilliant repartee to weep hysterically
+on my breast, I abandoned the attempt and did
+not repeat it.
+</p>
+<p>
+A dreadful gloom had settled down upon the old
+house. Poor Miss Oman crept silently but restlessly
+up and down the ancient stairs with dim eyes and a
+tremulous chin, or moped in her room with a parliamentary
+petition (demanding, if I remember rightly,
+the appointment of a female judge to deal with divorce
+and matrimonial causes) which lay on her table languidly
+awaiting signatures that never came. Mr. Bellingham,
+whose mental condition at first alternated
+between furious anger and absolute panic, was fast
+sinking into a state of nervous prostration that I
+viewed with no little alarm. In fact, the only really
+self-possessed person in the entire household was Ruth
+herself, and even she could not conceal the ravages of
+sorrow and suspense and overshadowing peril. Her
+manner was almost unchanged; or rather, I should
+say, she had gone back to that which I had first known&mdash;quiet,
+reserved, taciturn, with a certain bitter
+humour showing through her unvarying amiability.
+When she and I were alone, indeed, her reserve melted
+away and she was all sweetness and gentleness. But it
+wrung my heart to look at her, to see how, day by
+day, she grew ever more thin and haggard; to watch
+the growing pallor of her cheek; to look into her
+solemn grey eyes, so sad and tragic and yet so brave
+and defiant of fate.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a terrible time; and through it all the dreadful
+questions haunted me continually: When will the
+blow fall? What is it that the police are waiting for?
+And when they do strike, what will Thorndyke have
+to say?
+</p>
+<p>
+So things went on for four dreadful days. But on
+the fourth day, just as the evening consultations were
+beginning and the surgery was filled with waiting
+patients, Polton appeared with a note, which he insisted,
+to the indignation of Adolphus, on delivering
+into my own hands. It was from Thorndyke, and was
+to the following effect:&mdash;&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"I learn from Dr. Norbury that he has recently
+heard from Herr Lederbogen, of Berlin&mdash;a learned
+authority on Oriental antiquities&mdash;who makes some
+reference to an English Egyptologist whom he met in
+Vienna about a year ago. He cannot recall the Englishman's
+name, but there are certain expressions in
+the letter which make Dr. Norbury suspect that he is
+referring to John Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I want you to bring Mr. and Miss Bellingham to
+my chambers this evening at 8.30, to meet Dr. Norbury
+and talk over this letter; and in view of the importance
+of the matter, I look to you not to fail me."
+</p>
+<p>
+A wave of hope and relief swept over me. It was
+still possible that this Gordian knot might be cut; that
+the deliverance might come before it was too late. I
+wrote a hasty note in reply to Thorndyke and another
+to Ruth, making the appointment; and having given
+them both to the trusty Polton, returned somewhat
+feverishly to my professional duties. To my profound
+relief, the influx of patients ceased, and the practice
+sank into its accustomed torpor; whereby I was able,
+without base and mendacious subterfuge, to escape in
+good time to my tryst.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was near upon eight o'clock when I passed through
+the archway into Nevill's Court. The warm afternoon
+light had died away, for the summer was running out
+apace. The last red glow of the setting sun had faded
+from the ancient roofs and chimney-stacks, and down
+in the narrow court the shades of evening had begun
+to gather in nooks and corners. I was due at eight,
+and, as it still wanted some minutes to the hour, I
+sauntered slowly down the court, looking reflectively
+on the familiar scene and the well-known friendly faces.
+</p>
+<p>
+The day's work was drawing to a close. The little
+shops were putting up their shutters; lights were beginning
+to twinkle in parlour windows; a solemn hymn
+arose in the old Moravian chapel, and its echoes stole
+out through the dark entry that opens into the court
+under the archway.
+</p>
+<p>
+Here was Mr. Finneymore (a man of versatile gifts,
+with a leaning towards paint and varnish) sitting,
+white-aproned and shirt-sleeved, on a chair in his
+garden, smoking his pipe with a complacent eye on
+his dahlias. There at an open window a young man,
+with a brush in his hand and another behind his ear,
+stood up and stretched himself while an older lady
+deftly rolled up a large map. The barber was turning
+out the gas in his little saloon; the greengrocer was
+emerging with a cigarette in his mouth and an aster
+in his button-hole, and a group of children were escorting
+the lamplighter on his rounds.
+</p>
+<p>
+All these good, homely folk were Nevill's Courtiers
+of the genuine breed; born in the court, as had been
+their fathers before them for generations. And of such
+to a great extent was the population of the place. Miss
+Oman herself claimed aboriginal descent and so did
+the sweet-faced Moravian lady next door&mdash;a connection
+of the famous La Trobes of the old Conventicle, whose
+history went back to the Gordon Riots; and as to the
+gentleman who lived in the ancient timber-and-plaster
+house at the bottom of the court, it was reported that
+his ancestors had dwelt in that very house since the
+days of James the First.
+</p>
+<p>
+On these facts I reflected as I sauntered down the
+court: on the strange phenomenon of an old-world
+hamlet with its ancient population lingering in the very
+heart of the noisy city; an island of peace set in
+an ocean of unrest, an oasis in a desert of change and
+ferment.
+</p>
+<p>
+My meditations brought me to the shabby gate in
+the high wall, and as I raised the latch and pushed it
+open, I saw Ruth standing at the door of the house
+talking to Miss Oman. She was evidently waiting for
+me, for she wore her sombre black cloak and hat and
+a black veil, and when she saw me she came out, closing
+the door after her and holding out her hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You are punctual," said she. "St. Dunstan's
+clock is striking now."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," I answered. "But where is your father?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He has gone to bed, poor old dear. He didn't
+feel well enough to come, and I did not urge him. He
+is really very ill. This dreadful suspense will kill him
+if it goes on much longer."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Let us hope it won't," I said, but with little conviction,
+I fear, in my tone. It was harrowing to see
+her torn by anxiety for her father, and I yearned to
+comfort her. But what was there to say? Mr. Bellingham
+was breaking up visibly under the stress of the
+terrible menace that hung over his daughter, and no
+words of mine could make the fact less manifest.
+</p>
+<p>
+We walked silently up the court. The lady at the
+window greeted us with a smiling salutation, Mr.
+Finneymore removed his pipe and raised his cap, receiving
+a gracious bow from Ruth in return, and then
+we passed through the covered way into Fetter Lane,
+where my companion paused and looked about her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What are you looking for?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The detective," she answered quietly. "It would
+be a pity if the poor man should miss me after waiting
+so long. However, I don't see him"; and she turned
+away towards Fleet Street. It was an unpleasant surprise
+to me that her sharp eyes had detected the secret
+spy upon her movements; and the dry, sardonic tone
+of her remark pained me, too, recalling, as it did, the
+frigid self-possession that had so repelled me in the
+early days of our acquaintance. And yet I could not
+but admire the cool unconcern with which she faced
+her horrible peril.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Tell me a little more about this conference," she
+said, as we walked down Fetter Lane. "Your note was
+rather more concise than lucid; but I suppose you
+wrote it in a hurry."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I did. And I can't give you any details now.
+All I know is that Doctor Norbury has had a letter
+from a friend of his in Berlin, an Egyptologist, as I
+understand, named Lederbogen, who refers to an English
+acquaintance of his and Norbury's whom he saw
+in Vienna about a year ago. He cannot remember the
+Englishman's name, but from some of the circumstances
+Norbury seems to think that he is referring to your
+Uncle John. Of course, if this should turn out to be
+really the case, it would set everything straight; so
+Thorndyke was anxious that you and your father
+should meet Norbury and talk it over."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I see," said Ruth. Her tone was thoughtful but
+by no means enthusiastic.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You don't seem to attach much importance to the
+matter," I remarked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. It doesn't seem to fit the circumstances.
+What is the use of suggesting that poor Uncle John is
+alive&mdash;and behaving like an imbecile, which he certainly
+was not&mdash;when his dead body has actually been
+found?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"But," I suggested lamely, "there may be some
+mistake. It may not be his body after all."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And the ring?" she asked, with a bitter smile.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That may be just a coincidence. It was a copy of
+a well-known form of antique ring. Other people may
+have had copies made as well as your uncle. Besides,"
+I added, with more conviction, "we haven't seen the
+ring. It may not be his at all."
+</p>
+<p>
+She shook her head. "My dear Paul," she said
+quietly, "it is useless to delude ourselves. Every known
+fact points to the certainty that it is his body. John
+Bellingham is dead: there can be no doubt of that.
+And to everyone except his unknown murderer and
+one or two of my own loyal friends, it must seem that
+his death lies at my door. I realised from the beginning
+that the suspicion lay between George Hurst and me;
+and the finding of the ring fixes it definitely on me.
+I am only surprised that the police have made no move
+yet."
+</p>
+<p>
+The quiet conviction of her tone left me for a while
+speechless with horror and despair. Then I recalled
+Thorndyke's calm, even confident attitude, and I
+hastened to remind her of it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There is one of your friends," I said, "who is still
+undismayed. Thorndyke seems to anticipate no difficulties."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And yet," she replied, "he is ready to consider a
+forlorn hope like this. However, we shall see."
+</p>
+<p>
+I could think of nothing more to say, and it was in
+gloomy silence that we pursued our way down Inner
+Temple Lane and through the dark entries and tunnel-like
+passages that brought us out, at length, by the
+Treasury.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see any light in Thorndyke's chambers,"
+I said, as we crossed King's Bench Walk; and I pointed
+out the row of windows all dark and blank.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No: and yet the shutters are not closed. He must
+be out."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He can't be after making an appointment with you
+and your father. It is most mysterious. Thorndyke
+is so very punctilious about his engagements."
+</p>
+<p>
+The mystery was solved, when we reached the landing,
+by a slip of paper fixed by a tack on the iron-bound
+"oak."
+</p>
+<p>
+"A note for P.B. is on the table," was the laconic
+message: on reading which I inserted my key, swung
+the heavy door outward, and opened the lighter inner
+door. The note was lying on the table and I brought
+it out to the landing to read by the light of the staircase
+lamp.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Apologise to our friends," it ran, "for the slight
+change of programme. Norbury is anxious that I
+should get my experiments over before the Director
+returns, so as to save discussion. He has asked me to
+begin to-night and says he will see Mr. and Miss Bellingham
+here, at the Museum. Please bring them along
+at once. The hall porters are instructed to admit you
+and bring you to us. I think some matters of importance
+may transpire at the interview.&mdash;J.E.T."
+</p>
+<hr>
+<p>
+"I hope you don't mind," I said apologetically,
+when I had read the note to Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Of course I don't," she replied. "I am rather
+pleased. We have so many associations with the dear
+old Museum, haven't we?" She looked at me for a
+moment with a strange and touching wistfulness and
+then turned to descend the stone stairs.
+</p>
+<p>
+At the Temple gate, I hailed a hansom and we were
+soon speeding westward and north to the soft tinkle
+of the horse's bell.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What are these experiments that Doctor Thorndyke
+refers to?" she asked presently.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can only answer you rather vaguely," I replied.
+"Their object, I believe, is to ascertain whether the
+penetrability of organic substances by the X-rays becomes
+altered by age; whether, for instance, an ancient
+block of wood is more or less transparent to the rays
+than a new block of the same size."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And of what use would the knowledge be, if it were
+obtained?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can't say. Experiments are made to obtain
+knowledge without regard to its utility. The use appears
+when the knowledge has been acquired. But in
+this case, if it should be possible to determine the age
+of any organic substance by its reaction to X-rays, the
+discovery might be of some value in legal practice&mdash;as
+in demonstrating a new seal on an old document,
+for instance. But I don't know whether Thorndyke
+has anything definite in view; I only know that the
+preparations have been on a most portentous scale."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How do you mean?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"In regard to size. When I went into the workshop
+yesterday morning, I found Polton erecting a kind of
+portable gallows about nine feet high, and he had just
+finished varnishing a pair of enormous wooden trays,
+each over six feet long. It looked as if he and Thorndyke
+were contemplating a few private executions with
+subsequent post-mortems on the victims."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a horrible suggestion!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"So Polton said, with his quaint, crinkly smile. But
+he was mighty close about the use of the apparatus
+all the same. I wonder if we shall see anything of the
+experiments, when we get there. This is Museum
+Street, isn't it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes." As she spoke, she lifted the flap of one of
+the little windows in the back of the cab and peered out.
+Then, closing it with a quiet, ironic smile, she said:
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is all right; he hasn't missed us. It will be
+quite a nice little change for him."
+</p>
+<p>
+The cab swung round into Great Russell Street, and,
+glancing out as it turned, I saw another hansom following;
+but before I had time to inspect its solitary
+passenger, we drew up at the Museum gates.
+The gate-porter, who seemed to expect us, ushered
+us up the drive to the great portico and into the
+Central Hall, where he handed us over to another
+official.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Doctor Norbury is in one of the rooms adjoining
+the Fourth Egyptian Room," the latter stated in
+answer to our inquiries: and, providing himself with
+a wire-guarded lantern, he prepared to escort us
+thither.
+</p>
+<p>
+Up the great staircase, now wrapped in mysterious
+gloom, we passed in silence with bitter-sweet memories
+of that day of days when we had first trodden its steps
+together: through the Central Saloon, the Mediaeval
+Room and the Asiatic Saloon, and so into the long
+range of the Ethnographical Galleries.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a weird journey. The swaying lantern shot
+its beams abroad into the darkness of the great, dim
+galleries, casting instantaneous flashes on the objects
+in the cases, so that they leaped into being and vanished
+in the twinkling of an eye. Hideous idols with round,
+staring eyes started forth from the darkness, glared
+at us for an instant and were gone. Grotesque masks,
+suddenly revealed by the shimmering light, took on the
+semblance of demon faces that seemed to mow and
+gibber at us as we passed. As for the life-sized models&mdash;realistic
+enough by daylight&mdash;their aspect was positively
+alarming; for the moving light and shadow endowed
+them with life and movement, so that they seemed
+to watch us furtively, to lie in wait and to hold themselves
+in readiness to steal out and follow us. The
+illusion evidently affected Ruth as well as me, for she
+drew nearer to me and whispered:
+</p>
+<p>
+"These figures are quite startling. Did you see that
+Polynesian? I really felt as if he were going to spring
+out on us."
+</p>
+<p>
+"They are rather uncanny," I admitted, "but the
+danger is over now. We are passing out of their sphere
+of influence."
+</p>
+<p>
+We came out on a landing as I spoke and then turned
+sharply to the left along the North Gallery, from the
+centre of which we entered the Fourth Egyptian Room.
+</p>
+<p>
+Almost immediately, a door in the opposite wall
+opened; a peculiar, high-pitched humming sound became
+audible, and Jervis came out on tiptoe with his
+hand raised.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Tread as lightly as you can," he said. "We are
+just making an exposure."
+</p>
+<p>
+The attendant turned back with his lantern, and
+we followed Jervis into the room from whence he had
+come. It was a large room, and little lighter than the
+galleries, for the single glow-lamp that burned at the
+end where we entered left the rest of the apartment
+in almost complete obscurity. We seated ourselves at
+once on the chairs that had been placed for us, and,
+when the mutual salutations had been exchanged, I
+looked about me. There were three people in the room
+besides Jervis: Thorndyke, who sat with his watch
+in his hand, a grey-headed gentleman whom I took to
+be Dr. Norbury, and a smaller person at the dim farther
+end&mdash;undistinguishable, but probably Polton. At our
+end of the room were the two large trays that I had
+seen in the workshop, now mounted on trestles and each
+fitted with a rubber drain-tube leading down to a
+bucket. At the farther end of the room the sinister
+shape of the gallows reared itself aloft in the gloom;
+only now I could see that it was not a gallows at all.
+For affixed to the top cross-bar was a large, bottomless
+glass basin, inside which was a glass bulb that
+glowed with a strange green light; and in the heart of
+the bulb a bright spot of red.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was all clear enough so far. The peculiar sound
+that filled the air was the hum of the interrupter; the
+bulb was, of course, a Crookes tube, and the red spot
+inside it, the glowing red-hot disc of the anti-cathode.
+Clearly an X-ray photograph was being made; but
+of what? I strained my eyes, peering into the gloom
+at the foot of the gallows, but though I could make out
+an elongated object lying on the floor directly under
+the bulb, I could not resolve the dimly seen shape into
+anything recognisable. Presently, however, Dr. Norbury
+supplied the clue.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am rather surprised," said he, "that you chose
+so composite an object as a mummy to begin on. I
+should have thought that a simpler object, such as a
+coffin or a wooden figure, would have been more instructive."
+</p>
+<p>
+"In some ways it would," replied Thorndyke, "but
+the variety of materials that the mummy gives us has
+its advantages. I hope your father is not ill, Miss
+Bellingham."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He is not at all well," said Ruth, "and we agreed
+that it was better for me to come alone. I knew Herr
+Lederbogen quite well. He stayed with us for a time
+when he was in England."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I trust," said Dr. Norbury, "that I have not
+troubled you for nothing. Herr Lederbogen speaks
+of 'our erratic English friend with the long name that
+I can never remember,' and it seemed to me that he
+might be referring to your uncle."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should hardly have called my uncle erratic,"
+said Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, no. Certainly not," Dr. Norbury agreed
+hastily. "However, you shall see the letter presently
+and judge for yourself. We mustn't introduce irrelevant
+topics while the experiment is in progress, must
+we, Doctor?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You had better wait until we have finished," said
+Thorndyke, "because I am going to turn out the light.
+Switch off the current, Polton."
+</p>
+<p>
+The green light vanished from the bulb, the hum
+of the interrupter swept down an octave or two and
+died away. Then Thorndyke and Dr. Norbury rose
+from their chairs and went towards the mummy, which
+they lifted tenderly while Polton drew from beneath it
+what presently turned out to be a huge black-paper
+envelope. The single glow-lamp was switched off, leaving
+the room in total darkness, until there burst out
+suddenly a bright orange-red light immediately above
+one of the trays.
+</p>
+<p>
+We all gathered round to watch, as Polton&mdash;the high-priest
+of these mysteries&mdash;drew from the black envelope
+a colossal sheet of bromide paper, laid it carefully in
+the tray and proceeded to wet it with a large brush
+which he had dipped in a pail of water.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I thought you always used plates for this kind of
+work," said Dr. Norbury.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We do, by preference; but a six-foot plate would
+be impossible, so I had a special paper made to the size."
+</p>
+<p>
+There is something singularly fascinating in the appearance
+of a developing photograph; in the gradual,
+mysterious emergence of the picture from the blank,
+white surface of plate or paper. But a skiagraph, or
+X-ray photograph, has a fascination all its own. Unlike
+an ordinary photograph, which yields a picture of
+things already seen, it gives a presentment of objects
+hitherto invisible; and hence, when Polton poured the
+developer on the already wet paper, we all craned
+over the tray with the keenest curiosity.
+</p>
+<p>
+The developer was evidently a very slow one. For
+fully half a minute no change could be seen in the
+uniform surface. Then, gradually, almost insensibly,
+the marginal portion began to darken, leaving the
+outline of the mummy in pale relief. The change, once
+started, proceeded apace. Darker and darker grew
+the margin of the paper until from slaty grey it had
+turned to black; and still the shape of the mummy,
+now in strong relief, remained an elongated patch of
+bald white. But not for long. Presently the white
+shape began to be tinged with grey, and, as the colour
+deepened, there grew out of it a paler form that seemed
+to steal out of the enshrouding grey like an apparition,
+spectral, awesome, mysterious. The skeleton was coming
+into view.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is rather uncanny," said Dr. Norbury. "I feel
+as if I were assisting at some unholy rite. Just look
+at it now!"
+</p>
+<p>
+The grey shadow of the cartonnage, the wrappings
+and the flesh was fading away into the black background
+and the white skeleton stood out in sharp contrast.
+And it certainly was a rather weird spectacle.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You'll lose the bones if you develop much farther,"
+said Dr. Norbury.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I must let the bones darken," Thorndyke replied,
+"in case there are any metallic objects. I have three
+more papers in the envelope."
+</p>
+<p>
+The white shape of the skeleton now began to grey
+over and, as Dr. Norbury had said, its distinctness
+became less and yet less. Thorndyke leaned over the
+tray with his eyes fixed on a point in the middle of the
+breast and we all watched him in silence. Suddenly
+he rose. "Now, Polton," he said sharply; "get the
+hypo on as quickly as you can."
+</p>
+<p>
+Polton, who had been waiting with his hand on the
+stop-cock of the drain-tube, rapidly ran off the developer
+into the bucket and flooded the paper with the
+fixing solution.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now we can look at it at our leisure," said Thorndyke.
+After waiting a few seconds, he switched on one
+of the glow-lamps, and as the flood of light fell on the
+photograph, he added: "You see we haven't quite lost
+the skeleton."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No." Dr. Norbury put on a pair of spectacles and
+bent down over the tray; and at this moment I felt
+Ruth's hand touch my arm, lightly, at first, and then
+with a strong, nervous grasp; and I could feel that her
+hand was trembling. I looked round at her anxiously
+and saw that she had turned deathly pale.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Would you rather go out into the gallery?" I
+asked; for the room with its tightly shut windows was
+close and hot.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," she replied quietly, "I will stay here. I am
+quite well." But still she kept hold of my arm.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke glanced at her keenly and then looked
+away as Dr. Norbury turned to him to ask a question.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why is it, think you, that some of the teeth show
+so much whiter than others?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think the whiteness of the shadows is due to the
+presence of metal," Thorndyke replied.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you mean that the teeth have metal fillings?"
+asked Dr. Norbury.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Really! This is very interesting. The use of gold
+stoppings&mdash;and artificial teeth, too&mdash;by the ancient
+Egyptians is well known, but we have no examples
+in the Museum. This mummy ought to be unrolled.
+Do you think all those teeth are filled with the same
+metal? They are not equally white."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," replied Thorndyke. "Those teeth that are
+perfectly white are undoubtedly filled with gold, but
+that greyish one is probably filled with tin."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very interesting," said Dr. Norbury. "<i>Very</i>
+interesting! And what do you make of that faint mark
+across the chest, near the top of the sternum?"
+</p>
+<p>
+It was Ruth who answered his question.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is the Eye of Osiris!" she exclaimed, in a hushed
+voice.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Dr. Norbury, "so it is.
+You are quite right. It is the Utchat&mdash;the Eye of
+Horus&mdash;or Osiris, if you prefer to call it so. That, I
+presume, will be a gilded device on some of the wrappings."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No: I should say it is a tattoo mark. It is too
+indefinite for a gilded device. And I should say further
+that the tattooing is done in vermilion, as carbon
+tattooing would cast no visible shadow."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think you must be mistaken about that," said
+Dr. Norbury, "but we shall see, if the Director allows
+us to unroll the mummy. By the way, those little
+objects in front of the knees are metallic, I suppose?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, they are metallic. But they are not in front
+of the knees; they are <i>in</i> the knees. They are pieces
+of silver wire which have been used to repair fractured
+knee-caps."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you sure of that?" exclaimed Dr. Norbury,
+peering at the little white marks with ecstasy; "because,
+if you are, and if these objects are what you say
+they are, the mummy of Sebek-hotep is an absolutely
+unique specimen."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am quite certain of it," said Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then," said Dr. Norbury, "we have made a discovery,
+thanks to your inquiring spirit. Poor John
+Bellingham! He little knew what a treasure he was
+giving us! How I wish he could have known! How
+I wish he could have been here with us to-night!"
+</p>
+<p>
+He paused once more to gaze in rapture at the photograph.
+And then Thorndyke, in his quiet, impassive
+way, said:
+</p>
+<p>
+"John Bellingham is here, Doctor Norbury. This
+is John Bellingham."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. Norbury started back and stared at Thorndyke
+in speechless amazement.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You don't mean," he exclaimed, after a long pause,
+"that this mummy is the body of John Bellingham!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do, indeed. There is no doubt of it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But it is impossible! The mummy was here in the
+gallery a full three weeks before he disappeared."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not so," said Thorndyke. "John Bellingham was
+last seen alive by you and Mr. Jellicoe on the fourteenth
+of October, more than three weeks before the mummy
+left Queen Square. After that date he was never seen
+alive or dead by any person who knew him and could
+identify him."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. Norbury reflected awhile in silence. Then, in
+a faint voice, he asked: "How do you suggest that
+John Bellingham's body came to be inside that cartonnage?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think Mr. Jellicoe is the most likely person to
+be able to answer that question," Thorndyke replied
+drily.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was another interval of silence, and then Dr.
+Norbury asked suddenly:
+</p>
+<p>
+"But what do you suppose has become of Sebek-hotep?
+The real Sebek-hotep, I mean?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I take it," said Thorndyke, "that the remains of
+Sebek-hotep, or at least a portion of them, are at
+present lying in the Woodford mortuary awaiting an
+adjourned inquest."
+</p>
+<p>
+As Thorndyke made this statement a flash of belated
+intelligence, mingled with self-contempt, fell on me.
+Now that the explanation was given, how obvious it
+was! And yet I, a competent anatomist and physiologist
+and actually a pupil of Thorndyke's, had mistaken
+those ancient bones for the remains of a recent
+body!
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. Norbury considered the last statement for some
+time in evident perplexity. "It is all consistent enough,
+I must admit," said he, at length, "and yet&mdash;are you
+quite sure there is no mistake? It seems so incredible."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There is no mistake, I assure you," Thorndyke
+answered. "To convince you, I will give you the facts
+in detail. First, as to the teeth. I have seen John
+Bellingham's dentist and obtained particulars from
+his case-book. There were in all five teeth that had
+been filled. The right upper wisdom-tooth, the molar
+next to it, and the second lower molar on the left side,
+had all extensive gold fillings. You can see them all
+quite plainly in the skiagraph. The left lower lateral
+incisor had a very small gold filling, which you can see
+as a nearly circular white dot. In addition to these, a
+filling of tin amalgam had been inserted while the
+deceased was abroad, in the second left upper bicuspid,
+the rather grey spot that we have already noticed.
+These would, by themselves, furnish ample means of
+identification. But in addition, there is the tattooed
+device of the Eye of Osiris&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horus," murmured Dr. Norbury.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horus, then&mdash;in the exact locality in which it was
+borne by the deceased and tattooed, apparently, with
+the same pigment. There are, further, the suture wires
+in the knee-caps; Sir Morgan Bennet, having looked
+up the notes of the operation, informs me that he
+introduced three suture wires into the left patella and
+two into the right; which is what the skiagraph shows.
+Lastly, the deceased had an old Pott's fracture on
+the left side. It is not very apparent now, but I saw
+it quite distinctly just now when the shadows of the
+bones were whiter. I think that you may take it that
+the identification is beyond all doubt or question."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," agreed Dr. Norbury, with gloomy resignation,
+"it sounds, as you say, quite conclusive. Well,
+well, it is a most horrible affair. Poor old John Bellingham!
+It looks uncommonly as if he had met with foul
+play. Don't you think so?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do," replied Thorndyke. "There was a mark
+on the right side of the skull that looked rather like a
+fracture. It was not very clear, being at the side, but
+we must develop up the next negative to show it."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. Norbury drew his breath in sharply through his
+teeth. "This is a gruesome business, Doctor," said he.
+"A terrible business. Awkward for our people, too.
+By the way, what is our position in the matter? What
+steps ought we to take?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You should give notice to the coroner&mdash;I will
+manage the police&mdash;and you should communicate with
+one of the executors of the will."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mr. Jellicoe?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, not Mr. Jellicoe, under the peculiar circumstances.
+You had better write to Mr. Godfrey Bellingham."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I rather understood that Mr. Hurst was the
+co-executor," said Dr. Norbury.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He is surely, as matters stand," said Jervis.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not at all," replied Thorndyke. "He <i>was</i> as
+matters <i>stood</i>; but he is not now. You are forgetting
+the conditions of clause two. That clause sets forth
+the conditions under which Godfrey Bellingham shall
+inherit the bulk of the estate and become the co-executor;
+and those conditions are: 'that the body of
+the testator shall be deposited in some authorised place
+for the reception of the bodies of the dead, situate
+within the boundaries of, or appertaining to some place
+of worship within, the parish of St. George, Bloomsbury,
+and St. Giles in the Fields or St. Andrew above
+the Bars and St. George the Martyr.' Now Egyptian
+mummies are the bodies of the dead, and this Museum
+is an authorised place for their reception; and this
+building is situate within the boundaries of the parish
+of St. George, Bloomsbury. Therefore the provisions
+of clause two have been duly carried out and therefore
+Godfrey Bellingham is the principal beneficiary under
+the will, and the co-executor, in accordance with the
+wishes of the testator. Is that quite clear?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Perfectly," said Dr. Norbury; "and a most astonishing
+coincidence&mdash;but, my dear young lady, had you
+not better sit down? You are looking very ill."
+</p>
+<p>
+He glanced anxiously at Ruth, who was pale to the
+lips and was now leaning heavily on my arm.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think, Berkeley," said Thorndyke, "you had
+better take Miss Bellingham out into the gallery, where
+there is more air. This has been a tremendous climax
+to all the trials that she has borne so bravely. Go out
+with Berkeley," he added gently, laying his hand on
+her shoulder, "and sit down while we develop the other
+negatives. You mustn't break down now, you know,
+when the storm has passed and the sun is beginning
+to shine." He held the door open, and as we passed
+out his face softened into a smile of infinite kindness.
+"You won't mind my locking you out," said he; "this
+is a photographic dark-room at present."
+</p>
+<p>
+The key grated in the lock and we turned away into
+the dim gallery. It was not quite dark, for a beam
+of moonlight filtered in here and there through the
+blinds that covered the sky-lights. We walked on
+slowly, her arm linked in mine, and for a while neither
+of us spoke. The great rooms were very silent and
+peaceful and solemn. The hush, the stillness, the
+mystery of the half-seen forms in the cases around,
+were all in harmony with the deeply-felt sense of a
+great deliverance that filled our hearts.
+</p>
+<p>
+We had passed through into the next room before
+either of us broke the silence. Insensibly our hands
+had crept together, and as they met and clasped with
+mutual pressure, Ruth exclaimed: "How dreadful and
+tragic it is! Poor, poor Uncle John! It seems as if
+he had come back from the world of shadows to tell
+us of this awful thing. But, O God! what a relief
+it is!" She caught her breath in one or two quick
+sobs and pressed my hand passionately.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is over, dearest," I said. "It is gone for ever.
+Nothing remains but the memory of your sorrow and
+your noble courage and patience."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can't realise it yet," she murmured. "It has
+been like a frightful, interminable dream."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Let us put it away," said I, "and think only of
+the happy life that is opening."
+</p>
+<p>
+She made no reply, and only a quick catch in her
+breath, now and again, told of the long agony that she
+had endured with such heroic calm.
+</p>
+<p>
+We walked on slowly, scarcely disturbing the silence
+with our soft foot-falls, through the wide doorway into
+the second room. The vague shapes of the mummy-cases
+standing erect in the wall-cases, loomed out dim
+and gigantic, silent watchers keeping their vigil with
+the memories of untold centuries locked in their shadowy
+breasts. They were an awesome company. Reverend
+survivors from a vanished world, they looked out
+from the gloom of their abiding-place, but with no
+shade of menace or of malice in their silent presence;
+rather with a solemn benison on the fleeting creatures
+of to-day.
+</p>
+<p>
+Half-way along the room a ghostly figure, somewhat
+aloof from its companions, showed a dim, pallid blotch
+where its face would have been. With one accord we
+halted before it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you know who it is, Ruth?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Of course I do," she answered. "It is Artemidorus."
+</p>
+<p>
+We stood, hand in hand, facing the mummy, letting
+our memories fill in the vague silhouette with its well-remembered
+details. Presently I drew her nearer to
+me and whispered:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ruth! do you remember when we last stood here?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"As if I could ever forget!" she answered passionately.
+"Oh, Paul! The sorrow of it! The misery!
+How it wrung my heart to tell you! Were you <i>very</i>
+unhappy when I left you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Unhappy! I never knew, until then, what real,
+heart-breaking sorrow was. It seemed as if the light
+had gone out of my life for ever. But there was just
+one little spot of brightness left."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What was that?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You made me a promise, dear&mdash;a solemn promise;
+and I felt&mdash;at least I hoped&mdash;that the day would come,
+if I only waited patiently, when you would be able to
+redeem it."
+</p>
+<p>
+She crept closer to me and yet closer, until her head
+nestled on my shoulder and her soft cheek lay against
+mine.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Dear heart," I whispered, "is it now? Is the time
+fulfilled?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, dearest," she murmured softly. "It is now&mdash;and
+for ever."
+</p>
+<p>
+Reverently I folded her in my arms; gathered her
+to the heart that worshipped her utterly. Henceforth
+no sorrows could hurt us, no misfortunes vex; for we
+should walk hand in hand on our earthly pilgrimage
+and find the way all too short.
+</p>
+<p>
+Time, whose sands run out with such unequal swiftness
+for the just and the unjust, the happy and the
+wretched, lagged, no doubt, with the toilers in the room
+that we had left. But for us its golden grains trickled
+out apace and left the glass empty before we had begun
+to mark their passage. The turning of a key and the
+opening of a door aroused us from our dream of perfect
+happiness. Ruth raised her head to listen, and our
+lips met for one brief moment. Then, with a silent
+greeting to the friend who had looked on our grief and
+witnessed our final happiness, we turned and retraced
+our steps quickly, filling the great, empty rooms with
+chattering echoes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We won't go back into the dark-room&mdash;which
+isn't dark now," said Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why not?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Because&mdash;when I came out I was very pale; and
+I'm&mdash;well, I don't think I am very pale now. Besides,
+poor Uncle John is in there&mdash;and&mdash;I should be ashamed
+to look at him with my selfish heart overflowing with
+happiness."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You needn't be," said I. "It is the day of our
+lives and we have a right to be happy. But you shan't
+go in, if you don't wish to," and I accordingly steered
+her adroitly past the beam of light that streamed from
+the open door.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We have developed four negatives," said Thorndyke,
+as he emerged with the others, "and I am leaving
+them in the custody of Doctor Norbury, who will sign
+each when they are dry, as they may have to be put
+in evidence. What are you going to do?"
+</p>
+<p>
+I looked at Ruth to see what she wished.
+</p>
+<p>
+"If you won't think me ungrateful," said she, "I
+should rather be alone with my father to-night. He
+is very weak, and&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I understand," I said hastily. And I did.
+Mr. Bellingham was a man of strong emotions and
+would probably be somewhat overcome by the sudden
+change of fortune and the news of his brother's tragic
+death.
+</p>
+<p>
+"In that case," said Thorndyke, "I will bespeak
+your services. Will you go on and wait for me
+at my chambers, when you have seen Miss Bellingham
+home?"
+</p>
+<p>
+I agreed to this, and we set forth under the guidance
+of Dr. Norbury (who carried an electric lamp) to return
+by the way we had come; two of us, at least, in
+a vastly different frame of mind. The party broke up
+at the entrance gates, and as Thorndyke wished my
+companion "Good night," she held his hand and looked
+up in his face with swimming eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I haven't thanked you, Doctor Thorndyke," she
+said, "and I don't feel that I ever can. What you
+have done for me and my father is beyond all thanks.
+You have saved his life and you have rescued me from
+the most horrible ignominy. Good-bye! and God bless
+you!"
+</p>
+<p>
+The hansom that bowled along eastward&mdash;at most
+unnecessary speed&mdash;bore two of the happiest human
+beings within the wide boundaries of the town. I looked
+at my companion as the lights of the street shone into
+the cab, and was astonished at the transformation.
+The pallor of her cheek had given place to a rosy pink;
+the hardness, the tension, the haggard self-repression
+that had aged her face, were all gone, and the girlish
+sweetness that had so bewitched me in the early days
+of our love had stolen back. Even the dimple was
+there when the sweeping lashes lifted and her eyes met
+mine in a smile of infinite tenderness. Little was said
+on that brief journey. It was happiness enough to
+sit, hand clasped in hand, and know that our time of
+trial was past; that no cross of Fate could ever part
+us now.
+</p>
+<p>
+The astonished cabman set us down, according to
+instructions, at the entrance to Nevill's Court, and
+watched us with open mouth as we vanished into the
+narrow passage. The court had settled down for the
+night, and no one marked our return; no curious eye
+looked down on us from the dark house-front as we
+said "Good-bye" just inside the gate.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You will come and see us to-morrow, dear, won't
+you?" she asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you think it possible that I could stay away,
+then?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I hope not. But come as early as you can. My
+father will be positively frantic to see you; because
+I shall have told him, you know. And, remember, that
+it is you who have brought us this great deliverance.
+Good night, Paul."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Good night, sweetheart."
+</p>
+<p>
+She put up her face frankly to be kissed and then
+ran up to the ancient door; whence she waved me a
+last good-bye. The shabby gate in the wall closed
+behind me and hid her from my sight; but the light
+of her love went with me and turned the dull street
+into a path of glory.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH19"><!-- CH19 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XIX
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+A STRANGE SYMPOSIUM
+</h3>
+<p>
+It came upon me with something of a shock of surprise
+to find the scrap of paper still tacked to the oak of
+Thorndyke's chambers. So much had happened since I
+had last looked on it that it seemed to belong to another
+epoch of my life. I removed it thoughtfully and picked
+out the tack before entering, and then, closing the
+inner door, but leaving the oak open, I lit the gas and
+fell to pacing the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+What a wonderful episode it had been! How the
+whole aspect of the world had been changed in a moment
+by Thorndyke's revelation! At another time,
+curiosity would have led me to endeavour to trace back
+the train of reasoning by which the subtle brain of my
+teacher had attained this astonishing conclusion. But
+now my own happiness held exclusive possession of my
+thoughts. The image of Ruth filled the field of my
+mental vision. I saw her again as I had seen her in
+the cab with her sweet, pensive face and downcast eyes;
+I felt again the touch of her soft cheek and the parting
+kiss by the gate, so frank and simple, so intimate and
+final.
+</p>
+<p>
+I must have waited quite a long time, though the
+golden minutes sped unreckoned, for when my two
+colleagues arrived they tendered needless apologies.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And I suppose," said Thorndyke, "you have been
+wondering what I wanted you for."
+</p>
+<p>
+I had not, as a matter of fact, given the matter a
+moment's consideration.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We are going to call on Mr. Jellicoe," Thorndyke
+explained. "There is something behind this affair,
+and until I have ascertained what it is, the case is not
+complete from my point of view."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Wouldn't it have done as well to-morrow?" I
+asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It might; and then it might not. There is an old
+saying as to catching a weasel asleep. Mr. Jellicoe is
+a somewhat wide-awake person, and I think it best to
+introduce him to Inspector Badger at the earliest possible
+moment."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The meeting of a weasel and a badger suggests a
+sporting interview," remarked Jervis. "But you don't
+expect Jellicoe to give himself away, do you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He can hardly do that, seeing that there is nothing
+to give away. But I think he may make a statement.
+There were some exceptional circumstances, I feel
+sure."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How long have you known that the body was in
+the Museum?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"About thirty or forty seconds longer than you
+have, I should say."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you mean," I exclaimed, "that you didn't
+know until the negative was developed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"My dear fellow," he replied, "do you suppose that,
+if I had had certain knowledge where the body was, I
+should have allowed that noble girl to go on dragging
+out a lingering agony of suspense that I could have cut
+short in a moment? Or that I should have made these
+humbugging pretences of scientific experiments if a
+more dignified course had been open to me?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"As to the experiments," said Jervis, "Norbury
+could hardly have refused if you had taken him into
+your confidence."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Indeed he could, and probably would. My 'confidence'
+would have involved a charge of murder against
+a highly respectable gentleman who was well known to
+him. He would probably have referred me to the police,
+and then what could I have done? I had plenty of
+suspicions, but not a single solid fact."
+</p>
+<p>
+Our discussion was here interrupted by hurried footsteps
+on the stairs and a thundering rat-tat on our
+knocker.
+</p>
+<p>
+As Jervis opened the door, Inspector Badger burst
+into the room in a highly excited state.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What is all this, Doctor Thorndyke?" he asked.
+"I see you've sworn an information against Mr. Jellicoe,
+and I have a warrant to arrest him; but before anything
+is done I think it right to tell you that we have
+more evidence than is generally known pointing to
+quite a different quarter."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Derived from Mr. Jellicoe's information," said
+Thorndyke. "But the fact is that I have just examined
+and identified the body at the British Museum,
+where it was deposited by Mr. Jellicoe. I don't say
+that he murdered John Bellingham&mdash;though that is
+what the appearances suggest&mdash;but I do say that he
+will have to account for his secret disposal of the
+body."
+</p>
+<p>
+Inspector Badger was thunderstruck. Also he was
+visibly annoyed. The salt which Mr. Jellicoe had so
+adroitly sprinkled on the constabulary tail appeared
+to develop irritating properties, for when Thorndyke
+had given him a brief outline of the facts he stuck his
+hands in his pockets and exclaimed gloomily:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I'm hanged! And to think of all the time
+and trouble I've spent on those damned bones! I suppose
+they were just a plant?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't let us disparage them," said Thorndyke.
+"They have played a useful part. They represent the
+inevitable mistake that every criminal makes sooner or
+later. The murderer will always do a little too much.
+If he would only lie low and let well alone, the detective
+might whistle for a clue. But it is time we were starting."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are we all going?" asked the inspector, looking
+at me in particular with no very gracious recognition.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We will all come with you," said Thorndyke; "but
+you will, naturally, make the arrest in the way that
+seems best to you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's a regular procession," grumbled the inspector;
+but he made no more definite objection, and we started
+forth on our quest.
+</p>
+<p>
+The distance from the Temple to Lincoln's Inn is
+not great. In five minutes we were at the gateway in
+Chancery Lane, and a couple of minutes later saw us
+gathered round the threshold of the stately old house
+in New Square.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Seems to be a light in the first floor front," said
+Badger. "You'd better move away before I ring the
+bell."
+</p>
+<p>
+But the precaution was unnecessary. As the inspector
+advanced to the bell-pull a head was thrust out of
+the open window immediately above the street door.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who are you?" inquired the owner of the head
+in a voice which I recognised as that of Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am Inspector Badger, of the Criminal Investigation
+Department. I wish to see Mr. Arthur Jellicoe."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then look at me. I am Mr. Arthur Jellicoe."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I hold a warrant for your arrest, Mr. Jellicoe. You
+are charged with the murder of Mr. John Bellingham,
+whose body has just been discovered in the British
+Museum."
+</p>
+<p>
+"By whom?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"By Doctor Thorndyke."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Indeed," said Mr. Jellicoe. "Is he here?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ha! And you wish to arrest me, I presume?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes. That is what I am here for."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I will agree to surrender myself subject to
+certain conditions."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can't make any conditions, Mr. Jellicoe."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. I will make them, and you will accept them.
+Otherwise you will not arrest me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's no use for you to talk like that," said Badger.
+"If you don't let me in I shall have to break in. And
+I may as well tell you," he added mendaciously, "that
+the house is surrounded."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You may accept my assurance," Mr. Jellicoe replied
+calmly, "that you will not arrest me if you do
+not accept my conditions."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, what are your conditions?" demanded
+Badger impatiently.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I desire to make a statement," said Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You can do that, but I must caution you that
+anything you say may be used in evidence against
+you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Naturally. But I wish to make the statement in
+the presence of Doctor Thorndyke, and I desire to hear
+a statement from him of the method of investigation
+by which he discovered the whereabouts of the body.
+That is to say, if he is willing."
+</p>
+<p>
+"If you mean that we should mutually enlighten
+one another, I am very willing indeed," said Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well. Then my conditions, Inspector, are
+that I shall hear Doctor Thorndyke's statement and
+that I shall be permitted to make a statement myself,
+and that until those statements are completed, with
+any necessary interrogation and discussion, I shall remain
+at liberty and shall suffer no molestation or interference
+of any kind. And I agree that, on the conclusion
+of the said proceedings, I will submit without resistance
+to any course that you may adopt."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can't agree to that," said Badger.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Can't you?" said Mr. Jellicoe coldly; and, after
+a pause, he added: "Don't be hasty. I have given
+you full warning."
+</p>
+<p>
+There was something in Mr. Jellicoe's passionless
+tone that disturbed the inspector exceedingly, for he
+turned to Thorndyke and said in a low tone:
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wonder what his game is? He can't get away,
+you know."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There are several possibilities," said Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"M'yes," said Badger, stroking his chin perplexedly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"After all, is there any objection? His statement
+might save trouble, and you'd be on the safe side. It
+would take you some time to break in."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," said Mr. Jellicoe, with his hand on the
+window, "do you agree&mdash;yes or no?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"All right," said Badger sulkily. "I agree."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You promise not to molest me in any way until I
+have quite finished?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I promise."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Jellicoe's head disappeared and the window
+closed. After a short interval we heard the jar of
+massive bolts and the clank of a chain, and, as the
+heavy door swung open, Mr. Jellicoe stood revealed,
+calm and impassive, with an old-fashioned office candlestick
+in his hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who are the others?" he inquired, peering out
+sharply through his spectacles.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, they are nothing to do with me," replied
+Badger.
+</p>
+<p>
+"They are Doctor Berkeley and Doctor Jervis,"
+said Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ha!" said Mr. Jellicoe; "very kind and attentive
+of them to call. Pray come in, gentlemen. I am sure
+you will be interested to hear our little discussion."
+</p>
+<p>
+He held the door open with a certain stiff courtesy,
+and we all entered the hall led by Inspector Badger.
+He closed the door softly and preceded us up the stairs
+and into the apartment from the window of which he
+had dictated the terms of surrender. It was a fine old
+room, spacious, lofty, and dignified, with panelled walls
+and a carved mantelpiece, the central escutcheon of
+which bore the initials "J.W.P." with the date
+"1671." A large writing-table stood at the farther
+end, and behind it an iron safe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have been expecting this visit," Mr. Jellicoe remarked
+tranquilly as he placed four chairs opposite the
+table.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Since when?" asked Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Since last Monday evening, when I had the pleasure
+of seeing you conversing with my friend Doctor Berkeley
+at the Inner Temple gate, and then inferred that
+you were retained in the case. That was a circumstance
+that had not been fully provided for. May I
+offer you gentlemen a glass of sherry?" As he spoke
+he placed on the table a decanter and a tray of glasses,
+and looked at us interrogatively with his hand on the
+stopper.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I don't mind if I do, Mr. Jellicoe," said
+Badger, on whom the lawyer's glance had finally
+settled. Mr. Jellicoe filled a glass and handed it to
+him with a stiff bow; then, with the decanter still in his
+hand, he said persuasively: "Doctor Thorndyke, pray
+allow me to fill you a glass?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, thank you," said Thorndyke, in a tone so decided
+that the inspector looked round at him quickly.
+And as Badger caught his eye, the glass which he was
+about to raise to his lips became suddenly arrested and
+was slowly returned to the table untasted.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't want to hurry you, Mr. Jellicoe," said the
+inspector, "but it's rather late, and I should like to
+get this business settled. What is it that you wish
+to do?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I desire," replied Mr. Jellicoe, "to make a detailed
+statement of the events that have happened, and I
+wish to hear from Doctor Thorndyke precisely how he
+arrived at his very remarkable conclusion. When this
+has been done I shall be entirely at your service; and
+I suggest that it would be more interesting if Doctor
+Thorndyke would give us his statement before I furnish
+you with the actual facts."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am entirely of your opinion," said Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then in that case," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I suggest
+that you disregard me, and address your remarks to
+your friends as if I were not present."
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke acquiesced with a bow, and Mr. Jellicoe,
+having seated himself in his elbow-chair behind the
+table, poured himself out a glass of water, selected a
+cigarette from a neat silver case, lighted it deliberately,
+and leaned back to listen at his ease.
+</p>
+<p>
+"My first acquaintance with this case," Thorndyke
+began without preamble, "was made through the
+medium of the daily papers about two years ago; and
+I may say that, although I had no interest in it beyond
+the purely academic interest of a specialist in a case
+that lies in his particular specialty, I considered it with
+deep attention. The newspaper reports contained no
+particulars of the relations of the parties that could
+furnish any hints as to motives on the part of any of
+them, but merely a bare statement of the events. And
+this was a distinct advantage, inasmuch as it left one
+to consider the facts of the case without regard to
+motive&mdash;to balance the <i>prima facie</i> probabilities with
+an open mind. And it may surprise you to learn that
+those <i>prima facie</i> probabilities pointed from the very
+first to that solution which has been put to the test of
+experiment this evening. Hence it will be well for me
+to begin by giving the conclusions that I reached by
+reasoning from the facts set forth in the newspapers
+before any of the further facts came to my knowledge.
+</p>
+<p>
+"From the facts as stated in the newspaper reports
+it is obvious that there were four possible explanations
+of the disappearance.
+</p>
+<p>
+"1. The man might be alive and in hiding. This
+was highly improbable, for the reasons that were stated
+by Mr. Loram at the late hearing of the application,
+and for a further reason that I shall mention presently.
+</p>
+<p>
+"2. He might have died by accident or disease, and
+his body failed to be identified. This was even more
+improbable, seeing that he carried on his person abundant
+means of identification, including visiting cards.
+</p>
+<p>
+"3. He might have been murdered by some stranger
+for the sake of his portable property. This was highly
+improbable for the same reason: his body could hardly
+have failed to be identified.
+</p>
+<p>
+"These three explanations are what we may call the
+outside explanations. They touched none of the parties
+mentioned; they were all obviously improbable on general
+grounds; and to all of them there was one conclusive
+answer&mdash;the scarab which was found in Godfrey
+Bellingham's garden. Hence I put them aside and
+gave my attention to the fourth explanation. This
+was that the missing man had been made away with by
+one of the parties mentioned in the report. But, since
+the reports mentioned three parties, it was evident that
+there was a choice of three hypotheses, namely:
+</p>
+<p>
+"(<i>a</i>) That John Bellingham had been made away
+with by Hurst; or (<i>b</i>) by the Bellinghams; or (<i>c</i>) by
+Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, I have constantly impressed on my pupils
+that the indispensable question that must be asked at
+the outset of such an inquiry as this is, 'When was the
+missing person last undoubtedly seen or known to be
+alive?' That is the question that I asked myself after
+reading the newspaper report; and the answer was,
+that he was last certainly seen alive on the fourteenth
+of October, nineteen hundred and two, at 141 Queen
+Square, Bloomsbury. Of the fact that he was alive
+at that time and place there could be no doubt whatever;
+for he was seen at the same moment by two
+persons, both of whom were intimately acquainted with
+him, and one of whom, Doctor Norbury, was apparently
+a disinterested witness. After that date he was never
+seen, alive or dead, by any person who knew him and
+was able to identify him. It was stated that he had
+been seen on the twenty-third of November following
+by the housemaid of Mr. Hurst; but as this person
+was unacquainted with him, it was uncertain whether
+the person whom she saw was or was not John Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hence the disappearance dated, not from the
+twenty-third of November, as everyone seems to have
+assumed, but from the fourteenth of October; and the
+question was not, 'What became of John Bellingham
+after he entered Mr. Hurst's house?' but, 'What became
+of him after his interview in Queen Square?'
+</p>
+<p>
+"But as soon as I had decided that that interview
+must form the real starting-point of the inquiry, a most
+striking set of circumstances came into view. It became
+obvious that if Mr. Jellicoe had had any reason
+for wishing to make away with John Bellingham, he
+had such an opportunity as seldom falls to the lot of
+an intending murderer.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Just consider the conditions. John Bellingham was
+known to be setting out alone upon a journey beyond
+the sea. His exact destination was not stated. He
+was to be absent for an undetermined period, but at
+least three weeks. His disappearance would occasion
+no comment; his absence would lead to no inquiries,
+at least for several weeks, during which the murderer
+would have leisure quietly to dispose of the body and
+conceal all traces of the crime. The conditions were,
+from a murderer's point of view, ideal.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But that was not all. During that very period of
+John Bellingham's absence Mr. Jellicoe was engaged to
+deliver to the British Museum what was admittedly a
+dead human body; and that body was to be enclosed
+in a sealed case. Could any more perfect or secure
+method of disposing of a body be devised by the most
+ingenious murderer? The plan would have had only
+one weak point: the mummy would be known to have
+left Queen Square <i>after</i> the disappearance of John
+Bellingham, and suspicion might in the end have arisen.
+To this point I shall return presently; meanwhile we
+will consider the second hypothesis&mdash;that the missing
+man was made away with by Mr. Hurst.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, there seemed to be no doubt that some person,
+purporting to be John Bellingham, did actually visit
+Mr. Hurst's house; and he must either have left that
+house or remained in it. If he left, he did so surreptitiously;
+if he remained, there could be no reasonable
+doubt that he had been murdered and that his body
+had been concealed. Let us consider the probabilities
+in each case.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Assuming&mdash;as everyone seems to have done&mdash;that
+the visitor was really John Bellingham, we are dealing
+with a responsible, middle-aged gentleman, and the idea
+that such a person would enter a house, announce his
+intention of staying, and then steal away unobserved
+is very difficult to accept. Moreover, he would appear
+to have come down to Eltham by rail immediately on
+landing in England, leaving his luggage in the cloak-room
+at Charing Cross. This pointed to a definiteness
+of purpose quite inconsistent with his casual disappearance
+from the house.
+</p>
+<p>
+"On the other hand, the idea that he might have
+been murdered by Hurst was not inconceivable. The
+thing was physically possible. If Bellingham had really
+been in the study when Hurst came home, the murder
+could have been committed&mdash;by appropriate means&mdash;and
+the body temporarily concealed in the cupboard or
+elsewhere. But, although possible, it was not at all
+probable. There was no real opportunity. The risk
+and the subsequent difficulties would be very great;
+there was not a particle of positive evidence that a
+murder had occurred; and the conduct of Hurst in
+immediately leaving the house in possession of the servants
+is quite inconsistent with the supposition that there
+was a body concealed in it. So that, while it is almost
+impossible to believe that John Bellingham left the
+house of his own accord, it is equally difficult to believe
+that he did not leave it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But there is a third possibility, which, strange to
+say, no one seems to have suggested. Supposing that
+the visitor was not John Bellingham at all, but someone
+who was personating him? That would dispose of
+the difficulties completely. The strange disappearance
+ceases to be strange, for a personator would necessarily
+make off before Mr. Hurst should arrive and discover
+the imposture. But if we accept this supposition, we
+raise two further questions: 'Who was the personator?'
+and 'What was the object of the personation?'
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, the personator was clearly not Hurst himself,
+for he would have been recognised by his housemaid;
+he was therefore either Godfrey Bellingham or
+Mr. Jellicoe or some other person; and as no other
+person was mentioned in the newspaper reports I confined
+my speculations to these two.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And, first, as to Godfrey Bellingham. It did not
+appear whether he was or was not known to the housemaid,
+so I assumed&mdash;wrongly, as it turns out&mdash;that he
+was not. Then he might have been the personator.
+But why should he have personated his brother? He
+could not have already committed the murder. There
+had not been time enough. He would have had to leave
+Woodford before John Bellingham had set out from
+Charing Cross. And even if he had committed the
+murder, he would have had no object in raising this
+commotion. His cue would have been to remain quiet
+and know nothing. The probabilities were all against
+the personator being Godfrey Bellingham.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then could it be Mr. Jellicoe? The answer to this
+question is contained in the answer to the further
+question: What could have been the object of the
+personation?
+</p>
+<p>
+"What motive could this unknown person have had
+in appearing, announcing himself as John Bellingham,
+and forthwith vanishing? There could only have been
+one motive: that, namely, of fixing the date of John
+Bellingham's disappearance&mdash;of furnishing a definite
+moment at which he was last seen alive.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But who was likely to have had such a motive?
+Let us see.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I said just now that if Mr. Jellicoe had murdered
+John Bellingham and disposed of the body in the
+mummy-case, he would have been absolutely safe for
+the time being. But there would be a weak spot in
+his armour. For a month or more the disappearance
+of his client would occasion no remark. But presently,
+when he failed to return, inquiries would be set on foot;
+and then it would appear that no one had seen him
+since he left Queen Square. Then it would be noted
+that the last person with whom he was seen was Mr.
+Jellicoe. It might, further, be remembered that the
+mummy had been delivered to the Museum some time
+<i>after</i> the missing man was last seen alive. And so
+suspicion might arise and be followed by disastrous
+investigations. But supposing it should be made to
+appear that John Bellingham had been seen alive more
+than a month after his interview with Mr. Jellicoe and
+some weeks after the mummy had been deposited in
+the Museum? Then Mr. Jellicoe would cease to be
+in any way connected with the disappearance, and
+henceforth would be absolutely safe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hence, after carefully considering this part of the
+newspaper report, I came to the conclusion that the
+mysterious occurrence at Mr. Hurst's house had only
+one reasonable explanation, namely, that the visitor
+was not John Bellingham, but someone personating him;
+and that that someone was Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It remains to consider the case of Godfrey Bellingham
+and his daughter, though I cannot understand
+how any sane person can have seriously suspected
+either" (here Inspector Badger smiled a sour smile).
+"The evidence against them was negligible, for there
+was nothing to connect them with the affair save the
+finding of the scarab on their premises; and that event,
+which might have been highly suspicious under other
+circumstances, was robbed of any significance by the
+fact that the scarab was found on a spot which had
+been passed a few minutes previously by the other
+suspected party, Hurst. The finding of the scarab
+did, however, establish two important conclusions;
+namely, that John Bellingham had probably met with
+foul play, and that of the four persons present when
+it was found, one at least had had possession of the
+body. As to which of the four was the one, the circumstances
+furnished only a hint, which was this: If
+the scarab had been purposely dropped, the most likely
+person to find it was the one who dropped it. And the
+person who discovered it was Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Following up this hint, if we ask ourselves what
+motive Mr. Jellicoe could have had for dropping it&mdash;assuming
+him to be the murderer&mdash;the answer is
+obvious. It would not be his policy to fix the crime
+on any particular person, but rather to set up a complication
+of conflicting evidence which would occupy
+the attention of investigators and divert it from himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Of course, if Hurst had been the murderer, he
+would have had a sufficient motive for dropping the
+scarab, so that the case against Mr. Jellicoe was not
+conclusive; but the fact that it was he who found it
+was highly significant.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This completes the analysis of the evidence contained
+in the original newspaper report describing the
+circumstances of the disappearance. The conclusions
+that followed from it were, as you will have seen:
+</p>
+<p>
+"1. That the missing man was almost certainly dead,
+as proved by the finding of the scarab after his disappearance.
+</p>
+<p>
+"2. That he had probably been murdered by one or
+more of four persons, as proved by the finding of the
+scarab on the premises occupied by two of them and
+accessible to the others.
+</p>
+<p>
+"3. That, of those four persons, one&mdash;Mr. Jellicoe&mdash;was
+the last person who was known to have been in
+the company of the missing man; had had an exceptional
+opportunity for committing the murder; and
+was known to have delivered a dead body to the Museum
+subsequently to the disappearance.
+</p>
+<p>
+"4. That the supposition that Mr. Jellicoe had committed
+the murder rendered all the other circumstances
+of the disappearance clearly intelligible, whereas on
+any other supposition they were quite inexplicable.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The evidence of the newspaper report, therefore,
+clearly pointed to the probability that John Bellingham
+had been murdered by Mr. Jellicoe and his body concealed
+in the mummy-case.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do not wish to give you the impression that I,
+then and there, believed that Mr. Jellicoe was the murderer.
+I did not. There was no reason to suppose
+that the report contained all the essential facts, and I
+merely considered it speculatively as a study in probabilities.
+But I did decide that that was the only probable
+conclusion from the facts that were given.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nearly two years passed before I heard anything
+more of the case. Then it was brought to my notice
+by my friend, Doctor Berkeley, and I became acquainted
+with certain new facts, which I will consider
+in the order in which they became known to me.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The first new light on the case came from the will.
+As soon as I had read that document I felt convinced
+that there was something wrong. The testator's evident
+intention was that his brother should inherit the
+property, whereas the construction of the will was such
+as almost certainly to defeat that intention. The devolution
+of the property depended on the burial clause&mdash;clause
+two; but the burial arrangements would ordinarily
+be decided by the executor, who happened to be
+Mr. Jellicoe. Thus the will left the disposition of the
+property under the control of Mr. Jellicoe, though his
+action could have been contested.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, this will, although drawn up by John Bellingham,
+was executed in Mr. Jellicoe's office, as is proved
+by the fact that it was witnessed by two of his clerks.
+He was the testator's lawyer, and it was his duty to
+insist on the will being properly drawn. Evidently he
+did nothing of the kind, and this fact strongly suggested
+some kind of collusion on his part with Hurst,
+who stood to benefit by the miscarriage of the will.
+And this was the odd feature in the case; for whereas
+the party responsible for the defective provisions was
+Mr. Jellicoe, the party who benefited was Hurst.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But the most startling peculiarity of the will was
+the way in which it fitted the circumstances of the disappearance.
+It looked as if clause two had been drawn
+up with those very circumstances in view. Since, however,
+the will was ten years old, this was impossible.
+But if clause two could not have been devised to fit
+the disappearance, could the disappearance have been
+devised to fit clause two? That was by no means impossible:
+under the circumstances it looked rather
+probable. And if it had been so contrived, who was
+the agent in that contrivance? Hurst stood to benefit,
+but there was no evidence that he even knew the contents
+of the will. There remained only Mr. Jellicoe,
+who had certainly connived at the misdrawing of the
+will for some purpose of his own&mdash;some dishonest
+purpose.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The evidence of the will, then, pointed to Mr.
+Jellicoe as the agent in the disappearance, and, after
+reading it, I definitely suspected him of the crime.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Suspicion, however, is one thing and proof is another.
+I had not nearly enough evidence to justify me
+in laying an information, and I could not approach the
+Museum officials without making a definite accusation.
+The great difficulty of the case was that I could discover
+no motive. I could not see any way in which
+Mr. Jellicoe would benefit by the disappearance. His
+own legacy was secure, whenever and however the testator
+died. The murder and concealment apparently
+benefited Hurst alone; and, in the absence of any
+plausible motive, the facts required to be much more
+conclusive than they were."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you form absolutely no opinion as to motive?"
+asked Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+He put the question in a quiet, passionless tone, as
+if he were discussing some <i>cause c&eacute;l&egrave;bre</i> in which he
+had nothing more than a professional interest. Indeed,
+the calm, impersonal interest that he displayed in
+Thorndyke's analysis, his unmoved attention, punctuated
+by little nods of approval at each telling point in
+the argument, were the most surprising features of this
+astounding interview.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I did form an opinion," replied Thorndyke, "but
+it was merely speculative, and I was never able to confirm
+it. I discovered that about ten years ago Mr.
+Hurst had been in difficulties and that he had suddenly
+raised a considerable sum of money, no one knew how
+or on what security. I observed that this event coincided
+in time with the execution of the will, and I surmised
+that there might be some connection between
+them. But that was only a surmise; and, as the proverb
+has it, 'He discovers who proves.' I could prove
+nothing, so that I never discovered Mr. Jellicoe's motive,
+and I don't know it now."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't you, really?" said Mr. Jellicoe, in something
+approaching a tone of animation. He laid down the
+end of his cigarette, and, as he selected another from
+the silver case, he continued: "I think that is the most
+interesting feature of your really remarkable analysis.
+It does you great credit. The absence of motive would
+have appeared to most persons a fatal objection to the
+theory of, what I may call, the prosecution. Permit
+me to congratulate you on the consistency and tenacity
+with which you have pursued the actual, visible facts."
+</p>
+<p>
+He bowed stiffly to Thorndyke (who returned his
+bow with equal stiffness), lighted the fresh cigarette,
+and once more leaned back in his chair with the calm,
+attentive manner of a man who is listening to a lecture
+or a musical performance.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The evidence, then, being insufficient to act upon,"
+Thorndyke resumed, "there was nothing for it but to
+wait for some new facts. Now, the study of a large
+series of carefully conducted murders brings into view
+an almost invariable phenomenon. The cautious murderer,
+in his anxiety to make himself secure, does too
+much; and it is this excess of precaution that leads
+to detection. It happens constantly; indeed, I may
+say that it always happens&mdash;in those murders that are
+detected; of those that are not we say nothing&mdash;and
+I had strong hopes that it would happen in this case.
+And it did.
+</p>
+<p>
+"At the very moment when my client's case seemed
+almost hopeless, some human remains were discovered
+at Sidcup. I read the account of the discovery in the
+evening paper, and, scanty as the report was, it recorded
+enough facts to convince me that the inevitable
+mistake had been made."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did it, indeed?" said Mr. Jellicoe. "A mere, inexpert,
+hearsay report! I should have supposed it to
+be quite valueless from a scientific point of view."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So it was," said Thorndyke. "But it gave the
+date of the discovery and the locality, and it also mentioned
+what bones had been found. Which were all
+vital facts. Take the question of time. These remains,
+after lying <i>perdu</i> for two years, suddenly come to light
+just as the parties&mdash;who have also been lying <i>perdu</i>&mdash;have
+begun to take action in respect of the will; in
+fact, within a week or two of the hearing of the application.
+It was certainly a remarkable coincidence.
+And when the circumstances that occasioned the discovery
+were considered, the coincidence became still
+more remarkable. For these remains were found on
+land actually belonging to John Bellingham, and their
+discovery resulted from certain operations (the clearing
+of the watercress-beds) carried out on behalf of the
+absent landlord. But by whose orders were those works
+undertaken? Clearly by the orders of the landlord's
+agent. But the landlord's agent was known to be Mr.
+Jellicoe. Therefore these remains were brought to light
+at this peculiarly opportune moment by the action of
+Mr. Jellicoe. The coincidence, I say again, was very
+remarkable.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But what instantly arrested my attention on reading
+the newspaper report was the unusual manner in
+which the arm had been separated; for, besides the
+bones of the arm proper, there were those of what
+anatomists call the 'shoulder-girdle'&mdash;the shoulder-blade
+and collar-bone. This was very remarkable. It
+seemed to suggest a knowledge of anatomy, and yet
+no murderer, even if he possessed such knowledge, would
+make a display of it on such an occasion. It seemed
+to me that there must be some other explanation.
+Accordingly, when other remains had come to light and
+all had been collected at Woodford, I asked my friend
+Berkeley to go down there and inspect them. He did
+so, and this is what he found:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Both arms had been detached in the same peculiar
+manner; both were complete, and all the bones were
+from the same body. The bones were quite clean&mdash;of
+soft structures, I mean. There were no cuts, scratches,
+or marks on them. There was not a trace of adipocere&mdash;the
+peculiar waxy soap that forms in bodies that
+decay in water or in a damp situation. The right hand
+had been detached at the time the arm was thrown
+into the pond, and the left ring finger had been
+separated and had vanished. This latter fact had attracted
+my attention from the first, but I will leave its
+consideration for the moment and return to it later."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How did you discover that the hand had been
+detached?" Mr. Jellicoe asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"By the submersion marks," replied Thorndyke.
+"It was lying on the bottom of the pond in a position
+which would have been impossible if it had been
+attached to the arm."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You interest me exceedingly," said Mr. Jellicoe.
+"It appears that a medico-legal expert finds 'books
+in the running brooks, sermons in bones, and
+evidence in everything.' But don't let me interrupt
+you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Doctor Berkeley's observations," Thorndyke resumed,
+"together with the medical evidence at the inquest,
+led me to certain conclusions.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Let me first state the facts which were disclosed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The remains which had been assembled formed a
+complete human skeleton with the exception of the
+skull, one finger, and the legs from knee to ankle, including
+both knee-caps. This was a very impressive
+fact; for the bones that were missing included all those
+which could have been identified as belonging or not
+belonging to John Bellingham; and the bones that were
+present were the unidentifiable remainder.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It had a suspicious appearance of selection.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But the parts that were present were also curiously
+suggestive. In all cases the mode of dismemberment
+was peculiar; for an ordinary person would have divided
+the knee-joint leaving the knee-cap attached to the
+thigh, whereas it had evidently been left attached to
+the shin-bone; and the head would most probably have
+been removed by cutting through the neck instead of
+being neatly detached from the spine. And all these
+bones were also entirely free from marks or scratches
+such as would naturally occur in an ordinary dismemberment,
+and all were quite free from adipocere.
+And now as to the conclusions which I drew from these
+facts. First, there was the peculiar grouping of the
+bones. What was the meaning of that? Well, the
+idea of a punctilious anatomist was obviously absurd,
+and I put it aside. But was there any other explanation?
+Yes, there was. The bones had appeared in the
+natural groups that are held together by ligaments;
+and they had separated at points where they were
+attached principally by muscles. The knee-cap, for
+instance, which really belongs to the thigh, is attached
+to it by muscle, but to the shin-bone by a stout ligament.
+And so with the bones of the arm; they are connected
+to one another by ligaments; but to the trunk
+only by muscle, excepting at one end of the collar-bone.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But this was a very significant fact. Ligament
+decays much more slowly than muscle, so that in a
+body of which the muscles had largely decayed the
+bones might still be held together by ligament. The
+peculiar grouping therefore suggested that the body
+had been partly reduced to a skeleton before it was
+dismembered; that it had then been merely pulled apart
+and not divided with a knife.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This suggestion was remarkably confirmed by the
+total absence of knife-cuts or scratches.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then there was the fact that all the bones were
+quite free from adipocere. Now, if an arm or a thigh
+should be deposited in water and left undisturbed to
+decay, it is certain that large masses of adipocere would
+be formed. Probably more than half of the flesh would
+be converted into this substance. The absence of adipocere
+therefore proved that the bulk of the flesh had
+disappeared or been removed from the bones before
+they were deposited in the pond. That, in fact, it was
+not a body, but a skeleton, that had been deposited.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But what kind of skeleton? If it was the recent
+skeleton of a murdered man, then the bones had been
+carefully stripped of flesh so as to leave the ligaments
+intact. But this was highly improbable; for there could
+be no object in preserving the ligaments. And the
+absence of scratches was against this view.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then they did not appear to be graveyard bones.
+The collection was too complete. It is very rare to find
+a graveyard skeleton of which many of the small bones
+are not missing. And such bones are usually more or
+less weathered and friable.
+</p>
+<p>
+"They did not appear to be bones such as may be
+bought at an osteological dealer's, for these usually
+have perforations to admit the macerating fluid to the
+marrow cavities. Dealers' bones, too, are very seldom
+all from the same body; and the small bones of the
+hand are drilled with holes to enable them to be strung
+on catgut.
+</p>
+<p>
+"They were not dissecting-room bones, as there was
+no trace of red-lead in the openings for the nutrient
+arteries.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What the appearances did suggest was that these
+were parts of a body which had decayed in a very dry
+atmosphere (in which no adipocere would be formed),
+and which had been pulled or broken apart. Also that
+the ligaments which held the body&mdash;or rather skeleton&mdash;together
+were brittle and friable, as suggested by the
+detached hand, which had probably broken off accidentally.
+But the only kind of body that completely
+answers this description is an Egyptian mummy. A
+mummy, it is true, has been more or less preserved;
+but on exposure to the air of such a climate as ours it
+perishes rapidly, the ligaments being the last of the
+soft parts to disappear.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The hypothesis that these bones were parts of a
+mummy naturally suggested Mr. Jellicoe. If he had
+murdered John Bellingham and concealed his body in
+the mummy-case, he would have a spare mummy on
+his hands, and that mummy would have been exposed
+to the air and to somewhat rough handling.
+</p>
+<p>
+"A very interesting circumstance connected with
+these remains was that the ring finger was missing.
+Now, fingers have on sundry occasions been detached
+from dead hands for the sake of the rings on them.
+But in such cases the object has been to secure a valuable
+ring uninjured. If this hand was the hand of
+John Bellingham, there was no such object. The purpose
+was to prevent identification; and that purpose
+would have been more easily, and much more completely,
+achieved by sacrificing the ring, by filing through it or
+breaking it off the finger. The appearances, therefore,
+did not quite agree with the apparent purpose.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then, could there be any other purpose with which
+they agreed better? Yes, there could.
+</p>
+<p>
+"If it had happened that John Bellingham were
+known to have worn a ring on that finger, and especially
+if that ring fitted tightly, the removal of the finger
+would serve a very useful purpose. It would create
+an impression that the finger had been removed on
+account of a ring, to prevent identification; which impression
+would, in turn, produce a suspicion that the
+hand was that of John Bellingham. And yet it would
+not be evidence that could be used to establish identity.
+Now, if Mr. Jellicoe were the murderer and had the
+body hidden elsewhere, vague suspicion would be precisely
+what he would desire, and positive evidence what
+he would wish to avoid.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It transpired later that John Bellingham did wear
+a ring on that finger and that the ring fitted very
+tightly. Whence it followed that the absence of the
+finger was an additional point tending to implicate Mr.
+Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And now let us briefly review this mass of evidence.
+You will see that it consists of a multitude of items,
+each either trivial or speculative. Up to the time of
+the actual discovery I had not a single crucial fact,
+nor any clue as to motive. But, slight as the individual
+points of evidence were, they pointed with impressive
+unanimity to one person&mdash;Mr. Jellicoe. Thus:
+</p>
+<p>
+"The person who had the opportunity to commit the
+murder and dispose of the body was Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The deceased was last certainly seen alive with
+Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"An unidentified human body was delivered to the
+Museum by Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The only person who could have a motive for
+personating the deceased was Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The only known person who could possibly have
+done so was Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"One of the two persons who could have had a
+motive for dropping the scarab was Mr. Jellicoe. The
+person who found that scarab was Mr. Jellicoe,
+although, owing to his defective eyesight and his
+spectacles, he was the most unlikely person of those present
+to find it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The person who was responsible for the execution
+of the defective will was Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then as to the remains. They were apparently
+not those of John Bellingham, but parts of a particular
+kind of body. But the only person who was known
+to have had such a body in his possession was Mr.
+Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The only person who could have had any motive
+for substituting those remains for the remains of the
+deceased was Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Finally, the person who caused the discovery of
+those remains at that singularly opportune moment was
+Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This was the sum of the evidence that was in my
+possession up to the time of the hearing, and, indeed,
+for some time after, and it was not enough to act
+upon. But when the case had been heard in Court, it
+was evident either that the proceedings would be abandoned&mdash;which
+was unlikely&mdash;or that there would be
+new developments.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I watched the progress of events with profound
+interest. An attempt had been made (by Mr. Jellicoe
+or some other person) to get the will administered without
+producing the body of John Bellingham; and that
+attempt had failed. The coroner's jury had refused to
+identify the remains; the Probate Court had refused
+to presume the death of the testator. As affairs stood,
+the will could not be administered.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What would be the next move?
+</p>
+<p>
+"It was virtually certain that it would consist in
+the production of something which would identify the
+unrecognised remains as those of the testator.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But what would that something be?
+</p>
+<p>
+"The answer to that question would contain the
+answer to another question: Was my solution of the
+mystery the true solution?
+</p>
+<p>
+"If I was wrong, it was possible that some of the
+undoubtedly genuine bones of John Bellingham might
+presently be discovered; for instance, the skull, the
+knee-cap, or the left fibula, by any of which the remains
+could be positively identified.
+</p>
+<p>
+"If I was right, only one thing could possibly happen.
+Mr. Jellicoe would have to play the trump card
+that he had been holding back in case the Court should
+refuse the application; a card that he was evidently reluctant
+to play.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He would have to produce the bones of the
+mummy's finger, together with John Bellingham's ring.
+No other course was possible.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But not only would the bones and the ring have
+to be found together. They would have to be found
+in a place which was accessible to Mr. Jellicoe, and so
+far under his control that he could determine the exact
+time when the discovery should be made.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I waited patiently for the answer to my question.
+Was I right or was I wrong?
+</p>
+<p>
+"And in due course, the answer came.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The bones and the ring were discovered in the well
+in the grounds of Godfrey Bellingham's late house.
+That house was the property of John Bellingham. Mr.
+Jellicoe was John Bellingham's agent. Hence it was
+practically certain that the date on which the well was
+emptied was settled by Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The Oracle had spoken.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The discovery proved conclusively that the bones
+were not those of John Bellingham (for if they had
+been the ring would have been unnecessary for
+identification). But if the bones were not John Bellingham's,
+the ring was; from which followed the important
+corollary that whoever had deposited those bones in
+the well had had possession of the body of John
+Bellingham. And there could be no doubt that that person
+was Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"On receiving this final confirmation of my
+conclusions, I applied forthwith to Doctor Norbury for
+permission to examine the mummy of Sebek-hotep, with
+the result that you are already acquainted with."
+</p>
+<p>
+As Thorndyke concluded, Mr. Jellicoe regarded him
+thoughtfully for a moment, and then said: "You have
+given us a most complete and lucid exposition of your
+method of investigation, sir. I have enjoyed it exceedingly,
+and should have profited by it hereafter&mdash;under
+other circumstances. Are you sure you won't allow
+me to fill your glass?" He touched the stopper of
+the decanter, and Inspector Badger ostentatiously consulted
+his watch.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Time is running on, I fear," said Mr. Jellicoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is, indeed," Badger assented emphatically.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I need not detain you long," said the lawyer.
+"My statement is a mere narration of events. But I
+desire to make it, and you, no doubt, will be interested
+to hear it."
+</p>
+<p>
+He opened the silver case and selected a fresh cigarette,
+which, however, he did not light. Inspector
+Badger produced a funereal notebook, which he laid
+open on his knee; and the rest of us settled ourselves
+in our chairs with no little curiosity to hear Mr. Jellicoe's
+statement.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH20"><!-- CH20 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XX
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE END OF THE CASE
+</h3>
+<p>
+A profound silence had fallen on the room and its
+occupants. Mr. Jellicoe sat with his eyes fixed on the
+table as if deep in thought, the unlighted cigarette in
+one hand, the other grasping the tumbler of water.
+Presently Inspector Badger coughed impatiently and
+he looked up. "I beg your pardon, gentlemen," he
+said. "I am keeping you waiting."
+</p>
+<p>
+He took a sip from the tumbler, opened a matchbox
+and took out a match, but apparently altering his
+mind, laid it down and commenced:
+</p>
+<p>
+"The unfortunate affair which has brought you here
+to-night, had its origin ten years ago. At that time
+my friend Hurst became suddenly involved in financial
+difficulties&mdash;am I speaking too fast for you, Mr.
+Badger?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, not at all," replied Badger. "I am taking it
+down in shorthand."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you," said Mr. Jellicoe. "He became involved
+in serious difficulties and came to me for assistance.
+He wished to borrow five thousand pounds to
+enable him to meet his engagements. I had a certain
+amount of money at my disposal, but I did not consider
+Hurst's security satisfactory; accordingly I felt compelled
+to refuse. But on the very next day, John Bellingham called
+on me with the draft of his will which he
+wished me to look over before it was executed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It was an absurd will, and I nearly told him so;
+but then an idea occurred to me in connection with
+Hurst. It was obvious to me, as soon as I had glanced
+through the will, that, if the burial clause was left as
+the testator had drafted it, Hurst had a very good
+chance of inheriting the property; and, as I was named
+as the executor, I should be able to give full effect to
+that clause. Accordingly, I asked for a few days to
+consider the will, and I then called upon Hurst and
+made a proposal to him; which was this: That I should
+advance him five thousand pounds without security;
+that I should ask for no repayment, but that he should
+assign to me any interest that he might have or acquire
+in the estate of John Bellingham up to ten thousand
+pounds, or two-thirds of any sum that he might inherit
+if over that amount. He asked if John had yet made
+any will, and I replied, quite correctly, that he had not.
+He inquired if I knew what testamentary arrangements
+John intended to make, and again I answered, quite correctly,
+that I believed that John proposed to devise the
+bulk of his property to his brother, Godfrey.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thereupon, Hurst accepted my proposal; I made
+him the advance and he executed the assignment. After
+a few days' delay, I passed the will as satisfactory.
+The actual document was written from the draft by
+the testator himself; and a fortnight after Hurst had
+executed the assignment, John signed the will in my
+office. By the provisions of that will I stood an excellent
+chance of becoming virtually the principal beneficiary,
+unless Godfrey should contest Hurst's claim
+and the Court should override the conditions of clause
+two.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You will now understand the motives which governed
+my subsequent actions. You will also see, Doctor
+Thorndyke, how very near to the truth your reasoning
+carried you; and you will understand, as I wish
+you to do, that Mr. Hurst was no party to any of those
+proceedings which I am about to describe.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Coming now to the interview in Queen Square in
+October, nineteen hundred and two, you are aware of
+the general circumstances from my evidence in Court,
+which was literally correct up to a certain point. The
+interview took place in a room on the third floor, in
+which were stored the cases which John had brought
+with him from Egypt. The mummy was unpacked, as
+were some other objects that he was not offering to
+the Museum, but several cases were still unopened.
+At the conclusion of the interview I accompanied Doctor
+Norbury down to the street door, and we stood on the
+doorstep conversing for perhaps a quarter of an hour.
+Then Doctor Norbury went away and I returned upstairs.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now the house in Queen Square is virtually a
+museum. The upper part is separated from the lower
+by a massive door which opens from the hall and gives
+access to the staircase, and which is fitted with a Chubb
+night-latch. There are two latchkeys, of which John
+used to keep one and I the other. You will find them
+both in the safe behind me. The caretaker had no key
+and no access to the upper part of the house unless
+admitted by one of us.
+</p>
+<p>
+"At the time when I came in, after Doctor Norbury
+had left, the caretaker was in the cellar, where I
+could hear him breaking coke for the hot-water furnace.
+I had left John on the third floor opening some
+of the packing cases by the light of a lamp with a tool
+somewhat like a plasterer's hammer; that is, a hammer
+with a small axe-blade at the reverse of the head.
+As I stood talking to Doctor Norbury, I could hear him
+knocking out the nails and wrenching up the lids; and
+when I entered the doorway leading to the stairs, I
+could still hear him. Just as I closed the staircase door
+behind me, I heard a rumbling noise from above; then
+all was still.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I went up the stairs to the second floor, where,
+as the staircase was all in darkness, I stopped to light
+the gas. As I turned to ascend the next flight, I saw
+a hand projecting over the edge of the half-way landing.
+I ran up the stairs, and there, on the landing, I saw
+John lying huddled up in a heap at the foot of the top
+flight. There was a wound at the side of his forehead
+from which a little blood was trickling. The case-opener
+lay on the floor close by him and there was blood
+on the axe-blade. When I looked up the stairs I saw
+a rag of torn matting hanging over the top stair.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It was quite easy to see what had happened. He
+had walked quickly out on the landing with the case-opener
+in his hand. His foot had caught in the torn
+matting and he had pitched head foremost down the
+stairs, still holding the case-opener. He had fallen so
+that his head had come down on the upturned edge of
+the axe-blade; he had then rolled over and the case-opener
+had dropped from his hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I lit a wax match and stooped down to look at
+him. His head was in a very peculiar position, which
+made me suspect that his neck was broken. There was
+extremely little bleeding from the wound; he was perfectly
+motionless; I could detect no sign of breathing;
+and I felt no doubt that he was dead.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It was an exceedingly regrettable affair, and it
+placed me, as I perceived at once, in an extremely
+awkward position. My first impulse was to send the
+caretaker for a doctor and a policeman; but a moment's
+reflection convinced me that there were serious
+objections to this course.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There was nothing to show that I had not, myself,
+knocked him down with the case-opener. Of course,
+there was nothing to show that I had; but we were
+alone in the house with the exception of the caretaker,
+who was down in the basement out of ear-shot.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There would be an inquest. At the inquest, inquiries
+would be made as to the will which was known to
+exist. But, as soon as the will was produced, Hurst
+would become suspicious. He would probably make a
+statement to the coroner and I should be charged with
+the murder. Or, even if I were not charged, Hurst
+would suspect me and would probably repudiate the
+assignment; and, under the circumstances, it would
+be practically impossible for me to enforce it. He
+would refuse to pay and I could not take my claim into
+Court.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I sat down on the stairs just above poor John's
+body and considered the matter in detail. At the
+worst, I stood a fair chance of hanging; at the best,
+I stood to lose close upon fifty thousand pounds. These
+were not pleasant alternatives.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Supposing, on the other hand, I concealed the body
+and gave out that John had gone to Paris. There
+was, of course, the risk of discovery, in which case I
+should certainly be convicted of the murder. But if
+no discovery occurred, I was not only safe from suspicion,
+but I secured the fifty thousand pounds. In
+either case there was considerable risk, but in one there
+was the certainty of loss, whereas in the other there
+was a material advantage to justify the risk. The
+question was whether it would be possible to conceal
+the body. If it were, then the contingent profit was
+worth the slight additional risk. But a human body
+is a very difficult thing to dispose of, especially to a
+person of so little scientific culture as myself.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is curious that I considered this question for a
+quite considerable time before the obvious solution
+presented itself. I turned over at least a dozen methods
+of disposing of the body, and rejected them all as impracticable.
+Then, suddenly, I remembered the mummy
+upstairs.
+</p>
+<p>
+"At first it only occurred to me as a fantastic possibility
+that I could conceal the body in the mummy-case.
+But as I turned over the idea, I began to see
+that it was really practicable; and not only practicable
+but easy; and not only easy but eminently safe. If
+once the mummy-case was in the Museum, I was rid
+of it for ever.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The circumstances were, as you, sir, have justly
+observed, singularly favourable. There would be no
+hue and cry, no hurry, no anxiety; but ample time
+for all the necessary preparations. Then the mummy-case
+itself was curiously suitable. Its length was ample,
+as I knew from having measured it. It was a cartonnage
+of rather flexible material and had an opening
+behind, secured with a lacing so that it could be opened
+without injury. Nothing need be cut but the lacing,
+which could be replaced. A little damage might be
+done in extracting the mummy and in introducing
+the deceased; but such cracks as might occur would
+all be at the back and would be of no importance.
+For here again Fortune favoured me. The whole of
+the back of the mummy-case was coated with bitumen,
+and it would be easy when once the deceased was safely
+inside to apply a fresh coat, which would cover up not
+only the cracks but also the new lacing.
+</p>
+<p>
+"After careful consideration, I decided to adopt the
+plan. I went downstairs and sent the caretaker on an
+errand to the Law Courts. Then I returned and carried
+the deceased up to one of the third-floor rooms,
+where I removed his clothes and laid him out on a long
+packing-case in the position in which he would lie in the
+mummy-case. I folded his clothes neatly and packed
+them, with the exception of his boots, in a suit-case
+that he had been taking to Paris and which contained
+nothing but his night-clothes, toilet articles, and a
+change of linen. By the time I had done this and
+thoroughly washed the oilcloth on the stairs and landing,
+the caretaker had returned. I informed him that
+Mr. Bellingham had started for Paris and then I went
+home. The upper part of the house was, of course,
+secured by the Chubb lock, but I had also&mdash;<i>ex abundanti&acirc;
+cautelae</i>&mdash;locked the door of the room in which
+I had deposited the deceased.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I had, of course, some knowledge of the methods of
+embalming, but principally of those employed by the
+ancients. Hence, on the following day, I went to the
+British Museum library and consulted the most recent
+works on the subject; and exceedingly interesting they
+were, as showing the remarkable improvements that
+modern knowledge had effected in this ancient art. I
+need not trouble you with details that are familiar
+to you. The process that I selected as the simplest
+for a beginner was that of formalin injection, and I
+went straight from the Museum to purchase the necessary
+materials. I did not, however, buy an embalming
+syringe: the book stated that an ordinary anatomical
+injecting syringe would answer the purpose, and I
+thought it a more discreet purchase.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I fear that I bungled the injection terribly, although
+I had carefully studied the plates in a treatise
+on anatomy&mdash;Gray's, I think. However, if my methods
+were clumsy, they were quite effectual. I carried out
+the process on the evening of the third day; and when
+I locked up the house that night, I had the satisfaction
+of knowing that poor John's remains were secure from
+corruption and decay.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But this was not enough. The great weight of a
+fresh body as compared with that of a mummy would
+be immediately noticed by those who had the handling
+of the mummy-case. Moreover, the damp from the
+body would quickly ruin the cartonnage and would
+cause a steamy film on the inside of the glass case in
+which it would be exhibited. And this would probably
+lead to an examination. Clearly, then, it was necessary
+that the remains of the deceased should be thoroughly
+dried before they were enclosed in the cartonnage.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here my unfortunate deficiency in scientific knowledge
+was a great drawback. I had no idea how this
+result would be achieved, and in the end was compelled
+to consult a taxidermist, to whom I represented that
+I wished to collect small animals and reptiles and
+rapidly dry them for convenience of transport. By
+this person I was advised to immerse the dead animals
+in a jar of methylated spirit for a week and then expose
+them in a current of warm, dry air.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But the plan of immersing the remains of the
+deceased in a jar of methylated spirit was obviously
+impracticable. However, I bethought me that we had
+in our collection a porphyry sarcophagus, the cavity
+of which had been shaped to receive a small mummy
+in its case. I tried the deceased in the sarcophagus
+and found that he just fitted the cavity loosely. I obtained
+a few gallons of methylated spirit which I poured
+into the cavity, just covering the body, and then I put
+on the lid and luted it down air-tight with putty. I
+trust I do not weary you with these particulars?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'll ask you to cut it as short as you can, Mr. Jellicoe,"
+said Badger. "It has been a long yarn and time
+is running on."
+</p>
+<p>
+"For my part," said Thorndyke, "I find these details
+deeply interesting and instructive. They fill in the
+outline that I had drawn by inference."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Precisely," said Mr. Jellicoe; "then I will proceed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I left the deceased soaking in the spirit for a fortnight
+and then took him out, wiped him dry, and laid
+him on four cane-bottomed chairs just over the hot-water
+pipes. I turned off the hot water in the other
+rooms so as to concentrate the heat in these pipes, and
+I let a free current of air pass through the room. The
+result interested me exceedingly. By the end of the
+third day the hands and feet had become quite dry
+and shrivelled and horny&mdash;so that the ring actually
+dropped off the shrunken finger&mdash;the nose looked like a
+fold of parchment; and the skin of the body was so dry
+and smooth that you could have engrossed a lease on
+it. For the first day or two I turned the deceased at
+intervals so that he should dry evenly, and then I
+proceeded to get the case ready. I divided the lacing
+and extracted the mummy with great care&mdash;with great
+care as to the case, I mean; for the mummy suffered
+some injury in the extraction. It was very badly embalmed,
+and so brittle that it broke in several places
+while I was getting it out; and when I unrolled it the
+head separated and both the arms came off.
+</p>
+<p>
+"On the sixth day after the removal from the sarcophagus,
+I took the bandages that I had removed from
+Sebek-hotep and very carefully wrapped the deceased
+in them, sprinkling powdered myrrh and gum benzoin
+freely on the body and between the folds of the wrappings
+to disguise the faint odour of the spirit and the
+formalin that still lingered about the body. When the
+wrappings had been applied, the deceased really had
+a most workmanlike appearance; he would have looked
+quite well in a glass case even without the cartonnage,
+and I felt almost regretful at having to put him out of
+sight for ever.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It was a difficult business getting him into the case
+without assistance, and I cracked the cartonnage badly
+in several places before he was safely enclosed. But
+I got him in at last, and then, when I had closed up
+the case with a new lacing, I applied a fresh layer of
+bitumen which effectually covered up the cracks and
+the new cord. A dusty cloth dabbed over the bitumen
+when it was dry disguised its newness, and the cartonnage
+with its tenant was ready for delivery. I
+notified Doctor Norbury of the fact, and five days
+later he came and removed it to the Museum.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now that the main difficulty was disposed of, I
+began to consider the further difficulty to which you,
+sir, have alluded with such admirable perspicuity. It
+was necessary that John Bellingham should make one
+more appearance in public before sinking into final
+oblivion.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Accordingly, I devised the visit to Hurst's house,
+which was calculated to serve two purposes. It created
+a satisfactory date for the disappearance, eliminating
+me from any connection with it, and by throwing some
+suspicion on Hurst it would make him more amenable&mdash;less
+likely to dispute my claim when he learned the
+provisions of the will.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The affair was quite simple. I knew that Hurst
+had changed his servants since I was last at his house,
+and I knew his habits. On that day I took the suit-case
+to Charing Cross and deposited it in the cloak-room,
+called at Hurst's office to make sure that he was there,
+and went from thence direct to Cannon Street and
+caught the train to Eltham. On arriving at the house,
+I took the precaution to remove my spectacles&mdash;the
+only distinctive feature of my exterior&mdash;and was duly
+shown into the study at my request. As soon as the
+housemaid had left the room I quietly let myself out
+by the French window, which I closed behind me but
+could not fasten, went out at the side gate and closed
+that also behind me, holding the bolt of the latch back
+with my pocket-knife so that I need not slam the gate
+to shut it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The other events of that day, including the dropping
+of the scarab, I need not describe, as they are
+known to you. But I may fitly make a few remarks
+on the unfortunate tactical error into which I fell in
+respect of the bones. That error arose, as you have
+doubtless perceived, from the lawyer's incurable habit
+of underestimating the scientific expert. I had no idea
+that mere bones were capable of furnishing so much
+information to a man of science.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The way in which the affair came about was this:
+The damaged mummy of Sebek-hotep, perishing gradually
+by exposure to the air, was not only an eyesore
+to me: it was a definite danger. It was the only remaining
+link between me and the disappearance. I
+resolved to be rid of it and cast about for some means
+of destroying it. And then, in an evil moment, the
+idea of utilising it occurred to me.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There was an undoubted danger that the Court
+might refuse to presume death after so short an interval;
+and if the permission should be postponed, the will
+might never be administered during my lifetime. Hence,
+if these bones of Sebek-hotep could be made to simulate
+the remains of the deceased testator, a definite good
+would be achieved. But I knew that the entire skeleton
+could never be mistaken for his. The deceased had
+broken his knee-caps and damaged his ankle, injuries
+which I assumed would leave some permanent trace.
+But if a judicious selection of the bones were deposited
+in a suitable place, together with some object clearly
+identifiable as appertaining to the deceased, it seemed
+to me that the difficulty would be met. I need not
+trouble you with details. The course which I adopted
+is known to you with the attendant circumstances, even
+to the accidental detachment of the right hand&mdash;which
+broke off as I was packing the arm in my handbag.
+Erroneous as that course was, it would have been successful
+but for the unforeseen contingency of your
+being retained in the case.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thus, for nearly two years, I remained in complete
+security. From time to time I dropped in at the
+museum to see if the deceased was keeping in good condition;
+and on those occasions I used to reflect with
+satisfaction on the gratifying circumstance&mdash;accidental
+though it was&mdash;that his wishes, as expressed (very imperfectly)
+in clause two, had been fully complied with,
+and that without prejudice to my interests.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The awakening came on that evening when I saw
+you at the Temple gate talking with Doctor Berkeley.
+I suspected immediately that something had gone amiss
+and that it was too late to take any useful action.
+Since then, I have waited here in hourly expectation
+of this visit. And now the time has come. You have
+made the winning move and it remains only for me to
+pay my debts like an honest gambler."
+</p>
+<p>
+He paused and quietly lit his cigarette. Inspector
+Badger yawned and put away his note-book.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have you done, Mr. Jellicoe?" the inspector asked.
+"I want to carry out my contract to the letter, you
+know, though it's getting devilish late."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Jellicoe took his cigarette from his mouth and
+drank a glass of water.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I forgot to ask," he said, "whether you unrolled
+the mummy&mdash;if I may apply the term to the imperfectly
+treated remains of my deceased client."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I did not open the mummy-case," replied Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You did not!" exclaimed Mr. Jellicoe. "Then
+how did you verify your suspicions?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I took an X-ray photograph."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah! Indeed!" Mr. Jellicoe pondered for some
+moments. "Astonishing!" he murmured; "and most
+ingenious. The resources of science at the present day
+are truly wonderful."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is there anything more that you want to say?"
+asked Badger; "because, if you don't, time's
+up."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Anything more?" Mr. Jellicoe repeated slowly;
+"anything more? No&mdash;I&mdash;think&mdash;think&mdash;the time&mdash;is&mdash;up.
+Yes&mdash;the&mdash;the time&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+He broke off and sat with a strange look fixed on
+Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+His face had suddenly undergone a curious change.
+It looked shrunken and cadaverous and his lips had
+assumed a peculiar cherry-red colour.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is anything the matter, Mr. Jellicoe?" Badger
+asked uneasily. "Are you not feeling well, sir?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Jellicoe did not appear to have heard the question,
+for he returned no answer, but sat motionless,
+leaning back in his chair, with his hands spread out
+on the table and his strangely intent gaze bent on
+Thorndyke.
+</p>
+<p>
+Suddenly his head dropped on his breast and his
+body seemed to collapse; and as with one accord we
+sprang to our feet, he slid forward off his chair and
+disappeared under the table.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Good Lord! The man's fainted!" exclaimed
+Badger.
+</p>
+<p>
+In a moment he was down on his hands and knees,
+trembling with excitement, groping under the table.
+He dragged the unconscious lawyer out into the light
+and knelt over him, staring into his face.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What's the matter with him, Doctor?" he asked,
+looking up at Thorndyke. "Is it apoplexy? Or is it
+a heart attack, think you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke shook his head, though he stooped and
+put his fingers on the unconscious man's wrist. "Prussic
+acid or potassium cyanide is what the appearances
+suggest," he replied.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But can't you do anything?" demanded the inspector.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke dropped the arm, which fell limply to the
+floor.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You can't do much for a dead man," he said.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Dead! Then he has slipped through our fingers
+after all!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He has anticipated the sentence. That is all."
+Thorndyke spoke in an even, impassive tone which
+struck me as rather strange, considering the suddenness
+of the tragedy, as did also the complete absence
+of surprise in his manner. He seemed to treat the
+occurrence as a perfectly natural one.
+</p>
+<p>
+Not so Inspector Badger; who rose to his feet and
+stood with his hands thrust into his pockets scowling
+sullenly down at the dead lawyer.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was an infernal fool to agree to his blasted conditions,"
+he growled savagely.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nonsense," said Thorndyke. "If you had broken
+in, you would have found a dead man. As it was you
+found a live man and obtained an important statement.
+You acted quite properly."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How do you suppose he managed it?" asked
+Badger.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke held out his hand. "Let us look at his
+cigarette-case," said he.
+</p>
+<p>
+Badger extracted the little silver case from the dead
+man's pocket and opened it. There were five cigarettes
+in it, two of which were plain, while the other three
+were gold-tipped. Thorndyke took out one of each
+kind and gently pinched their ends. The gold-tipped
+one he returned; the plain one he tore through, about
+a quarter of an inch from the end; when two little
+white tabloids dropped out on the table. Badger
+eagerly picked one up and was about to smell it when
+Thorndyke grasped his wrist. "Be careful," said he;
+and when he had cautiously sniffed at the tabloid&mdash;held
+at a safe distance from his nose&mdash;he added: "Yes,
+potassium cyanide. I thought so when his lips turned
+that queer colour. It was in that last cigarette; you
+can see that he has bitten off the end."
+</p>
+<p>
+For some time we stood silently looking down at the
+still form stretched on the floor. Presently Badger
+looked up.
+</p>
+<p>
+"As you pass the porter's lodge on your way out,"
+said he, "you might just drop in and tell him to send
+a constable to me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well," said Thorndyke. "And by the way,
+Badger, you had better tip that sherry back into the
+decanter and put it under lock and key, or else pour it
+out of the window."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Gad, yes!" exclaimed the inspector. "I'm glad
+you mentioned it. We might have had an inquest on
+a constable as well as a lawyer. Good night, gentlemen,
+if you are off."
+</p>
+<p>
+We went out and left him with his prisoner&mdash;passive
+enough, indeed, according to his ambiguously worded
+promise. As we passed through the gateway Thorndyke
+gave the inspector's message, curtly and without
+comment, to the gaping porter, and then we issued forth
+into Chancery Lane.
+</p>
+<p>
+We were all silent and very grave, and I thought that
+Thorndyke seemed somewhat moved. Perhaps Mr. Jellicoe's
+last intent look&mdash;which I suspect he knew to
+be the look of a dying man&mdash;lingered in his memory
+as it did in mine. Half-way down Chancery Lane he
+spoke for the first time; and then it was only to ejaculate,
+"Poor devil!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Jervis took him up. "He was a consummate villain,
+Thorndyke."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hardly that," was the reply. "I should rather
+say that he was non-moral. He acted without malice
+and without scruple or remorse. His conduct exhibited
+a passionless expediency which was rather dreadful
+because utterly unhuman. But he was a strong man&mdash;a
+courageous, self-contained man, and I had been better
+pleased if it could have been ordained that some other
+hand than mine should let the axe fall."
+</p>
+<p>
+Thorndyke's compunction may appear strange and
+inconsistent, but yet his feeling was also my own.
+Great as were the misery and suffering that this inscrutable
+man had brought into the lives of those I loved,
+I forgave him; and in his downfall forgot the callous
+relentlessness with which he had pursued his evil purpose.
+For he it was who had brought Ruth into my
+life; who had opened for me the Paradise of Love into
+which I had just entered. And so my thoughts turned
+away from the still shape that lay on the floor of the
+stately old room in Lincoln's Inn, away to the sunny
+vista of the future, where I should walk hand in hand
+with Ruth until my time, too, should come; until I,
+too, like the grim lawyer, should hear the solemn evening
+bell bidding me put out into the darkness of the
+silent sea.
+</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full">
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANISHING MAN***</p>
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+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10476.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Vanishing Man, by R. Austin Freeman
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Vanishing Man
+
+Author: R. Austin Freeman
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2003  [eBook #10476]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANISHING MAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Steven desJardins and Project Gutenberg Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+THE VANISHING MAN
+
+A Detective Romance
+
+BY R. AUSTIN FREEMAN
+
+1911
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TO MY FRIEND
+
+A.E.B.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I THE VANISHING MAN
+   II THE EAVESDROPPER
+  III JOHN THORNDYKE
+   IV LEGAL COMPLICATIONS AND A JACKAL
+    V THE WATERCRESS-BED
+   VI SIDELIGHTS
+  VII JOHN BELLINGHAM'S WILL
+ VIII A MUSEUM IDYLL
+   IX THE SPHINX OF LINCOLN'S INN
+    X THE NEW ALLIANCE
+   XI THE EVIDENCE REVIEWED
+  XII A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
+ XIII THE CROWNER'S QUEST
+  XIV WHICH CARRIES THE READER INTO THE
+      PROBATE COURT
+   XV CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
+  XVI "O! ARTEMIDORUS, FAREWELL!"
+ XVII THE ACCUSING FINGER
+XVIII JOHN BELLINGHAM
+  XIX A STRANGE SYMPOSIUM
+   XX THE END OF THE CASE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE VANISHING MAN
+
+
+The school of St. Margaret's Hospital was fortunate in its lecturer on
+Medical Jurisprudence, or Forensic Medicine, as it is sometimes
+described. At some schools the lecturer on this subject is appointed
+apparently for the reason that he lacks the qualifications to lecture on
+any other. But with us it was very different: John Thorndyke was not
+only an enthusiast, a man of profound learning and great reputation, but
+he was an exceptional teacher, lively and fascinating in style and of
+endless resources. Every remarkable case that had ever been recorded he
+appeared to have at his fingers' ends; every fact--chemical, physical,
+biological, or even historical--that could in any way be twisted into a
+medico-legal significance, was pressed into his service; and his own
+varied and curious experiences seemed as inexhaustible as the widow's
+cruse. One of his favourite devices for giving life and interest to a
+rather dry subject was that of analysing and commenting upon
+contemporary cases as reported in the papers (always, of course, with a
+due regard to the legal and social proprieties); and it was in this way
+that I first became introduced to the astonishing series of events that
+was destined to exercise so great an influence on my own life.
+
+The lecture which had just been concluded had dealt with the rather
+unsatisfactory subject of survivorship. Most of the students had left
+the theatre, and the remainder had gathered round the lecturer's table
+to listen to the informal comments that Dr. Thorndyke was wont to
+deliver on these occasions in an easy, conversational manner, leaning
+against the edge of the table and apparently addressing his remarks to a
+stick of blackboard chalk that he held in his fingers.
+
+"The problem of survivorship," he was saying, in reply to a question put
+by one of the students, "ordinarily occurs in cases where the bodies of
+the parties are producible, or where, at any rate, the occurrence of
+death and its approximate time are actually known. But an analogous
+difficulty may arise in a case where the body of one of the parties is
+not forthcoming, and the fact of death may have to be assumed on
+collateral evidence.
+
+"Here, of course, the vital question to be settled is, what is the
+latest instant at which it is certain that this person was alive? And
+the settlement of that question may turn on some circumstance of the
+most trivial and insignificant kind. There is a case in this morning's
+paper which illustrates this. A gentleman has disappeared rather
+mysteriously. He was last seen by the servant of a relative at whose
+house he had called. Now, if this gentleman should never reappear, dead
+or alive, the question as to what was the latest moment at which he was
+certainly alive will turn upon the further question: 'Was he or was he
+not wearing a particular article of jewellery when he called at that
+relative's house?'"
+
+He paused with a reflective eye bent upon the stump of chalk that he
+still held; then, noting the expectant interest with which we were
+regarding him, he resumed:
+
+"The circumstances in this case are very curious; in fact, they are
+highly mysterious; and if any legal issues should arise in respect of
+them, they are likely to yield some very remarkable complications. The
+gentleman who has disappeared, Mr. John Bellingham, is a man well known
+in archaeological circles. He recently returned from Egypt, bringing
+with him a very fine collection of antiquities--some of which, by the
+way, he has presented to the British Museum, where they are now on
+view--and having made this presentation, he appears to have gone to
+Paris on business. I may mention that the gift consisted of a very fine
+mummy and a complete set of tomb-furniture. The latter, however, had not
+arrived from Egypt at the time when the missing man left for Paris, but
+the mummy was inspected on the fourteenth of October at Mr. Bellingham's
+house by Dr. Norbury of the British Museum, in the presence of the donor
+and his solicitor, and the latter was authorised to hand over the
+complete collection to the British Museum authorities when the
+tomb-furniture arrived; which he has since done.
+
+"From Paris he seems to have returned on the twenty-third of November,
+and to have gone direct from Charing Cross to the house of a relative, a
+Mr. Hurst, who is a bachelor and lives at Eltham. He appeared at the
+house at twenty minutes past five, and as Mr. Hurst had not yet come
+down from town and was not expected until a quarter to six, he explained
+who he was and said he would wait in the study and write some letters.
+The housemaid accordingly showed him into the study, furnished him with
+writing materials, and left him.
+
+"At a quarter to six Mr. Hurst let himself in with his latchkey, and
+before the housemaid had time to speak to him he had passed through into
+the study and shut the door.
+
+"At six o'clock, when the dinner bell was rung, Mr. Hurst entered the
+dining-room alone, and, observing that the table was laid for two, asked
+the reason.
+
+"'I thought Mr. Bellingham was staying to dinner, sir,' was 'The
+housemaid's' reply.
+
+"'Mr. Bellingham!' exclaimed the astonished host. 'I didn't know he was
+here. Why was I not told?'
+
+"'I thought he was in the study with you, sir,' said the housemaid.
+
+"On this a search was made for the visitor, with the result that he was
+nowhere to be found. He had disappeared without leaving a trace, and
+what made the incident more odd was that the housemaid was certain that
+he had not gone out by the front door. For since neither she nor the
+cook was acquainted with Mr. John Bellingham, she had remained the whole
+time either in the kitchen, which commanded a view of the front gate, or
+in the dining-room, which opened into the hall opposite the study door.
+The study itself has a French window opening on a narrow grass plot,
+across which is a side gate that opens into an alley; and it appears
+that Mr. Bellingham must have made his exit by this rather eccentric
+route. At any rate--and this is the important fact--he was not in the
+house, and no one had seen him leave it.
+
+"After a hasty meal Mr. Hurst returned to town and called at the office
+of Mr. Bellingham's solicitor and confidential agent, a Mr. Jellicoe,
+and mentioned the matter to him. Mr. Jellicoe knew nothing of his
+client's return from Paris, and the two men at once took the train down
+to Woodford, where the missing man's brother, Mr. Godfrey Bellingham,
+lives. The servant who admitted them said that Mr. Godfrey was not at
+home, but that his daughter was in the library, which is a detached
+building situated in a shrubbery beyond the garden at the back of the
+house. Here the two men found, not only Miss Bellingham, but also her
+father, who had come in by the back gate.
+
+"Mr. Godfrey and his daughter listened to Mr. Hurst's story with the
+greatest surprise, and assured him that they had neither seen nor heard
+anything of John Bellingham.
+
+"Presently the party left the library to walk up to the house; but only
+a few feet from the library door Mr. Jellicoe noticed an object lying in
+the grass and pointed it out to Mr. Godfrey.
+
+"The latter picked it up, and they all recognised it as a scarab which
+Mr. John Bellingham had been accustomed to wear suspended from his
+watch-chain. There was no mistaking it. It was a very fine scarab of the
+eighteenth dynasty fashioned of lapis lazuli and engraved with the
+cartouche of Amenhotep III. It had been suspended by a gold ring
+fastened to a wire which passed through the suspension hole, and the
+ring, though broken, was still in position.
+
+"This discovery, of course, only added to the mystery, which was still
+further increased when, on inquiry, a suit-case bearing the initials
+J.B. was found to be lying unclaimed in the cloak-room at Charing Cross.
+Reference to the counterfoil of the ticket-book showed that it had been
+deposited about the time of arrival of the Continental express on the
+twenty-third of November, so that its owner must have gone straight on
+to Eltham.
+
+"That is how the affair stands at present, and, should the missing man
+never reappear or should his body never be found, the question, as you
+see, which will be required to be settled is, 'What is the exact time
+and place, when and where, he was last known to be alive?' As to the
+place, the importance of the issues involved in that question are
+obvious and we need not consider them. But the question of time has
+another kind of significance. Cases have occurred, as I pointed out in
+the lecture, in which proof of survivorship by less than a minute has
+secured succession to property. Now, the missing man was last seen alive
+at Mr. Hurst's house at twenty minutes past five on the twenty-third of
+November. But he appears to have visited his brother's house at
+Woodford, and, since nobody saw him at that house, it is at present
+uncertain whether he went there before or after calling on Mr. Hurst. If
+he went there first, then twenty minutes past five on the evening of the
+twenty-third is the latest moment at which he is known to have been
+alive; but if he went there after, there would have to be added to this
+time the shortest possible time in which he could travel from the one
+house to the other.
+
+"But the question as to which house he visited first hinges on the
+scarab. If he was wearing the scarab when he arrived at Mr. Hurst's
+house, it would be certain that he went there first; but if it was not
+then on his watch-chain, a probability would be established that he
+went first to Woodford. Thus, you see, a question which may conceivably
+become of the most vital moment in determining the succession of
+property turns on the observation or non-observation by this housemaid
+of an apparently trivial and insignificant fact."
+
+"Has the servant made any statement on the subject, sir?" I ventured to
+inquire.
+
+"Apparently not," replied Dr. Thorndyke; "at any rate, there is no
+reference to any such statement in the newspaper report, though,
+otherwise, the case is reported in great detail; indeed, the wealth of
+detail, including plans of the two houses, is quite remarkable and well
+worth noting as being in itself a fact of considerable interest."
+
+"In what respect, sir, is it of interest?" one of the students asked.
+
+"Ah!" replied Dr. Thorndyke, "I think I must leave you to consider that
+question yourself. This is an untried case, and we mustn't make free
+with the actions and motives of individuals."
+
+"Does the paper give any description of the missing man, sir?" I asked.
+
+"Yes; quite an exhaustive description. Indeed, it is exhaustive to the
+verge of impropriety, considering that the man may possibly turn up
+alive and well at any moment. It seems that he has an old Pott's
+fracture of the left ankle, a linear, longitudinal scar on each
+knee--origin not stated, but easily guessed at--and that he has tattooed
+on his chest in vermilion a very finely and distinctly executed
+representation of the symbolical Eye of Osiris--or Horus or Ra, as the
+different authorities have it. There certainly ought to be no
+difficulty in identifying the body. But we will hope that it won't come
+to that.
+
+"And now I must really be running away, and so must you; but I would
+advise you all to get copies of the paper and file them when you have
+read the remarkably full details. It is a most curious case, and it is
+highly probable that we shall hear of it again. Good afternoon,
+gentlemen."
+
+Dr. Thorndyke's advice appealed to all who heard it, for medical
+jurisprudence was a live subject at St. Margaret's and all of us were
+keenly interested in it. As a result, we sallied forth in a body to the
+nearest newsvendor's, and, having each provided himself with a copy of
+the _Daily Telegraph_, adjourned together to the Common Room to devour
+the report and thereafter to discuss the bearings of the case,
+unhampered by those considerations of delicacy that afflicted our more
+squeamish and scrupulous teacher.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EAVESDROPPER
+
+
+It is one of the canons of correct conduct, scrupulously adhered to
+(when convenient) by all well-bred persons, that an acquaintance should
+be initiated by a proper introduction. To this salutary rule, which I
+have disregarded to the extent of an entire chapter, I now hasten to
+conform; and the more so inasmuch as nearly two years have passed since
+my first informal appearance.
+
+Permit me, then, to introduce Paul Berkeley, M.B., etc., recently--very
+recently--qualified, faultlessly attired in the professional frock-coat
+and tall hat, and, at the moment of introduction, navigating with
+anxious care a perilous strait between a row of well-filled coal-sacks
+and a colossal tray piled high with kidney potatoes.
+
+The passage of this strait landed me on the terra firma of Fleur-de-Lys
+Court, where I halted for a moment to consult my visiting list. There
+was only one more patient for me to see this morning, and he lived at 49
+Nevill's Court, wherever that might be. I turned for information to the
+presiding deity of the coal shop.
+
+"Can you direct me, Mrs. Jablett, to Nevill's Court?"
+
+She could and she did, grasping me confidentially by the arm (the mark
+remained on my sleeve for weeks) and pointing a shaking forefinger at
+the dead wall ahead. "Nevill's Court," said Mrs. Jablett, "is a alley,
+and you goes into it through a archway. It turns out of Fetter Lane on
+the right 'and as you goes up, oppersight Bream's Buildings."
+
+I thanked Mrs. Jablett and went on my way, glad that the morning round
+was nearly finished, and vaguely conscious of a growing appetite and of
+a desire to wash in hot water.
+
+The practice which I was conducting was not my own. It belonged to poor
+Dick Barnard, an old St. Margaret's man of irrepressible spirits and
+indifferent physique, who had started only the day before for a trip
+down the Mediterranean on board a tramp engaged in the currant trade;
+and this, my second morning's round, was in some sort a voyage of
+geographical discovery.
+
+I walked on briskly up Fetter Lane until a narrow, arched opening,
+bearing the superscription "Nevill's Court," arrested my steps, and here
+I turned to encounter one of those surprises that lie in wait for the
+wanderer in London byways. Expecting to find the grey squalor of the
+ordinary London court, I looked out from under the shadow of the arch
+past a row of decent little shops through a vista full of light and
+colour--a vista of ancient, warm-toned roofs and walls relieved by
+sunlit foliage. In the heart of London a tree is always a delightful
+surprise; but here were not only trees, but bushes and even flowers. The
+narrow footway was bordered by little gardens, which, with their wooden
+palings and well-kept shrubs, gave to the place an air of quaint and
+sober rusticity; and even as I entered a bevy of work-girls, with
+gaily-coloured blouses and hair aflame in the sunlight, brightened up
+the quiet background like the wild flowers that spangle a summer
+hedgerow.
+
+In one of the gardens I noticed that the little paths were paved with
+what looked like circular tiles, but which, on inspection, I found to be
+old-fashioned stone ink-bottles, buried bottom upwards; and I was
+meditating upon the quaint conceit of the forgotten scrivener who had
+thus adorned his habitation--a law-writer perhaps, or an author, or
+perchance even a poet--when I perceived the number that I was seeking
+inscribed on a shabby door in a high wall. There was no bell or knocker,
+so, lifting the latch, I pushed the door open and entered.
+
+But if the court itself had been a surprise, this was a positive wonder,
+a dream. Here, within earshot of the rumble of Fleet Street, I was in an
+old-fashioned garden enclosed by high walls and, now that the gate was
+shut, cut off from all sight and knowledge of the urban world that
+seethed without. I stood and gazed in delighted astonishment. Sun-gilded
+trees and flower-beds gay with blossom; lupins, snap-dragons,
+nasturtiums, spiry foxgloves, and mighty hollyhocks formed the
+foreground; over which a pair of sulphur-tinted butterflies flitted,
+unmindful of a buxom and miraculously clean white cat which pursued
+them, dancing across the borders and clapping her snowy paws fruitlessly
+in mid-air. And the background was no less wonderful: a grand old house,
+dark-eaved and venerable, that must have looked down on this garden when
+ruffled dandies were borne in sedan chairs through the court, and gentle
+Izaak Walton, stealing forth from his shop in Fleet Street, strolled up
+Fetter Lane to "go a-angling" at Temple Mills.
+
+So overpowered was I by this unexpected vision that my hand was on the
+bottom knob of a row of bell-pulls before I recollected myself; and it
+was not until a most infernal jangling from within recalled me to my
+business that I observed underneath it a small brass plate inscribed
+"Miss Oman."
+
+The door opened with some suddenness, and a short, middle-aged woman
+surveyed me hungrily.
+
+"Have I rung the wrong bell?" I asked--foolishly enough, I must admit.
+
+"How can I tell?" she demanded. "I expect you have. It's the sort of
+thing a man would do--ring the wrong bell and then say he's sorry."
+
+"I didn't go as far as that," I retorted. "It seems to have had the
+desired effect, and I've made your acquaintance into the bargain."
+
+"Whom do you want to see?" she asked.
+
+"Mr. Bellingham."
+
+"Are you the doctor?"
+
+"I am _a_ doctor."
+
+"Follow me upstairs," said Miss Oman, "and don't tread on the paint."
+
+I crossed the spacious hall, and, preceded by my conductress, ascended a
+noble oak staircase, treading carefully on a ribbon of matting that ran
+up the middle. On the first-floor landing Miss Oman opened a door and,
+pointing to the room, said: "Go in there and wait; I'll tell her you're
+here."
+
+"I said _Mr_. Bellingham--" I began; but the door slammed on me, and
+Miss Oman's footsteps retreated rapidly down the stairs.
+
+It was at once obvious to me that I was in a very awkward position. The
+room into which I had been shown communicated with another, and though
+the door of communication was shut, I was unpleasantly aware of a
+conversation that was taking place in the adjoining room. At first,
+indeed, only a vague mutter, with a few disjointed phrases, came through
+the door, but suddenly an angry voice rang out clear and painfully
+distinct:
+
+"Yes, I did! And I say it again. Bribery! Collusion! That's what it
+amounts to. You want to square me!"
+
+"Nothing of the kind, Godfrey," was the reply in a lower tone; but at
+this point I coughed emphatically and moved a chair, and the voices
+subsided once more into an indistinct murmur.
+
+To distract my attention from my unseen neighbours I glanced curiously
+about the room and speculated upon the personalities of its occupants. A
+very curious room it was, with its pathetic suggestion of decayed
+splendour and old-world dignity: a room full of interest and character
+and of contrasts and perplexing contradictions. For the most part it
+spoke of unmistakable though decent poverty. It was nearly bare of
+furniture, and what little there was was of the cheapest--a small
+kitchen table and three Windsor chairs (two of them with arms); a
+threadbare string carpet on the floor, and a cheap cotton cloth on the
+table; these, with a set of bookshelves, frankly constructed of grocer's
+boxes, formed the entire suite. And yet, despite its poverty, the place
+exhaled an air of homely if rather ascetic comfort, and the taste was
+irreproachable. The quiet russet of the tablecloth struck a pleasant
+harmony with the subdued bluish green of the worn carpet; the Windsor
+chairs and the legs of the table had been carefully denuded of their
+glaring varnish and stained a sober brown; and the austerity of the
+whole was relieved by a ginger-jar filled with fresh-cut flowers and set
+in the middle of the table.
+
+But the contrasts of which I have spoken were most singular and
+puzzling. There were the bookshelves, for instance, home-made and
+stained at the cost of a few pence, but filled with recent and costly
+works on archaeology and ancient art. There were the objects on the
+mantelpiece: a facsimile in bronze--not bronzed plaster--of the
+beautiful head of Hypnos and a pair of fine Ushabti figures. There were
+the decorations of the walls, a number of etchings--signed proofs, every
+one of them--of Oriental subjects, and a splendid facsimile reproduction
+of an Egyptian papyrus. It was incongruous in the extreme, this mingling
+of costly refinements with the barest and shabbiest necessaries of life,
+of fastidious culture with manifest poverty. I could make nothing of it.
+What manner of man, I wondered, was this new patient of mine? Was he a
+miser, hiding himself and his wealth in this obscure court? An eccentric
+savant? A philosopher? Or--more probably--a crank? But at this point my
+meditations were interrupted by the voice from the adjoining room, once
+more raised in anger.
+
+"But I say that you _are_ making an accusation! You are implying that I
+made away with him."
+
+"Not at all," was the reply; "but I repeat that it is your business to
+ascertain what has become of him. The responsibility rests upon you."
+
+"Upon me!" rejoined the first voice. "And what about you? Your position
+is a pretty fishy one if it comes to that."
+
+"What!" roared the other. "Do you insinuate that I murdered my own
+brother?"
+
+During this amazing colloquy I had stood gaping with sheer astonishment.
+Suddenly I recollected myself, and, dropping into a chair, set my elbows
+on my knees and slapped my hands over my ears; and thus I must have
+remained for a full minute when I became aware of the closing of a door
+behind me.
+
+I sprang to my feet and turned in some embarrassment (for I must have
+looked unspeakably ridiculous) to confront the sombre figure of a rather
+tall and strikingly handsome girl, who, as she stood with her hand on
+the knob of the door, saluted me with a formal bow. In an instantaneous
+glance I noted how perfectly she matched her strange surroundings.
+Black-robed, black-haired, with black-grey eyes and a grave, sad face of
+ivory pallor, she stood, like one of old Terborch's portraits, a harmony
+in tones so low as to be but a step removed from monochrome. Obviously a
+lady in spite of the worn and rusty dress, and something in the poise of
+the head and the set of the straight brows hinted at a spirit that
+adversity had hardened rather than broken.
+
+"I must ask you to forgive me for keeping you waiting," she said; and as
+she spoke a certain softening at the corners of the austere mouth
+reminded me of the absurd position in which she had found me.
+
+I murmured that the trifling delay was of no consequence whatever; that
+I had, in fact, been rather glad of the rest; and I was beginning
+somewhat vaguely to approach the subject of the invalid when the voice
+from the adjoining room again broke forth with hideous distinctness.
+
+"I tell you I'll do nothing of the kind! Why, confound you, it's
+nothing less than a conspiracy that you're proposing!"
+
+Miss Bellingham--as I assumed her to be--stepped quickly across the
+floor, flushing angrily, as well she might; but, as she reached the
+door, it flew open and a small, spruce, middle-aged man burst into the
+room.
+
+"Your father is mad, Ruth!" he exclaimed; "absolutely stark mad! And I
+refuse to hold any further communication with him."
+
+"The present interview was not of his seeking," Miss Bellingham replied
+coldly.
+
+"No, it was not," was the wrathful rejoinder; "it was my mistaken
+generosity. But there--what is the use of talking? I've done my best for
+you and I'll do no more. Don't trouble to let me out; I can find my way.
+Good morning." With a stiff bow and a quick glance at me, the speaker
+strode out of the room, banging the door after him.
+
+"I must apologise for this extraordinary reception," said Miss
+Bellingham; "but I believe medical men are not easily astonished. I will
+introduce you to your patient now." She opened the door and, as I
+followed her into the adjoining room, she said: "Here is another visitor
+for you, dear. Doctor--"
+
+"Berkeley," said I. "I am acting for my friend Doctor Barnard."
+
+The invalid, a fine-looking man of about fifty-five, who sat propped up
+in bed with a pile of pillows, held out an excessively shaky hand, which
+I grasped cordially, making a mental note of the tremor.
+
+"How do you do, sir?" said Mr. Bellingham. "I hope Doctor Barnard is not
+ill."
+
+"Oh, no," I answered; "he has gone for a trip down the Mediterranean on
+a currant ship. The chance occurred rather suddenly, and I bustled him
+off before he had time to change his mind. Hence my rather unceremonious
+appearance, which I hope you will forgive."
+
+"Not at all," was the hearty response. "I'm delighted to hear that you
+sent him off; he wanted a holiday, poor man. And I am delighted to make
+your acquaintance, too."
+
+"It is very good of you," I said; whereupon he bowed as gracefully as a
+man may who is propped up in bed with a heap of pillows; and having thus
+exchanged broadsides of civility, so to speak, we--or, at least,
+I--proceeded to business.
+
+"How long have you been laid up?" I asked cautiously, not wishing to
+make too evident the fact that my principal had given me no information
+respecting his case.
+
+"A week to-day," he replied. "The _fons et origo mali_ was a hansom-cab
+which upset me opposite the Law Courts--sent me sprawling in the middle
+of the road. My own fault, of course--at least, the cabby said so, and I
+suppose he knew. But that was no consolation to me."
+
+"Were you much hurt?"
+
+"No, not really; but the fall bruised my knee rather badly and gave me a
+deuce of a shake up. I'm too old for that sort of thing, you know."
+
+"Most people are," said I.
+
+"True; but you can take a cropper more gracefully at twenty than at
+fifty-five. However, the knee is getting on quite well--you shall see it
+presently--and you observe that I am giving it complete rest. But that
+isn't the whole of the trouble or the worst of it. It's my confounded
+nerves. I'm as irritable as the devil and as nervous as a cat, and I
+can't get a decent night's rest."
+
+I recalled the tremulous hand that he had offered me. He did not look
+like a drinker, but still--
+
+"Do you smoke much?" I inquired diplomatically.
+
+He looked at me slyly and chuckled. "That's a very delicate way to
+approach the subject, Doctor," he said. "No, I don't smoke much, and I
+don't crook my little finger. I saw you look at my shaky hand just
+now--oh, it's all right; I'm not offended. It's a doctor's business to
+keep his eyelids lifting. But my hand is steady enough as a rule, when
+I'm not upset, but the least excitement sets me shaking like a jelly.
+And the fact is that I have just had a deucedly unpleasant interview--"
+
+"I think," Miss Bellingham interrupted, "Doctor Berkeley and, in fact,
+the neighbourhood at large, are aware of the fact."
+
+Mr. Bellingham laughed rather shamefacedly. "I'm afraid I did lose my
+temper," he said; "but I am an impulsive old fellow, Doctor, and when
+I'm put out I'm apt to speak my mind--a little too bluntly, perhaps."
+
+"And audibly," his daughter added. "Do you know that Doctor Berkeley was
+reduced to the necessity of stopping his ears?" She glanced at me, as
+she spoke, with something like a twinkle in her solemn grey eyes.
+
+"Did I shout?" Mr. Bellingham asked, not very contritely, I thought,
+though he added: "I'm very sorry, my dear; but it won't happen again. I
+think we've seen the last of that good gentleman."
+
+"I am sure I hope so," she rejoined, adding: "And now I will leave you
+to your talk; I shall be in the next room if you should want me."
+
+I opened the door for her, and when she had passed out with a stiff
+little bow I seated myself by the bedside and resumed the consultation.
+It was evidently a case of nervous breakdown, to which the cab accident
+had, no doubt, contributed. As to the other antecedents, they were no
+concern of mine, though Mr. Bellingham seemed to think otherwise, for he
+resumed: "That cab business was the last straw, you know, and it
+finished me off, but I have been going down the hill for a long time.
+I've had a lot of trouble during the last two years. But I suppose I
+oughtn't to pester you with the details of my personal affairs."
+
+"Anything that bears on your present state of health is of interest to
+me if you don't mind telling it," I said.
+
+"Mind!" he exclaimed. "Did you ever meet an invalid who didn't enjoy
+talking about his own health? It's the listener who minds, as a rule."
+
+"Well, the present listener doesn't," I said.
+
+"Then," said Mr. Bellingham, "I'll treat myself to the luxury of telling
+you all my troubles; I don't often get the chance of a confidential
+grumble to a responsible man of my own class. And I really have some
+excuse for railing at Fortune, as you will agree when I tell you that, a
+couple of years ago, I went to bed one night a gentleman of independent
+means and excellent prospects and woke up in the morning to find myself
+practically a beggar. Not a cheerful experience that, you know, at my
+time of life, eh?"
+
+"No," I agreed, "nor at any other."
+
+"And that was not all," he continued; "for, at the same moment, I lost
+my only brother, my dearest, kindest friend. He disappeared--vanished
+off the face of the earth; but perhaps you have heard of the affair. The
+confounded papers were full of it at the time."
+
+He paused abruptly, noticing, no doubt, a sudden change in my face. Of
+course, I recollected the case now. Indeed, ever since I had entered the
+house some chord of memory had been faintly vibrating, and now his last
+words had struck out the full note.
+
+"Yes," I said, "I remember the incident, though I don't suppose I should
+but for the fact that our lecturer on medical jurisprudence drew my
+attention to it."
+
+"Indeed," said Mr. Bellingham, rather uneasily, as I fancied. "What did
+he say about it?"
+
+"He referred to it as a case that was calculated to give rise to some
+very pretty legal complications."
+
+"By Jove!" exclaimed Mr. Bellingham, "that man was a prophet! Legal
+complications, indeed! But I'll be bound he never guessed at the sort of
+infernal tangle that has actually gathered round the affair. By the way,
+what was his name?"
+
+"Thorndyke," I replied. "Doctor John Thorndyke."
+
+"Thorndyke," Mr. Bellingham repeated in a musing, retrospective tone. "I
+seem to remember that name. Yes, of course. I have heard a legal friend
+of mine, a Mr. Marchmont, speak of him in reference to the case of a man
+whom I knew slightly years ago--a certain Jeffrey Blackmore, who also
+disappeared very mysteriously. I remember now that Doctor Thorndyke
+unravelled that case with most remarkable ingenuity."
+
+"I daresay he would be very much interested to hear about your case," I
+suggested.
+
+"I daresay he would," was the reply; "but one can't take up a
+professional man's time for nothing, and I couldn't afford to pay him.
+And that reminds me that I'm taking up your time by gossiping about my
+purely personal affairs."
+
+"My morning round is finished," said I, "and, moreover, your personal
+affairs are highly interesting. I suppose I mustn't ask what is the
+nature of the legal entanglement?"
+
+"Not unless you are prepared to stay here for the rest of the day and go
+home a raving lunatic. But I'll tell you this much: the trouble is about
+my poor brother's will. In the first place, it can't be administered
+because there is no sufficient evidence that my brother is dead; and in
+the second place, if it could, all the property would go to people who
+were never intended to benefit. The will itself is the most diabolically
+exasperating document that was ever produced by the perverted ingenuity
+of a wrong-headed man. That's all. Will you have a look at my knee?"
+
+As Mr. Bellingham's explanation (delivered in a rapid _crescendo_ and
+ending almost in a shout) had left him purple-faced and trembling, I
+thought it best to bring our talk to an end. Accordingly I proceeded to
+inspect the injured knee, which was now nearly well, and to overhaul my
+patient generally; and having given him detailed instructions as to his
+general conduct, I rose to take my leave.
+
+"And remember," I said as I shook his hand, "no tobacco, no coffee, no
+excitement of any kind. Lead a quiet, bovine life."
+
+"That's all very well," he grumbled, "but supposing people come here and
+excite me?"
+
+"Disregard them," said I, "and read _Whitaker's Almanack_." And with
+this parting advice I passed out into the other room.
+
+Miss Bellingham was seated at the table with a pile of blue-covered
+note-books before her, two of which were open, displaying pages closely
+written in a small, neat handwriting. She rose as I entered and looked
+at me inquiringly.
+
+"I heard you advising my father to read _Whitaker's Almanack_," she
+said. "Was that as a curative measure?"
+
+"Entirely," I replied. "I recommended it for its medicinal virtues, as
+an antidote to mental excitement."
+
+She smiled faintly. "It certainly is not a highly emotional book," she
+said, and then asked: "Have you any other instructions to give?"
+
+"Well, I might give the conventional advice--to maintain a cheerful
+outlook and avoid worry; but I don't suppose you would find it very
+helpful."
+
+"No," she answered bitterly; "it is a counsel of perfection. People in
+our position are not a very cheerful class, I am afraid; but still they
+don't seek out worries from sheer perverseness. The worries come
+unsought. But, of course, you can't enter into that."
+
+"I can't give any practical help, I fear, though I do sincerely hope
+that your father's affairs will straighten themselves out soon."
+
+She thanked me for my good wishes and accompanied me down to the street
+door, where, with a bow and a rather stiff handshake, she gave me my
+_conge_.
+
+Very ungratefully the noise of Fetter Lane smote on my ears as I came
+out through the archway, and very squalid and unrestful the little
+street looked when contrasted with the dignity and monastic quiet of the
+old garden. As to the surgery, with its oilcloth floor and walls made
+hideous with gaudy insurance show-cards in sham gilt frames, its aspect
+was so revolting that I flew to the day-book for distraction, and was
+still busily entering the morning's visits when the bottle-boy,
+Adolphus, entered stealthily to announce lunch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JOHN THORNDYKE
+
+
+That the character of an individual tends to be reflected in his dress
+is a fact familiar to the least observant. That the observation is
+equally applicable to aggregates of men is less familiar, but equally
+true. Do not the members of the fighting professions, even to this day,
+deck themselves in feathers, in gaudy colours and gilded ornaments,
+after the manner of the African war-chief or the "Redskin brave," and
+thereby indicate the place of war in modern civilisation? Does not the
+Church of Rome send her priests to the altar in habiliments that were
+fashionable before the fall of the Roman Empire, in token of her
+immovable conservatism? And, lastly, does not the Law, lumbering on in
+the wake of progress, symbolise its subjection to precedent by head-gear
+reminiscent of the days of good Queen Anne?
+
+I should apologise for obtruding upon the reader these somewhat trite
+reflections; which were set going by the quaint stock-in-trade of the
+wig-maker's shop in the cloisters of the Inner Temple, whither I had
+strayed on a sultry afternoon in quest of shade and quiet. I had halted
+opposite the little shop window, and, with my eyes bent dreamily on the
+row of wigs, was pursuing the above train of thought when I was startled
+by a deep voice saying softly in my ear: "I'd have the full-bottomed one
+if I were you."
+
+I turned swiftly and rather fiercely, and looked into the face of my
+old friend and fellow-student, Jervis, behind whom, regarding us with a
+sedate smile, stood my former teacher, Dr. John Thorndyke. Both men
+greeted me with a warmth that I felt to be very flattering, for
+Thorndyke was quite a great personage, and even Jervis was several years
+my academic senior.
+
+"You are coming in to have a cup of tea with us, I hope," said
+Thorndyke; and as I assented gladly, he took my arm and led me across
+the court in the direction of the Treasury.
+
+"But why that hungry gaze at those forensic vanities, Berkeley?" he
+asked. "Are you thinking of following my example and Jervis's--deserting
+the bedside for the Bar?"
+
+"What! Has Jervis gone into the law?" I exclaimed.
+
+"Bless you, yes!" replied Jervis. "I have become parasitical on
+Thorndyke! 'The big fleas have little fleas,' you know. I am the
+additional fraction trailing after the whole number in the rear of a
+decimal point."
+
+"Don't you believe him, Berkeley," interposed Thorndyke. "He is the
+brains of the firm. I supply the respectability and moral worth. But you
+haven't answered my question. What are you doing here on a summer
+afternoon staring into a wigmaker's window?"
+
+"I am Barnard's locum; he is in practice in Fetter Lane."
+
+"I know," said Thorndyke; "we meet him occasionally, and very pale and
+peaky he has been looking of late. Is he taking a holiday?"
+
+"Yes. He has gone for a trip to the Isles of Greece in a currant ship."
+
+"Then," said Jervis, "you are actually a local G.P. I thought you were
+looking beastly respectable."
+
+"And, judging from your leisured manner when we encountered you," added
+Thorndyke, "the practice is not a strenuous one. I suppose it is
+entirely local?"
+
+"Yes," I replied. "The patients mostly live in the small streets and
+courts within a half-mile radius of the surgery, and the abodes of some
+of them are pretty squalid. Oh! and that reminds me of a very strange
+coincidence. It will interest you, I think."
+
+"Life is made up of strange coincidences," said Thorndyke. "Nobody but a
+reviewer of novels is ever really surprised at a coincidence. But what
+is yours?"
+
+"It is connected with a case that you mentioned to us at the hospital
+about two years ago, the case of a man who disappeared under rather
+mysterious circumstances. Do you remember it? The man's name was
+Bellingham."
+
+"The Egyptologist? Yes, I remember the case quite well. What about it?"
+
+"The brother is a patient of mine. He is living in Nevill's Court with
+his daughter, and they seem to be as poor as church mice."
+
+"Really," said Thorndyke, "this is quite interesting. They must have
+come down in the world rather suddenly. If I remember rightly, the
+brother was living in a house of some pretensions standing in its own
+grounds."
+
+"Yes, that is so. I see you recollect all about the case."
+
+"My dear fellow," said Jervis, "Thorndyke never forgets a likely case.
+He is a sort of medico-legal camel. He gulps down the raw facts from the
+newspapers or elsewhere, and then, in his leisure moments, he calmly
+regurgitates them and has a quiet chew at them. It is a quaint habit. A
+case crops up in the papers or in one of the courts, and Thorndyke
+swallows it whole. Then it lapses and everyone forgets it. A year or two
+later it crops up in a new form, and, to your astonishment, you find
+that Thorndyke has got it all cut and dried. He has been ruminating on
+it periodically in the interval."
+
+"You notice," said Thorndyke, "that my learned friend is pleased to
+indulge in mixed metaphors. But his statement is substantially true,
+though obscurely worded. You must tell us more about the Bellinghams
+when we have fortified you with a cup of tea."
+
+Our talk had brought us to Thorndyke's chambers, which were on the first
+floor of No. 5A King's Bench Walk, and as we entered the fine, spacious,
+panelled room we found a small, elderly man, neatly dressed in black,
+setting out the tea-service on the table. I glanced at him with some
+curiosity. He hardly looked like a servant, in spite of his neat, black
+clothes; in fact, his appearance was rather puzzling, for while his
+quiet dignity and his serious, intelligent face suggested some kind of
+professional man, his neat, capable hands were those of a skilled
+mechanic.
+
+Thorndyke surveyed the tea-tray thoughtfully and then looked at his
+retainer. "I see you have put three tea-cups, Polton," he said. "Now,
+how did you know I was bringing someone in to tea?"
+
+The little man smiled a quaint, crinkly smile of gratification as he
+explained:
+
+"I happened to look out of the laboratory window as you turned the
+corner, sir."
+
+"How disappointingly simple," said Jervis. "We were hoping for something
+abstruse and telepathic."
+
+"Simplicity is the soul of efficiency, sir," replied Polton as he
+checked the tea-service to make sure that nothing was forgotten, and
+with this remarkable aphorism he silently evaporated.
+
+"To return to the Bellingham case," said Thorndyke, when he had poured
+out the tea. "Have you picked up any facts relating to the parties--any
+facts, I mean, of course, that it would be proper for you to mention?"
+
+"I have learned one or two things that there is no harm in repeating.
+For instance, I gather that Godfrey Bellingham--my patient--lost all his
+property quite suddenly about the time of the disappearance."
+
+"That is really odd," said Thorndyke. "The opposite condition would be
+quite understandable, but one doesn't see exactly how this can have
+happened, unless there was an allowance of some sort."
+
+"No, that was what struck me. But there seem to be some queer features
+in the case, and the legal position is evidently getting complicated.
+There is a will, for example, which is giving trouble."
+
+"They will hardly be able to administer the will without either proof or
+presumption of death," Thorndyke remarked.
+
+"Exactly. That's one of the difficulties. Another is that there seems to
+be some fatal defect in the drafting of the will itself. I don't know
+what it is, but I expect I shall hear sooner or later. By the way, I
+mentioned the interest that you had taken in the case, and I think
+Bellingham would have liked to consult you, but, of course, the poor
+devil has no money."
+
+"That is awkward for him if the other interested parties have. There
+will probably be legal proceedings of some kind, and as the law takes no
+account of poverty, he is likely to go to the wall. He ought to have
+advice of some sort."
+
+"I don't see how he is to get it," said I.
+
+"Neither do I," Thorndyke admitted. "There are no hospitals for
+impecunious litigants; it is assumed that only persons of means have a
+right to go to law. Of course, if we knew the man and the circumstances
+we might be able to help him; but, for all we know to the contrary, he
+may be an arrant scoundrel."
+
+I recalled the strange conversation that I had overheard, and wondered
+what Thorndyke would have thought of it if it had been allowable for me
+to repeat it. Obviously it was not, however, and I could only give my
+own impressions.
+
+"He doesn't strike me as that," I said; "but, of course, one never
+knows. Personally, he impressed me rather favourably, which is more than
+the other man did."
+
+"What other man?" asked Thorndyke.
+
+"There was another man in the case, wasn't there? I forget his name. I
+saw him at the house and didn't much like the look of him. I suspect
+he's putting some sort of pressure on Bellingham."
+
+"Berkeley knows more about this than he is telling us," said Jervis.
+"Let us look up the report and see who this stranger is." He took down
+from a shelf a large volume of newspaper-cuttings and laid it on the
+table.
+
+"You see," said he, as he ran his finger down the index, "Thorndyke
+files all the cases that are likely to come to something, and I know he
+had expectations respecting this one. I fancy he had some ghoulish hope
+that the missing gentleman's head might turn up in somebody's dust-bin.
+Here we are; the other man's name is Hurst. He is apparently a cousin,
+and it was at his house that the missing man was last seen alive."
+
+"So you think Mr. Hurst is moving in the matter?" said Thorndyke, when
+he had glanced over the report.
+
+"That is my impression," I replied, "though I really know nothing about
+it."
+
+"Well," said Thorndyke, "if you should learn what is being done and
+should have permission to speak of it, I shall be very interested to
+hear how the case progresses; and if an unofficial opinion on any point
+would be of service, I think there would be no harm in my giving it."
+
+"It would certainly be of great value if the other parties are taking
+professional advice," I said; and then, after a pause, I asked: "Have
+you given this case much consideration?"
+
+Thorndyke reflected. "No," he said, "I can't say that I have. I turned
+it over rather carefully when the report first appeared, and I have
+speculated on it occasionally since. It is my habit, as Jervis was
+telling you, to utilise odd moments of leisure (such as a railway
+journey, for instance) by constructing theories to account for the facts
+of such obscure cases as have come to my notice. It is a useful habit, I
+think, for, apart from the mental exercise and experience that one gains
+from it, an appreciable proportion of these cases ultimately come into
+my hands, and then the previous consideration of them is so much time
+gained."
+
+"Have you formed any theory to account for the facts in this case?" I
+asked.
+
+"Yes; I have several theories, one of which I especially favour, and I
+am waiting with great interest such new facts as may indicate to me
+which of these theories is probably the correct one."
+
+"It's no use your trying to pump him, Berkeley," said Jervis. "He is
+fitted with an information-valve that opens inwards. You can pour in as
+much as you like, but you can't get any out."
+
+Thorndyke chuckled. "My learned friend is, in the main, correct," he
+said. "You see, I may be called upon any day to advise on this case, in
+which event I should feel remarkably foolish if I had already expounded
+my views in detail. But I should like to hear what you and Jervis make
+of the case as reported in the newspapers."
+
+"There now," exclaimed Jervis, "what did I tell you? He wants to suck
+our brains."
+
+"As far as my brain is concerned," I said, "the process of suction isn't
+likely to yield much except a vacuum, so I will resign in favour of you.
+You are a full-blown lawyer, whereas I am only a simple G.P."
+
+Jervis filled his pipe with deliberate care and lighted it. Then,
+blowing a slender stream of smoke into the air, he said:
+
+"If you want to know what I make of the case from that report, I can
+tell you in one word--nothing. Every road seems to end in a cul-de-sac."
+
+"Oh, come!" said Thorndyke, "this is mere laziness. Berkeley wants to
+witness a display of your forensic wisdom. A learned counsel may be in
+a fog--he very often is--but he doesn't state the fact baldly; he wraps
+it up in a decent verbal disguise. Tell us how you arrive at your
+conclusion. Show us that you have really weighed the facts."
+
+"Very well," said Jervis, "I will give you a masterly analysis of the
+case--leading to nothing." He continued to puff at his pipe for a time
+with slight embarrassment, as I thought--and I fully sympathised with
+him. Finally he blew a little cloud and commenced:
+
+"The position appears to be this: Here is a man who is seen to enter a
+certain house, who is shown into a certain room and shut in. He is not
+seen to come out, and yet, when the room is next entered, it is found to
+be empty; and that man is never seen again, alive or dead. That is a
+pretty tough beginning.
+
+"Now, it is evident that one of three things must have happened. Either
+he must have remained in that room, or at least in that house, alive; or
+he must have died, naturally or otherwise, and his body have been
+concealed; or he must have left the house unobserved. Let us take the
+first case. This affair happened nearly two years ago. Now, he couldn't
+have remained alive in the house for two years. He would have been
+noticed. The servants, for instance, when cleaning out the rooms, would
+have observed him."
+
+Here Thorndyke interposed with an indulgent smile at his junior: "My
+learned friend is treating the inquiry with unbecoming levity. We accept
+the conclusion that the man did not remain in the house alive."
+
+"Very well. Then did he remain in it dead? Apparently not. The report
+says that as soon as the man was missed, Hurst and the servants
+together searched the house thoroughly. But there had been no time or
+opportunity to dispose of the body, whence the only possible conclusion
+is that the body was not there. Moreover, if we admit the possibility of
+his having been murdered--for that is what concealment of the body would
+imply--there is the question: Who could have murdered him? Not the
+servants, obviously, and as to Hurst--well, of course, we don't know
+what his relations with the missing man have been--at least, I don't."
+
+"Neither do I," said Thorndyke. "I know nothing beyond what is in the
+newspaper report and what Berkeley has told us."
+
+"Then we know nothing. He may have had a motive for murdering the man or
+he may not. The point is that he doesn't seem to have had the
+opportunity. Even if we suppose that he managed to conceal the body
+temporarily, still there was the final disposal of it. He couldn't have
+buried it in the garden with the servants about; neither could he have
+burned it. The only conceivable method by which he could have got rid of
+it would have been that of cutting it up into fragments and burying the
+dismembered parts in some secluded spots or dropping them into ponds or
+rivers. But no remains of the kind have been found, as some of them
+probably would have been by now, so that there is nothing to support
+this suggestion; indeed, the idea of murder, in this house at least,
+seems to be excluded by the search that was made the instant the man was
+missed.
+
+"Then to take the third alternative: Did he leave the house unobserved?
+Well, it is not impossible, but it would be a queer thing to do. He may
+have been an impulsive or eccentric man. We can't say. We know nothing
+about him. But two years have elapsed and he has never turned up, so
+that if he left the house secretly he must have gone into hiding and be
+hiding still. Of course, he may have been the sort of lunatic who would
+behave in that manner or he may not. We have no information as to his
+personal character.
+
+"Then there is the complication of the scarab that was picked up in the
+grounds of his brother's house at Woodford. That seems to show that he
+visited that house at some time. But no one admits having seen him
+there; and it is uncertain, therefore, whether he went first to his
+brother's house or to Hurst's. If he was wearing the scarab when he
+arrived at the Eltham house, he must have left that house unobserved and
+gone to Woodford; but if he was not wearing it he probably went from
+Woodford to Eltham and there finally disappeared. As to whether he was
+or was not wearing the scarab when he was last seen alive by Hurst's
+housemaid, there is at present no evidence.
+
+"If he went to his brother's house after his visit to Hurst, the
+disappearance is more understandable if we don't mind flinging
+accusations of murder about rather casually; for the disposal of the
+body would be much less difficult in that case. Apparently no one saw
+him enter the house, and, if he did enter, it was by a back gate which
+communicated with the library--a separate building some distance from
+the house. In that case it would have been physically possible for the
+Bellinghams to have made away with him. There was plenty of time to
+dispose of the body unobserved--temporarily, at any rate. Nobody had
+seen him come to the house, and nobody knew that he was there--if he
+_was_ there; and apparently no search was made either at the time or
+afterwards. In fact, if it could be shown that the missing man ever left
+Hurst's house alive, or that he was wearing the scarab when he arrived
+there, things would look rather fishy for the Bellinghams--for, of
+course, the girl must have been in it if the father was. But there's the
+crux: there is no proof that the man ever did leave Hurst's house alive.
+And if he didn't--but there! as I said at first, whichever turning you
+take, you find that it ends in a blind alley."
+
+"A lame ending to a masterly exposition," was Thorndyke's comment.
+
+"I know," said Jervis. "But what would you have? There are quite a
+number of possible solutions, and one of them must be the true one. But
+how are we to judge which it is? I maintain that until we know something
+of the parties and the financial and other interests involved we have no
+data."
+
+"There," said Thorndyke, "I disagree with you entirely. I maintain that
+we have ample data. You say that we have no means of judging which of
+the various possible solutions is the true one; but I think that if you
+will read the report carefully and thoughtfully you will find that the
+facts now known to us point clearly to one explanation, and one only. It
+may not be the true explanation, and I don't suppose it is. But we are
+now dealing with the matter speculatively, academically, and I contend
+that our data yield a definite conclusion. What do you say, Berkeley?"
+
+"I say that it is time for me to be off; the evening consultations begin
+at half-past six."
+
+"Well," said Thorndyke, "don't let us keep you from your duties, with
+poor Barnard currant-picking in the Grecian Isles. But come in and see
+us again. Drop in when you like, after your work is done. You won't be
+in our way even if we are busy, which we very seldom are after eight
+o'clock."
+
+I thanked Dr. Thorndyke most heartily for making me free of his chambers
+in this hospitable fashion and took my leave, setting forth homewards by
+way of Middle Temple Lane and the Embankment; not a very direct route
+for Fetter Lane, it must be confessed; but our talk had revived my
+interest in the Bellingham household and put me in a reflective vein.
+
+From the remarkable conversation that I had overheard it was evident
+that the plot was thickening. Not that I supposed that these two
+respectable gentlemen really suspected one another of having made away
+with the missing man; but still, their unguarded words, spoken in anger,
+made it clear that each had allowed the thought of sinister
+possibilities to enter his mind--a dangerous condition that might easily
+grow into actual suspicion. And then the circumstances really were
+highly mysterious, as I realised with especial vividness now after
+listening to my friend's analysis of the evidence.
+
+From the problem itself my mind travelled, not for the first time during
+the last few days, to the handsome girl who had seemed in my eyes the
+high-priestess of this temple of mystery in the quaint little court.
+What a strange figure she made against this strange background, with her
+quiet, chilly, self-contained manner, her pale face, so sad and worn,
+her black, straight brows and solemn grey eyes, so inscrutable,
+mysterious, Sibylline. A striking, even impressive, personality this, I
+reflected, with something in it sombre and enigmatic that attracted and
+yet repelled.
+
+And here I recalled Jervis's words: "The girl must have been in it if
+the father was." It was a dreadful thought, even though only
+speculatively uttered, and my heart rejected it; rejected it with an
+indignation that rather surprised me. And this notwithstanding that the
+sombre black-robed figure that my memory conjured up was one that
+associated itself appropriately enough with the idea of mystery and
+tragedy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LEGAL COMPLICATIONS AND A JACKAL
+
+
+My meditations brought me by a circuitous route, and ten minutes late,
+to the end of Fetter Lane, where, exchanging my rather abstracted air
+for the alert manner of a busy practitioner, I strode forward briskly
+and darted into the surgery with knitted brows, as though just released
+from an anxious case. But there was only one patient waiting, and she
+saluted me as I entered with a snort of defiance.
+
+"Here you are, then?" said she.
+
+"You are perfectly correct, Miss Oman," I replied; "in fact, you have
+put the case in a nutshell. What can I have the pleasure of doing for
+you?"
+
+"Nothing," was the answer. "My medical adviser is a lady; but I've
+brought a note from Mr. Bellingham. Here it is," and she thrust the
+envelope into my hand.
+
+I glanced through the note and learned that my patient had had a couple
+of bad nights and a very harassing day. "Could I have something to give
+me a night's rest?" it concluded.
+
+I reflected a few moments. One is not very ready to prescribe sleeping
+draughts for unknown patients, but still, insomnia is a very distressing
+condition. In the end, I temporised with a moderate dose of bromide,
+deciding to call and see if more energetic measures were necessary.
+
+"He had better take a dose of this at once, Miss Oman," said I, as I
+handed her the bottle, "and I will look in later and see how he is."
+
+"I expect he will be glad to see you," she answered, "for he is all
+alone to-night and very dumpy. Miss Bellingham is out. But I must remind
+you that he's a poor man and pays his way. You must excuse my mentioning
+it."
+
+"I am much obliged to you for the hint, Miss Oman," I rejoined. "It
+isn't necessary for me to see him, but I should like just to look in and
+have a chat."
+
+"Yes, it will do him good. You have your points, though punctuality
+doesn't seem to be one of them," and with this parting shot Miss Oman
+bustled away.
+
+Half-past eight found me ascending the great, dim staircase of the house
+in Nevill's Court preceded by Miss Oman, by whom I was ushered into the
+room. Mr. Bellingham, who had just finished some sort of meal, was
+sitting hunched up in his chair gazing gloomily into the empty grate. He
+brightened up as I entered, but was evidently in very low spirits.
+
+"I didn't mean to drag you out after your day's work was finished," he
+said, "though I am very glad to see you."
+
+"You haven't dragged me out. I heard you were alone, so I just dropped
+in for a few minutes' gossip."
+
+"That is really kind of you," he said heartily. "But I'm afraid you'll
+find me rather poor company. A man who is full of his own highly
+disagreeable affairs is not a desirable companion."
+
+"You mustn't let me disturb you if you'd rather be alone," said I, with
+a sudden fear that I was intruding.
+
+"Oh, you won't disturb me," he replied; adding, with a laugh: "It's
+more likely to be the other way about. In fact, if I were not afraid of
+boring you to death I would ask you to let me talk my difficulties over
+with you."
+
+"You won't bore me," I said. "It is generally interesting to share
+another man's experiences without their inconveniences. 'The proper
+study of mankind is--man,' you know, especially to a doctor."
+
+Mr. Bellingham chuckled grimly. "You make me feel like a microbe," he
+said. "However, if you would care to take a peep at me through your
+microscope, I will crawl on to the stage for your inspection, though it
+is not _my_ actions that furnish the materials for your psychological
+studies. I am only a passive agent. It is my poor brother who is the
+_Deus ex machina_, who, from his unknown grave, as I fear, pulls the
+strings of this infernal puppet-show."
+
+He paused, and for a space gazed thoughtfully into the grate as if he
+had forgotten my presence. At length he looked up, and resumed:
+
+"It is a curious story, Doctor--a very curious story. Part of it you
+know--the middle part. I will tell it you from the beginning, and then
+you will know as much as I do; for, as to the end, that is known to no
+one. It is written, no doubt, in the book of destiny, but the page has
+yet to be turned.
+
+"The mischief began with my father's death. He was a country clergyman
+of very moderate means, a widower with two children, my brother John and
+me. He managed to send us both to Oxford, after which John went into the
+Foreign Office and I was to have gone into the Church. But I suddenly
+discovered that my views on religion had undergone a change that made
+this impossible, and just about this time my father came into a quite
+considerable property. Now, as it was his expressed intention to leave
+the estate equally divided between my brother and me, there was no need
+for me to take up any profession for a livelihood. Archaeology was
+already the passion of my life, and I determined to devote myself
+henceforth to my favourite study, in which, by the way, I was following
+a family tendency; for my father was an enthusiastic student of ancient
+Oriental history, and John was, as you know, an ardent Egyptologist.
+
+"Then my father died quite suddenly, and left no will. He had intended
+to have one drawn up, but had put it off until it was too late. And
+since nearly all the property was in the form of real estate, my brother
+inherited practically the whole of it. However, in deference to the
+known wishes of my father, he made me an allowance of five hundred a
+year, which was about a quarter of the annual income, I urged him to
+assign me a lump sum, but he refused to do this. Instead, he instructed
+his solicitor to pay me the allowance in quarterly instalments during
+the rest of his life; and it was understood that, on his death, the
+entire estate should devolve on me, or if I died first, on my daughter
+Ruth. Then, as you know, he disappeared suddenly, and as the
+circumstances suggested that he was dead, and there was no evidence that
+he was alive, his solicitor--a Mr. Jellicoe--found himself unable to
+continue the payment of the allowance. On the other hand, as there was
+no positive evidence that my brother was dead, it was impossible to
+administer the will."
+
+"You say that the circumstances suggested that your brother was dead.
+What circumstances were they?"
+
+"Principally the suddenness and completeness of the disappearance. His
+luggage, as you may remember, was found lying unclaimed at the railway
+station; and there was another circumstance even more suggestive. My
+brother drew a pension from the Foreign Office, for which he had to
+apply in person, or, if abroad, produce proof that he was alive on the
+date when the payment became due. Now, he was exceedingly regular in
+this respect; in fact, he had never been known to fail, either to appear
+in person or to transmit the necessary documents to his agent, Mr.
+Jellicoe. But from the moment when he vanished so mysteriously to the
+present day, nothing whatever has been heard of him."
+
+"It's a very awkward position for you," I said, "but I should think
+there will not be much difficulty in obtaining the permission of the
+Court to presume death and to proceed to prove the will."
+
+Mr. Bellingham made a wry face. "I expect you are right," he said, "but,
+unfortunately, that doesn't help me much. You see, Mr. Jellicoe, having
+waited a reasonable time for my brother to reappear, took a very unusual
+but, I think, in the special circumstances, a very proper step: he
+summoned me and the other interested party to his office and
+communicated to us the provisions of the will. And very extraordinary
+provisions they turned out to be. I was thunderstruck when I heard them.
+And the exasperating thing is that I feel sure my poor brother imagined
+that he had made everything perfectly safe and simple."
+
+"They generally do," I said, rather vaguely.
+
+"I suppose they do," said Mr. Bellingham; "but poor John has made the
+most infernal hash of his will, and I am certain that he has utterly
+defeated his own intentions. You see, we are an old London family. The
+house in Queen Square where my brother nominally lived, but actually
+kept his collection, has been occupied by us for generations, and most
+of the Bellinghams are buried in St. George's burial-ground close by,
+though some members of the family are buried in other churchyards in the
+neighbourhood. Now, my brother--who, by the way, was a bachelor--had a
+strong feeling for the family traditions, and he stipulated, not
+unnaturally, in his will that he should be buried in St. George's
+burial-ground among his ancestors, or, at least, in one of the places of
+burial appertaining to his native parish. But instead of simply
+expressing the wish and directing his executors to carry it out, he made
+it a condition affecting the operation of the will."
+
+"Affecting it in what respect?" I asked.
+
+"In a very vital respect," answered Mr. Bellingham. "The bulk of the
+property he bequeathed to me, or if I predeceased him, to my daughter
+Ruth. But the bequest was subject to the condition that I have
+mentioned--that he should be buried in a certain place--and if that
+condition was not fulfilled, the bulk of the property was to go to my
+cousin, George Hurst."
+
+"But in that case," said I, "as you can't produce the body, neither of
+you can get the property."
+
+"I am not so sure of that," he replied. "If my brother is dead, it is
+pretty certain that he is not buried in St. George's or any of the other
+places mentioned, and the fact can easily be proved by production of the
+registers. So that a permission to presume death would result in the
+handing over to Hurst of almost the entire estate."
+
+"Who is the executor?" I asked.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed, "there is another muddle. There are two executors;
+Jellicoe is one, and the other is the principal beneficiary--Hurst or
+myself, as the case may be. But, you see, neither of us can become an
+executor until the Court has decided which of us is the principal
+beneficiary."
+
+"But who is to apply to the Court? I thought that was the business of
+the executors."
+
+"Exactly. That is Hurst's difficulty. We were discussing it when you
+called the other day, and a very animated discussion it was," he added,
+with a grim smile. "You see, Jellicoe naturally refuses to move in the
+matter alone. He says he must have the support of the other executor.
+But Hurst is not at present the other executor; neither am I. But the
+two of us together are the co-executor, since the duty devolves upon one
+or other of us, in any case."
+
+"It's a complicated position," I said.
+
+"It is; and the complication has elicited a very curious proposal from
+Hurst. He points out--quite correctly, I am afraid--that as the
+conditions as to burial have not been complied with, the property must
+come to him, and he proposes a very neat little arrangement, which is
+this: That I shall support him and Jellicoe in their application for
+permission to presume death and administer the will, and that he shall
+pay me four hundred a year for life; the arrangement to hold good _in
+all eventualities_."
+
+"What does he mean by that?"
+
+"He means," said Bellingham, fixing me with a ferocious scowl, "that if
+the body should turn up at any future time, so that the conditions as to
+burial should be able to be carried out, he should still retain the
+property and pay me the four hundred a year."
+
+"The deuce!" said I. "He seems to know how to drive a bargain."
+
+"His position is that he stands to lose four hundred a year for the term
+of my life if the body is never found, and he ought to stand to win if
+it is."
+
+"And I gather that you have refused his offer?"
+
+"Yes; very emphatically, and my daughter agrees with me; but I am not
+sure that I have done the right thing. A man should think twice, I
+suppose, before he burns his boats."
+
+"Have you spoken to Mr. Jellicoe about the matter?"
+
+"Yes, I have been to see him to-day. He is a cautious man, and he
+doesn't advise me one way or the other. But I think he disapproves of my
+refusal; in fact, he remarked that a bird in the hand is worth two in
+the bush, especially when the whereabouts of the bush is unknown."
+
+"Do you think he will apply to the Court without your sanction?"
+
+"He doesn't want to; but I suppose, if Hurst puts pressure on him, he
+will have to. Besides, Hurst, as an interested party, could apply on his
+own account, and after my refusal he probably will; at least, that is
+Jellicoe's opinion."
+
+"The whole thing is a most astonishing muddle," I said, "especially when
+one remembers that your brother had a lawyer to advise him. Didn't Mr.
+Jellicoe point out to him how absurd the provisions were?"
+
+"Yes, he did. He tells me that he implored my brother to let him draw
+up a will embodying the matter in a reasonable form. But John wouldn't
+listen to him. Poor old fellow! he could be very pig-headed when he
+chose."
+
+"And is Hurst's proposal still open?"
+
+"No, thanks to my peppery temper. I refused it very definitely, and sent
+him off with a flea in his ear. I hope I have not made a false step; I
+was quite taken by surprise when Hurst made the proposal and got rather
+angry. You remember, my brother was last seen alive at Hurst's
+house--but there, I oughtn't to talk like that, and I oughtn't to pester
+you with my confounded affairs when you have come in for a friendly
+chat, though I gave you fair warning, you remember."
+
+"Oh, but you have been highly entertaining. You don't realise what an
+interest I take in your case."
+
+Mr. Bellingham laughed somewhat grimly. "My case!" he repeated. "You
+speak as if I were some rare and curious sort of criminal lunatic.
+However, I'm glad you find me amusing. It's more than I find myself."
+
+"I didn't say amusing; I said interesting. I view you with deep respect
+as the central figure of a stirring drama. And I am not the only person
+who regards you in that light. Do you remember my speaking to you of
+Doctor Thorndyke?"
+
+"Yes, of course I do."
+
+"Well, oddly enough, I met him this afternoon and we had a long talk at
+his chambers. I took the liberty of mentioning that I had made your
+acquaintance. Did I do wrong?"
+
+"No. Certainly not. Why shouldn't you tell him? Did he remember my
+infernal case, as you call it?"
+
+"Perfectly, in all its details. He is quite an enthusiast, you know, and
+uncommonly keen to hear how the case develops."
+
+"So am I, for that matter," said Mr. Bellingham.
+
+"I wonder," said I, "if you would mind my telling him what you have told
+me to-night. It would interest him enormously."
+
+Mr. Bellingham reflected awhile with his eyes fixed on the empty grate.
+Presently he looked up, and said slowly:
+
+"I don't know why I should. It's no secret; and if it were, I hold no
+monopoly in it. No; tell him, if you think he'd care to hear about it."
+
+"You needn't be afraid of his talking," I said. "He is as close as an
+oyster; and the facts may mean more to him than to us. He may be able to
+give a useful hint or two."
+
+"Oh, I'm not going to pick his brains," Mr. Bellingham said quickly and
+with some wrath. "I'm not the sort of man who goes round cadging for
+free professional advice. Understand that clearly, Doctor."
+
+"I do," I answered hastily. "That wasn't what I meant at all. Is that
+Miss Bellingham coming in? I heard the front door shut."
+
+"Yes, that will be my girl, I expect; but don't run away. You're not
+afraid of her, are you?" he added as I hurriedly picked up my hat.
+
+"I'm not sure that I'm not," I answered. "She is a rather majestic young
+lady."
+
+Mr. Bellingham chuckled and smothered a yawn, and at that moment his
+daughter entered the room; and, in spite of her shabby black dress and
+a shabbier handbag that she carried, I thought her appearance and manner
+fully justified my description.
+
+"You come in, Miss Bellingham," I said as she shook my hand with cool
+civility, "to find your father yawning and me taking my departure. So I
+have my uses, you see. My conversation is the infallible cure for
+insomnia."
+
+Miss Bellingham smiled. "I believe I am driving you away," she said.
+
+"Not at all," I replied hastily. "My mission was accomplished, that was
+all."
+
+"Sit down for a few minutes, Doctor," urged Mr. Bellingham, "and let
+Ruth sample the remedy. She will be affronted if you run away as soon as
+she comes in."
+
+"Well, you mustn't let me keep you up," I said.
+
+"Oh, I'll let you know when I fall asleep," he replied, with a chuckle;
+and with this understanding I sat down again--not at all unwillingly.
+
+At this moment Miss Oman entered with a small tray and a smile of which
+I should not have supposed her to be capable.
+
+"You'll take your toast and cocoa while they're hot, dear, won't you?"
+she said coaxingly.
+
+"Yes, I will, Phyllis, thank you," Miss Bellingham answered. "I am only
+just going to take off my hat," and she left the room, followed by the
+astonishingly transfigured spinster.
+
+She returned almost immediately as Mr. Bellingham was in the midst of a
+profound yawn, and sat down to her frugal meal, when her father
+mystified me considerably by remarking:
+
+"You're late to-night, chick. Have the Shepherd Kings been giving
+trouble?"
+
+"No," she replied; "but I thought I might as well get them done. So I
+dropped in at the Ormond Street library on my way home and finished
+them."
+
+"Then they are ready for stuffing now?"
+
+"Yes." As she answered she caught my astonished eye (for a stuffed
+Shepherd King is undoubtedly a somewhat surprising phenomenon) and
+laughed softly.
+
+"We mustn't talk in riddles like this," she said, "before Doctor
+Berkeley, or he will turn us both into pillars of salt. My father is
+referring to my work," she explained to me.
+
+"Are you a taxidermist, then?" I asked.
+
+She hastily set down the cup that she was raising to her lips and broke
+into a ripple of quiet laughter.
+
+"I am afraid my father has misled you with his irreverent expressions.
+He will have to atone by explaining."
+
+"You see, Doctor," said Mr. Bellingham, "Ruth is a literary searcher--"
+
+"Oh, don't call me a 'searcher'!" Miss Bellingham protested. "It
+suggests the female searcher at a police-station. Say investigator."
+
+"Very well, investigator or investigatrix, if you like. She hunts up
+references and bibliographies at the Museum for people who are writing
+books. She looks up everything that has been written on a given subject,
+and then, when she has crammed herself to bursting-point with facts, she
+goes to her client and disgorges and crams him or her, and he or she
+finally disgorges into the Press."
+
+"What a disgusting way to put it!" said his daughter. "However, that is
+what it amounts to. I am a literary jackal, a collector of provender for
+the literary lions. Is that quite clear?"
+
+"Perfectly. But I don't think that, even now, I quite understand about
+the stuffed Shepherd Kings."
+
+"Oh, it was not the Shepherd Kings who were to be stuffed. It was the
+author! That was mere obscurity of speech on the part of my father. The
+position is this: A venerable archdeacon wrote an article on the
+patriarch Joseph--"
+
+"And didn't know anything about him," interrupted Mr. Bellingham, "and
+got tripped up by a specialist who did, and then got shirty--"
+
+"Nothing of the kind," said Miss Bellingham. "He knew as much as
+venerable archdeacons ought to know; but the expert knew more. So the
+archdeacon commissioned me to collect the literature on the state of
+Egypt at the end of the seventeenth dynasty, which I have done; and
+to-morrow I shall go and stuff him, as my father expresses it, and
+then--"
+
+"And then," Mr. Bellingham interrupted, "the archdeacon will rush forth
+and pelt that expert with Shepherd Kings and Seqenen-Ra and the whole
+tag-rag and bobtail of the seventeenth dynasty. Oh, there'll be wigs on
+the green, I can tell you."
+
+"Yes, I expect there will be quite a lively little skirmish," said Miss
+Bellingham. And thus dismissing the subject, she made an energetic
+attack on the toast while her father refreshed himself with a colossal
+yawn.
+
+I watched her with furtive admiration and deep and growing interest. In
+spite of her pallor, her weary eyes, and her drawn and almost haggard
+face, she was an exceedingly handsome girl; and there was in her aspect
+a suggestion of purpose, of strength and character that marked her off
+from the rank and file of womanhood. I noted this as I stole an
+occasional glance at her or turned to answer some remark addressed to
+me; and I noted, too, that her speech, despite a general undertone of
+depression, was yet not without a certain caustic, ironical humour. She
+was certainly a rather enigmatical young person, but very decidedly
+interesting.
+
+When she had finished her repast she put aside the tray and, opening the
+shabby handbag, asked:
+
+"Do you take any interest in Egyptian history? We are as mad as hatters
+on the subject. It seems to be a family complaint."
+
+"I don't know much about it," I answered. "Medical studies are rather
+engrossing and don't leave much time for general reading."
+
+"Naturally," she said. "You can't specialise in everything. But if you
+would care to see how the business of a literary jackal is conducted, I
+will show you my notes."
+
+I accepted the offer eagerly (not, I fear, from pure enthusiasm for the
+subject), and she brought forth from the bag four blue-covered, quarto
+note-books, each dealing with one of the four dynasties from the
+fourteenth to the seventeenth. As I glanced through the neat and orderly
+extracts with which they were filled we discussed the intricacies of the
+peculiarly difficult and confused period that they covered, gradually
+lowering our voices as Mr. Bellingham's eyes closed and his head fell
+against the back of his chair. We had just reached the critical reign of
+Apepa II when a resounding snore broke in upon the studious quiet of
+the room and sent us both into a fit of silent laughter.
+
+"Your conversation has done its work," she whispered as I stealthily
+picked up my hat, and together we stole on tiptoe to the door, which she
+opened without a sound. Once outside, she suddenly dropped her bantering
+manner and said quite earnestly:
+
+"How kind it was of you to come and see him to-night! You have done him
+a world of good, and I am most grateful. Good night!"
+
+She shook hands with me really cordially, and I took my way down the
+creaking stairs in a whirl of happiness that I was quite at a loss to
+account for.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE WATERCRESS-BED
+
+
+Barnard's practice, like most others, was subject to those fluctuations
+that fill the struggling practitioner alternately with hope and despair.
+The work came in paroxysms with intervals of almost complete stagnation.
+One of these intermissions occurred on the day after my visit to
+Nevill's Court, with the result that by half-past eleven I found myself
+wondering what I should do with the remainder of the day. The better to
+consider this weighty problem, I strolled down to the Embankment, and,
+leaning on the parapet, contemplated the view across the river; the grey
+stone bridge with its perspective of arches, the picturesque pile of the
+shot-towers, and beyond, the shadowy shapes of the Abbey and St.
+Stephen's.
+
+It was a pleasant scene, restful and quiet, with a touch of life and a
+hint of sober romance, when a barge swept down through the middle arch
+of the bridge with a lugsail hoisted to a jury mast and a white-aproned
+woman at the tiller. Dreamily I watched the craft creep by upon the
+moving tide, noted the low freeboard, almost awash, the careful
+helmswoman, and the dog on the forecastle yapping at the distant
+shore--and thought of Ruth Bellingham.
+
+What was there about this strange girl that had made so deep an
+impression on me? That was the question that I propounded to myself, and
+not for the first time. Of the fact itself there was no doubt. But what
+was the explanation? Was it her unusual surroundings? Her occupation and
+rather recondite learning? Her striking personality and exceptional good
+looks? Or her connection with the dramatic mystery of her lost uncle?
+
+I concluded that it was all of these. Everything connected with her was
+unusual and arresting; but over and above these circumstances there was
+a certain sympathy and personal affinity of which I was strongly
+conscious and of which I dimly hoped that she, perhaps, was a little
+conscious, too. At any rate, I was deeply interested in her; of that
+there was no doubt whatever. Short as our acquaintance had been, she
+held a place in my thoughts that had never been held by any other woman.
+
+From Ruth Bellingham my reflections passed by a natural transition to
+the curious story that her father had told me. It was a queer affair,
+that ill-drawn will, with the baffled lawyer protesting in the
+background. It almost seemed as if there must be something behind it
+all, especially when I remembered Mr. Hurst's very singular proposal.
+But it was out of _my_ depth; it was a case for a lawyer, and to a
+lawyer it should go. This very night, I resolved, I would go to
+Thorndyke and give him the whole story as it had been told to me.
+
+And then there happened one of those coincidences at which we all wonder
+when they occur, but which are so frequent as to have become enshrined
+in a proverb. For, even as I formed the resolution, I observed two men
+approaching from the direction of Blackfriars, and recognised in them my
+quondam teacher and his junior.
+
+"I was just thinking about you," I said as they came up.
+
+"Very flattering," replied Jervis; "but I thought you had to talk of the
+devil."
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Thorndyke, "he was talking to himself. But why were
+you thinking of us, and what was the nature of your thoughts?"
+
+"My thoughts had reference to the Bellingham case. I spent the whole of
+last evening at Nevill's Court."
+
+"Ha! And are there any fresh developments?"
+
+"Yes, by Jove! there are. Bellingham gave me a full and detailed
+description of the will; and a pretty document it seems to be."
+
+"Did he give you permission to repeat the details to me?"
+
+"Yes. I asked specifically if I might and he had no objection whatever."
+
+"Good. We are lunching at Soho to-day as Polton has his hands full. Come
+with us and share our table and tell us your story as we go. Will that
+suit you?"
+
+It suited me admirably in the present state of the practice, and I
+accepted the invitation with undissembled glee.
+
+"Very well," said Thorndyke; "then let us walk slowly and finish with
+matters confidential before we plunge into the madding crowd."
+
+We set forth at a leisurely pace along the broad pavement and I
+commenced my narration. As well as I could remember, I related the
+circumstances that had led up to the present disposition of the property
+and then proceeded to the actual provisions of the will; to all of which
+my two friends listened with rapt interest, Thorndyke occasionally
+stopping me to jot down a memorandum in his pocket-book.
+
+"Why, the fellow must have been a stark lunatic!" Jervis exclaimed, when
+I had finished. "He seems to have laid himself out with the most
+devilish ingenuity to defeat his own ends."
+
+"That is not an uncommon peculiarity with testators," Thorndyke
+remarked. "A direct and perfectly intelligible will is rather the
+exception. But we can hardly judge until we have seen the actual
+document. I suppose Bellingham hasn't a copy?"
+
+"I don't know," said I; "but I will ask him."
+
+"If he has one, I should like to look through it," said Thorndyke. "The
+provisions are very peculiar, and, as Jervis says, admirably calculated
+to defeat the testator's wishes if they have been correctly reported.
+And, apart from that, they have a remarkable bearing on the
+circumstances of the disappearance. I daresay you noticed that."
+
+"I noticed that it is very much to Hurst's advantage that the body has
+not been found."
+
+"Yes, of course. But there are some other points that are very
+significant. However, it would be premature to discuss the terms of the
+will until we have seen the actual document or a certified copy."
+
+"If there is a copy extant," I said, "I will try to get hold of it.
+Bellingham is terribly afraid of being suspected of a desire to get
+professional advice gratis."
+
+"That," said Thorndyke, "is natural enough, and not discreditable. But
+you must overcome his scruples somehow. I expect you will be able to.
+You are a plausible young gentleman, as I remember of old, and you seem
+to have established yourself as quite the friend of the family."
+
+"They are rather interesting people," I explained; "very cultivated and
+with a strong leaning towards archaeology. It seems to be in the blood."
+
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "a family tendency, probably due to contact and
+common surroundings rather than heredity. So you like Godfrey
+Bellingham?"
+
+"Yes. He is a trifle peppery and impulsive, but quite an agreeable,
+genial old buffer."
+
+"And the daughter," said Jervis, "what is she like?"
+
+"Oh, she is a learned lady; works up bibliographies and references at
+the Museum."
+
+"Ah!" Jervis exclaimed, with deep disfavour, "I know the breed. Inky
+fingers; no chest to speak of; all side and spectacles."
+
+I rose artlessly at the gross and palpable bait.
+
+"You're quite wrong," I exclaimed indignantly, contrasting Jervis's
+hideous presentment with the comely original. "She is an exceedingly
+good-looking girl, and her manners all that a lady's should be. A little
+stiff, perhaps, but then I am only an acquaintance--almost a stranger."
+
+"But," Jervis persisted, "what is she like, in appearance I mean. Short?
+fat? sandy? Give us intelligible details."
+
+I made a rapid mental inventory, assisted by my recent cogitations.
+
+"She is about five feet seven, slim but rather plump, very erect in
+carriage and graceful in movements; black hair, loosely parted in the
+middle and falling very prettily away from the forehead; pale, clear
+complexion, dark grey eyes, straight eyebrows, straight, well-shaped
+nose, short mouth, rather full; round chin--what the deuce are you
+grinning at, Jervis?" For my friend had suddenly unmasked his batteries
+and now threatened, like the Cheshire Cat, to dissolve into a mere
+abstraction of amusement.
+
+"If there is a copy of that will, Thorndyke," he said, "we shall get it.
+I think you agree with me, reverend senior?"
+
+"I have already said," was the reply, "that I put my trust in Berkeley.
+And now let us dismiss professional topics. This is our hostelry."
+
+He pushed open an unpretentious glazed door and we followed him into the
+restaurant, whereof the atmosphere was pervaded by an appetising
+meatiness mingled with less agreeable suggestions of the destructive
+distillation of fat.
+
+It was some two hours later when I wished my friends adieu under the
+golden-leaved plane trees of King's Bench Walk.
+
+"I won't ask you to come in now," said Thorndyke, "as we have some
+consultations this afternoon. But come in and see us soon; don't wait
+for that copy of the will."
+
+"No," said Jervis. "Drop in in the evening when your work is done;
+unless, of course, there is more attractive society elsewhere--Oh, you
+needn't turn that colour, my dear child; we have all been young once;
+there is even a tradition that Thorndyke was young some time back in the
+pre-dynastic period."
+
+"Don't take any notice of him, Berkeley," said Thorndyke. "The egg-shell
+is sticking to his head still. He'll know better when he is my age."
+
+"Methuselah!" exclaimed Jervis; "I hope I shan't have to wait as long
+as that!"
+
+Thorndyke smiled benevolently at his irrepressible junior, and, shaking
+my hand cordially, turned into the entry.
+
+From the Temple I wended northward to the adjacent College of Surgeons,
+where I spent a couple of profitable hours examining the "pickles," and
+refreshing my memory on the subjects of pathology and anatomy;
+marvelling afresh (as every practical anatomist must marvel) at the
+incredibly perfect technique of the dissections, and inwardly paying a
+respectful tribute to the founder of the collection. At length, the
+warning of the clock, combined with an increasing craving for tea, drove
+me forth and bore me towards the scene of my, not very strenuous,
+labours. My mind was still occupied with the contents of the cases and
+the great glass jars, so that I found myself at the corner of Fetter
+Lane without a very clear idea of how I had got there. But at that point
+I was aroused from my reflections rather abruptly by a raucous voice in
+my ear.
+
+"'Orrible discovery at Sidcup!"
+
+I turned wrathfully--for a London street-boy's yell, let off at
+point-blank range, is, in effect, like the smack of an open hand--but
+the inscription on the staring yellow poster that was held up for my
+inspection changed my anger into curiosity.
+
+"Horrible discovery in a watercress-bed!"
+
+Now, let, prigs deny it if they will, but there is something very
+attractive in a "horrible discovery." It hints at tragedy, at mystery,
+at romance. It promises to bring into our grey and commonplace life that
+element of the dramatic which is the salt that our existence is
+savoured withal. "In a watercress-bed," too! The rusticity of the
+background seemed to emphasise the horror of the discovery, whatever it
+might be.
+
+I bought a copy of the paper, and, tucking it under my arm, hurried on
+to the surgery, promising myself a mental feast of watercress; but as I
+opened the door I found myself confronted by a corpulent woman of
+piebald and pimply aspect who saluted me with a deep groan. It was the
+lady from the coal shop in Fleur-de-Lys Court.
+
+"Good evening, Mrs. Jablett," I said briskly; "not come about yourself,
+I hope."
+
+"Yes, I have," she answered, rising and following me gloomily into the
+consulting-room; and then, when I had seated her in the patient's chair
+and myself at the writing-table, she continued: "It's my inside, you
+know, Doctor."
+
+The statement lacked anatomical precision and merely excluded the domain
+of the skin specialist. I accordingly waited for enlightenment and
+speculated on the watercress-beds, while Mrs. Jablett regarded me
+expectantly with a dim and watery eye.
+
+"Ah!" I said, at length; "it's your--your inside, is it, Mrs. Jablett?"
+
+"Yus. _And_ my 'ead," she added, with a voluminous sigh that filled the
+apartment with odorous reminiscences of "unsweetened."
+
+"Your head aches, does it?"
+
+"Somethink chronic!" said Mrs. Jablett. "Feels as if it was a-opening
+and a-shutting, a-opening and a-shutting, and when I sit down I feel as
+if I should _bust_."
+
+This picturesque description of her sensations--not wholly inconsistent
+with her figure--gave the clue to Mrs. Jablett's sufferings. Resisting a
+frivolous impulse to reassure her as to the elasticity of the human
+integument, I considered her case in exhaustive detail, coasting
+delicately round the subject of "unsweetened," and finally sent her
+away, revived in spirits and grasping a bottle of Mist. Sodae cum
+Bismutho from Barnard's big stock-jar. Then I went back to investigate
+the Horrible Discovery; but before I could open the paper, another
+patient arrived (_Impetigo contagiosa_, this time, affecting the "wide
+and arched-front sublime" of a juvenile Fetter Laner), and then yet
+another, and so on through the evening until, at last, I forgot the
+watercress-beds altogether. It was only when I had purified myself from
+the evening consultations with hot water and a nail-brush and was about
+to sit down to a frugal supper, that I remembered the newspaper and
+fetched it from the drawer of the consulting-room table, where it had
+been hastily thrust out of sight. I folded it into a convenient form,
+and, standing it upright against the water-jug, read the report at my
+ease as I supped.
+
+There was plenty of it. Evidently the reporter had regarded it as a
+"scoop," and the editor had backed him up with ample space and
+hair-raising head-lines.
+
+"HORRIBLE DISCOVERY IN A WATERCRESS-BED AT SIDCUP!
+
+"A startling discovery was made yesterday afternoon in the course of
+clearing out a watercress-bed near the erstwhile rural village of Sidcup
+in Kent; a discovery that will occasion many a disagreeable qualm to
+those persons who have been in the habit of regaling themselves with
+this refreshing esculent. But before proceeding to a description of the
+circumstances of the actual discovery or of the objects found--which,
+however, it may be stated at once, are nothing more or less than the
+fragments of a dismembered human body--it will be interesting to trace
+the remarkable chain of coincidences by virtue of which the discovery
+was made.
+
+"The beds in question have been laid out in a small artificial lake fed
+by a tiny streamlet which forms one of the numerous tributaries of the
+River Cray. Its depth is greater than is usual in watercress-beds,
+otherwise the gruesome relics could never have been concealed beneath
+its surface, and the flow of water through it, though continuous, is
+slow. The tributary streamlet meanders through a succession of pasture
+meadows, in one of which the beds themselves are situated, and here
+throughout most of the year the fleecy victims of the human carnivore
+carry on the industry of converting grass into mutton. Now it happened
+some years ago that the sheep frequenting these pastures became affected
+with the disease known as 'liver-rot'; and here we must make a short
+digression into the domain of pathology.
+
+"'Liver-rot' is a disease of quite romantic antecedents. Its cause is a
+small, flat worm--the liver-fluke--which infests the liver and
+bile-ducts of the affected sheep.
+
+"Now how does the worm get into the sheep's liver? That is where the
+romance comes in. Let us see.
+
+"The cycle of transformations begins with the deposit of the eggs of the
+fluke in some shallow stream or ditch running through pasture lands. Now
+each egg has a sort of lid, which presently opens and lets out a
+minute, hairy creature who swims away in search of a particular kind of
+water-snail--the kind called by naturalists _Limnaea truncatula_. If he
+finds a snail, he bores his way into its flesh and soon begins to grow
+and wax fat. Then he brings forth a family--of tiny worms quite unlike
+himself, little creatures called _rediae_, which soon give birth to
+families of young _rediae_. So they may go on for several generations,
+but at last there comes a generation of _rediae_ which, instead of
+giving birth to fresh _rediae_, produce families of totally different
+offspring; big-headed, long-tailed creatures like miniature tadpoles,
+called by the learned _cercariae_. The _cercariae_ soon wriggle their
+way out of the body of the snail, and then complications arise: for it
+is the habit of this particular snail to leave the water occasionally
+and take a stroll in the fields. Thus the _cercariae_, escaping from the
+snail, find themselves on the grass, whereupon they promptly drop their
+tails and stick themselves to the grass-blades. Then comes the
+unsuspecting sheep to take his frugal meal, and, cropping the grass,
+swallows it, _cercariae_ and all. But the latter, when they find
+themselves in the sheep's stomach, make their way straight to the
+bile-ducts, up which they travel to the liver. Here, in a few weeks,
+they grow up into full-blown flukes and begin the important business of
+producing eggs.
+
+"Such is the pathological romance of 'liver-rot'; and now what is its
+connection with this mysterious discovery? It is this. After the
+outbreak of 'liver-rot,' above referred to, the ground landlord, a Mr.
+John Bellingham, instructed his solicitor to insert a clause in the
+lease of the beds directing that the latter should be periodically
+cleared and examined by an expert to make sure that they were free from
+the noxious water-snails. The last lease expired about two years ago,
+and since then the beds have been out of cultivation; but, for the
+safety of the adjacent pastures, it was considered necessary to make the
+customary periodical inspection, and it was in the course of cleaning
+the beds for this purpose that the present discovery was made.
+
+"The operation began two days ago. A gang of three men proceeded
+systematically to grub up the plants and collect the multitudes of
+water-snails that they might be examined by the expert to see if any of
+the obnoxious species were present. They had cleared nearly half the
+beds when, yesterday afternoon, one of the men working in the deepest
+part came upon some bones, the appearance of which excited his
+suspicion. Thereupon he called his mates, and they carefully picked away
+the plants piecemeal, a process that soon laid bare an unmistakable
+human hand lying on the mud amongst the roots. Fortunately they had the
+wisdom not to disturb the remains, but at once sent off a message to the
+police. Very soon, an inspector and a sergeant, accompanied by the
+divisional surgeon, arrived on the scene, and were able to view the
+remains lying as they had been found. And now another very strange fact
+came to light; for it was seen that the hand--a left one--lying on the
+mud was minus its third finger. This is regarded by the police as a very
+important fact as bearing on the question of identification, seeing that
+the number of persons having the third finger of the left hand missing
+must be quite small. After a thorough examination on the spot, the bones
+were carefully collected and conveyed to the mortuary, where they now
+lie awaiting further inquiries.
+
+"The divisional surgeon, Dr. Brandon, in an interview with our
+representative, made the following statements:
+
+"'The bones found are those of the left arm of a middle-aged or elderly
+man about five feet eight inches in height. All the bones of the arm are
+present, including the scapula, or shoulder-blade, and the clavicle, or
+collar-bone, but the three bones of the third finger are missing.'
+
+"'Is this a deformity or has the finger been cut off?' our correspondent
+asked.
+
+"'The finger has been amputated,' was the reply. 'If it had been absent
+from birth, the corresponding hand bone, or metacarpal, would have been
+wanting or deformed, whereas it is present and quite normal.'
+
+"'How long have the bones been in the water?' was the next question.
+
+"'More than a year, I should say. They are quite clean; there is not a
+vestige of the soft structures left.'
+
+"'Have you any theory as to how the arm came to be deposited where it
+was found?'
+
+"'I should rather not answer that question,' was the guarded response.
+
+"'One more question,' our correspondent urged. 'The ground landlord, Mr.
+John Bellingham; is not he the gentleman who disappeared so mysteriously
+some time ago?'
+
+"'So I understand,' Dr. Brandon replied.
+
+"'Can you tell me if Mr. Bellingham had lost the third finger of his
+left hand?'
+
+"'I cannot say,' said Dr. Brandon; and he added with a smile, 'you had
+better ask the police.'
+
+"That is how the matter stands at present. But we understand that the
+police are making active inquiries for any missing man who has lost the
+third finger of his left hand, and if any of our readers know of such a
+person, they are earnestly requested to communicate at once, either with
+us or with the authorities.
+
+"Also we believe that a systematic search is to be made for further
+remains."
+
+I laid the newspaper down and fell into a train of reflection. It was
+certainly a most mysterious affair. The thought that had evidently come
+to the reporter's mind stole naturally into mine. Could these remains be
+those of John Bellingham? It was obviously possible, though I could not
+but see that the fact of the bones having been found on his land, while
+it undoubtedly furnished the suggestion, did not in any way add to its
+probability. The connection was accidental and in no wise relevant.
+
+Then, too, there was the missing finger. No reference to any such injury
+or deformity had been made in the original report of the disappearance,
+though it could hardly have been overlooked. But it was useless to
+speculate without facts. I should be seeing Thorndyke in the course of
+the next few days, and, undoubtedly, if the discovery had any bearing
+upon the disappearance of John Bellingham, I should hear of it. With
+which reflection I rose from the table, and, adopting the advice
+contained in the spurious Johnsonian quotation proceeded to "take a walk
+in Fleet Street" before settling down for the evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SIDELIGHTS
+
+
+The association of coal with potatoes is one upon which I have
+frequently speculated, without arriving at any more satisfactory
+explanation than that both products are of the earth, earthy. Of the
+connection itself Barnard's practice furnished several instances besides
+Mrs. Jablett's establishment in Fleur-de-Lys Court, one of which was a
+dark and mysterious cavern a foot below the level of the street, that
+burrowed under an ancient house on the west side of Fetter Lane--a
+crinkly, timber house of the three-decker type that leaned back
+drunkenly from the road as if about to sit down in its own back yard.
+
+Passing this repository of the associated products about ten o'clock in
+the morning, I perceived in the shadow of the cavern no less a person
+than Miss Oman. She saw me at the same moment, and beckoned peremptorily
+with a hand that held a large Spanish onion. I approached with a
+deferential smile.
+
+"What a magnificent onion, Miss Oman! and how generous of you to offer
+it to me--"
+
+"I wasn't offering it to you. But there! Isn't it just like a man--"
+
+"Isn't what just like a man?" I interrupted. "If you mean the onion--"
+
+"I don't!" she snapped; "and I wish you wouldn't talk such a parcel of
+nonsense. A grown man and a member of a serious profession, too! You
+ought to know better."
+
+"I suppose I ought," I said reflectively. And she continued:
+
+"I called in at the surgery just now."
+
+"To see me?"
+
+"What else should I come for? Do you suppose that I called to consult
+the bottle-boy?"
+
+"Certainly not, Miss Oman. So you find the lady doctor no use, after
+all?"
+
+Miss Oman gnashed her teeth at me (and very fine teeth they were, too).
+
+"I called," she said majestically, "on behalf of Miss Bellingham."
+
+My facetiousness evaporated instantly. "I hope Miss Bellingham is not
+ill," I said with a sudden anxiety that elicited a sardonic smile from
+Miss Oman.
+
+"No," was the reply, "she is not ill, but she has cut her hand rather
+badly. It's her right hand, too, and she can't afford to lose the use of
+it, not being a great, hulking, lazy, lolloping man. So you had better
+go and put some stuff on it."
+
+With this advice, Miss Oman whisked to the right-about and vanished into
+the depths of the cavern like the Witch of Wokey, while I hurried on to
+the surgery to provide myself with the necessary instruments and
+materials, and thence proceeded to Nevill's Court.
+
+Miss Oman's juvenile maid-servant, who opened the door to me, stated the
+existing conditions with epigrammatic conciseness:
+
+"Mr. Bellingham is hout, sir; but Miss Bellingham is hin."
+
+Having thus delivered herself she retreated towards the kitchen and I
+ascended the stairs, at the head of which I found Miss Bellingham
+awaiting me with her right hand encased in what looked like a white
+boxing-glove.
+
+"I am glad you have come," she said. "Phyllis--Miss Oman, you know--has
+kindly bound up my hand, but I should like you to see that it is all
+right."
+
+We went into the sitting-room, where I laid out my paraphernalia on the
+table while I inquired into the particulars of the accident.
+
+"It is most unfortunate that it should have happened just now," she
+said, as I wrestled with one of those remarkable feminine knots that,
+while they seem to defy the utmost efforts of human ingenuity to untie,
+yet have a singular habit of untying themselves at inopportune moments.
+
+"Why just now, in particular?" I asked.
+
+"Because I have some specially important work to do. A very learned lady
+who is writing a historical book has commissioned me to collect all the
+literature relating to the Tell el Amarna letters--the cuneiform
+tablets, you know, of Amenhotep the Fourth."
+
+"Well," I said soothingly, "I expect your hand will soon be well."
+
+"Yes, but that won't do. The work has to be done immediately. I have to
+send in the completed notes not later than this day week, and it will be
+quite impossible. I am dreadfully disappointed."
+
+By this time I had unwound the voluminous wrappings and exposed the
+injury--a deep gash in the palm that must have narrowly missed a
+good-sized artery. Obviously the hand would be useless for fully a week.
+
+"I suppose," she said, "you couldn't patch it up so that I could write
+with it?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"No, Miss Bellingham. I shall have to put it on a splint. We can't run
+any risks with a deep wound like this."
+
+"Then I shall have to give up the commission, and I don't know how my
+client will get the work done in the time. You see, I am pretty well up
+in the literature of Ancient Egypt; in fact, I was to receive special
+payment on that account. And it would have been such an interesting
+task, too. However, it can't be helped."
+
+I proceeded methodically with the application of the dressings, and
+meanwhile reflected. It was evident that she was deeply disappointed.
+Loss of work meant loss of money, and it needed but a glance at her
+rusty black dress to see that there was little margin for that.
+Possibly, too, there was some special need to be met. Her manner seemed
+almost to imply that there was. And at this point I had a brilliant
+idea.
+
+"I'm not sure that it can't be helped," said I.
+
+She looked at me inquiringly, and I continued: "I am going to make a
+proposition, and I shall ask you to consider it with an open mind."
+
+"That sounds rather portentous," said she; "but I promise. What is it?"
+
+"It is this: When I was a student I acquired the useful art of writing
+shorthand. I am not a lightning reporter, you understand, but I can take
+matter down from dictation at quite respectable speed."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I have several hours free every day--usually, the whole of the
+afternoon up to six or half-past--and it occurs to me that if you were
+to go to the Museum in the mornings you could get out your books, look
+up passages (you could do that without using your right hand), and put
+in book-marks. Then I could come along in the afternoon and you could
+read out the selected passages to me, and I could take them down in
+shorthand. We should get through as much in a couple of hours as you
+could in a day using longhand."
+
+"Oh, but how kind of you, Doctor Berkeley!" she exclaimed. "How very
+kind! Of course, I couldn't think of taking up all your leisure in that
+way; but I do appreciate your kindness very much."
+
+I was rather chapfallen at this very definite refusal, but persisted
+feebly:
+
+"I wish you would. It may seem rather cheek for a comparative stranger
+like me to make such a proposal to a lady; but if you'd been a man--in
+these special circumstances--I should have made it all the same, and you
+would have accepted as a matter of course."
+
+"I doubt that. At any rate, I am not a man. I sometimes wish I were."
+
+"Oh, I am sure you are much better as you are!" I exclaimed, with such
+earnestness that we both laughed. And at this moment Mr. Bellingham
+entered the room carrying several large and evidently brand-new books in
+a strap.
+
+"Well, I'm sure!" he exclaimed genially; "here are pretty goings on.
+Doctor and patient giggling like a pair of schoolgirls! What's the
+joke?"
+
+He thumped his parcel of books down on the table and listened smilingly
+while my unconscious witticism was expounded.
+
+"The Doctor's quite right," he said. "You'll do as you are, chick; but
+the Lord knows what sort of man you would make. You take his advice and
+let well alone."
+
+Finding him in this genial frame of mind, I ventured to explain my
+proposition to him and to enlist his support. He considered it with
+attentive approval, and when I had finished turned to his daughter.
+
+"What is your objection, chick?" he asked.
+
+"It would give Doctor Berkeley such a fearful lot of work," she
+answered.
+
+"It would give him a fearful lot of pleasure," I said. "It would,
+really."
+
+"Then why not?" said Mr. Bellingham. "We don't mind being under an
+obligation to the Doctor, do we?"
+
+"Oh, it wasn't that!" she exclaimed hastily.
+
+"Then take him at his word. He means it. It is a kind action and he'll
+like doing it, I'm sure. That's all right, Doctor; she accepts, don't
+you, chick?"
+
+"Yes, if you say so, I do; and most thankfully."
+
+She accompanied the acceptance with a gracious smile that was in itself
+a large payment on account, and when we had made the necessary
+arrangements, I hurried away in a state of the most perfect satisfaction
+to finish my morning's work and order an early lunch.
+
+When I called for her a couple of hours later I found her waiting in the
+garden with the shabby handbag, of which I relieved her, and we set
+forth together, watched jealously by Miss Oman, who had accompanied her
+to the gate.
+
+As I walked up the court with this wonderful maid by my side I could
+hardly believe in my good fortune. By her presence and my own resulting
+happiness the mean surroundings became glorified and the commonest
+objects transfigured into things of beauty. What a delightful
+thoroughfare, for instance, was Fetter Lane, with its quaint charm and
+mediaeval grace! I snuffed the cabbage-laden atmosphere and seemed to
+breathe the scent of the asphodel. Holborn was even as the Elysian
+Fields; the omnibus that bore us westward was a chariot of glory; and
+the people who swarmed verminously on the pavements bore the semblance
+of the children of light.
+
+Love is a foolish thing judged by workaday standards, and the thoughts
+and actions of lovers foolish beyond measure. But the workaday standard
+is the wrong one, after all; for the utilitarian mind does but busy
+itself with the trivial and transitory interests of life, behind which
+looms the great and everlasting reality of the love of man and woman.
+There is more significance in a nightingale's song in the hush of a
+summer night than in all the wisdom of Solomon (who, by the way, was not
+without his little experiences of the tender passion).
+
+The janitor in the little glass box by the entrance to the library
+inspected us and passed us on, with a silent benediction, to the lobby,
+whence (when I had handed my stick to a bald-headed demigod and received
+a talismanic disc in exchange) we entered the enormous rotunda of the
+reading-room.
+
+I have often thought that, if some lethal vapour of highly preservative
+properties--such as formaldehyde, for instance--could be shed into the
+atmosphere of this apartment, the entire and complete collection of
+books and bookworms would be well worth preserving, for the
+enlightenment of posterity, as a sort of anthropological appendix to the
+main collection of the Museum. For, surely, nowhere else in the world
+are so many strange and abnormal human beings gathered together in one
+place. And a curious question that must have occurred to many observers
+is: Whence do these singular creatures come, and whither do they go when
+the very distinct-faced clock (adjusted to literary eye-sight) proclaims
+closing time? The tragic-faced gentleman, for instance, with the
+corkscrew ringlets that bob up and down like spiral springs as he walks?
+Or the short, elderly gentleman in the black cassock and bowler hat, who
+shatters your nerves by turning suddenly and revealing himself as a
+middle-aged woman? Whither do they go? One never sees them elsewhere. Do
+they steal away at closing time into the depths of the Museum and hide
+themselves until morning in sarcophagi or mummy cases? Or do they creep
+through spaces in the book-shelves and spend the night behind the
+volumes in a congenial atmosphere of leather and antique paper? Who can
+say? What I do know is that when Ruth Bellingham entered the
+reading-room she appeared in comparison with these like a creature of
+another order; even as the head of Antinous, which formerly stood (it
+has since been moved) amidst the portrait-busts of the Roman Emperors,
+seemed like the head of a god set in a portrait gallery of illustrious
+baboons.
+
+"What have we got to do?" I asked when we had found a vacant seat. "Do
+you want to look up the catalogue?"
+
+"No, I have the tickets in my bag. The books are waiting in the 'kept
+books' department."
+
+I placed my hat on the leather-covered shelf, dropped her gloves into
+it--how delightfully intimate and companionable it seemed!--altered the
+numbers on the tickets, and then we proceeded together to the "kept
+books" desk to collect the volumes that contained the material for our
+day's work.
+
+It was a blissful afternoon. Two and a half hours of happiness unalloyed
+did I spend at that shiny, leather-clad desk, guiding my nimble pen
+across the pages of the note-book. It introduced me to a new world--a
+world in which love and learning, sweet intimacy and crusted
+archaeology, were mingled into the oddest, most whimsical, and most
+delicious confection that the mind of man can conceive. Hitherto, these
+recondite histories had been far beyond my ken. Of the wonderful
+heretic, Amenhotep the Fourth, I had barely heard--at the most he had
+been a mere name; the Hittites a mythical race of undetermined habitat;
+while cuneiform tablets had presented themselves to my mind merely as an
+uncouth kind of fossil biscuit suited to the digestion of a pre-historic
+ostrich.
+
+Now all this was changed. As we sat with our chairs creaking together
+and she whispered the story of those stirring times into my receptive
+ear--talking is strictly forbidden in the reading-room--the disjointed
+fragments arranged themselves into a romance of supreme fascination.
+Egyptian, Babylonian, Aramaean, Hittite, Memphis, Babylon, Hamath,
+Megiddo--I swallowed them all thankfully, wrote them down and asked for
+more. Only once did I disgrace myself. An elderly clergyman of ascetic
+and acidulous aspect had passed us with a glance of evident disapproval,
+clearly setting us down as intruding philanderers; and when I
+contrasted the parson's probable conception of the whispered
+communications that were being poured into my ear so tenderly and
+confidentially with the dry reality, I chuckled aloud. But my fair
+task-mistress only paused, with her finger on the page, smilingly to
+rebuke me, and then went on with the dictation. She was certainly a
+Tartar for work.
+
+It was a proud moment for me when, in response to my interrogative
+"Yes?" my companion said "That is all" and closed the book. We had
+extracted the pith and marrow of six considerable volumes in two hours
+and a half.
+
+"You have been better than your word," she said. "It would have taken me
+two full days of really hard work to make the notes that you have
+written down since we commenced. I don't know how to thank you."
+
+"There's no need to. I've enjoyed myself and polished up my shorthand.
+What is the next thing? We shall want some books for to-morrow, shan't
+we?"
+
+"Yes. I have made out a list, so if you will come with me to the
+catalogue desk I will look out the numbers and ask you to write the
+tickets."
+
+The selection of a fresh batch of authorities occupied us for another
+quarter of an hour, and then, having handed in the volumes that we had
+squeezed dry, we took our way out of the reading-room.
+
+"Which way shall we go?" she asked as we passed out of the gate, where
+stood a massive policeman, like the guardian angel at the gate of
+Paradise (only, thank Heaven! he bore no flaming sword forbidding
+reentry).
+
+"We are going," I replied, "to Museum Street, where is a milkshop in
+which one can get an excellent cup of tea."
+
+She looked as if she would have demurred, but eventually followed
+obediently, and we were soon seated side by side at a little
+marble-topped table, retracing the ground that we had covered in the
+afternoon's work and discussing various points of interest over a joint
+teapot.
+
+"Have you been doing this sort of work long?" I asked as she handed me
+my second cup of tea.
+
+"Professionally," she answered, "only about two years; since we broke up
+our home, in fact. But long before that I used to come to the Museum
+with my Uncle John--the one who disappeared, you know, in that
+dreadfully mysterious way--and help him to look up references. We were
+quite good friends, he and I."
+
+"I suppose he was a very learned man?" I suggested.
+
+"Yes, in a certain way; in the way of the better-class collector he was
+very learned indeed. He knew the contents of every museum in the world,
+in so far as they were connected with Egyptian antiquities, and had
+studied them specimen by specimen. Consequently, as Egyptology is
+largely a museum science, he was a learned Egyptologist. But his real
+interest was in things rather than events. Of course, he knew a great
+deal--a very great deal--about Egyptian history, but still he was,
+before all, a collector."
+
+"And what will happen to his collection if he is really dead?"
+
+"The greater part of it goes to the British Museum by his will, and the
+remainder he has left to his solicitor, Mr. Jellicoe."
+
+"To Mr. Jellicoe! Why, what will Mr. Jellicoe do with Egyptian
+antiquities?"
+
+"Oh, he is an Egyptologist, too, and quite an enthusiast. He has a
+really fine collection of scarabs and other small objects such as it is
+possible to keep in a private house. I have always thought that it was
+his enthusiasm for everything Egyptian that brought him and my uncle
+together on terms of such intimacy; though I believe he is an excellent
+lawyer, and he is certainly a very discreet, cautious man."
+
+"Is he? I shouldn't have thought so, judging by your uncle's will."
+
+"Oh, but that was not Mr. Jellicoe's fault. He assures us that he
+entreated my uncle to let him draw up a fresh document with more
+reasonable provisions. But he says Uncle John was immovable; and he
+really _was_ a rather obstinate man. Mr. Jellicoe repudiates any
+responsibility in the matter. He washes his hands of the whole affair,
+and says that it is the will of a lunatic. And so it is. I was glancing
+through it only a night or two ago, and really I cannot conceive how a
+sane man could have written such nonsense."
+
+"You have a copy, then?" I asked eagerly, remembering Thorndyke's
+parting instructions.
+
+"Yes. Would you like to see it? I know my father has told you about it,
+and it is worth reading as a curiosity of perverseness."
+
+"I should very much like to show it to my friend, Doctor Thorndyke," I
+replied. "He said that he would be interested to read it and learn the
+exact provisions; and it might be well to let him, and hear what he has
+to say about it."
+
+"I see no objection," she rejoined; "but you know what my father is:
+his horror, I mean, of what he calls 'cadging for advice gratis.'"
+
+"Oh, but he need have no scruples on that score. Doctor Thorndyke wants
+to see the will because the case interests him. He is an enthusiast, you
+know, and he put the request as a personal favour to himself."
+
+"That is very nice and delicate of him, and I will explain the position
+to my father. If he is willing for Doctor Thorndyke to see the copy, I
+will send or bring it over this evening. Have we finished?"
+
+I regretfully admitted that we had, and, when I had paid the modest
+reckoning, we sallied forth, turning back with one accord into Great
+Russell Street to avoid the noise and bustle of the larger thoroughfare.
+
+"What sort of man was your uncle?" I asked presently, as we walked along
+the quiet, dignified street. And then I added hastily: "I hope you don't
+think me inquisitive, but, to my mind, he presents himself as a kind of
+mysterious abstraction; the unknown quantity of a legal problem."
+
+"My Uncle John," she answered reflectively, "was a very peculiar man,
+rather obstinate, very self-willed, what people call 'masterful,' and
+decidedly wrong-headed and unreasonable."
+
+"That is certainly the impression that the terms of his will convey," I
+said.
+
+"Yes; and not the will only. There was the absurd allowance that he made
+my father. That was a ridiculous arrangement, and very unfair, too. He
+ought to have divided up the property as my grandfather intended. And
+yet he was by no means ungenerous, only he would have his own way, and
+his own way was very commonly the wrong way.
+
+"I remember," she continued, after a short pause, "a very odd instance
+of his wrong-headedness and obstinacy. It was a small matter, but very
+typical of him. He had in his collection a beautiful little ring of the
+eighteenth dynasty. It was said to have belonged to Queen Ti, the mother
+of our friend Amenhotep the Fourth; but I don't think that could have
+been so, because the device on it was the Eye of Osiris, and Ti, as you
+know, was an Aten-worshipper. However, it was a very charming ring, and
+Uncle John, who had a queer sort of devotion to the mystical Eye of
+Osiris, commissioned a very clever goldsmith to make two exact copies of
+it, one for himself and one for me. The goldsmith naturally wanted to
+take the measurements of our fingers, but this Uncle John would not hear
+of; the rings were to be exact copies, and an exact copy must be the
+same size as the original. You can imagine the result; my ring was so
+loose that I couldn't keep it on my finger, and Uncle John's was so
+tight that, though he did manage to get it on, he was never able to get
+it off again. And it was only the circumstance that his left hand was
+decidedly smaller than his right that made it possible for him to wear
+it at all."
+
+"So you never wore your copy?"
+
+"No. I wanted to have it altered to make it fit, but he objected
+strongly; so I put it away, and have it in a box still."
+
+"He must have been an extraordinarily pig-headed old fellow," I
+remarked.
+
+"Yes; he was very tenacious. He annoyed my father a good deal, too, by
+making unnecessary alterations in the house in Queen Square when he
+fitted up his museum. We have a certain sentiment with regard to that
+house. Our people have lived in it ever since it was built, when the
+square was first laid out in the reign of Queen Anne, after whom the
+square was named. It is a dear old house. Would you like to see it? We
+are quite near it now."
+
+I assented eagerly. If it had been a coal-shed or a fried-fish shop I
+would still have visited it with pleasure, for the sake of prolonging
+our walk; but I was also really interested in this old house as a part
+of the background of the mystery of the vanished John Bellingham.
+
+We crossed into Cosmo Place, with its quaint row of the, now rare,
+cannon-shaped iron posts, and passing through stood for a few moments
+looking into the peaceful, stately old square. A party of boys disported
+themselves noisily on the range of stone posts that form a bodyguard
+round the ancient lamp-surmounted pump, but otherwise the place was
+wrapped in dignified repose suited to its age and station. And very
+pleasant it looked on this summer afternoon, with the sunlight gilding
+the foliage of its wide-spreading plane trees and lighting up the
+warm-toned brick of the house-fronts. We walked slowly down the shady
+west side, near the middle of which my companion halted.
+
+"This is the house," she said. "It looks gloomy and forsaken now; but it
+must have been a delightful house in the days when my ancestors could
+look out of the windows through the open end of the square across the
+fields and meadows to the heights of Hampstead and Highgate."
+
+She stood at the edge of the pavement looking up with a curious
+wistfulness at the old house; a very pathetic figure, I thought, with
+her handsome face and proud carriage, her threadbare dress and shabby
+gloves, standing at the threshold of the home that had been her family's
+for generations, that should now have been hers, and that was shortly to
+pass away into the hands of strangers.
+
+I, too, looked up at it with a strange interest, impressed by something
+gloomy and forbidding in its aspect. The windows were shuttered from
+basement to attic, and no sign of life was visible. Silent, neglected,
+desolate, it breathed an air of tragedy. It seemed to mourn in sackcloth
+and ashes for its lost master. The massive door within the splendid
+carven portico was crusted with grime, and seemed to have passed out of
+use as completely as the ancient lamp-irons or the rusted extinguishers
+wherein the footmen were wont to quench their torches when some
+Bellingham dame was borne up the steps in her gilded chair, in the days
+of good Queen Anne.
+
+It was in a somewhat sobered frame of mind that we presently turned away
+and started homeward by way of Great Ormond Street. My companion was
+deeply thoughtful, relapsing for a while into that sombreness of manner
+that had so impressed me when I first met her. Nor was I without a
+certain sympathetic pensiveness; as if, from the great, silent house,
+the spirit of the vanished man had issued forth to bear us company.
+
+But still it was a delightful walk, and I was sorry when at last we
+arrived at the entrance to Nevill's Court, and Miss Bellingham halted
+and held out her hand.
+
+"Good-bye," she said; "and many, many thanks for your invaluable help.
+Shall I take the bag?"
+
+"If you want it. But I must take out the note-books."
+
+"Why must you take them?" she asked.
+
+"Why, haven't I got to copy the notes out into longhand?"
+
+An expression of utter consternation spread over her face; in fact, she
+was so completely taken aback that she forgot to release my hand.
+
+"Heavens!" she exclaimed. "How idiotic of me! But it is impossible,
+Doctor Berkeley! It will take you hours!"
+
+"It is perfectly possible, and it is going to be done; otherwise the
+notes would be useless. Do you want the bag?"
+
+"No, of course not. But I am positively appalled. Hadn't you better give
+up the idea?"
+
+"And is this the end of our collaboration?" I exclaimed tragically,
+giving her hand a final squeeze (whereby she became suddenly aware of
+its position, and withdrew it rather hastily). "Would you throw away a
+whole afternoon's work? I won't, certainly; so, good-bye until
+to-morrow. I shall turn up in the reading-room as early as I can. You
+had better take the tickets. Oh, and you won't forget about the copy of
+the will for Doctor Thorndyke, will you?"
+
+"No; if my father agrees, you shall have it this evening."
+
+She took the tickets from me, and, thanking me yet again, retired into
+the court.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+JOHN BELLINGHAM'S WILL
+
+
+The task upon which I had embarked so lightheartedly, when considered in
+cold blood, did certainly appear, as Miss Bellingham had said, rather
+appalling. The result of two and a half hours' pretty steady work at an
+average speed of nearly a hundred words a minute, would take some time
+to transcribe into longhand; and if the notes were to be delivered
+punctually on the morrow, the sooner I got to work the better.
+
+Recognising this truth, I lost no time, but, within five minutes of my
+arrival at the surgery, was seated at the writing-table with my copy
+before me busily converting the sprawling, inexpressive characters into
+good, legible round-hand.
+
+The occupation was by no means unpleasant, apart from the fact that it
+was a labour of love; for the sentences, as I picked them up, were
+fragrant with reminiscences of the gracious whisper in which they had
+first come to me. And then the matter itself was full of interest. I was
+gaining a fresh outlook on life, was crossing the threshold of a new
+world (which was _her_ world); and so the occasional interruptions from
+patients, while they gave me intervals of enforced rest, were far from
+welcome.
+
+The evening wore on without any sign from Nevill's Court, and I began to
+fear that Mr. Bellingham's scruples had proved insurmountable. Not, I am
+afraid, that I was so much concerned for the copy of the will as for
+the possibility of a visit, no matter howsoever brief, from my fair
+employer; and when, on the stroke of half-past seven, the surgery door
+flew open with startling abruptness, my fears were allayed and my hopes
+shattered simultaneously. For it was Miss Oman who stalked in, holding
+out a blue foolscap envelope with a warlike air as if it were an
+ultimatum.
+
+"I've brought you this from Mr. Bellingham," she said. "There's a note
+inside."
+
+"May I read the note, Miss Oman?" I asked.
+
+"Bless the man!" she exclaimed. "What else would you do with it? Isn't
+that what I brought it for?"
+
+I supposed it was; and, thanking her for her gracious permission, I
+glanced through the note--a few lines authorising me to show the copy of
+the will to Dr. Thorndyke. When I looked up from the paper I found her
+eyes fixed on me with an expression critical and rather disapproving.
+
+"You seem to be making yourself mighty agreeable in a certain quarter,"
+she remarked.
+
+"I make myself universally agreeable. It is my nature to."
+
+"Ha!" she snorted.
+
+"Don't you find me rather agreeable?" I asked.
+
+"Oily," said Miss Oman. And then, with a sour smile at the open
+note-books, she remarked:
+
+"You've got some work to do now; quite a change for you."
+
+"A delightful change, Miss Oman. 'For Satan findeth'--but no doubt you
+are acquainted with the philosophical works of Doctor Watts?"
+
+"If you are referring to 'idle hands,'" she replied, "I'll give you a
+bit of advice, Don't you keep that hand idle any longer than is really
+necessary. I have my suspicions about that splint--oh, you know what I
+mean," and before I had time to reply, she had taken advantage of the
+entrance of a couple of patients to whisk out of the surgery with the
+abruptness that had distinguished her arrival.
+
+The evening consultations were considered to be over by half-past eight;
+at which time Adolphus was wont, with exemplary punctuality, to close
+the outer door of the surgery. To-night he was not less prompt than
+usual; and having performed this, his last daily office, and turned down
+the surgery gas, he reported the fact and took his departure.
+
+As his retreating footsteps died away and the slamming of the outer door
+announced his final disappearance, I sat up and stretched myself. The
+envelope containing the copy of the will lay on the table, and I
+considered it thoughtfully. It ought to be conveyed to Thorndyke with as
+little delay as possible, and, as it certainly could not be trusted out
+of my hands, it ought to be conveyed by me.
+
+I looked at the note-books. Nearly two hours' work had made a
+considerable impression on the matter that I had to transcribe, but
+still, a great deal of the task yet remained to be done. However, I
+reflected, I could put in a couple of hours more before going to bed and
+there would be an hour or two to spare in the morning. Finally I locked
+the note-books, open as they were, in the writing-table drawer, and
+slipping the envelope into my pocket, set out for the Temple.
+
+The soft chime of the Treasury clock was telling out, in confidential
+tones, the third quarter as I wrapped with my stick on the forbidding
+"oak" of my friends' chambers. There was no response, nor had I
+perceived any gleam of light from the windows as I approached, and I was
+considering the advisability of trying the laboratory on the next floor,
+when footsteps on the stone stairs and familiar voices gladdened my ear.
+
+"Hallo, Berkeley!" said Thorndyke, "do we find you waiting like a Peri
+at the gates of Paradise? Polton is upstairs, you know, tinkering at one
+of his inventions. If you ever find the nest empty, you had better go up
+and bang at the laboratory door. He's always there in the evenings."
+
+"I haven't been waiting long," said I, "and I was just thinking of
+rousing him up when you came."
+
+"That was right," said Thorndyke, turning up the gas. "And what news do
+you bring? Do I see a blue envelope sticking out of your pocket?"
+
+"You do."
+
+"Is it a copy of the will?" he asked.
+
+I answered "yes," and added that I had full permission to show it to
+him.
+
+"What did I tell you?" exclaimed Jervis. "Didn't I say that he would get
+the copy for us if it existed?"
+
+"We admit the excellence of your prognosis," said Thorndyke, "but there
+is no need to be boastful. Have you read through the document,
+Berkeley?"
+
+"No, I haven't taken it out of the envelope."
+
+"Then it will be equally new to us all, and we shall see if it tallies
+with your description."
+
+He placed three easy chairs at a convenient distance from the light, and
+Jervis, watching him with a smile, remarked:
+
+"Now Thorndyke is going to enjoy himself. To him, a perfectly
+unintelligible will is a thing of beauty and a joy for ever; especially
+if associated with some kind of recondite knavery."
+
+"I don't know," said I, "that this will is particularly unintelligible.
+The mischief seems to be that it is rather too intelligible. However,
+here it is," and I handed the envelope to Thorndyke.
+
+"I suppose that we can depend on this copy," said the latter, as he drew
+out the document and glanced at it. "Oh, yes," he added, "I see it is
+copied by Godfrey Bellingham, compared with the original and certified
+correct. In that case I will get you to read it out slowly, Jervis, and
+I will make a rough copy to keep for reference. Let us make ourselves
+comfortable and light our pipes before we begin."
+
+He provided himself with a writing-pad, and, when we had seated
+ourselves and got our pipes well alight, Jervis opened the document, and
+with a premonitory "hem!" commenced the reading.
+
+"In the name of God Amen. This is the last will and testament of me John
+Bellingham of number 141 Queen Square in the parish of St. George
+Bloomsbury London in the county of Middlesex Gentleman made this twenty
+first day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
+hundred and ninety-two.
+
+"1. I give and bequeath unto Arthur Jellicoe of number 184 New Square
+Lincoln's Inn London in the county of Middlesex Attorney-at-law the
+whole of my collection of seals and scarabs and those my cabinets marked
+B, C, and D together with the contents thereof and the sum of two
+thousand pounds sterling free of legacy duty.
+
+"Unto the Trustees of the British Museum the residue of my collection
+of antiquities.
+
+"Unto my cousin George Hurst of The Poplars Eltham in the county of Kent
+the sum of five thousand pounds free of legacy duty and unto my brother
+Godfrey Bellingham or if he should die before the occurrence of my death
+unto his daughter Ruth Bellingham the residue of my estate and effects
+real and personal subject to the conditions set forth hereinafter
+namely:
+
+"2. That my body shall be deposited with those of my ancestors in the
+churchyard appertaining to the church and parish of St. George the
+Martyr or if that shall not be possible, in some other churchyard,
+cemetery, burial ground, church, chapel or other authorised place for
+the reception of the bodies of the dead situate within or appertaining
+to the parishes of St. Andrew above the Bars and St. George the Martyr
+or St. George Bloomsbury and St. Giles in the Fields. But if the
+conditions in this clause be not carried out then
+
+"3. I give and devise the said residue of my estate and effects unto my
+cousin George Hurst aforesaid and I hereby revoke all wills and codicils
+made by me at any time heretofore and I appoint Arthur Jellicoe
+aforesaid to be the executor of this my will jointly with the principal
+beneficiary and residuary legatee that is to say with the aforesaid
+Godfrey Bellingham if the conditions set forth hereinbefore in clause 2
+shall be duly carried out but with the aforesaid George Hurst if the
+said conditions in the said clause 2 be not carried out.
+
+"JOHN BELLINGHAM.
+
+"Signed by the said testator John Bellingham in the presence of us
+present at the same time who at his request and in his presence and in
+the presence of each other have subscribed our names as witnesses.
+
+"Frederick Wilton, 16 Medford Road, London, N., clerk.
+
+"James Barker, 32 Wadbury Crescent, London, S.W., clerk."
+
+"Well," said Jervis, laying down the document as Thorndyke detached the
+last sheet from his writing-pad, "I have met with a good many idiotic
+wills, but this one can give them all points. I don't see how it is ever
+going to be administered. One of the two executors is a mere
+abstraction--a sort of algebraical problem with no answer."
+
+"I think that difficulty could be overcome," said Thorndyke.
+
+"I don't see how," retorted Jervis. "If the body is deposited in a
+certain place, A is the executor; if it is somewhere else, B is the
+executor. But, as you cannot produce the body, and no one has the least
+idea where it is, it is impossible to prove either that it is or that it
+is not in any specified place."
+
+"You are magnifying the difficulty, Jervis," said Thorndyke. "The body
+may, of course, be anywhere in the entire world, but the place where it
+is lying is either inside or outside the general boundary of these two
+parishes. If it has been deposited within the boundary of those two
+parishes, the fact must be ascertainable by examining the burial
+certificates issued since the date when the missing man was last seen
+alive and by consulting the registers of those specified places of
+burial. I think that if no record can be found of any such interment
+within the boundary of those two parishes, that fact will be taken by
+the Court as proof that no such interment has taken place, and that
+therefore the body must have been deposited elsewhere. Such a decision
+would constitute George Hurst the co-executor and residuary legatee."
+
+"That is cheerful for your friends, Berkeley," Jervis remarked, "for we
+may take it as pretty certain that the body has not been deposited in
+any of the places named."
+
+"Yes," I agreed gloomily, "I'm afraid there is very little doubt of
+that. But what an ass the fellow must have been to make such a to-do
+about his beastly carcass? What the deuce could it have mattered to him
+where it was dumped, when he had done with it?"
+
+Thorndyke chuckled softly. "Thus the irreverent youth of to-day," said
+he. "But yours is hardly a fair comment, Berkeley. Our training makes us
+materialists, and puts us a little out of sympathy with those in whom
+primitive beliefs and emotions survive. A worthy priest who came to look
+at our dissecting-room expressed surprise to me that students, thus
+constantly in the presence of relics of mortality, should be able to
+think of anything but the resurrection and the life hereafter. He was a
+bad psychologist. There is nothing so dead as a dissecting-room
+'subject'; and the contemplation of the human body in the process of
+being quietly taken to pieces--being resolved into its structural units
+like a worn-out clock or an old engine in the Mr. Rapper's yard--is
+certainly not conducive to a vivid realisation of the doctrine of the
+resurrection."
+
+"No; but this absurd anxiety to be buried in some particular place has
+nothing to do with religious belief; it is mere silly sentiment."
+
+"It is sentiment, I admit," said Thorndyke, "but I wouldn't call it
+silly. The feeling is so widespread in time and space that we must look
+on it with respect as something inherent in human nature. Think--as
+doubtless John Bellingham did--of the ancient Egyptians, whose chief
+aspiration was that of everlasting repose for the dead. See the trouble
+they took to achieve it. Think of the Great Pyramid, or that of
+Amenemhat the Fourth with its labyrinth of false passages and its sealed
+and hidden sepulchral chamber. Think of Jacob, borne after death all
+those hundreds of weary miles in order that he might sleep with his
+fathers, and then remember Shakespeare and his solemn adjuration to
+posterity to let him rest undisturbed in his grave. No, Berkeley, it is
+not a silly sentiment. I am as indifferent as you as to what becomes of
+my body 'when I have done with it,' to use your irreverent phrase; but I
+recognise the solicitude that some other men display on the subject as a
+natural feeling that has to be taken seriously."
+
+"But even so," I said, "if this man had a hankering for a freehold
+residence in some particular bone-yard, he might have gone about the
+business in a more reasonable way."
+
+"There I am entirely with you," Thorndyke replied. "It is the absurd way
+in which this provision is worded that not only creates all the trouble
+but also makes the whole document so curiously significant in view of
+the testator's disappearance."
+
+"How significant?" Jervis demanded eagerly.
+
+"Let us consider the provisions of the will point by point," said
+Thorndyke; "and first note that the testator commanded the services of a
+very capable lawyer."
+
+"But Mr. Jellicoe disapproved of the will," said I; "in fact, he
+protested strongly against the form of it."
+
+"We will bear that in mind, too," Thorndyke replied. "And now with
+reference to what we may call the contentious clauses: the first thing
+that strikes us is their preposterous injustice. Godfrey's inheritance
+is made conditional on a particular disposal of the testator's body. But
+this is a matter not necessarily under Godfrey's control. The testator
+might have been lost at sea, or killed in a fire or explosion, or have
+died abroad and been buried where his grave could not be identified.
+There are numerous probable contingencies besides the improbable one
+that has happened, that might prevent the body from being recovered.
+
+"But even if the body had been recovered, there is another difficulty.
+The places of burial in the parishes named have all been closed for many
+years. It would be impossible to reopen any of them without a special
+faculty, and I doubt whether such a faculty would be granted. Possibly
+cremation might meet the difficulty, but even that is doubtful; and, in
+any case, the matter would not be in the control of Godfrey Bellingham.
+Yet, if the required interment should prove impossible, he is to be
+deprived of his legacy."
+
+"It is a monstrous and absurd injustice," I exclaimed.
+
+"It is," Thorndyke agreed; "but this is nothing to the absurdity that
+comes to light when we consider clauses two and three in detail. Observe
+that the testator presumably wished to be buried in a certain place;
+also he wished that his brother should benefit under the will. Let us
+take the first point and see how he has set about securing the
+accomplishment of what he desired. Now, if we read clauses two and three
+carefully, we shall see that he has rendered it virtually impossible
+that his wishes can be carried out. He desires to be buried in a certain
+place and makes Godfrey responsible for his being so buried. But he
+gives Godfrey no power or authority to carry out the provision, and
+places insuperable obstacles in his way. For until Godfrey is an
+executor, he has no power or authority to carry out the provisions: and
+until the provisions are carried out, he does not become an executor."
+
+"It is a preposterous muddle," exclaimed Jervis.
+
+"Yes, but that is not the worst of it," Thorndyke continued. "The moment
+John Bellingham dies, his dead body has come into existence; and it is
+'deposited' for the time being, wherever he happens to have died. But
+unless he should happen to have died in one of the places of burial
+mentioned--which is in the highest degree unlikely--his body will be,
+for the time being, 'deposited' in some place other than those
+specified. In that case clause two is--for the time being--not complied
+with, and consequently George Hurst becomes, automatically, the
+co-executor.
+
+"But will George Hurst carry out the provisions of clause two? Probably
+not. Why should he? The will contains no instructions to that effect. It
+throws the whole duty on Godfrey. On the other hand, if he should carry
+out clause two, what happens? He ceases to be an executor and he loses a
+legacy of some seventy thousand pounds. We may be pretty certain that he
+will do nothing of the kind. So that, on considering the two clauses,
+we see that the wishes of the testator could only be carried out in the
+unlikely event of his dying in one of the burial-places mentioned, or
+his body being conveyed immediately after death to a public mortuary in
+one of the said parishes. In any other event, it is virtually certain
+that he will be buried in some place other than that which he desired,
+and that his brother will be left absolutely without provision or
+recognition."
+
+"John Bellingham could never have intended that," I said.
+
+"Clearly not," agreed Thorndyke; "the provisions of the will furnish
+internal evidence that he did not. You note that he bequeathed five
+thousand pounds to George Hurst, in the event of clause two being
+carried out; but he has made no bequest to his brother in the event of
+its not being carried out. Obviously, he had not entertained the
+possibility of this contingency at all. He assumed, as a matter of
+course, that the conditions of clause two would be fulfilled, and
+regarded the conditions themselves as a mere formality."
+
+"But," Jervis objected, "Jellicoe must have seen the danger of a
+miscarriage and pointed it out to his client."
+
+"Exactly," said Thorndyke. "There is the mystery. We understand that he
+objected strenuously, and that John Bellingham was obdurate. Now it is
+perfectly understandable that a man should adhere obstinately to the
+most stupid and perverse disposition of his property; but that a man
+should persist in retaining a particular form of words after it has been
+proved to him that the use of such form will almost certainly result in
+the defeat of his own wishes; that, I say, is a mystery that calls for
+very careful consideration."
+
+"If Jellicoe had been an interested party," said Jervis, "one would have
+suspected him of lying low. But the form of clause two doesn't affect
+him at all."
+
+"No," said Thorndyke; "the person who stands to profit by the muddle is
+George Hurst. But we understand that he was unacquainted with the terms
+of the will, and there is certainly nothing to suggest that he is in any
+way responsible for it."
+
+"The practical question is," said I, "what is going to happen? and what
+can be done for the Bellinghams?"
+
+"The probability is," Thorndyke replied, "that the next move will be
+made by Hurst. He is the party immediately interested. He will probably
+apply to the Court for permission to presume death and administer the
+will."
+
+"And what will the Court do?"
+
+Thorndyke smiled drily. "Now you are asking a very pretty conundrum. The
+decisions of Courts depend on idiosyncrasies of temperament that no one
+can foresee. But one may say that a Court does not lightly grant
+permission to presume death. There will be a rigorous inquiry--and a
+decidedly unpleasant one, I suspect--and the evidence will be reviewed
+by the judge with a strong predisposition to regard the testator as
+being still alive. On the other hand, the known facts point very
+distinctly to the probability that he is dead; and, if the will were
+less complicated and all the interested parties were unanimous in
+supporting the application, I don't see why it might not be granted.
+But it will clearly be to the interest of Godfrey to oppose the
+application, unless he can show that the conditions of clause two have
+been complied with--which it is virtually certain that he can not; and
+he may be able to bring forward reasons for believing John to be still
+alive. But even if he is unable to do this, inasmuch as it is pretty
+clear that he was intended to be the chief beneficiary, his opposition
+is likely to have considerable weight with the Court."
+
+"Oh, is it?" I exclaimed eagerly. "Then that accounts for a very
+peculiar proceeding on the part of Hurst. I have stupidly forgotten to
+tell you about it. He has been trying to come to a private agreement
+with Godfrey Bellingham."
+
+"Indeed!" said Thorndyke. "What sort of agreement?"
+
+"His proposal was this: that Godfrey should support him and Jellicoe in
+an application to the Court for permission to presume death and to
+administer the will, and that, if it was successful, Hurst should pay
+him four hundred pounds a year for life: the arrangement to hold good in
+all eventualities."
+
+"By which he means?"
+
+"That if the body should be discovered at any future time, so that the
+conditions of clause two could be carried out, Hurst should still retain
+the property and continue to pay Godfrey the four hundred a year for
+life."
+
+"Hey ho!" exclaimed Thorndyke; "that is a queer proposal; a very queer
+proposal indeed."
+
+"Not to say fishy," added Jervis. "I don't fancy the Court would look
+with approval on that little arrangement."
+
+"The law does not look with much favour on any little arrangements that
+aim at getting behind the provisions of a will," Thorndyke replied;
+"though there would be nothing to complain of in this proposal if it
+were not for the reference to 'all eventualities.' If a will is
+hopelessly impracticable, it is not unreasonable or improper for the
+various beneficiaries to make such private arrangements among themselves
+as may seem necessary to avoid useless litigation and delay in
+administering the will. If, for instance, Hurst had proposed to pay four
+hundred a year to Godfrey so long as the body remained undiscovered on
+condition that, in the event of its discovery, Godfrey should pay him a
+like sum for life, there would have been nothing to comment upon. It
+would have been an ordinary sporting chance. But the reference to 'all
+eventualities' is an entirely different matter. Of course, it may be
+mere greediness, but all the same, it suggests some very curious
+reflections."
+
+"Yes, it does," said Jervis. "I wonder if he has any reason to expect
+that the body will be found? Of course it doesn't follow that he has. He
+may be merely taking the opportunity offered by the other man's poverty
+to make sure of the bulk of the property whatever happens. But it is
+uncommonly sharp practice, to say the least."
+
+"Do I understand that Godfrey declined the proposal?" Thorndyke asked.
+
+"Yes, he did, very emphatically; and I fancy that the two gentlemen
+proceeded to exchange opinions on the circumstances of the disappearance
+with more frankness than delicacy."
+
+"Ah," said Thorndyke, "that is a pity. If the case comes into Court,
+there is bound to be a good deal of unpleasant discussion and still more
+unpleasant comment in the newspapers. But if the parties themselves
+begin to express suspicions of one another there is no telling where the
+matter will end."
+
+"No, by Jove!" said Jervis. "If they begin flinging accusations of
+murder about, the fat will be in the fire with a vengeance. That way
+lies the Old Bailey."
+
+"We must try to prevent them from making an unnecessary scandal," said
+Thorndyke. "It may be that an exposure will be unavoidable, and that
+must be ascertained in advance. But to return to your question,
+Berkeley, as to what is to be done. Hurst will probably make some move
+pretty soon. Do you know if Jellicoe will act with him?"
+
+"No, he won't. He declines to take any steps without Godfrey's
+assent--at least, that is what he says at present. His attitude is one
+of correct neutrality."
+
+"That is satisfactory, so far," said Thorndyke, "though he may alter his
+tone when the case comes into Court. From what you said just now I
+gathered that Jellicoe would prefer to have the will administered and be
+quit of the whole business; which is natural enough, especially as he
+benefits under the will to the extent of two thousand pounds and a
+valuable collection. Consequently, we may fairly assume that, even if he
+maintains an apparent neutrality, his influence will be exerted in
+favour of Hurst rather than of Bellingham; from which it follows that
+Bellingham ought certainly to be properly advised, and, when the case
+goes into Court, properly represented."
+
+"He can't afford either the one or the other," said I. "He's as poor as
+an insolvent church mouse and as proud as the devil. He wouldn't accept
+professional aid that he couldn't pay for."
+
+"H'm," grunted Thorndyke, "that's awkward. But we can't allow the case
+to go 'by default,' so to speak--to fail for the mere lack of technical
+assistance. Besides, it is one of the most interesting cases that I have
+ever met with, and I am not going to see it bungled. He couldn't object
+to a little general advice in a friendly, informal way--_amicus curiae_,
+as old Brodribb is so fond of saying; and there is nothing to prevent us
+from pushing forward the preliminary inquiries."
+
+"Of what nature would they be?"
+
+"Well, to begin with, we have to satisfy ourselves that the conditions
+of clause two have not been complied with: that John Bellingham has not
+been buried within the parish boundaries mentioned. Of course he has
+not, but we must not take anything for granted. Then we have to satisfy
+ourselves that he is not still alive and accessible. It is perfectly
+possible that he is, after all, and it is our business to trace him, if
+he is still in the land of the living. Jervis and I can carry out these
+investigations without saying anything to Bellingham; my learned brother
+will look through the register of burials--not forgetting the
+cremations--in the metropolitan area, and I will take the other matter
+in hand."
+
+"You really think that John Bellingham may still be alive?" said I.
+
+"Since his body has not been found, it is obviously a possibility. I
+think it in the highest degree improbable, but the improbable has to be
+investigated before it can be excluded."
+
+"It sounds like a rather hopeless quest," I remarked. "How do you
+propose to begin?"
+
+"I think of beginning at the British Museum. The people there may be
+able to throw some light on his movements. I know that there are some
+important excavations in progress at Heliopolis--in fact, the Director
+of the Egyptian Department is out there at the present moment; and
+Doctor Norbury, who is taking his place temporarily, is an old friend of
+John Bellingham's. I shall call on him and try to discover if there is
+anything that might have induced Bellingham suddenly to go abroad--to
+Heliopolis, for instance. Also, he may be able to tell me what it was
+that took the missing man to Paris on that last, rather mysterious
+journey. That might turn out to be an important clue. And meanwhile,
+Berkeley, you must endeavour tactfully to reconcile your friend to the
+idea of letting us give an eye to the case. Make it clear to him that I
+am doing this entirely for the enlargement of my own knowledge."
+
+"But won't you have to be instructed by a solicitor?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, of course, nominally; but only as a matter of etiquette. We shall
+do all the actual work. Why do you ask?"
+
+"I was thinking of the solicitor's costs, and I was going to mention
+that I have a little money of my own--"
+
+"Then keep it, my dear fellow. You'll want it when you go into practice.
+There will be no difficulty about the solicitor; I shall ask one of my
+friends to act nominally as a personal favour to me--Marchmont would
+take the case for us, Jervis, I am sure."
+
+"Yes," said Jervis. "Or old Brodribb, if we put it to him _amicus
+curiae_."
+
+"It is excessively kind of both of you to take this benevolent interest
+in the case of my friends," I said; "and it is to be hoped that they
+won't be foolishly proud and stiff-necked about it. It's rather the way
+with poor gentlefolk."
+
+"I'll tell you what!" exclaimed Jervis. "I have a most brilliant idea.
+You shall give us a little supper at your rooms and invite the
+Bellinghams to meet us. Then you and I will attack the old gentleman,
+and Thorndyke shall exercise his persuasive powers on the lady. These
+chronic and incurable old bachelors, you know, are quite irresistible."
+
+"You observe that my respected junior condemns me to lifelong celibacy,"
+Thorndyke remarked. "But," he added, "his suggestion is quite a good
+one. Of course, we mustn't put any sort of pressure on Bellingham to
+employ us--for that is what it amounts to, even if we accept no
+payment--but a friendly talk over the supper-table would enable us to
+put the matter delicately and yet convincingly."
+
+"Yes," said I, "I see that, and I like the idea immensely. But it won't
+be possible for several days, because I've got a job that takes up all
+my spare time--and that I ought to be at work on now," I added, with a
+sudden qualm at the way in which I had forgotten the passage of time in
+the interest of Thorndyke's analysis.
+
+My two friends looked at me inquiringly, and I felt it necessary to
+explain about the injured hand and the Tell el Amarna tablets; which I
+accordingly did, rather shyly and with a nervous eye upon Jervis. The
+slow grin, however, for which I was watching, never came; on the
+contrary, he not only heard me through quite gravely, but when I had
+finished said with some warmth, and using my old hospital pet name:
+
+"I'll say one thing for you, Polly; you're a good chum, and you always
+were. I hope your Nevill's Court friends appreciate the fact."
+
+"They are far more appreciative than the occasion warrants," I answered.
+"But to return to this supper question: how will this day week suit
+you?"
+
+"It will suit me," Thorndyke answered, with a glance at his junior.
+
+"And me too," said the latter; "so, if it will do for the Bellinghams,
+we will consider it settled; but if they can't come you must fix another
+night."
+
+"Very well," I said, rising and knocking out my pipe, "I will issue the
+invitation to-morrow. And now I must be off to have another slog at
+those notes."
+
+As I walked homewards I speculated cheerfully on the prospect of
+entertaining my friends under my own (or rather Barnard's) roof, if they
+could be lured out of their eremitical retirement. The idea had, in
+fact, occurred to me already, but I had been deterred by the
+peculiarities of Barnard's housekeeper. For Mrs. Gummer was one of those
+housewives who make up for an archaic simplicity of production by
+preparations on the most portentous and alarming scale. But this time I
+would not be deterred. If only the guests could be enticed into my
+humble lair, it would be easy to furnish the raw materials of the feast
+from outside; and the consideration of ways and means occupied me
+pleasantly until I found myself once more at my writing-table,
+confronted by my voluminous notes on the incident of the North Syrian
+War.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A MUSEUM IDYLL
+
+
+Whether it was that practice revived a forgotten skill on my part, or
+that Miss Bellingham had over-estimated the amount of work to be done, I
+am unable to say. But whichever may have been the explanation, the fact
+is that the fourth afternoon saw our task so nearly completed that I was
+fain to plead that a small remainder might be left over to form an
+excuse for yet one more visit to the reading-room.
+
+Short, however, as had been the period of our collaboration, it had been
+long enough to produce a great change in our relations to one another.
+For there is no friendship so intimate and satisfying as that engendered
+by community of work, and none--between man and woman, at any rate--so
+frank and wholesome.
+
+Every day I had arrived to find a pile of books with the places duly
+marked and the blue covered quarto note-books in readiness. Every day we
+had worked steadily at the allotted task, had then handed in the books
+and gone forth together to enjoy a most companionable tea in the
+milk-shop; thereafter to walk home by way of Queen Square, talking over
+the day's work and discussing the state of the world in the far-off days
+when Ahkhenaten was king and the Tell el Amarna tablets were a-writing.
+
+It had been a pleasant time, so pleasant, that as I handed in the books
+for the last time, I sighed to think that it was over; that not only
+was the task finished, but that the recovery of my fair patient's hand,
+from which I had that morning removed the splint, had put an end to the
+need of my help.
+
+"What shall we do?" I asked, as we came out into the central hall; "it
+is too early for tea. Shall we go and look at some of the galleries?"
+
+"Why not?" she answered. "We might look over some of the things
+connected with what we have been doing. For instance, there is a relief
+of Ahkhenaten upstairs in the Third Egyptian Room; we might go and look
+at that."
+
+I fell in eagerly with the suggestion, placing myself under her
+experienced guidance, and we started by way of the Roman Gallery, past
+the long row of extremely commonplace and modern-looking Roman Emperors.
+
+"I don't know," she said, pausing for a moment opposite a bust labelled
+"Trajan" (but obviously a portrait of Phil May), "how I am ever even to
+thank you for all that you have done? to say nothing of repayment."
+
+"There is no need to do either," I replied. "I have enjoyed working with
+you, so I have had my reward. But still," I added, "if you want to do me
+a great kindness, you have it in your power."
+
+"How?"
+
+"In connection with my friend Doctor Thorndyke. I told you he was an
+enthusiast. Now he is, for some reason, most keenly interested in
+everything relating to your uncle, and I happen to know that, if any
+legal proceedings should take place, he would very much like to keep a
+friendly eye on the case."
+
+"And what do you want me to do?"
+
+"I want you, if an opportunity should occur for him to give your father
+advice or help of any kind, to use your influence with your father in
+favour of, rather than in opposition to, his accepting it--always
+assuming that you have no real feeling against his doing so."
+
+Miss Bellingham looked at me thoughtfully for a few moments, and then
+laughed softly.
+
+"So the great kindness that I am to do you is to let you do me a further
+kindness through your friend!"
+
+"No," I protested; "that is where you are quite mistaken. It isn't
+benevolence on Doctor Thorndyke's part; it is professional enthusiasm."
+
+She smiled sceptically.
+
+"You don't believe in it," I said; "but consider other cases. Why does a
+surgeon get out of bed on a winter's night to do an emergency operation
+at a hospital? He doesn't get paid for it. Do you think it is altruism?"
+
+"Yes, of course. Isn't it?"
+
+"Certainly not. He does it because it is his job, because it is his
+business to fight with disease--and win."
+
+"I don't see much difference," she said. "It is work done for love
+instead of for payment. However, I will do what you ask if the
+opportunity arises; but I shan't suppose that I am repaying your
+kindness to me."
+
+"I don't mind, so long as you do it," I said, and we walked on for some
+time in silence.
+
+"Isn't it odd," she said presently, "how our talk always seems to come
+back to my uncle? Oh, and that reminds me that the things he gave to the
+Museum are in the same room as the Ahkhenaten relief. Would you like to
+see them?"
+
+"Of course I should."
+
+"Then we will go and look at them first." She paused, and then, rather
+shyly and with a rising colour, she continued: "And I think I should
+like to introduce you to a very dear friend of mine--with your
+permission, of course."
+
+This last addition she made hastily, seeing, I suppose, that I looked
+rather glum at the suggestion. Inwardly I consigned her friend to the
+devil, especially if of the masculine gender; outwardly I expressed my
+felicity at making the acquaintance of any person whom she should honour
+with her friendship. Whereat, to my discomfiture, she laughed
+enigmatically; a very soft laugh, low-pitched and musical, like the
+cooing of a glorified pigeon.
+
+I strolled on by her side, speculating a little anxiously on the coming
+introduction. Was I being conducted to the lair of one of the savants
+attached to the establishment? and would he add a superfluous third to
+our little party of two, so complete and companionable, _solus cum
+sola_, in this populated wilderness? Above all, would he turn out to be
+a comely young man, and bring my aerial castles tumbling about my ears?
+The shy look and the blush with which she had suggested the introduction
+were ominous indications, upon which I mused gloomily as we ascended the
+stairs and passed through the wide doorway. I glanced apprehensively at
+my companion, and met a quiet, inscrutable smile; and at that moment she
+halted outside a wall-case and faced me.
+
+"This is my friend," she said. "Let me present you to Artemidorus, late
+of the Fayyum. Oh, don't smile!" she pleaded. "I am quite serious. Have
+you never heard of pious Catholics who cherish a devotion to some
+long-departed saint? That is my feeling towards Artemidorus, and if you
+only knew what comfort he has shed into the heart of a lonely woman;
+what a quiet, unobtrusive friend he has been to me in my solitary,
+friendless days, always ready with a kindly greeting on his gentle,
+thoughtful face, you would like him for that alone. And I want you to
+like him and to share our silent friendship. Am I very silly, very
+sentimental?"
+
+A wave of relief had swept over me, and the mercury of my emotional
+thermometer, which had shrunk almost into the bulb, leaped up to summer
+heat. How charming it was of her and how sweetly intimate, to wish to
+share this mystical friendship with me! And what a pretty conceit it
+was, too, and how like this strange, inscrutable maiden, to come here
+and hold silent converse with this long-departed Greek. And the pathos
+of it all touched me deeply amidst the joy of this newborn intimacy.
+
+"Are you scornful?" she asked, with a shade of disappointment, as I made
+no reply.
+
+"No, indeed I am not," I answered earnestly. "I want to make you aware
+of my sympathy and my appreciation without offending you by seeming to
+exaggerate, and I don't know how to express it."
+
+"Oh, never mind about the expression, so long as you feel it. I thought
+you would understand," and she gave me a smile that made me tingle to my
+finger-tips.
+
+We stood awhile gazing in silence at the mummy--for such, indeed, was
+her friend Artemidorus. But not an ordinary mummy. Egyptian in form, it
+was entirely Greek in feeling; and brightly coloured as it was, in
+accordance with the racial love of colour, the tasteful refinement with
+which the decoration of the case was treated made those around look
+garish and barbaric. But the most striking feature was a charming panel
+portrait which occupied the place of the usual mask. This painting was a
+revelation to me. Except that it was executed in tempera instead of oil,
+it differed in no respect from modern work. There was nothing archaic or
+even ancient about it. With its freedom of handling and its correct
+rendering of light and shade, it might have been painted yesterday;
+indeed, enclosed in an ordinary gilt frame, it might have passed without
+remark in an exhibition of modern portraits.
+
+Miss Bellingham observed my admiration and smiled approvingly.
+
+"It is a charming little portrait, isn't it?" she said; "and such a
+sweet face, too; so thoughtful and human with just a shade of
+melancholy. But the whole thing is full of charm. I fell in love with it
+the first time I saw it. And it is so Greek!"
+
+"Yes, it is, in spite of the Egyptian gods and symbols."
+
+"Rather because of them, I think," said she. "There we have the typical
+Greek attitude, the genial, cultivated eclecticism that appreciated the
+fitness of even the most alien forms of art. There is Anubis standing
+beside the bier; there are Isis and Nephthys, and there below, Horus and
+Tahuti. But we can't suppose that Artemidorus worshipped or believed in
+those gods. They are there because they are splendid decoration and
+perfectly appropriate in character. The real feeling of those who loved
+the dead man breaks out in the inscription." She pointed to a band below
+the pectoral, where, in gilt capital letters, was written the two words,
+"[Greek: ARTEMIDORE EUPsUChI]."
+
+"Yes," I said, "it is very dignified and very human."
+
+"And so sincere and full of real emotion," she added. "I find it
+unspeakably touching. 'O Artemidorus, farewell!' There is the real note
+of human grief, the sorrow of eternal parting. How much finer it is than
+the vulgar boastfulness of the Semitic epitaphs, or our own miserable,
+insincere make-believe of the 'Not lost but gone before' type. He was
+gone from them for ever; they would look on his face and hear his voice
+no more; they realised that this was their last farewell. Oh, there is a
+world of love and sorrow in those two simple words!"
+
+For some time neither of us spoke. The glamour of this touching memorial
+of a long-buried grief had stolen over me, and I was content to stand
+silent by my beloved companion and revive, with a certain pensive
+pleasure, the ghosts of human emotions over which so many centuries had
+rolled. Presently she turned to me with a frank smile. "You have been
+weighed in the balance of friendship," she said, "and not found wanting.
+You have the gift of sympathy, even with a woman's sentimental fancies."
+
+I suspected that a good many men would have developed this precious
+quality under the circumstances, but I refrained from saying so. There
+is no use in crying down one's own wares. I was glad enough to have
+earned her good opinion so easily, and when she at length turned away
+from the case and passed through into the adjoining room, it was a very
+complacent young man who bore her company.
+
+"Here is Ahkhenaten--or Khu-en-aten, as the authorities here render the
+hieroglyphics." She indicated a fragment of a coloured relief labelled:
+"Portion of a painted stone tablet with a portrait figure of Amen-hetep
+IV," and we stopped to look at the frail, effeminate figure of the great
+king, with his large cranium, his queer, pointed chin and the Aten rays
+stretching out their weird hands as if caressing him.
+
+"We mustn't stay here if you want to see my uncle's gift, because this
+room closes at four to-day." With this admonition she moved on to the
+other end of the room, where she halted before a large floor-case
+containing a mummy and a large number of other objects. A black label
+with white lettering set forth the various contents with a brief
+explanation as follows:
+
+"Mummy of Sebek-hotep, a scribe of the twenty-second dynasty, together
+with the objects found in the tomb. These include the four Canopic jars,
+in which the internal organs were deposited, the Ushabti figures, tomb
+provisions and various articles that had belonged to the deceased; his
+favourite chair, his head-rest, his ink-palette, inscribed with his name
+and the name of the king, Osorkon I, in whose reign he lived, and other
+smaller articles. Presented by John Bellingham, Esq."
+
+"They have put all the objects together in one case," Miss Bellingham
+explained, "to show the contents of an ordinary tomb of the better
+class. You see that the dead man was provided with all his ordinary
+comforts: provisions, furniture, the ink-palette that he had been
+accustomed to use in writing on papyri, and a staff of servants to wait
+on him."
+
+"Where are the servants?" I asked.
+
+"The little Ushabti figures," she answered; "they were the attendants of
+the dead, you know, his servants in the under-world. It was a quaint
+idea, wasn't it? But it was all very complete and consistent, and quite
+reasonable, too, if once one accepts the belief in the persistence of
+the individual apart from the body."
+
+"Yes," I agreed, "and that is the only fair way to judge a religious
+system, by taking the main beliefs for granted. But what a business it
+must have been, bringing all these things from Egypt to London."
+
+"It was worth the trouble, though, for it is a fine and instructive
+collection. And the work is all very good of its kind. You notice that
+the Ushabti figures and the heads that form the stoppers of the Canopic
+jars are quite finely modelled. The mummy itself, too, is rather
+handsome, though that coat of bitumen on the back doesn't improve it.
+But Sebek-hotep must have been a fine-looking man."
+
+"The mask on the case is a portrait, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes; in fact, it is rather more. To some extent it is the actual face
+of the man himself. This mummy is enclosed in what is called a
+cartonnage, that is a case moulded on the figure. The cartonnage, was
+formed of a number of layers of linen or papyrus united by glue or
+cement, and when the case had been fitted to the mummy it was moulded to
+the body, so that the general form of the features and limbs was often
+apparent. After the cement was dry the case was covered with a thin
+layer of stucco and the face modelled more completely, and then the
+decorations and inscriptions were painted on. So that, you see, in a
+cartonnage, the body was sealed up like a nut in its shell, unlike the
+more ancient forms in which the mummy was merely rolled up and enclosed
+in a wooden coffin."
+
+At this moment there smote upon our ears a politely protesting voice
+announcing in sing-song tones that it was closing time; and
+simultaneously a desire for tea suggested the hospitable milk-shop. With
+leisurely dignity that ignored the official who shepherded us along the
+galleries, we made our way to the entrance, still immersed in
+conversation on matters sepulchral.
+
+It was rather earlier than our usual hour for leaving the Museum and,
+moreover, it was our last day--for the present. Wherefore we lingered
+over our tea to an extent that caused the milk-shop lady to view us with
+some disfavour, and when at length we started homeward, we took so many
+short cuts that six o'clock found us no nearer our destination than
+Lincoln's Inn Fields; whither we had journeyed by a slightly indirect
+route that traversed (among other places) Russell Square, Red Lion
+Square, with the quaint passage of the same name, Bedford Row, Jockey's
+Fields, Hand Court, and Great Turnstile.
+
+It was in the latter thoroughfare that our attention was attracted by a
+flaming poster outside a newsvendor's bearing the startling inscription:
+
+"MORE MEMENTOES OF MURDERED MAN."
+
+Miss Bellingham glanced at the poster and shuddered.
+
+"Horrible! Isn't it?" she said. "Have you read about them?"
+
+"I haven't been noticing the papers the last few, days," I replied.
+
+"No, of course you haven't. You've been slaving at those wretched notes.
+We don't very often see the papers, at least we don't take them in, but
+Miss Oman has kept us supplied during the last day or two. She is a
+perfect little ghoul; she delights in horrors of every kind, and the
+more horrible the better."
+
+"But," I asked, "what is it that they have found?"
+
+"Oh, they are the remains of some poor creature who seems to have been
+murdered and cut in pieces. It is dreadful. It made me shudder to read
+of it, for I couldn't help thinking of poor Uncle John, and, as for my
+father, he was really quite upset."
+
+"Are these the bones that were found in a watercress-bed at Sidcup?"
+
+"Yes. But they have found several more. The police have been most
+energetic. They seem to have been making a systematic search, and the
+result has been that they have discovered several portions of the body,
+scattered about in very widely separated places--Sidcup, Lee, St. Mary
+Cray; and yesterday it was reported that an arm had been found in one of
+the ponds called 'the Cuckoo Pits,' close to our old home."
+
+"What! in Essex?" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, in Epping Forest, quite near Woodford. Isn't it dreadful to think
+of it? They were probably hidden when we were living there. I think it
+was that that horrified my father so much. When he read it he was so
+upset that he gathered up the whole bundle of newspapers and tossed them
+out of the window; and they blew over the wall, and poor Miss Oman had
+to rush out and pursue them up the court."
+
+"Do you think he suspects that these remains may be those of your
+uncle?"
+
+"I think so, though he has said nothing to that effect, and, of course,
+I have not made any such suggestion to him. We always preserve the
+fiction between ourselves of believing that Uncle John is still alive."
+
+"But you don't think he is, do you?"
+
+"No, I am afraid I don't; and I feel pretty sure that my father doesn't
+think so either, but he doesn't like to admit it to me."
+
+"Do you happen to remember what bones have been found?"
+
+"No, I don't. I know that an arm was found in the Cuckoo Pits, and I
+think a thigh-bone was dredged up out of a pond near St. Mary Cray. But
+Miss Oman will be able to tell you all about it, if you are interested.
+She will be delighted to meet a kindred spirit," Miss Bellingham added,
+with a smile.
+
+"I don't know that I want to claim spiritual kinship with a ghoul," said
+I; "especially such a very sharp-tempered ghoul."
+
+"Oh, don't disparage her, Doctor Berkeley!" Miss Bellingham pleaded.
+"She isn't really bad-tempered; only a little prickly on the surface. I
+oughtn't to have called her a ghoul; she is just the sweetest, most
+affectionate, most unselfish little angelic human hedgehog that you
+could find if you travelled the wide world through. Do you know that she
+has been working her fingers to the bone making an old dress of mine
+presentable because she is so anxious that I shall look nice at your
+little supper-party."
+
+"You are sure to do that, in any case," I said; "but I withdraw my
+remark as to her temper unreservedly. And I really didn't mean it, you
+know; I have always liked the little lady."
+
+"That's right; and now won't you come in and have a few minutes' chat
+with my father? We are quite early, in spite of the short cuts."
+
+I assented readily, and the more so inasmuch as I wanted a few words
+with Miss Oman on the subject of catering and did not want to discuss it
+before my friends. Accordingly I went in and gossiped with Mr.
+Bellingham, chiefly about the work that we had done at the Museum, until
+it was time for me to return to the surgery.
+
+Having taken my leave, I walked down the stairs with reflective slowness
+and as much creaking of my boots as I could manage; with the result,
+hopefully anticipated, that as I approached the door of Miss Oman's room
+it opened and the lady's head protruded.
+
+"I'd change my cobbler if I were you," she said.
+
+I thought of the "angelic human hedgehog," and nearly sniggered in her
+face.
+
+"I am sure you would, Miss Oman, instantly; though, mind you, the poor
+fellow can't help his looks."
+
+"You are a very flippant young man," she said severely. Whereat I
+grinned, and she regarded me silently with a baleful glare. Suddenly I
+remembered my mission and became serious and sober.
+
+"Miss Oman," I said, "I very much want to take your advice on a matter
+of some importance--to me, at least." (That ought to fetch her, I
+thought.) The "advice fly"--strangely neglected by Izaak Walton--is
+guaranteed to kill in any weather. And it did fetch her. She rose in a
+flash and gorged it, cock's feathers, worsted body and all.
+
+"What is it about?" she asked eagerly. "But don't stand out there where
+everybody can hear but me. Come in and sit down."
+
+Now, I didn't want to discuss the matter here, and, besides, there was
+not time. I therefore assumed an air of mystery.
+
+"I can't, Miss Oman. I'm due at the surgery now. But if you should be
+passing and should have a few minutes to spare, I should be greatly
+obliged if you would look in. I really don't quite know how to act."
+
+"No, I expect not. Men very seldom do. But you're better than most, for
+you know when you are in difficulties and have the sense to consult a
+woman. But what is it about? Perhaps I might be thinking it over."
+
+"Well, you know," I began evasively, "it's a simple matter, but I can't
+very well--no, by Jove!" I added, looking at my watch, "I must run, or I
+shall keep the multitude waiting." And with this I bustled away, leaving
+her literally dancing with curiosity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SPHINX OF LINCOLN'S INN
+
+
+At the age of twenty-six one cannot claim to have attained to the
+position of a person of experience. Nevertheless, the knowledge of human
+nature accumulated in that brief period sufficed to make me feel pretty
+confident that, at some time during the evening, I should receive a
+visit from Miss Oman. And circumstances justified my confidence; for the
+clock yet stood at two minutes to seven when a premonitory tap at the
+surgery door heralded her arrival.
+
+"I happened to be passing," she explained, and I forbore to smile at the
+coincidence, "so I thought I might as well drop in and hear what you
+wanted to ask me about."
+
+She seated herself in the patients' chair and, laying a bundle of
+newspapers on the table, glared at me expectantly.
+
+"Thank you, Miss Oman," I said. "It is very good of you to look in on
+me. I am ashamed to give you all this trouble about such a trifling
+matter."
+
+She rapped her knuckles impatiently on the table.
+
+"Never mind about the trouble," she exclaimed tartly.
+"What--is--it--that--you--want--to--_ask_--me about?"
+
+I stated my difficulties in respect of the supper-party, and, as I
+proceeded, an expression of disgust and disappointment spread over her
+countenance. "I don't see why you need have been so mysterious about
+it," she said glumly.
+
+"I didn't mean to be mysterious; I was only anxious not to make a mess
+of the affair. It's all very fine to assume a lofty scorn of the
+pleasures of the table, but there is great virtue in a really good feed,
+especially when low-living and high-thinking have been the order of the
+day."
+
+"Coarsely put," said Miss Oman, "but perfectly true."
+
+"Very well. Now, if I leave the management to Mrs. Gummer, she will
+probably provide a tepid Irish stew with flakes of congealed fat on it,
+and a plastic suet-pudding or something of that kind, and turn the house
+upside-down in getting it ready. So I thought of having a cold spread
+and getting the things in from outside. But I don't want it to look as
+if I had been making enormous preparations."
+
+"They won't think the things came down from heaven," said Miss Oman.
+
+"No, I suppose they won't. But you know what I mean. Now, where do you
+advise me to go for the raw materials of conviviality?"
+
+Miss Oman reflected. "You'd better let me do your shopping and manage
+the whole business," was her final verdict.
+
+This was precisely what I had wanted, and I accepted thankfully,
+regardless of the feelings of Mrs. Gummer. I handed her two pounds, and,
+after some protests at my extravagance, she bestowed them in her purse;
+a process that occupied time, since that receptacle, besides and
+time-stained bills, already bulged with a lading of draper's samples,
+ends of tape, a card of linen buttons, another of hooks and eyes, a lump
+of beeswax, a rat-eaten stump of lead-pencil, and other trifles that I
+have forgotten. As she closed the purse at the imminent risk of
+wrenching off its fastenings she looked at me severely and pursed up her
+lips.
+
+"You're a very plausible young man," she remarked.
+
+"What makes you say that?" I asked.
+
+"Philandering about museums," she continued, "with handsome young ladies
+on the pretence of work. Work, indeed! Oh, I heard her telling her
+father about it. She thinks you were perfectly enthralled by the mummies
+and dried cats and chunks of stone and all the other trash. She doesn't
+know what humbugs men are."
+
+"Really, Miss Oman--" I began.
+
+"Oh, don't talk to me!" she snapped. "I can see it all. You can't impose
+on _me_. I can see you staring into those glass cases, egging her on to
+talk and listening open-mouthed and bulging-eyed and sitting at her
+feet--now, didn't you?"
+
+"I don't know about sitting at her feet," I said, "though it might
+easily have come to that with those infernal slippery floors; but I had
+a very jolly time, and I mean to go again if I can. Miss Bellingham is
+the cleverest and most accomplished woman I have ever spoken to."
+
+This was a poser for Miss Oman, whose admiration and loyalty, I knew,
+were only equalled by my own. She would have liked to contradict me, but
+the thing was impossible. To cover her defeat she snatched up the bundle
+of newspapers and began to open them out.
+
+"What sort of stuff is 'hibernation'?" she demanded suddenly.
+
+"Hibernation!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes. They found a patch of it on a bone that was discovered in a pond
+at St. Mary Cray, and a similar patch on one that was found at some
+place in Essex. Now, I want to know what 'hibernation' is."
+
+"You must mean 'eburnation,'" I said, after a moment's reflection.
+
+"The newspapers say 'hibernation,' and I suppose they know what they are
+talking about. If you don't know what it is, don't be ashamed to say
+so."
+
+"Well, then, I don't."
+
+"In that case you'd better read the papers and find out," she said, a
+little illogically. And then: "Are you fond of murders? I am, awfully."
+
+"What a shocking little ghoul you must be!" I exclaimed.
+
+She stuck out her chin at me. "I'll trouble you," she said, "to be a
+little more respectful in your language. Do you realise that I am old
+enough to be your mother?"
+
+"Impossible!" I ejaculated.
+
+"Fact," said Miss Oman.
+
+"Well, anyhow," said I, "age is not the only qualification. And,
+besides, you are too late for the billet. The vacancy's filled."
+
+Miss Oman slapped the papers down on the table and rose abruptly.
+
+"You had better read the papers and see if you can learn a little
+sense," she said severely as she turned to go. "Oh, and don't forget the
+finger!" she added eagerly. "That is really thrilling."
+
+"The finger?" I repeated.
+
+"Yes. They found a hand with one finger missing. The police think it is
+a highly important clue. I don't know quite what they mean; but you read
+the account and tell me what you think."
+
+With this parting injunction she bustled out through the surgery, and I
+followed to bid her a ceremonious adieu on the doorstep. I watched her
+little figure tripping with quick, bird-like steps down Fetter Lane, and
+was about to turn back into the surgery when my attention was attracted
+by the evolutions of an elderly gentleman on the opposite side of the
+street. He was a somewhat peculiar-looking man, tall, gaunt, and bony,
+and the way in which he carried his head suggested to the medical mind a
+pronounced degree of near sight and a pair of "deep" spectacle glasses.
+Suddenly he espied me and crossed the road with his chin thrust forward
+and a pair of keen blue eyes directed at me through the centres of his
+spectacles.
+
+"I wonder if you can and will help me," said he, with a courteous
+salute. "I wish to call on an acquaintance, and I have forgotten his
+address. It is in some court, but the name of that court has escaped me
+for the moment. My friend's name is Bellingham. I suppose you don't
+chance to know it? Doctors know a great many people, as a rule."
+
+"Do you mean Mr. Godfrey Bellingham?"
+
+"Ah! Then you do know him. I have not consulted the oracle in vain. He
+is a patient of yours, no doubt?"
+
+"A patient and a personal friend. His address is Forty-nine Nevill's
+Court."
+
+"Thank you, thank you. Oh, and as you are a friend, perhaps you can
+inform me as to the customs of the household. I am not expected, and I
+do not wish to make an untimely visit. What are Mr. Bellingham's habits
+as to his evening meal? Would this be a convenient time to call?"
+
+"I generally make my evening visits a little later than this--say about
+half-past eight; they have finished their meal by then."
+
+"Ah! half-past eight, then? Then I suppose I had better take a walk
+until that time. I don't want to disturb them."
+
+"Would you care to come in and smoke a cigar until it is time to make
+your call? If you would, I could walk over with you and show you the
+house."
+
+"That is very kind of you," said my new acquaintance, with an
+inquisitive glance at me through his spectacles. "I think I should like
+to sit down. It's a dull affair, mooning about the streets, and there
+isn't time to go back to my chambers--in Lincoln's Inn."
+
+"I wonder," said I, as I ushered him into the room lately vacated by
+Miss Oman, "if you happen to be Mr. Jellicoe?"
+
+He turned his spectacles full on me with a keen, suspicious glance.
+"What makes you think I am Mr. Jellicoe?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, only that you live in Lincoln's Inn."
+
+"Ha! I see. I live in Lincoln's Inn; Mr. Jellicoe lives in Lincoln's
+Inn; therefore I am Mr. Jellicoe. Ha! ha! Bad logic, but a correct
+conclusion. Yes, I am Mr. Jellicoe. What do you know about me?"
+
+"Mighty little, excepting that you were the late John Bellingham's man
+of business."
+
+"The '_late_ John Bellingham,' hey! How do you know he is the late John
+Bellingham?"
+
+"As a matter of fact, I don't; only I rather understood that that was
+your own belief."
+
+"You understood! Now, from whom did you 'understand' that? From Godfrey
+Bellingham? H'm! And how did he know what I believe? I never told him.
+It is a very unsafe thing, my dear sir, to expound another man's
+beliefs."
+
+"Then you think that John Bellingham is alive?"
+
+"Do I? Who said so? I did not, you know."
+
+"But he must be either dead or alive."
+
+"There," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I am entirely with you. You have stated an
+undeniable truth."
+
+"It is not a very illuminating one, however," I replied, laughing.
+
+"Undeniable truths often are not," he retorted. "They are apt to be
+extremely general. In fact, I would affirm that the certainty of the
+truth of a given proposition is directly proportional to its
+generality."
+
+"I suppose that is so," said I.
+
+"Undoubtedly. Take an instance from your own profession. Given a million
+normal human beings under twenty, and you can say with certainty that a
+majority of them will die before reaching a certain age, that they will
+die in certain circumstances and of certain diseases. Then take a single
+unit from that million, and what can you predict concerning him?
+Nothing. He may die to-morrow; he may live to a couple of hundred. He
+may die of a cold in the head or a cut finger, or from falling off the
+cross of St. Paul's. In a particular case you can predict nothing."
+
+"That is perfectly true," said I. And then, realising that I had been
+led away from the topic of John Bellingham, I ventured to return to it.
+
+"That was a very mysterious affair--the disappearance of John
+Bellingham, I mean."
+
+"Why mysterious?" asked Mr. Jellicoe. "Men disappear from time to time,
+and when they reappear, the explanations that they give (when they give
+any) seem to be more or less adequate."
+
+"But the circumstances were surely rather mysterious."
+
+"What circumstances?" asked Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"I mean the way in which he vanished from Mr. Hurst's house."
+
+"In what way did he vanish from it?"
+
+"Well, of course, I don't know."
+
+"Precisely. Neither do I. Therefore I can't say whether that way was a
+mysterious one or not."
+
+"It is not even certain that he did leave it," I remarked, rather
+recklessly.
+
+"Exactly," said Mr. Jellicoe. "And if he did not, he is there still. And
+if he is there still, he has not disappeared--in the sense understood.
+And if he has not disappeared, there is no mystery."
+
+I laughed heartily, but Mr. Jellicoe preserved a wooden solemnity and
+continued to examine me through his spectacles (which I, in my turn,
+inspected and estimated at about minus five dioptres). There was
+something highly diverting about this grim lawyer, with his dry
+contentiousness and almost farcical caution. His ostentatious reserve
+encouraged me to ply him with fresh questions, the more indiscreet the
+better.
+
+"I suppose," said I, "that, under these circumstances, you would hardly
+favour Mr. Hurst's proposal to apply for permission to presume death?"
+
+"Under what circumstances?" he inquired.
+
+"I was referring to the doubt you have expressed as to whether John
+Bellingham is, after all, really dead."
+
+"My dear sir," said he, "I fail to see your point. If it were certain
+that the man was alive, it would be impossible to presume that he was
+dead; and if it were certain that he was dead, presumption of death
+would still be impossible. You do not presume a certainty. The
+uncertainty is of the essence of the transaction."
+
+"But," I persisted, "if you really believe that he may be alive, I
+should hardly have thought that you would take the responsibility of
+presuming his death and dispersing his property."
+
+"I don't," said Mr. Jellicoe. "I take no responsibility. I act in
+accordance with the decision of the Court and have no choice in the
+matter."
+
+"But the Court may decide that he is dead and he may nevertheless be
+alive."
+
+"Not at all. If the Court decides that he is presumably dead, then he is
+presumably dead. As a mere irrelevant, physical circumstance he may, it
+is true, be alive. But legally speaking, and for testamentary purposes,
+he is dead. You fail to perceive the distinction, no doubt?"
+
+"I am afraid I do," I admitted.
+
+"Yes; members of your profession usually do. That is what makes them
+such bad witnesses in a court of law. The scientific outlook is
+radically different from the legal. The man of science relies on his own
+knowledge and observation and judgment, and disregards testimony. A man
+comes to you and tells you he is blind in one eye. Do you accept his
+statement? Not in the least. You proceed to test his eyesight with some
+infernal apparatus of coloured glasses, and you find that he can see
+perfectly well with both eyes. Then you decide that he is not blind in
+one eye; that is to say, you reject his testimony in favour of facts of
+your own ascertaining."
+
+"But surely that is the rational method of coming to a conclusion?"
+
+"In science, no doubt. Not in law. A court of law must decide according
+to the evidence which is before it; and that evidence is of the nature
+of sworn testimony. If a witness is prepared to swear that black is
+white, and no evidence to the contrary is offered, the evidence before
+the Court is that black is white, and the Court must decide accordingly.
+The judge and the jury may think otherwise--they may even have private
+knowledge to the contrary--but they have to decide according to the
+evidence."
+
+"Do you mean to say that a judge would be justified in giving a decision
+which he knew privately to be contrary to the facts? Or that he might
+sentence a man whom he knew to be innocent?"
+
+"Certainly. It has been done. There is a case of a judge who sentenced a
+man to death and allowed the execution to take place, notwithstanding
+that he--the judge--had actually seen the murder committed by another
+man. But that was carrying correctness of procedure to the verge of
+pedantry."
+
+"It was, with a vengeance," I agreed. "But to return to the case of John
+Bellingham. Supposing that after the Court has decided that he is dead
+he should turn up alive? What then?"
+
+"Ah! It would then be his turn to make an application, and the Court,
+having fresh evidence laid before it, would probably decide that he was
+alive."
+
+"And meantime his property would have been dispersed?"
+
+"Probably. But you will observe that the presumption of death would have
+arisen out of his own proceedings. If a man acts in such a way as to
+create a belief that he is dead, he must put up with the consequences."
+
+"Yes, that is reasonable enough," said I. And then, after a pause, I
+asked: "Is there any immediate likelihood of proceedings of the kind
+being commenced?"
+
+"I understood from what you said just now that Mr. Hurst was
+contemplating some action of the kind. No doubt you had your information
+from a reliable quarter." This answer Mr. Jellicoe delivered without
+moving a muscle, regarding me with the fixity of a spectacled
+figure-head.
+
+I smiled feebly. The operation of pumping Mr. Jellicoe was rather like
+the sport of boxing with a porcupine, being chiefly remarkable as a
+demonstration of the power of passive resistance. I determined, however,
+to make one more effort, rather, I think, for the pleasure of witnessing
+his defensive manoeuvres than with the expectation of getting anything
+out of him. I accordingly "opened out" on the subject of the "remains."
+
+"Have you been following these remarkable discoveries of human bones
+that have been appearing in the papers?" I asked.
+
+He looked at me stonily for some moments, and then replied:
+
+"Human bones are rather more within your province than mine, but, now
+that you mention it, I think I recall having read of some such
+discoveries. They were disconnected bones, I believe?"
+
+"Yes; evidently parts of a dismembered body."
+
+"So I should suppose. No, I have not followed the accounts. As we get on
+in life our interests tend to settle into grooves, and my groove is
+chiefly connected with conveyancing. These discoveries would be of more
+interest to a criminal lawyer."
+
+"I thought that you might, perhaps, have connected them with the
+disappearance of your client."
+
+"Why should I? What could be the nature of the connection?"
+
+"Well," I said, "these are the bones of a man--"
+
+"Yes; and my client was a man with bones. That is a connection,
+certainly, though not a very specific or distinctive one. But perhaps
+you had something more particular in your mind."
+
+"I had," I replied. "The fact that some of the bones were actually found
+on land belonging to your client seemed to me rather significant."
+
+"Did it, indeed?" said Mr. Jellicoe. He reflected for a few moments,
+gazing steadily at me the while, and then continued: "In that I am
+unable to follow you. It would have seemed to me that the finding of
+human remains upon a certain piece of land might conceivably throw a
+_prima facie_ suspicion upon the owner or occupant of that land as being
+the person who deposited them. But the case that you suggest is the one
+case in which this would be impossible. A man cannot deposit his own
+dismembered remains."
+
+"No, of course not. I was not suggesting that he deposited them
+himself, but merely that the fact of their being deposited on his land,
+in a way, connected these remains with him."
+
+"Again," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I fail to follow you, unless you are
+suggesting that it is customary for murderers who mutilate bodies to be
+punctilious in depositing the dismembered remains upon land belonging to
+their victims. In which case I am sceptical as to your facts. I am not
+aware of the existence of any such custom. Moreover, it appears that
+only a portion of the body was deposited on Mr. Bellingham's land, the
+remaining portions having been scattered broadcast over a wide area. How
+does that agree with your suggestion?"
+
+"It doesn't, of course," I admitted. "But there is another fact that I
+think you will admit to be more significant. The first remains that were
+discovered were found at Sidcup. Now, Sidcup is close to Eltham; and
+Eltham is the place where Mr. Bellingham was last seen alive."
+
+"And what is the significance of this? Why do you connect the remains
+with one locality rather than the various other localities in which
+other portions of the body have been found?"
+
+"Well," I replied, rather gravelled by this very pertinent question,
+"the appearances seem to suggest that the person who deposited these
+remains started from the neighbourhood of Eltham, where the missing man
+was last seen."
+
+Mr. Jellicoe shook his head. "You appear," said he, "to be confusing the
+order of deposition with the order of discovery. What evidence is there
+that the remains found at Sidcup were deposited before those found
+elsewhere?"
+
+"I don't know that there is any," I admitted.
+
+"Then," said he, "I don't see how you support your suggestion that the
+person started from the neighbourhood of Eltham."
+
+On consideration, I had to admit that I had nothing to offer in support
+of my theory; and having thus shot my last arrow in this very unequal
+contest, I thought it time to change the subject.
+
+"I called in at the British Museum the other day," said I, "and had a
+look at Mr. Bellingham's last gift to the nation. The things are very
+well shown in that central case."
+
+"Yes. I was very pleased with the position they have given to the
+exhibit, and so would my poor old friend have been. I wished, as I
+looked at the case, that he could have seen it. But perhaps he may,
+after all."
+
+"I am sure I hope he will," said I, with more sincerity, perhaps, than
+the lawyer gave me credit for. For the return of John Bellingham would
+most effectually have cut the Gordian knot of my friend Godfrey's
+difficulties. "You are a good deal interested in Egyptology yourself,
+aren't you?" I added.
+
+"Greatly interested," replied Mr. Jellicoe, with more animation than I
+had thought possible in his wooden face. "It is a fascinating subject,
+the study of this venerable civilisation, extending back to the
+childhood of the human race, preserved for ever for our instruction in
+its own unchanging monuments like a fly in a block of amber. Everything
+connected with Egypt is full of an impressive solemnity. A feeling of
+permanence, of stability, defying time and change, pervades it. The
+place, the people, and the monuments alike breathe of eternity."
+
+I was mightily surprised at this rhetorical outburst on the part of this
+dry and taciturn lawyer. But I liked him the better for the touch of
+enthusiasm that made him human, and determined to keep him astride of
+his hobby.
+
+"Yet," said I, "the people must have changed in the course of
+centuries."
+
+"Yes, that is so. The people who fought against Cambyses were not the
+race that marched into Egypt five thousand years before--the dynastic
+people whose portraits we see on the early monuments. In those fifty
+centuries the blood of Hyksos and Syrians and Ethiopians and Hittites,
+and who can say how many more races, must have mingled with that of the
+old Egyptians. But still the national life went on without a break; the
+old culture leavened the new peoples, and the immigrant strangers ended
+by becoming Egyptians. It is a wonderful phenomenon. Looking back on it
+from our own time, it seems more like a geological period than the
+life-history of a single nation. Are you at all interested in the
+subject?"
+
+"Yes, decidedly, though I am completely ignorant of it. The fact is that
+my interest is of quite recent growth. It is only of late that I have
+been sensible of the glamour of things Egyptian."
+
+"Since you made Miss Bellingham's acquaintance, perhaps?" suggested Mr.
+Jellicoe, himself as unchanging in aspect as an Egyptian effigy.
+
+I suppose I must have reddened--I certainly resented the remark--for he
+continued in the same even tone: "I made the suggestion because I know
+that she takes an intelligent interest in the subject and is, in fact,
+quite well informed on it."
+
+"Yes; she seems to know a great deal about the antiquities of Egypt, and
+I may as well admit that your surmise was correct. It was she who showed
+me her uncle's collection."
+
+"So I had supposed," said Mr. Jellicoe. "And a very instructive
+collection it is, in a popular sense; very suitable for exhibition in a
+public museum, though there is nothing in it of unusual interest to the
+expert. The tomb furniture is excellent of its kind and the cartonnage
+case of the mummy is well made and rather finely decorated."
+
+"Yes, I thought it quite handsome. But can you explain to me why, after
+taking all that trouble to decorate it, they should have disfigured it
+with those great smears of bitumen?"
+
+"Ah!" said Mr. Jellicoe, "that is quite an interesting question. It is
+not unusual to find mummy-cases smeared with bitumen; there is a mummy
+of a priestess in the next gallery which is completely coated with
+bitumen excepting the gilded face. Now, this bitumen was put on for a
+purpose--for the purpose of obliterating the inscriptions and thus
+concealing the identity of the deceased from the robbers and desecrators
+of tombs. And there is the oddity of this mummy of Sebek-hotep.
+Evidently there was an intention of obliterating the inscriptions. The
+whole of the back is covered thickly with bitumen, and so are the feet.
+Then the workers seem to have changed their minds and left the
+inscriptions and decoration untouched. Why they intended to cover it,
+and why, having commenced, they left it partially covered only, is a
+mystery. The mummy was found in its original tomb and quite
+undisturbed, so far as tomb-robbers are concerned. Poor Bellingham was
+greatly puzzled as to what the explanation could be."
+
+"Speaking of bitumen," said I, "reminds me of a question that has
+occurred to me. You know that this substance has been used a good deal
+by modern painters and that it has a very dangerous peculiarity; I mean
+its tendency to liquefy, without any very obvious reason, long after it
+has dried."
+
+"Yes, I know. Isn't there some story about a picture of Reynolds' in
+which bitumen had been used? A portrait of a lady, I think. The bitumen
+softened, and one of the lady's eyes slipped down on to her cheek; and
+they had to hang the portrait upside down and keep it warm until the eye
+slipped back into its place. But what was your question?"
+
+"I was wondering whether the bitumen used by the Egyptian artists has
+ever been known to soften after this great lapse of time."
+
+"Yes, I think it has. I have heard of instances in which the bitumen
+coatings of mummy cases have softened under certain circumstances and
+become quite 'tacky.' But, bless my soul! here am I gossiping with you
+and wasting your time, and it is nearly a quarter to nine!"
+
+My guest rose hastily, and I, with many apologies for having detained
+him, proceeded to fulfil my promise to guide him to his destination. As
+we sallied forth together the glamour of Egypt faded by degrees, and
+when he shook my hand stiffly at the gate of the Bellinghams' house, all
+his vivacity and enthusiasm had vanished, leaving the taciturn lawyer,
+dry, uncommunicative, and not a little suspicious.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE NEW ALLIANCE
+
+
+The "Great Lexicographer"--tutelary deity of my adopted habitat--has
+handed down to shuddering posterity a definition of the act of eating
+which might have been framed by a dyspeptic ghoul. "Eat: to devour with
+the mouth." It is a shocking view to take of so genial a function:
+cynical, indelicate, and finally unforgivable by reason of its very
+accuracy. For, after all, that is what eating amounts to, if one must
+needs express it with such crude brutality. But if "the ingestion of
+alimentary substances"--to ring a modern change upon the older
+formula--is in itself a process material even unto carnality, it is
+undeniable that it forms a highly agreeable accompaniment to more
+psychic manifestations.
+
+And so, as the lamplight, re-enforced by accessory candles, falls on the
+little table in the first-floor room looking on Fetter Lane--only now
+the curtains are drawn--the conversation is not the less friendly and
+bright for a running accompaniment executed with knives and forks, for
+clink of goblet and jovial gurgle of wine-flask. On the contrary, to one
+of us, at least--to wit, Godfrey Bellingham--the occasion is one of
+uncommon festivity, and his boyish enjoyment of the simple feast makes
+pathetic suggestions of hard times, faced uncomplainingly, but keenly
+felt nevertheless.
+
+The talk flitted from topic to topic, mainly concerning itself with
+matters artistic, and never for one moment approaching the critical
+subject of John Bellingham's will. From the stepped pyramid of Sakkara
+with its encaustic tiles to mediaeval church floors; from Elizabethan
+woodwork to Mycaenaean pottery, and thence to the industrial arts of the
+Stone Age and the civilisation of the Aztecs. I began to suspect that my
+two legal friends were so carried away by the interest of the
+conversation that they had forgotten the secret purpose of the meeting,
+for the dessert had been placed on the table (by Mrs. Gummer with the
+manner of a bereaved dependant dispensing funeral bakemeats), and still
+no reference had been made to the "case." But it seemed that Thorndyke
+was but playing a waiting game; was only allowing the intimacy to ripen
+while he watched for the opportunity. And that opportunity came, even as
+Mrs. Gummer vanished spectrally with a tray of plates and glasses.
+
+"So you had a visitor last night, Doctor," said Mr. Bellingham. "I mean
+my friend Jellicoe. He told us he had seen you, and mighty curious he
+was about you. I have never known Jellicoe to be so inquisitive before.
+What did you think of him?"
+
+"A quaint old cock. I found him highly amusing. We entertained one
+another for quite a long time with cross questions and crooked answers;
+I affecting eager curiosity, he replying with a defensive attitude of
+universal ignorance. It was a most diverting encounter."
+
+"He needn't have been so close," Miss Bellingham remarked, "seeing that
+all the world will be regaled with our affairs before long."
+
+"They are proposing to take the case into Court, then?" said Thorndyke.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Bellingham. "Jellicoe came to tell me that my cousin,
+Hurst, has instructed his solicitors to make the application and to
+invite me to join him. Actually he came to deliver an ultimatum from
+Hurst--But, I mustn't disturb the harmony of this festive gathering with
+litigious discords."
+
+"Now, why mustn't you?" asked Thorndyke. "Why is a subject in which we
+are all keenly interested to be _tabu_? You don't mind telling us about
+it, do you?"
+
+"No, of course not. But what do you think of a man who buttonholes a
+doctor at a dinner-party to retail a list of his ailments?"
+
+"It depends on what his ailments are," replied Thorndyke. "If he is a
+chronic dyspeptic and wishes to expound the virtues of Doctor Snaffler's
+Purple Pills for Pimply People, he is merely a bore. But if he chances
+to suffer from some rare and choice disease, such as Trypanosomiasis or
+Acromegaly, the doctor will be delighted to listen."
+
+"Then are we to understand," Miss Bellingham asked, "that we are rare
+and choice products, in a legal sense?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," replied Thorndyke. "The case of John Bellingham is, in
+many respects, unique. It will be followed with the deepest interest by
+the profession at large, and especially by medical jurists."
+
+"How gratifying that should be to us!" said Miss Bellingham. "We may
+even attain undying fame in textbooks and treatises; and yet we are not
+so very much puffed up with our importance."
+
+"No," said her father; "we could do without the fame quite well, and
+so, I think, could Hurst. Did Berkeley tell you of the proposal that he
+made?"
+
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "and I gather from what you say that he has
+repeated it."
+
+"Yes. He sent Jellicoe to give me another chance, and I was tempted to
+take it; but my daughter was strongly against any compromise, and
+probably she is right. At any rate, she is more concerned than I am."
+
+"What view did Mr. Jellicoe take?" Thorndyke asked.
+
+"Oh, he was very cautious and reserved, but he didn't disguise his
+feeling that I should be wise to take a certainty in lieu of a very
+problematical fortune. He would certainly like me to agree, for he
+naturally wishes to get the affair settled and pocket his legacy."
+
+"And have you definitely refused?"
+
+"Yes; quite definitely. So Hurst will apply for permission to presume
+death and prove the will, and Jellicoe will support him; he says he has
+no choice."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I suppose I shall oppose the application, though I don't quite know on
+what grounds."
+
+"Before you take any definite steps," said Thorndyke, "you ought to give
+the matter very careful consideration. I take it that you have very
+little doubt that your brother is dead. And if he is dead, any benefit
+that you may receive under the will must be conditional on the previous
+assumption or proof of death. But perhaps you have taken advice?"
+
+"No, I have not. As our friend the Doctor has probably told you, my
+means--or rather, the lack of them--do not admit of my getting
+professional advice. Hence my delicacy about discussing the case with
+you."
+
+"Then do you propose to conduct your case in person?"
+
+"Yes; if it is necessary for me to appear in Court, as I suppose it will
+be, if I oppose the application."
+
+Thorndyke reflected for a few moments, and then said gravely:
+
+"You had much better not appear in person to conduct your case, Mr.
+Bellingham, for several reasons. To begin with, Mr. Hurst is sure to be
+represented by a capable counsel, and you will find yourself quite
+unable to meet the sudden exigencies of a contest in Court. You will be
+out-manoeuvred. Then there is the judge to be considered."
+
+"But surely one can rely on the judge dealing fairly with a man who is
+unable to afford a solicitor and counsel?"
+
+"Undoubtedly, as a rule, a judge will give an unrepresented litigant
+every assistance and consideration. English judges in general are
+high-minded men with a deep sense of their great responsibilities. But
+you cannot afford to take any chances. You must consider the exceptions.
+A judge has been a counsel, and he may carry to the bench some of the
+professional prejudices of the bar. Indeed, if you consider the absurd
+licence permitted to counsel in their treatment of witnesses, and the
+hostile attitude adopted by some judges towards medical and other
+scientific men who have to give their evidence, you will see that the
+judicial mind is not always quite as judicial as one would wish,
+especially when the privileges and immunities of the profession are
+concerned. Now, your appearance in person to conduct your case must,
+unavoidably, cause some inconvenience to the Court. Your ignorance of
+procedure and legal details must occasion some delay; and if the judge
+should happen to be an irritable man he might resent the inconvenience
+and delay. I don't say that that would affect his decision--I don't
+think it would--but I am sure that it would be wise to avoid giving
+offence to the judge. And, above all, it is most desirable to be able to
+detect and reply to any manoeuvres on the part of the opposing counsel,
+which you certainly would not be able to do."
+
+"This is excellent advice, Doctor Thorndyke," said Bellingham, with a
+grim smile; "but I am afraid I shall have to take my chance."
+
+"Not necessarily," said Thorndyke. "I am going to make a little
+proposal, which I will ask you to consider without prejudice as a mutual
+accommodation. You see, your case is one of exceptional interest--it
+will become a textbook case, as Miss Bellingham has prophesied; and,
+since it lies within my specialty, it will be necessary for me, in any
+case, to follow it in the closest detail. Now, it would be much more
+satisfactory to me to study it from within than from without, to say
+nothing of the credit which would accrue to me if I should be able to
+conduct it to a successful issue. I am therefore going to ask you to put
+your case in my hands and let me see what can be done with it. I know
+this is an unusual course for a professional man to take, but I think it
+is not improper under the circumstances."
+
+Mr. Bellingham pondered in silence for a few moments, and then, after a
+glance at his daughter, began rather hesitatingly: "It is exceedingly
+generous of you, Doctor Thorndyke--"
+
+"Pardon me," interrupted Thorndyke, "it is not. My motives, as I have
+explained, are purely egoistic."
+
+Mr. Bellingham laughed uneasily and again glanced at his daughter, who,
+however, pursued her occupation of peeling a pear with calm deliberation
+and without lifting her eyes. Getting no help from her, he asked: "Do
+you think that there is any possibility whatever of a successful issue?"
+
+"Yes, a remote possibility--very remote, I fear, as things look at
+present; but if I thought the case absolutely hopeless I should advise
+you to stand aside and let events take their course."
+
+"Supposing the case to come to a favourable termination, would you allow
+me to settle your fees in the ordinary way?"
+
+"If the choice lay with me," replied Thorndyke, "I should say 'yes' with
+pleasure. But it does not. The attitude of the profession is very
+definitely unfavourable to 'speculative' practice. You may remember the
+well-known firm of Dodson and Fogg, who gained thereby much profit, but
+little credit. But why discuss contingencies of this kind? If I bring
+your case to a successful issue I shall have done very well for myself.
+We shall have benefited one another mutually. Come now, Miss Bellingham,
+I appeal to you. We have eaten salt together, to say nothing of pigeon
+pie and other cates. Won't you back me up, and at the same time do a
+kindness to Doctor Berkeley?"
+
+"Why, is Doctor Berkeley interested in our decision?"
+
+"Certainly he is, as you will appreciate when I tell you that he
+actually tried to bribe me secretly out of his own pocket."
+
+"Did you?" she asked, looking at me with an expression that rather
+alarmed me.
+
+"Well, not exactly," I replied, mighty hot and uncomfortable, and
+wishing Thorndyke at the devil with his confidences. "I merely mentioned
+that the--the--solicitor's costs, you know, and that sort of thing--but
+you needn't jump on me, Miss Bellingham; Doctor Thorndyke did all that
+was necessary in that way."
+
+She continued to look at me thoughtfully as I stammered out my excuses,
+and then said: "I wasn't going to. I was only thinking that poverty has
+its compensations. You are all so very good to us; and, for my part, I
+should accept Doctor Thorndyke's generous offer most gratefully, and
+thank him for making it so easy for us."
+
+"Very well, my dear," said Mr. Bellingham; "we will enjoy the sweets of
+poverty, as you say--we have sampled the other kind of thing pretty
+freely--and do ourselves the pleasure of accepting a great kindness,
+most delicately offered."
+
+"Thank you," said Thorndyke. "You have justified my faith in you, Miss
+Bellingham, and in the power of Doctor Berkeley's salt. I understand
+that you place your affairs in my hands?"
+
+"Entirely and thankfully," replied Mr. Bellingham. "Whatever you think
+best to be done we agree to beforehand."
+
+"Then," said I, "let us drink success to the Cause. Port, if you please,
+Miss Bellingham; the vintage is not recorded, but it is quite wholesome,
+and a suitable medium for the sodium chloride of friendship." I filled
+her glass, and, when the bottle had made its circuit, we stood up and
+solemnly pledged the new alliance.
+
+"There is just one thing that I would say before we dismiss the subject
+for the present," said Thorndyke. "It is a good thing to keep one's own
+counsel. When you get formal notice from Mr. Hurst's solicitors that
+proceedings are being commenced, you may refer them to Mr. Marchmont of
+Gray's Inn, who will nominally act for you. He will actually have
+nothing to do, but we must preserve the fiction that I am instructed by
+a solicitor. Meanwhile, and until the case goes into Court, I think it
+very necessary that neither Mr. Jellicoe nor anyone else should know
+that I am to be connected with it. We must keep the other side in the
+dark, if we can."
+
+"We will be as secret as the grave," said Mr. Bellingham; "and, as a
+matter of fact, it will be quite easy, since it happens, by a curious
+coincidence, that I am already acquainted with Mr. Marchmont. He acted
+for Stephen Blackmore, you remember, in that case that you unravelled so
+wonderfully. I knew the Blackmores."
+
+"Did you?" said Thorndyke. "What a small world it is! And what a
+remarkable affair that was! The intricacies and cross-issues made it
+quite absorbingly interesting; and it is noteworthy for me in another
+respect, for it was one of the first cases in which I was associated
+with Doctor Jervis."
+
+"Yes, and a mighty useful associate I was," remarked Jervis, "though I
+did pick up one or two facts by accident. And, by the way, the Blackmore
+case had certain points in common with your case, Mr. Bellingham. There
+was a disappearance and a disputed will, and the man who vanished was a
+scholar and an antiquarian."
+
+"Cases in our specialty are apt to have certain general resemblances,"
+said Thorndyke; and as he spoke he directed a keen glance at his junior,
+the significance of which I partly understood when he abruptly changed
+the subject.
+
+"The newspaper reports of your brother's disappearance, Mr. Bellingham,
+were remarkably full of detail. There were even plans of your house and
+that of Mr. Hurst. Do you know who supplied the information?"
+
+"No, I don't," replied Mr. Bellingham. "I know that I didn't. Some
+newspaper men came to me for information, but I sent them packing. So, I
+understand, did Hurst; and as for Jellicoe, you might as well
+cross-examine an oyster."
+
+"Well," said Thorndyke, "the Press-men have queer methods of getting
+'copy'; but still, someone must have given them that description of your
+brother and those plans. It would be interesting to know who it was.
+However, we don't know; and now let us dismiss these legal topics, with
+suitable apologies for having introduced them."
+
+"And perhaps," said I, "we may as well adjourn to what we will call the
+drawing-room--it is really Barnard's den--and leave the housekeeper to
+wrestle with the debris."
+
+We migrated to the cheerfully shabby little apartment, and, when Mrs.
+Gummer had served coffee, with gloomy resignation (as who should say:
+"If you will drink this sort of stuff I suppose you must, but don't
+blame _me_ for the consequences"), I settled Mr. Bellingham in Barnard's
+favourite lop-sided easy chair--the depressed seat of which suggested
+its customary use by an elephant of sedentary habits--and opened the
+diminutive piano.
+
+"I wonder if Miss Bellingham would give us a little music?" I said.
+
+"I wonder if she could?" was the smiling response. "Do you know," she
+continued, "I have not touched a piano for nearly two years? It will be
+quite an interesting experiment--to me; but if it fails, you will be the
+sufferers. So you must choose."
+
+"My verdict," said Mr. Bellingham, "is _fiat experimentum_, though I
+won't complete the quotation, as that would seem to disparage Doctor
+Barnard's piano. But before you begin, Ruth, there is one rather
+disagreeable matter that I want to dispose of, so that I may not disturb
+the harmony with it later."
+
+He paused, and we all looked at him expectantly.
+
+"I suppose, Doctor Thorndyke," he said, "you read the newspapers?"
+
+"I don't," replied Thorndyke. "But I ascertain, for purely business
+purposes, what they contain."
+
+"Then," said Mr. Bellingham, "you have probably met with some accounts
+of the finding of certain human remains, apparently portions of a
+mutilated body?"
+
+"Yes, I have seen those reports and filed them for future reference."
+
+"Exactly. Well, now, it can hardly be necessary for me to tell you that
+those remains--the mutilated remains of some poor murdered creature, as
+there can be no doubt they are--have seemed to have a very dreadful
+significance for me. You will understand what I mean; and I want to ask
+you if--if they have made a similar suggestion to you."
+
+Thorndyke paused before replying, with his eyes bent thoughtfully on
+the floor, and we all looked at him anxiously.
+
+"It is very natural," he said at length, "that you should associate
+these remains with the mystery of your brother's disappearance. I should
+like to say that you are wrong in doing so, but if I did I should be
+uncandid. There are certain facts that do, undoubtedly, seem to suggest
+a connection, and, up to the present, there are no definite facts of a
+contrary significance."
+
+Mr. Bellingham sighed deeply and shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
+
+"It is a horrible affair!" he said huskily; "horrible! Would you mind,
+Doctor Thorndyke, telling us just how the matter stands in your
+opinion--what the probabilities are, for and against?"
+
+Again Thorndyke reflected awhile, and it seemed to me that he was not
+very willing to discuss the subject. However, the question had been
+asked pointedly, and eventually he answered:
+
+"At the present stage of the investigation it is not very easy to state
+the balance of probabilities. The matter is still quite speculative. The
+bones which have been found hitherto (for we are dealing with a
+skeleton, not with a body) have been exclusively those which are useless
+for personal identification; which is, in itself, a rather curious and
+striking fact. The general character and dimensions of the bones seem to
+suggest a middle-aged man of about your brother's height, and the date
+of deposition appears to be in agreement with the date of his
+disappearance."
+
+"Is it known, then, when they were deposited?" Mr. Bellingham asked.
+
+"In the case of those found at Sidcup it seems possible to deduce an
+approximate date. The watercress-bed was cleaned out about two years
+ago, so they could not have been lying there longer than that; and their
+condition suggests that they could not have been there much less than
+two years, as there is apparently not a vestige of the soft structures
+left. Of course, I am speaking from the newspaper reports only; I have
+no direct knowledge of the matter."
+
+"Have they found any considerable part of the body yet? I haven't been
+reading the papers myself. My little friend, Miss Oman, brought a great
+bundle of 'em for me to read, but I couldn't stand it; I pitched the
+whole boiling of 'em out of the window."
+
+I thought I detected a slight twinkle in Thorndyke's eye, but he
+answered quite gravely:
+
+"I think I can give you the particulars from memory, though I won't
+guarantee the dates. The original discovery was made, apparently quite
+accidentally, at Sidcup on the fifteenth of July. It consisted of a
+complete left arm, minus the third finger and including the bones of the
+shoulder--the shoulder-blade and collar-bone. This discovery seems to
+have set the local population, especially the juvenile part of it,
+searching all the ponds and streams of the neighbourhood--"
+
+"Cannibals!" interjected Mr. Bellingham.
+
+"With the result that there was dredged up out of a pond near St. Mary
+Cray, in Kent, a right thigh-bone. There is a slight clue to identity in
+respect of this bone, since the head of it has a small patch of what is
+called 'eburnation'--that is a sort of porcelain-like polish that occurs
+on the parts of bones that form a joint when the natural covering of
+cartilage is destroyed by disease. It is produced by the unprotected
+surface of one bone grinding against the similarly unprotected surface
+of another."
+
+"And how," Mr. Bellingham asked, "would that help the identification?"
+
+"It would indicate," replied Thorndyke, "that the deceased had probably
+suffered from rheumatoid arthritis--what is commonly known as rheumatic
+gout--and he would probably have limped slightly and complained of some
+pain in the right hip."
+
+"I am afraid that doesn't help us much," said Mr. Bellingham; "for, you
+see, John had a pretty pronounced limp from another cause, an old injury
+to his left ankle; and as to complaining of pain--well, he was a hardy
+old fellow and not much given to making complaints of any kind. But
+don't let me interrupt you."
+
+"The next discovery," continued Thorndyke, "was made near Lee, by the
+police this time. They seem to have developed sudden activity in the
+matter, and in searching the neighbourhood of West Kent they dragged out
+of a pond near Lee the bones of a right foot. Now, if it had been the
+left instead of the right we might have had a clue, as I understand that
+your brother had fractured his left ankle, and there might have been
+some traces of the injury on the foot itself."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Bellingham, "I suppose there might. The injury was
+described as a Pott's fracture."
+
+"Exactly. Well, now, after this discovery at Lee it seems that the
+police set on foot a systematic search of all the ponds and small pieces
+of water around London, and on the twenty-third, they found in the
+Cuckoo Pits in Epping Forest, not far from Woodford, the bones of a
+right arm (including those of the shoulder, as before), which seem to be
+part of the same body."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Bellingham, "I heard of that. Quite close to my old
+house. Horrible! horrible! It gave me the shudders to think of it--to
+think that poor old John may have been waylaid and murdered when he was
+actually coming to see me. He may even have got into the grounds by the
+back gate, if it was left unfastened, and been followed in there and
+murdered. You remember that a scarab from his watch-chain was found
+there? But is it clear that this arm was the fellow of the arm that was
+found at Sidcup?"
+
+"It seems to agree in character and dimensions," said Thorndyke, "and
+the agreement is strongly supported by a discovery that was made two
+days later."
+
+"What is that?" Mr. Bellingham demanded.
+
+"It is the lower half of a trunk which the police dredged out of a
+rather deep pond on the skirts of the forest at Loughton--Staple's Pond,
+it is called. The bones found were the pelvis--that is, the two
+hipbones--and six vertebrae, or joints of the backbone. Having
+discovered these, the police dammed the stream and pumped the pond dry,
+but no other bones were found; which is rather odd, as there should have
+been a pair of ribs belonging to the upper vertebra--the twelfth dorsal
+vertebra. It suggests some curious questions as to the method of
+dismemberment; but I mustn't go into unpleasant details. The point is
+that the cavity of the right hip-joint showed a patch of eburnation
+corresponding to that on the head of the right thigh-bone that was found
+at St. Mary Cray. So there can be very little doubt that these bones are
+all part of the same body."
+
+"I see," grunted Mr. Bellingham; and he added, after a moment's
+thought: "Now, the question is, Are these bones the remains of my
+brother John? What do you say, Doctor Thorndyke?"
+
+"I say that the question cannot be answered on the facts at present
+known to us. It can only be said that they may be, and that some of the
+circumstances suggest that they are. But we can only wait for further
+discoveries. At any moment the police may light upon some portion of the
+skeleton which will settle the question definitely one way or the
+other."
+
+"I suppose," said Mr. Bellingham, "I can't be of any service to you in
+the matter of identification?"
+
+"Indeed you can," said Thorndyke, "and I was going to ask you to assist
+me. What I want you to do is this: Write down a full description of your
+brother, including every detail known to you, together with an account
+of every illness or injury from which you know him to have suffered; and
+also the names and, if possible, the addresses of any doctors, surgeons,
+or dentists who may have attended him at any time. The dentists are
+particularly important, as their information would be invaluable if the
+skull belonging to these bones should be discovered."
+
+Mr. Bellingham shuddered.
+
+"It's a shocking idea," he said; "but, of course, you are quite right.
+You must have the facts if you are to form an opinion. I will write out
+what you want and send it to you without delay. And now, for God's sake,
+let us throw off this nightmare, for a little while, at least! What is
+there, Ruth, among Doctor Barnard's music that you can manage?"
+
+Barnard's collection in general inclined to the severely classical, but
+we disinterred from the heap a few lighter works of an old-fashioned
+kind, including a volume of Mendelssohn's _Lieder ohne Worte_, and with
+one of these Miss Bellingham made trial of her skill, playing it with
+excellent taste and quite adequate execution. That, at least, was her
+father's verdict; for, as to me, I found it the perfection of happiness
+merely to sit and look at her--a state of mind that would have been in
+no wise disturbed even by _Silvery Waves_ or _The Maiden's Prayer_.
+
+Thus with simple, homely music, and conversation always cheerful and
+sometimes brilliant, slipped away one of the pleasantest evenings of my
+life, and slipped away all too soon. St. Dunstan's clock was the fly in
+the ointment, for it boomed out intrusively the hour of eleven just as
+my guests were beginning thoroughly to appreciate one another; and
+thereby carried the sun (with a minor paternal satellite) out of the
+firmament of my heaven. For I had, in my professional capacity, given
+strict injunctions that Mr. Bellingham should on no account sit up late;
+and now, in my social capacity, I had smilingly to hear "the doctor's
+orders" quoted. It was a scurvy return for all my care.
+
+When Mr. and Miss Bellingham departed, Thorndyke and Jervis would have
+gone too; but noting my bereaved condition, and being withal
+compassionate and tender of heart, they were persuaded to stay awhile
+and bear me company in a consolatory pipe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE EVIDENCE REVIEWED
+
+
+"So the game has opened," observed Thorndyke, as he struck a match. "The
+play has begun with a cautious lead off by the other side. Very
+cautious, and not very confident."
+
+"Why do you say 'not very confident'?" I asked.
+
+"Well, it is evident that Hurst--and, I fancy, Jellicoe too--is anxious
+to buy off Bellingham's opposition, and at a pretty long price, under
+the circumstances. And when we consider how very little Bellingham has
+to offer against the presumption of his brother's death, it looks as if
+Hurst hadn't much to say on his side."
+
+"No," said Jervis, "he can't hold many trumps or he wouldn't be willing
+to pay four hundred a year for his opponent's chance; and that is just
+as well, for it seems to me that our own hand is a pretty poor one."
+
+"We must look through our hand and see what we do hold," said Thorndyke.
+"Our trump card at present--a rather small one, I am afraid--is the
+obvious intention of the testator that the bulk of the property should
+go to his brother."
+
+"I suppose you will begin your inquiries now," said I.
+
+"We began them some time ago--the day after you brought us the will, in
+fact. Jervis has been through the registers and has ascertained that no
+interment under the name of John Bellingham has taken place since the
+disappearance; which was just what we expected. He has also discovered
+that some other person has been making similar inquiries; which, again,
+is what we expected."
+
+"And your own investigations?"
+
+"Have given negative results for the most part. I found Doctor Norbury,
+at the British Museum, very friendly and helpful; so friendly, in fact,
+that I am thinking whether I may not be able to enlist his help in
+certain private researches of my own, with reference to the changes
+effected by time in the physical properties of certain substances."
+
+"Oh; you haven't told me about that," said Jervis.
+
+"No: I haven't really commenced to plan my experiments yet, and they
+will probably lead to nothing when I do. It occurred to me that,
+possibly, in the course of time, certain molecular changes might take
+place in substances such as wood, bone, pottery, stucco, and other
+common materials, and that these changes might alter their power of
+conducting or transmitting molecular vibrations. Now, if this should
+turn out to be the case, it would be a fact of considerable importance,
+medico-legal and otherwise; for it would be possible to determine
+approximately the age of any object of known composition by testing its
+reactions to electricity, heat, light and other molecular vibrations. I
+thought of seeking Doctor Norbury's assistance because he can furnish me
+with materials for experiment of such great age that the reactions, if
+any, should be extremely easy to demonstrate. But to return to our case.
+I learned from him that John Bellingham had certain friends in
+Paris--collectors and museum officials--whom he was in the habit of
+visiting for the purpose of study and exchange of specimens. I have
+made inquiries of all of these, and none of them had seen him during his
+last visit. In fact, I have not yet discovered anyone who had seen
+Bellingham in Paris on this occasion. So his visit there remains a
+mystery for the present."
+
+"It doesn't seem to be of much importance, since he undoubtedly came
+back," I remarked; but to this Thorndyke demurred.
+
+"It is impossible to estimate the importance of the unknown," said he.
+
+"Well, how does the matter stand," asked Jervis, "on the evidence that
+we have? John Bellingham disappeared on a certain date. Is there
+anything to show what was the manner of his disappearance?"
+
+"The facts in our possession," said Thorndyke, "which are mainly those
+set forth in the newspaper report, suggest several alternative
+possibilities; and in view of the coming inquiry--for they will, no
+doubt, have to be gone into in Court, to some extent--it may be worth
+while to consider them. There are five conceivable hypotheses"--here
+Thorndyke checked them on his fingers as he proceeded--"First, he may
+still be alive. Second, he may have died and been buried without
+identification. Third, he may have been murdered by some unknown person.
+Fourth, he may have been murdered by Hurst and his body concealed.
+Fifth, he may have been murdered by his brother. Let us examine these
+possibilities seriatim.
+
+"First, he may still be alive. If he is, he must either have disappeared
+voluntarily, have lost his memory suddenly and not been identified, or
+have been imprisoned--on a false charge or otherwise. Let us take the
+first case--that of voluntary disappearance. Obviously, its
+improbability is extreme."
+
+"Jellicoe doesn't think so," said I. "He thinks it quite on the cards
+that John Bellingham is alive. He says that it is not a very unusual
+thing for a man to disappear for a time."
+
+"Then why is he applying for a presumption of death?"
+
+"Just what I asked him. He says that it is the correct thing to do; that
+the entire responsibility rests on the Court."
+
+"That is all nonsense," said Thorndyke. "Jellicoe is the trustee for his
+absent client, and, if he thinks that client is alive, it is his duty to
+keep the estate intact; and he knows that perfectly well. We may take it
+that Jellicoe is of the same opinion as I am: that John Bellingham is
+dead."
+
+"Still," I urged, "men do disappear from time to time, and turn up again
+after years of absence."
+
+"Yes, but for a definite reason. Either they are irresponsible vagabonds
+who take this way of shuffling off their responsibilities, or they are
+men who have been caught in a net of distasteful circumstances. For
+instance, a civil servant or a solicitor or a tradesman finds himself
+bound for life to a locality and an occupation of intolerable monotony.
+Perhaps he has an ill-tempered wife, who, after the amiable fashion of a
+certain type of woman, thinking that her husband is pinned down without
+a chance of escape, gives a free rein to her temper. The man puts up
+with it for years, but at last it becomes unbearable. Then he suddenly
+disappears; and small blame to him. But this was not Bellingham's case.
+He was a wealthy bachelor with an engrossing interest in life, free to
+go whither he would and to do whatsoever he wished. Why should he
+disappear? The thing is incredible.
+
+"As to his having lost his memory and remained unidentified, that, also,
+is incredible in the case of a man who had visiting-cards and letters in
+his pocket, whose linen was marked, and who was being inquired for
+everywhere by the police. As to his being in prison, we may dismiss that
+possibility, inasmuch as a prisoner, both before and after conviction,
+would have full opportunity of communicating with his friends.
+
+"The second possibility, that he may have died suddenly and been buried
+without identification, is highly improbable; but, as it is conceivable
+that the body might have been robbed and the means of identification
+thus lost, it remains as a possibility that has to be considered, remote
+as it is.
+
+"The third hypothesis, that he may have been murdered by some unknown
+person, is, under the circumstances, not wildly improbable; but, as the
+police were on the look out and a detailed description of the missing
+man's person was published in the papers, it would involve the complete
+concealment of the body. But this would exclude the most probable form
+of the crime--the casual robbery with violence. It is therefore
+possible, but highly improbable.
+
+"The fourth hypothesis is that Bellingham was murdered by Hurst. Now the
+one fact which militates against this view is that Hurst apparently had
+no motive for committing the murder. We are assured by Jellicoe that no
+one but himself knew the contents of the will, and if this is so--but,
+mind, we have no evidence that it is so--Hurst would have no reason to
+suppose that he had anything material to gain by his cousin's death.
+Otherwise the hypothesis presents no inherent improbabilities. The man
+was last seen alive at Hurst's house. He was seen to enter it and he was
+never seen to leave it--we are still taking the facts as stated in the
+newspapers, remember--and it now appears that he stands to benefit
+enormously by that man's death."
+
+"But," I objected, "you are forgetting that, directly the man was
+missed, Hurst and the servants together searched the entire house."
+
+"Yes. What did they search for?"
+
+"Why, for Mr. Bellingham, of course."
+
+"Exactly; for Mr. Bellingham. That is, for a living man. Now how do you
+search a house for a living man? You look in all the rooms. When you
+look in a room, if he is there, you see him; if you do not see him, you
+assume that he is not there. You don't look under the sofa or behind the
+piano, you don't pull out large drawers or open cupboards. You just look
+into the rooms. That is what these people seem to have done. And they
+did not see Mr. Bellingham. But Mr. Bellingham's corpse might have been
+stowed away out of sight in any one of the rooms that they looked into."
+
+"That is a grim thought," said Jervis; "But it is perfectly true. There
+is no evidence that the man was not lying dead in the house at the very
+time of the search."
+
+"But even so," said I, "there was the body to be disposed of somehow.
+Now how could he possibly have got rid of the body without being
+observed?"
+
+"Ah!" said Thorndyke, "now we are touching on a point of crucial
+importance. If anyone should ever write a treatise on the art of
+murder--not an exhibition of literary fireworks like De Quincey's, but a
+genuine working treatise--he might leave all other technical details to
+take care of themselves if he could describe some really practicable
+plan for disposing of the body. That is, and always has been, the great
+stumbling-block to the murderer: to get rid of the body. The human
+body," he continued, thoughtfully regarding his pipe, just as, in the
+days of my pupilage, he was wont to regard the black-board chalk, "is a
+very remarkable object. It presents a combination of properties that
+makes it singularly difficult to conceal permanently. It is bulky and of
+an awkward shape, it is heavy, it is completely incombustible, it is
+chemically unstable, and its decomposition yields great volumes of
+highly odorous gases, and it nevertheless contains identifiable
+structures of the highest degree of permanence. It is extremely
+difficult to preserve unchanged, and it is still more difficult
+completely to destroy. The essential permanence of the human body is
+well shown in the classical case of Eugene Aram; but a still more
+striking instance is that of Seqenen-Ra the Third, one of the last kings
+of the seventeenth Egyptian dynasty. Here, after a lapse of some four
+thousand years, it has been possible to determine, not only the cause of
+death and the manner of its occurrence, but the way in which the king
+fell, the nature of the weapon with which the fatal wound was inflicted,
+and even the position of the assailant. And the permanence of the body
+under other conditions is admirably shown in the case of Doctor Parkman,
+of Boston, U.S.A., in which identification was actually effected by
+means of remains collected from the ashes of a furnace."
+
+"Then we may take it," said Jervis, "that the world has not yet seen
+the last of John Bellingham."
+
+"I think we may regard that as almost a certainty," replied Thorndyke.
+"The only question--and a very important one--is as to when the
+reappearance may take place. It may be to-morrow or it may be centuries
+hence, when all the issues involved have been forgotten."
+
+"Assuming," said I, "for the sake of argument, that Hurst did murder him
+and that the body was concealed in the study at the time the search was
+made. How could it have been disposed of? If you had been in Hurst's
+place, how would you have gone to work?"
+
+Thorndyke smiled at the bluntness of my question.
+
+"You are asking me for an incriminating statement," said he, "delivered
+in the presence of a witness too. But, as a matter of fact, there is no
+use in speculating _a priori_; we should have to reconstruct a purely
+imaginary situation, the circumstances of which are unknown to us, and
+we should almost certainly reconstruct it wrong. What we may fairly
+assume is that no reasonable person, no matter how immoral, would find
+himself in the position that you suggest. Murder is usually a crime of
+impulse, and the murderer a person of feeble self-control. Such persons
+are most unlikely to make elaborate and ingenious arrangements for the
+disposal of the bodies of their victims. Even the cold-blooded
+perpetrators of the most carefully planned murders appear, as I have
+said, to break down at this point. The almost insuperable difficulty of
+getting rid of a human body is not appreciated until the murderer
+suddenly finds himself face to face with it.
+
+"In the case that you are suggesting, the choice would seem to lie
+between burial on the premises or dismemberment and dispersal of the
+fragments; and either method would be pretty certain to lead to
+discovery."
+
+"As illustrated by the remains of which you were speaking to Mr.
+Bellingham," Jervis remarked.
+
+"Exactly," Thorndyke answered, "though we could hardly imagine a
+reasonably intelligent criminal adopting a watercress-bed as a
+hiding-place."
+
+"No. That was certainly an error of judgment. By the way, I thought it
+best to say nothing while you were talking to Bellingham, but I noticed
+that, in discussing the possibility of those being the bones of his
+brother, you made no comment on the absence of the third finger of the
+left hand. I am sure you didn't overlook it, but isn't it a point of
+some importance?"
+
+"As to identification? Under the present circumstances, I think not. If
+there were a man missing who had lost that finger it would, of course,
+be an important fact. But I have not heard of any such man. Or, again,
+if there were any evidence that the finger had been removed before
+death, it would be highly important. But there is no such evidence. It
+may have been cut off after death, and there is where the real
+significance of its absence lies."
+
+"I don't quite see what you mean," said Jervis.
+
+"I mean that, if there is no report of any missing man who had lost that
+particular finger, the probability is that the finger was removed after
+death. And then arises the interesting question of motive. Why should it
+have been removed? It could hardly have become detached accidentally.
+What do you suggest?"
+
+"Well," said Jervis, "it might have been a peculiar finger; a finger,
+for instance, with some characteristic deformity, such as an ankylosed
+joint, which would be easy to identify."
+
+"Yes; but that explanation introduces the same difficulty. No person
+with a deformed or ankylosed finger has been reported as missing."
+
+Jervis puckered up his brows and looked at me.
+
+"I'm hanged if I see any other explanation," he said. "Do you,
+Berkeley?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Don't forget which finger it is that is missing," said Thorndyke. "The
+third finger on the left hand."
+
+"Oh, I see!" said Jervis. "The ring-finger. You mean it may have been
+removed for the sake of a ring that wouldn't come off."
+
+"Yes. It would not be the first instance of the kind. Fingers have been
+severed from dead hands--and even from living ones--for the sake of
+rings that were too tight to be drawn off. And the fact that it is the
+left hand supports this suggestion; for a ring that was inconveniently
+tight would be worn by preference on the left hand, as that is usually
+slightly smaller than the right. What is the matter, Berkeley?"
+
+A sudden light had burst upon me, and I suppose my countenance betrayed
+the fact.
+
+"I am a confounded fool!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Oh, don't say that," said Jervis. "Give your friends a chance."
+
+"I ought to have seen this long ago and told you about it. John
+Bellingham did wear a ring, and it was so tight that, when once he had
+got it on, he could never get it off again."
+
+"Do you happen to know on which hand he wore it?" Thorndyke asked.
+
+"Yes. It was the left hand; because Miss Bellingham, who told me about
+it, said that he would never have been able to get the ring on at all
+but for the fact that his left hand was slightly smaller than his
+right."
+
+"There it is, then," said Thorndyke. "With this new fact in our
+possession, the absence of this finger furnishes the starting-point of
+some very curious speculations."
+
+"As, for instance?" said Jervis.
+
+"Ah, under the circumstances, I must leave you to pursue those
+speculations independently. I am now acting for Mr. Bellingham."
+
+Jervis grinned and was silent for a while, refilling his pipe
+thoughtfully; but when he had got it alight he resumed.
+
+"To return to the question of the disappearance; you don't consider it
+highly improbable that Bellingham might have been murdered by Hurst?"
+
+"Oh, don't imagine that I am making an accusation. I am considering the
+various probabilities merely in the abstract. The same reasoning applies
+to the Bellinghams. As to whether any of them did commit the murder,
+that is a question of personal character. I certainly do not suspect the
+Bellinghams after having seen them, and with regard to Hurst, I know
+nothing, or at least very little, to his disadvantage."
+
+"Do you know anything?" asked Jervis.
+
+"Well," Thorndyke said, with some hesitation, "it seems a thought unkind
+to rake up the little details of a man's past, and yet it has to be
+done. I have, of course, made the usual routine inquiries concerning
+the parties to this affair, and this is what they have brought to
+light:
+
+"Hurst, as you know, is a stockbroker--a man of good position and
+reputation; but, about ten years ago, he seems to have committed an
+indiscretion, to put it mildly, which nearly got him into rather serious
+difficulties. He appears to have speculated rather heavily and
+considerably beyond his means, for when a sudden spasm of the market
+upset his calculations, it turned out that he had been employing his
+clients' capital and securities. For a time it looked as if there was
+going to be serious trouble; then, quite unexpectedly, he managed to
+raise the necessary amount in some way and settle all claims. Whence he
+got the money has never been discovered to this day, which is a curious
+circumstance, seeing that the deficiency was rather over five thousand
+pounds; but the important fact is that he did get it and that he paid up
+all that he owed. So that he was only a potential defaulter, so to
+speak; and, discreditable as the affair undoubtedly was, it does not
+seem to have any direct bearing on this present case."
+
+"No," Jervis agreed, "though it makes one consider his position with
+more attention than one would otherwise."
+
+"Undoubtedly," said Thorndyke. "A reckless gambler is a man whose
+conduct cannot be relied on. He is subject to sudden vicissitudes of
+fortune which may force him into other kinds of wrongdoing. Many an
+embezzlement has been preceded by an unlucky plunge on the turf."
+
+"Assuming the responsibility for this disappearance to lie between Hurst
+and--and the Bellinghams," said I, with an uncomfortable gulp as I
+mentioned the name of my friends, "to which side does the balance of
+probability incline?"
+
+"To the side of Hurst, I should say, without doubt," replied Thorndyke.
+"The case stands thus--on the facts presented to us: Hurst appears to
+have had no motive for killing the deceased (as we will call him); but
+the man was seen to enter his house, was never seen to leave it, and was
+never again seen alive. Bellingham, on the other hand, had a motive, as
+he believed himself to be the principal beneficiary under the will. But
+the deceased was not seen at his house, and there is no evidence that he
+went to the house or to the neighbourhood of the house, excepting the
+scarab that was found there. But the evidence of the scarab is vitiated
+by the fact that Hurst was present when it was picked up, and that it
+was found on a spot over which Hurst had passed only a few minutes
+previously. Until Hurst is cleared, it seems to me that the presence of
+the scarab proves nothing against the Bellinghams."
+
+"Then your opinions on the case," said I, "are based entirely on the
+facts that have been made public."
+
+"Yes, mainly. I do not necessarily accept those facts just as they are
+presented, and I may have certain views of my own on the case. But if I
+have, I do not feel in a position to discuss them. For the present,
+discussion has to be limited to the facts and inferences offered by the
+parties concerned."
+
+"There!" exclaimed Jervis, rising to knock out his pipe, "that is where
+Thorndyke has you. He lets you think you're in the very thick of the
+'know' until one fine morning you wake up and discover that you have
+only been a gaping outsider; and then you are mightily astonished--and
+so are the other side, too, for that matter. But we must really be off
+now, mustn't we, reverend senior?"
+
+"I suppose we must," replied Thorndyke; and, as he drew on his gloves,
+he asked: "Have you heard from Barnard lately?"
+
+"Oh, yes," I answered. "I wrote to him at Smyrna to say that the
+practice was flourishing and that I was quite happy and contented, and
+that he might stay away as long as he liked. He writes by return that he
+will prolong his holiday if an opportunity offers, but will let me know
+later."
+
+"Gad," said Jervis, "it was a stroke of luck for Barnard that Bellingham
+happened to have such a magnificent daughter--there! don't mind me, old
+man. You go in and win--she's worth it, isn't she, Thorndyke?"
+
+"Miss Bellingham is a very charming young lady," replied Thorndyke. "I
+am most favourably impressed by both the father and the daughter, and I
+only trust that we may be able to be of some service to them." With this
+sedate little speech Thorndyke shook my hand, and I watched my two
+friends go on their way until their fading shapes were swallowed up in
+the darkness of Fetter Lane.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
+
+
+It was some two or three mornings after my little supper-party that, as
+I stood in the consulting-room brushing my hat preparatory to starting
+on my morning round, Adolphus appeared at the door to announce two
+gentlemen waiting in the surgery. I told him to bring them in, and a
+moment later Thorndyke entered, accompanied by Jervis. I noted that they
+looked uncommonly large in the little apartment, especially Thorndyke,
+but I had no time to consider this phenomenon, for the latter, when he
+had shaken my hand, proceeded at once to explain the object of their
+visit.
+
+"We have come to ask a favour, Berkeley," he said; "to ask you to do us
+a very great service in the interests of your friends, the Bellinghams."
+
+"You know I shall be delighted," I said warmly. "What is it?"
+
+"I will explain. You know--or perhaps you don't--that the police have
+collected all the bones that have been discovered and deposited them in
+the mortuary at Woodford, where they are to be viewed by the coroner's
+jury. Now, it has become imperative that I should have more definite and
+reliable information about them than I can get from the newspapers. The
+natural thing would be for me to go down and examine them myself, but
+there are circumstances that make it very desirable that my connection
+with the case should not leak out. Consequently, I can't go myself,
+and, for the same reason, I can't send Jervis. On the other hand, as it
+is now stated pretty openly that the police consider the bones to be
+almost certainly those of John Bellingham, it would seem perfectly
+natural that you, as Godfrey Bellingham's doctor, should go down to view
+them on his behalf."
+
+"I should like to go," I said. "I would give anything to go; but how is
+it to be managed? It would mean a whole day off and leaving the practice
+to take care of itself."
+
+"I think that could be arranged," said Thorndyke; "and the matter is
+really important for two reasons. One is that the inquest opens
+to-morrow, and someone certainly ought to be there to watch the
+proceedings on Godfrey's behalf; and the other is that our client has
+received notice from Hurst's solicitors that the application would be
+heard in the Probate Court in a few days."
+
+"Isn't that rather sudden?" I asked.
+
+"It certainly suggests that there has been a good deal more activity
+than we were given to understand. But you see the importance of the
+affair. The inquest will be a sort of dress rehearsal for the Probate
+Court, and it is quite essential that we should have a chance of
+estimating the management."
+
+"Yes, I see that. But how are we to manage about the practice?"
+
+"We shall find you a substitute."
+
+"Through a medical agent?"
+
+"Yes," said Jervis. "Turcival will find us a man; in fact, he has done
+it. I saw him this morning; he has a man who is waiting up in town to
+negotiate for the purchase of a practice and who would do the job for a
+couple of guineas. Quite a reliable man. Only say the word, and I will
+run off to Adam Street and engage him definitely."
+
+"Very well. You engage the locum tenens, and I will be prepared to start
+for Woodford as soon as he turns up."
+
+"Excellent!" said Thorndyke. "That is a great weight off my mind. And if
+you could manage to drop in this evening and smoke a pipe with us we
+could talk over the plan of campaign and let you know what items of
+information we are particularly in want of."
+
+I promised to turn up at King's Bench Walk as soon after half-past eight
+as possible, and my two friends then took their departure, leaving me to
+set out in high spirits on my scanty round of visits.
+
+It is surprising what different aspects things present from different
+points of view; how relative are our estimates of the conditions and
+circumstances of life. To the urban workman--the journeyman baker or
+tailor, for instance, labouring year in year out in a single building--a
+holiday ramble on Hampstead Heath is a veritable voyage of discovery;
+whereas to the sailor the shifting panorama of the whole wide world is
+but the commonplace of the day's work.
+
+So I reflected as I took my place in the train at Liverpool Street on
+the following day. There had been a time when a trip by rail to the
+borders of Epping Forest would have been far from a thrilling
+experience; now, after vegetating in the little world of Fetter Lane, it
+was quite an adventure.
+
+The enforced inactivity of a railway journey is favourable to thought,
+and I had much to think about. The last few weeks had witnessed
+momentous changes in my outlook. New interests had arisen, new
+friendships had grown up; and, above all, there had stolen into my life
+that supreme influence that, for good or for evil, according to my
+fortune, was to colour and pervade it even to its close. Those few days
+of companionable labour in the reading-room, with the homely
+hospitalities of the milk-shop and the pleasant walks homeward through
+the friendly London streets, had called into existence a new world--a
+world in which the gracious personality of Ruth Bellingham was the one
+dominating reality. And thus, as I leaned back in a corner of the
+railway carriage with an unlighted pipe in my hand, the events of the
+immediate past, together with those more problematical ones of the
+impending future, occupied me rather to the exclusion of the business of
+the moment, which was to review the remains collected in the Woodford
+mortuary, until, as the train approached Stratford, the odours of the
+soap and bone-manure factories poured in at the open window and (by a
+natural association of ideas) brought me back to the object of my quest.
+
+As to the exact purpose of this expedition, I was not very clear; but I
+knew that I was acting as Thorndyke's proxy and thrilled with pride at
+the thought. But what particular light my investigations were to throw
+upon the intricate Bellingham case I had no very definite idea. With a
+view to fixing the course of procedure in my mind, I took Thorndyke's
+written instructions from my pocket and read them over carefully. They
+were very full and explicit, making ample allowance for my lack of
+experience in medico-legal matters:--
+
+   1. Do not appear to make minute investigations or in any way
+      excite remark.
+
+   2. Ascertain if all the bones belonging to each region are
+      present, and if not, which are missing.
+
+   3. Measure the extreme length of the principal bones and compare
+      those of opposite sides.
+
+   4. Examine the bones with reference to the age, sex, and muscular
+      development of the deceased.
+
+   5. Note the presence or absence of signs of constitutional
+      disease, local disease of bone or adjacent structures, old or
+      recent injuries, and any other departures from the normal or
+      usual.
+
+   6. Observe the presence or absence of adipocere and its position,
+      if present.
+
+   7. Note any remains of tendons, ligaments, or other soft
+      structures.
+
+   8. Examine the Sidcup hand with reference to the question as to
+      whether the finger was separated before or after death.
+
+   9. Estimate the probable period of submersion and note any changes
+      (as, e.g., mineral or organic staining) due to the character of
+      the water or mud.
+
+  10. Ascertain the circumstances (immediate and remote) that led to
+      the discovery of the bones and the names of the persons
+      concerned in those circumstances.
+
+  11. Commit all information to writing as soon as possible, and make
+      plans and diagrams on the spot, if circumstances permit.
+
+  12. Preserve an impassive exterior; listen attentively but without
+      eagerness; ask as few questions as possible; pursue any inquiry
+      that your observations on the spot may suggest.
+
+These were my instructions, and, considering that I was going merely to
+inspect a few dry bones, they appeared rather formidable; in fact, the
+more I read them over the greater became my misgivings as to my
+qualifications for the task.
+
+As I approached the mortuary it became evident that some, at least, of
+Thorndyke's admonitions were by no means unnecessary. The place was in
+charge of a police-sergeant, who watched my approach suspiciously; and
+some half-dozen men, obviously newspaper reporters, hovered about the
+entrance like a pack of jackals. I presented the coroner's order which
+Mr. Marchmont had obtained, and which the sergeant read with his back
+against the wall, to prevent the newspaper men from looking over his
+shoulder.
+
+My credentials being found satisfactory, the door was unlocked and I
+entered, accompanied by three enterprising reporters, whom, however, the
+sergeant summarily ejected and locked out, returning to usher me into
+the presence and to observe my proceedings with intelligent but highly
+embarrassing interest.
+
+The bones were laid out on a large table and covered with a sheet, which
+the sergeant slowly turned back, watching my face intently as he did so
+to note the impression that the spectacle made upon me. I imagine that
+he must have been somewhat disappointed by my impassive demeanour, for
+the remains suggested to me nothing more than a rather shabby set of
+"student's osteology." The whole collection had been set out (by the
+police-surgeon, as the sergeant informed me) in their proper anatomical
+order; notwithstanding which I counted them over carefully to make sure
+that none were missing, checking them by the list with which Thorndyke
+had furnished me.
+
+"I see you have found the left thigh-bone," I remarked, observing that
+this did not appear in the list.
+
+"Yes," said the sergeant; "that turned up yesterday evening in a big
+pond called Baldwin's Pond in the Sand-pit plain, near Little Monk
+Wood."
+
+"Is that near here?" I asked.
+
+"In the forest up Loughton way," was the reply.
+
+I made a note of the fact (on which the sergeant looked as if he was
+sorry he had mentioned it), and then turned my attention to a general
+consideration of the bones before examining them in detail. Their
+appearance would have been improved and examination facilitated by a
+thorough scrubbing, for they were just as they had been taken from their
+respective resting-places, and it was difficult to decide whether their
+reddish-yellow colour was an actual stain or due to a deposit on the
+surface. In any case, as it affected them all alike, I thought it an
+interesting feature and made a note of it. They bore numerous traces of
+their sojourn in the various ponds from which they had been recovered,
+but these gave me little help in determining the length of time during
+which they had been submerged. They were, of course, encrusted with mud,
+and little wisps of pond-weed stuck to them in places; but these facts
+furnished only the vaguest measure of time.
+
+Some of the traces were, indeed, more informing. To several of the
+bones, for instance, there adhered the dried egg-clusters of the common
+pond-snail, and in one of the hollows of the right shoulder-blade (the
+"infra-spinous fossa") was a group of the mud-built tubes of the red
+river-worm. These remains gave proof of a considerable period of
+submersion, and since they could not have been deposited on the bones
+until all the flesh had disappeared, they furnished evidence that some
+time--a month or two, at any rate--had elapsed since this had happened.
+Incidentally, too, their distribution showed the position in which the
+bones had lain, and though this appeared to be of no importance in the
+existing circumstances, I made careful notes of the situation of each
+adherent body, illustrating their position by rough sketches.
+
+The sergeant watched my proceedings with an indulgent smile.
+
+"You're making a regular inventory, sir," he remarked, "as if you were
+going to put 'em up for auction. I shouldn't think those snails' eggs
+would be much help in identification. And all that has been done
+already," he added as I produced my measuring-tape.
+
+"No doubt," I replied; "but my business is to make independent
+observations, to check the others, if necessary." And I proceeded to
+measure each of the principal bones separately and to compare those of
+the opposite sides. The agreement in dimensions and general
+characteristics of the pairs of bones left little doubt that all were
+parts of one skeleton, a conclusion that was confirmed by the eburnated
+patch on the head of the right thigh-bone and the corresponding patch in
+the socket of the right hip-bone. When I had finished my measurements I
+went over the entire series of bones in detail, examining each with the
+closest attention for any of those signs which Thorndyke had indicated,
+and eliciting nothing but a monotonously reiterated negative. They were
+distressingly and disappointingly normal.
+
+"Well, sir, and what do you make of 'em?" the sergeant asked cheerfully
+as I shut up my note-book and straightened my back. "Whose bones are
+they? Are they Mr. Bellingham's, think ye?"
+
+"I should be very sorry to say whose bones they are," I replied. "One
+bone is very much like another, you know."
+
+"I suppose it is," he agreed; "but I thought that, with all that
+measuring and all those notes, you might have arrived at something
+definite." Evidently he was disappointed in me; and I was somewhat
+disappointed in myself when I contrasted Thorndyke's elaborate
+instructions with the meagre result of my investigations. For what did
+my discoveries amount to? And how much was the inquiry advanced by the
+few entries in my note-book?
+
+The bones were apparently those of a man of fair though not remarkable
+muscular development; over thirty years of age, but how much older I was
+unable to say. His height I judged roughly to be five feet eight inches,
+but my measurements would furnish data for a more exact estimate by
+Thorndyke. Beyond this the bones were quite uncharacteristic. There were
+no signs of disease either local or general, no indications of injuries
+either old or recent, no departures of any kind from the normal or
+usual; and the dismemberment had been effected with such care that there
+was not a single scratch on any of the separated surfaces. Of adipocere
+(the peculiar waxy or soapy substance that is commonly found in bodies
+that have slowly decayed in damp situations) there was not a trace; and
+the only remnant of the soft structures was a faint indication, like a
+spot of dried glue, of the tendon on the tip of the right elbow.
+
+The sergeant was in the act of replacing the sheet, with the air of a
+showman who has just given an exhibition, when there came a sharp
+rapping on the mortuary door. The officer finished spreading the sheet
+with official precision, and having ushered me out into the lobby,
+turned the key and admitted three persons, holding the door open after
+they had entered for me to go out. But the appearance of the new-comers
+inclined me to linger. One of them was a local constable, evidently in
+official charge; a second was a labouring man, very muddy and wet, who
+carried a small sack; while in the third I thought I scented a
+professional brother.
+
+The sergeant continued to hold the door open.
+
+"Nothing more I can do for you, sir?" he asked genially.
+
+"Is that the divisional surgeon?" I inquired.
+
+"Yes. I am the divisional surgeon," the new-comer answered. "Did you
+want anything of me?"
+
+"This," said the sergeant, "is a medical gentleman who has got
+permission from the coroner to inspect the remains. He is acting for the
+family of the deceased--I mean, for the family of Mr. Bellingham," he
+added in answer to an inquiring glance from the surgeon.
+
+"I see," said the latter. "Well, they have found the rest of the trunk,
+including, I understand, the ribs that were missing from the other part.
+Isn't that so, Davis?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the constable. "Inspector Badger says all the ribs
+is here, and all the bones of the neck as well."
+
+"The inspector seems to be an anatomist," I remarked.
+
+The sergeant grinned. "He's a very knowing gentleman, is Mr. Badger. He
+came down here this morning quite early and spent a long time looking
+over the bones and checking them by some notes in his pocket-book. I
+fancy he's got something on, but he was precious close about it."
+
+Here the sergeant shut up rather suddenly--perhaps contrasting his own
+conduct with that of his superior.
+
+"Let us have these new bones out on the table," said the police-surgeon.
+"Take that sheet off, and don't shoot them out as if they were coals.
+Hand them out carefully."
+
+The labourer fished out the wet and muddy bones one by one from the
+sack, and as he laid them on the table the surgeon arranged them in
+their proper relative positions.
+
+"This has been a neatly executed job," he remarked; "none of your clumsy
+hacking with a chopper or a saw. The bones have been cleanly separated
+at the joints. The fellow who did this must have had some anatomical
+knowledge, unless he was a butcher, which, by the way, is not
+impossible. He has used his knife uncommonly skilfully, and you notice
+that each arm was taken off with the scapula attached, just as a butcher
+takes off a shoulder of mutton. Are there any more bones in that bag?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the labourer, wiping his hands with an air of
+finality on the posterior aspect of his trousers; "that's the lot."
+
+The surgeon looked thoughtfully at the bones as he gave a final touch
+to their arrangement, and remarked:
+
+"The inspector is right. All the bones of the neck are there. Very odd.
+Don't you think so?"
+
+"You mean--"
+
+"I mean that this very eccentric murderer seems to have given himself
+such an extraordinary amount of trouble for no reason that one can see.
+There are these neck vertebrae, for instance. He must have carefully
+separated the skull from the atlas instead of just cutting through the
+neck. Then there is the way he divided the trunk; the twelfth ribs have
+just come in with this lot, but the twelfth dorsal vertebra to which
+they belong was attached to the lower half. Imagine the trouble he must
+have taken to do that, and without cutting or hacking the bones about,
+either. It is extraordinary. This is rather interesting, by the way.
+Handle it carefully."
+
+He picked up the breast-bone daintily--for it was covered with wet
+mud--and handed it to me with the remark: "That is the most definite
+piece of evidence we have."
+
+"You mean," I said, "that the union of the two parts into a single mass
+fixes this as the skeleton of an elderly man?"
+
+"Yes, that is the obvious suggestion, which is confirmed by the deposit
+of bone in the rib-cartilages. You can tell the inspector, Davis, that I
+have checked this lot of bones and that they are all here."
+
+"Would you mind writing it down, sir?" said the constable. "Inspector
+Badger said I was to have everything in writing."
+
+The surgeon took out his pocket-book, and, while he was selecting a
+suitable piece of paper, he asked: "Did you form any opinion as to the
+height of the deceased?"
+
+"Yes, I thought he would be about five feet eight" (here I caught the
+sergeant's eyes fixed on me with a knowing leer).
+
+"I made it five eight and a half," said the police-surgeon; "but we
+shall know better when we have seen the lower leg-bones. Where was this
+lot found, Davis?"
+
+"In the pond just off the road in Lord's Bushes, sir, and the inspector
+has gone off now to--"
+
+"Never mind where he's gone," interrupted the sergeant. "You just answer
+questions and attend to your business."
+
+The sergeant's reproof conveyed a hint to me on which I was not slow to
+act. Friendly as my professional colleague was, it was clear that the
+police were disposed to treat me as an interloper who was to be kept out
+of the "know" as far as possible. Accordingly I thanked my colleague and
+the sergeant for their courtesy, and bidding them adieu until we should
+meet at the inquest, took my departure and walked away quickly until I
+found an inconspicuous position from which I could keep the door of the
+mortuary in view. A few moments later I saw Constable Davis emerge and
+stride away up the road.
+
+I watched his rapidly diminishing figure until he had gone as far as I
+considered desirable, and then I set forth in his wake. The road led
+straight away from the village, and in less than half a mile entered the
+outskirts of the forest. Here I quickened my pace to close up somewhat,
+and it was well that I did so, for suddenly he diverged from the road
+into a green lane, where for a while I lost sight of him. Still
+hurrying forward, I again caught sight of him just as he turned off into
+a narrow path that entered a beech wood with a thickish undergrowth of
+holly, along which I followed him for several minutes, gradually
+decreasing the distance between us, until suddenly there fell on my ear
+a rhythmical, metallic sound like the clank of a pump. Soon after I
+caught the sound of men's voices, and then the constable struck off the
+path into the wood.
+
+I now advanced more cautiously, endeavouring to locate the search party
+by the sound of the pump, and when I had done this I made a little
+detour so that I might approach from the opposite direction to that from
+which the constable had appeared.
+
+Still guided by the noise of the pump, I at length came out into a small
+opening among the trees and halted to survey the scene. The centre of
+the opening was occupied by a small pond, not more than a dozen yards
+across, by the side of which stood a builder's handcart. The little
+two-wheeled vehicle had evidently been used to convey the appliances
+which were deposited on the ground near it, and which consisted of a
+large tub--now filled with water--a shovel, a rake, a sieve, and a
+portable pump, the latter being fitted with a long delivery hose. There
+were three men besides the constable, one of whom was working the handle
+of the pump, while another was glancing at a paper that the constable
+had just delivered to him. He looked up sharply as I appeared, and
+viewed me with unconcealed disfavour.
+
+"Hallo, sir!" said he. "You can't come here."
+
+Now, seeing that I actually was here, this was clearly a mistake, and I
+ventured to point out the fallacy.
+
+"Well, I can't allow you to stay here. Our business is of a private
+nature."
+
+"I know exactly what your business is, Inspector Badger."
+
+"Oh, do you?" said he, surveying me with a foxy smile. "And I expect I
+know what yours is, too. But we can't have any of you newspaper gentry
+spying on us just at present, so you just be off."
+
+I thought it best to undeceive him at once, and accordingly, having
+explained who I was, I showed him the coroner's permit, which he read
+with manifest annoyance.
+
+"This is all very well, sir," said he as he handed me back the paper,
+"but it doesn't authorise you to come spying on the proceedings of the
+police. Any remains that we discover will be deposited in the mortuary,
+where you can inspect them to your heart's content; but you can't stay
+here and watch us."
+
+I had no defined object in keeping a watch on the inspector's
+proceedings; but the sergeant's indiscreet hint had aroused my
+curiosity, which was further excited by Mr. Badger's evident desire to
+get rid of me. Moreover, while we had been talking, the pump had stopped
+(the muddy floor of the pond being now pretty fully exposed), and the
+inspector's assistant was handling the shovel impatiently.
+
+"Now, I put it to you, Inspector," said I, persuasively, "is it politic
+of you to allow it to be said that you refused an authorised
+representative of the family facilities for verifying any statements
+that you may make hereafter?"
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked.
+
+"I mean that if you should happen to find some bone which could be
+identified as part of the body of Mr. Bellingham, that fact would be of
+more importance to his family than to anyone else. You know that there
+is a very valuable estate and a rather difficult will."
+
+"I didn't know it, and I don't see the bearing of it now" (neither did
+I, for that matter); "but if you make such a point of being present at
+the search, I can't very well refuse. Only you mustn't get in our way,
+that's all."
+
+On hearing this conclusion, his assistant, who looked like a
+plain-clothes officer, took up his shovel and stepped into the mud that
+formed the bottom of the pond, stooping as he went and peering among the
+masses of weed that had been left stranded by the withdrawal of the
+water. The inspector watched him anxiously, cautioning him from time to
+time to "look out where he was treading"; the labourer left the pump and
+craned forward from the margin of the mud, and the constable and I
+looked on from our respective points of vantage. For some time the
+search was fruitless. Once the searcher stooped and picked up what
+turned out to be a fragment of decayed wood; then the remains of a
+long-deceased jay were discovered, examined, and rejected. Suddenly the
+man bent down by the side of a small pool that had been left in one of
+the deeper hollows, stared intently into the mud, and stood up.
+
+"There's something here that looks like a bone, sir," he sang out.
+
+"Don't grub about, then," said the inspector. "Drive your shovel right
+into the mud where you saw it and bring it to the sieve."
+
+The man followed out these instructions, and as he came shorewards with
+a great pile of the slimy mud on his shovel we all converged on the
+sieve, which the inspector took up and held over the tub, directing the
+constable and labourer to "lend a hand," meaning thereby that they were
+to crowd round the tub and exclude me as completely as possible. This,
+in fact, they did very effectively with his assistance, for, when the
+shovelful of mud had been deposited on the sieve, the four men leaned
+over it and so nearly hid it from view that it was only by craning over,
+first on one side and then on the other, that I was able to catch an
+occasional glimpse of it and to observe it gradually melting away as the
+sieve, immersed in the water, was shaken to and fro.
+
+Presently the inspector raised the sieve from the water and stooped over
+it more closely to examine its contents. Apparently the examination
+yielded no very conclusive results, for it was accompanied by a series
+of rather dubious grunts.
+
+At length the officer stood up, and turning to me with a genial but foxy
+smile, held out the sieve for my inspection.
+
+"Like to see what we have found, Doctor?" said he.
+
+I thanked him and stooped over the sieve. It contained the sort of
+litter of twigs, skeleton leaves, weed, pond-snails, dead shells, and
+fresh-water mussels that one would expect to strain out from the mud of
+an ancient pond; but in addition to these there were three small bones
+which at the first glance gave me quite a start until I saw what they
+were.
+
+The inspector looked at me inquiringly. "H'm?" said he.
+
+"Yes," I replied. "Very interesting."
+
+"Those will be human bones, I fancy; h'm?"
+
+"I should say so, undoubtedly," I answered.
+
+"Now," said the inspector, "could you say, off-hand, which finger those
+bones belong to?"
+
+I smothered a grin (for I had been expecting this question), and
+answered:
+
+"I can say off-hand that they don't belong to any finger. They are the
+bones of the left great toe."
+
+The inspector's jaw dropped. "The deuce they are!" he muttered. "H'm. I
+thought they looked a bit stout."
+
+"I expect," said I, "that if you go through the mud close to where this
+came from you'll find the rest of the foot."
+
+The plain-clothes man proceeded at once to act on my suggestion, taking
+the sieve with him to save time. And sure enough, after filling it twice
+with the mud from the bottom of the pool, the entire skeleton of the
+foot was brought to light.
+
+"Now you're happy, I suppose," said the inspector when I had checked the
+bones and found them all present.
+
+"I should be more happy," I replied, "if I knew what you were searching
+for in this pond. You weren't looking for the foot, were you?"
+
+"I was looking for anything that I might find," he answered. "I shall go
+on searching until we have the whole body. I shall go through all the
+streams and ponds around here, except Connaught Water. That I shall
+leave to the last, as it will be a case of dredging from a boat and
+isn't so likely as the smaller ponds. Perhaps the head will be there;
+it's deeper than any of the others."
+
+It now occurred to me that as I had learned all that I was likely to
+learn, which was little enough, I might as well leave the inspector to
+pursue his researches unembarrassed by my presence. Accordingly I
+thanked him for his assistance and departed by the way I had come.
+
+But as I retraced my steps along the shady path I speculated profoundly
+on the officer's proceedings. My examination of the mutilated hand had
+yielded the conclusion that the finger had been removed either after
+death or shortly before, but more probably after. Someone else had
+evidently arrived at the same conclusion, and had communicated his
+opinion to Inspector Badger; for it was clear that that gentleman was in
+full cry after the missing finger. But why was he searching for it here
+when the hand had been found at Sidcup? And what did he expect to learn
+from it when he found it? There is nothing particularly characteristic
+about a finger, or, at least, the bones of one; and the object of the
+present researches was to determine the identity of the person of whom
+these bones were the remains. There was something mysterious about the
+affair, something suggesting that Inspector Badger was in possession of
+private information of some kind. But what information could he have?
+And whence could he have obtained it? These were questions to which I
+could find no answer, and I was still fruitlessly revolving them when I
+arrived at the modest inn where the inquest was to be held, and where I
+proposed to fortify myself with a correspondingly modest lunch as a
+preparation for my attendance at that inquiry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE CROWNER'S QUEST
+
+
+The proceedings of that fine old institution, the coroner's court, are
+apt to have their dignity impaired by the somewhat unjudicial
+surroundings amidst which they are conducted. The present inquiry was to
+be held in a long room attached to the inn, ordinarily devoted, as its
+various appurtenances testified, to gatherings of a more convivial
+character.
+
+Hither I betook myself after a protracted lunch and a meditative pipe,
+and, being the first to arrive--the jury having already been sworn and
+conducted to the mortuary to view the remains--whiled away the time by
+considering the habits of the customary occupants of the room by the
+light of the objects contained in it. A wooden target with one or two
+darts sticking in it hung on the end wall and invited the Robin Hoods of
+the village to try their skill; a system of incised marks on the oaken
+table made sinister suggestions of shove-halfpenny; and a large open
+box, filled with white wigs, gaudily coloured robes and wooden spears,
+swords and regalia, crudely coated with gilded paper, obviously
+appertained to the puerile ceremonials of the Order of Druids.
+
+I had exhausted the interest of these relics and had transferred my
+attentions to the picture gallery when the other spectators and the
+witnesses began to arrive. Hastily I seated myself in the only
+comfortable chair besides the one placed at the head of the table,
+presumably for the coroner; and I had hardly done so when the latter
+entered accompanied by the jury. Immediately after them came the
+sergeant, Inspector Badger, one or two plain-clothes men, and finally
+the divisional surgeon.
+
+The coroner took his seat at the head of the table and opened his book,
+and the jury seated themselves on a couple of benches on one side of the
+long table. I looked with some interest at the twelve "good men and
+true." They were a representative group of British tradesmen, quiet,
+attentive, and rather solemn; but my attention was particularly
+attracted by a small man with a very large head and a shock of
+upstanding hair whom I had diagnosed, after a glance at his intelligent
+but truculent countenance and the shiny knees of his trousers, as the
+village cobbler. He sat between the broad-shouldered foreman, who looked
+like a blacksmith, and a dogged, red-faced man whose general aspect of
+prosperous greasiness suggested the calling of a butcher.
+
+"The inquiry, gentlemen," the coroner commenced, "upon which we are now
+entering concerns itself with two questions. The first is that of
+identity: Who was this person whose body we have just viewed? The second
+is, How, when, and by what means did he come by his death? We will take
+the identity first and begin with the circumstances under which the body
+was discovered."
+
+Here the cobbler stood up and raised an excessively dirty hand.
+
+"I rise, Mr. Chairman," said he, "to a point of order." The other
+jurymen looked at him curiously and some of them, I regret to say,
+grinned. "You have referred, sir," he continued, "to the body which we
+have just viewed. I wish to point out that we have not viewed a body: we
+have viewed a collection of bones."
+
+"We will refer to them as the remains, if you prefer it," said the
+coroner.
+
+"I do prefer it," was the reply, and the objector sat down.
+
+"Very well," rejoined the coroner, and he proceeded to call the
+witnesses, of whom the first was the labourer who had discovered the
+bones in the watercress-bed.
+
+"Do you happen to know how long it was since the beds had been cleaned
+out previously?" the coroner asked, when the witness had told the story
+of the discovery.
+
+"They was cleaned out by Mr. Tapper's orders just before he gave them
+up. That will be a little better than two years ago. In May it were. I
+helped to clean 'em. I worked on this very same place and there wasn't
+no bones there then."
+
+The coroner glanced at the jury. "Any questions, gentlemen?" he asked.
+
+The cobbler directed an intimidating scowl at the witness and demanded:
+
+"Were you searching for bones when you came on these remains?"
+
+"Me!" exclaimed the witness. "What should I be searching for bones for?"
+
+"Don't prevaricate," said the cobbler sternly; "answer the question: Yes
+or no."
+
+"No; of course I wasn't."
+
+The juryman shook his enormous head dubiously as though implying that
+he would let it pass this time but it mustn't happen again; and the
+examination of the witnesses continued, without eliciting anything that
+was new to me or giving rise to any incident, until the sergeant had
+described the finding of the right arm in the Cuckoo Pits.
+
+"Was this an accidental discovery?" the coroner asked.
+
+"No. We had instructions from Scotland Yard to search any likely ponds
+in this neighbourhood."
+
+The coroner discreetly forbore to press this matter any farther, but my
+friend the cobbler was evidently on the qui vive, and I anticipated a
+brisk cross-examination for Mr. Badger when his turn came. The inspector
+was apparently of the same opinion, for I saw him cast a glance of the
+deepest malevolence at the too inquiring disciple of St. Crispin. In
+fact, his turn came next, and the cobbler's hair stood up with unholy
+joy.
+
+The finding of the lower half of the trunk in Staple's Pond at Loughton
+was the inspector's own achievement, but he was not boastful about it.
+The discovery, he remarked, followed naturally on the previous one in
+the Cuckoo Pits.
+
+"Had you any private information that led you to search this particular
+neighbourhood?" the cobbler asked.
+
+"We had no private information whatever," replied Badger.
+
+"Now I put it to you," pursued the juryman, shaking a forensic, and very
+dirty, forefinger at the inspector; "here are certain remains found at
+Sidcup; here are certain other remains found at St. Mary Cray, and
+certain others at Lee. All those places are in Kent. Now isn't it very
+remarkable that you should come straight down to Epping Forest, which is
+in Essex, and search for those bones and find 'em?"
+
+"We were making a systematic search of all likely places," replied
+Badger.
+
+"Exactly," said the cobbler, with a ferocious grin, "that's just my
+point. I say, isn't it very funny that, after finding remains in Kent
+some twenty miles from here with the River Thames between, you should
+come here to look for the bones and go straight to Staple's Pond, where
+they happen to be--and find 'em?"
+
+"It would have been more funny," Badger replied sourly, "if we'd gone
+straight to a place where they happened _not_ to be--and found them."
+
+A gratified snigger arose from the other eleven good men and true, and
+the cobbler grinned savagely; but before he could think of a suitable
+rejoinder the coroner interposed.
+
+"The question is not very material," he said, "and we mustn't embarrass
+the police by unnecessary inquiries."
+
+"It's my belief," said the cobbler, "that he knew they were there all
+the time."
+
+"The witness has stated that he had no private information," said the
+coroner; and he proceeded to take the rest of the inspector's evidence,
+watched closely by the critical juror.
+
+The account of the finding of the remains having been given in full, the
+police-surgeon was called and sworn; the jurymen straightened their
+backs with an air of expectancy, and I turned over a page of my
+note-book.
+
+"You have examined the bones at present lying in the mortuary and
+forming the subject of this inquiry?" the coroner asked.
+
+"I have."
+
+"Will you kindly tell us what you have observed?"
+
+"I find that the bones are human bones, and are, in my opinion, all
+parts of the same person. They form a skeleton which is complete with
+the exception of the skull, the third finger of the left hand, the
+knee-caps, and the leg-bones--I mean the bones between the knees and the
+ankles."
+
+"Is there anything to account for the absence of the missing finger?"
+
+"No. There is no deformity and no sign of its having been amputated
+during life. In my opinion it was removed after death."
+
+"Can you give us any description of the deceased?"
+
+"I should say that these are the bones of an elderly man, probably over
+sixty years of age, about five feet eight and a half inches in height,
+of rather stout build, fairly muscular, and well preserved. There are no
+signs of disease excepting some old-standing rheumatic gout of the right
+hip-joint."
+
+"Can you form any opinion as to the cause of death?"
+
+"No. There are no marks of violence or signs of injury. But it will be
+impossible to form any opinion as to the cause of death until we have
+seen the skull."
+
+"Did you note anything else of importance?"
+
+"Yes. I was struck by the appearance of anatomical knowledge and skill
+on the part of the person who dismembered the body. The knowledge of
+anatomy is proved by the fact that the corpse has been divided into
+definite anatomical regions. For instance, the bones of the neck are
+complete and include the top joint of the backbone known as the atlas;
+whereas a person without anatomical knowledge would probably take off
+the head by cutting through the neck. Then the arms have been separated
+with the scapula (or shoulder-blade) and clavicle (or collar-bone)
+attached, just as an arm would be removed for dissection.
+
+"The skill is shown by the neat way in which the dismemberment has been
+carried out. The parts have not been rudely hacked asunder, but have
+been separated at the joints so skilfully that I have not discovered a
+single scratch or mark of the knife on any of the bones."
+
+"Can you suggest any class of person who would be likely to possess the
+knowledge and skill to which you refer?"
+
+"It would, of course, be possessed by a surgeon or medical student, and
+possibly by a butcher."
+
+"You think that the person who dismembered this body may have been a
+surgeon or a medical student?"
+
+"Yes; or a butcher. Someone accustomed to the dismemberment of bodies
+and skilful with the knife."
+
+Here the cobbler suddenly rose to his feet.
+
+"I rise, Mr. Chairman," said he, "to protest against the statement that
+has just been made."
+
+"What statement?" demanded the coroner.
+
+"Against the aspersion," continued the cobbler, with an oratorical
+flourish, "that has been cast upon a honourable calling."
+
+"I don't understand you," said the coroner.
+
+"Doctor Summers has insinuated that this murder was committed by a
+butcher. Now a member of that honourable calling is sitting on this
+jury--"
+
+"You let me alone," growled the butcher.
+
+"I will not let you alone," persisted the cobbler. "I desire--"
+
+"Oh, shut up, Pope!" This was from the foreman, who, at the same moment,
+reached out an enormous hairy hand with which he grabbed the cobbler's
+coat-tails and brought him into a sitting posture with a thump that
+shook the room.
+
+But Mr. Pope, though seated, was not silenced. "I desire," said he, "to
+have my protest put on record."
+
+"I can't do that," said the coroner, "and I can't allow you to interrupt
+the witnesses."
+
+"I am acting," said Mr. Pope, "in the interests of my friend here and
+the members of a honourable----"
+
+But here the butcher turned on him savagely, and, in a hoarse
+stage-whisper, exclaimed:
+
+"Look here, Pope; you've got too much of what the cat licks--"
+
+"Gentlemen! gentlemen!" the coroner protested, sternly; "I cannot permit
+this unseemly conduct. You are forgetting the solemnity of the occasion
+and your own responsible positions. I must insist on more decent and
+decorous behaviour."
+
+There was profound silence, in the midst of which the butcher concluded
+in the same hoarse whisper:
+
+"--licks 'er paws with."
+
+The coroner cast a withering glance at him, and turning to the witness,
+resumed the examination.
+
+"Can you tell us, Doctor, how long a time has elapsed since the death of
+the deceased?"
+
+"I should say not less than eighteen months, but probably more. How much
+more it is impossible from inspection alone to say. The bones are
+perfectly clean--that is, clean of all soft structures--and will remain
+substantially in their present condition for many years."
+
+"The evidence of the man who found the remains in the watercress-bed
+suggests that they could not have been there more than two years. Do the
+appearances, in your opinion, agree with that view?"
+
+"Yes; perfectly."
+
+"There is one more point, Doctor; a very important one. Do you find
+anything in any of the bones, or all of them together, which would
+enable you to identify them as the bones of any particular individual?"
+
+"No," replied Dr. Summers; "I found no peculiarity that could furnish
+the means of personal identification."
+
+"The description of a missing individual has been given to us," said the
+coroner; "a man, fifty-nine years of age, five feet eight inches in
+height, healthy, well preserved, rather broad in build, and having an
+old Pott's fracture of the left ankle. Do the remains that you have
+examined agree with that description?"
+
+"Yes, in so far as agreement is possible. There is no disagreement."
+
+"The remains might be those of that individual?"
+
+"They might; but there is no positive evidence that they are. The
+description would apply to a large proportion of elderly men, except as
+to the fracture."
+
+"You found no signs of such a fracture?"
+
+"No. Pott's fracture affects the bone called the fibula. That is one of
+the bones that has not yet been found, so there is no evidence on that
+point. The left foot was quite normal, but then it would be in any case,
+unless the fracture had resulted in great deformity."
+
+"You estimated the height of the deceased as half an inch greater than
+that of the missing person. Does that constitute a disagreement?"
+
+"No; my estimate is only approximate. As the arms are complete and the
+legs are not, I have based my calculations on the width across the two
+arms. But measurement of the thigh-bones gives the same result. The
+length of the thigh-bones is one foot seven inches and five-eighths."
+
+"So the deceased might not have been taller than five feet eight?"
+
+"That is so: from five feet eight to five feet nine."
+
+"Thank you. I think that is all we want to ask you, Doctor; unless the
+jury wish to put any questions."
+
+He glanced uneasily at that august body, and instantly the irrepressible
+Pope rose to the occasion.
+
+"About that finger that is missing," said the cobbler. "You say that it
+was cut off after death."
+
+"That is my opinion."
+
+"Now, can you tell us why it was cut off?"
+
+"No, I cannot."
+
+"Oh, come now, Doctor Summers, you must have formed some opinion on the
+subject."
+
+Here the coroner interposed. "The Doctor is only concerned with evidence
+arising out of the actual examination of the remains. Any personal
+opinions or conjectures that he may have formed are not evidence, and he
+must not be asked about them."
+
+"But, sir," objected Pope, "we want to know why that finger was cut off.
+It couldn't have been took off for no reason. May I ask, sir, if the
+person who is missing had anything peculiar about that finger?"
+
+"Nothing is stated to that effect in the written description," replied
+the coroner.
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Pope, "Inspector Badger can tell us."
+
+"I think," said the coroner, "we had better not ask the police too many
+questions. They will tell us anything that they wish to be made public."
+
+"Oh, very well," snapped the cobbler. "If it's a matter of hushing it up
+I've got no more to say; only I don't see how we are to arrive at a
+verdict if we don't have the facts put before us."
+
+All the witnesses having now been examined, the coroner proceeded to sum
+up and address the jury.
+
+"You have heard the evidence, gentlemen, of the various witnesses, and
+you will have perceived that it does not enable us to answer either of
+the questions that form the subject of this inquiry. We now know that
+the deceased was an elderly man, about sixty years of age, and about
+five feet eight or nine in height; and that his death took place from
+eighteen months to two years ago. That is all we know. From the
+treatment to which the body has been subjected we may form certain
+conjectures as to the circumstances of his death. But we have no actual
+knowledge. We do not know who the deceased was or how he came by his
+death. Consequently, it will be necessary to adjourn this inquiry until
+fresh facts are available, and as soon as that is the case, you will
+receive due notice that your attendance is required."
+
+The silence of the Court gave place to the confused noise of moving
+chairs and a general outbreak of eager talk, amidst which I rose and
+made my way out into the street. At the door I encountered Dr. Summers,
+whose dog-cart was waiting close by.
+
+"Are you going back to town now?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," I answered; "as soon as I can catch a train."
+
+"If you jump into my cart I'll run you down in time for the five-one.
+You'll miss it if you walk."
+
+I accepted his offer thankfully, and a minute later was spinning briskly
+down the road to the station.
+
+"Queer little devil, that man, Pope," Dr. Summers remarked. "Quite a
+character; socialist, labourite, agitator, general crank; anything for a
+row."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "that was what his appearance suggested. It must be
+trying for the coroner to get a truculent rascal like that on a jury."
+
+Summers laughed. "I don't know. He supplies the comic relief. And then,
+you know, those fellows have their uses. Some of his questions were
+pretty pertinent."
+
+"So Badger seemed to think."
+
+"Yes, by Jove," chuckled Summers, "Badger didn't like him a bit; and I
+suspect the worthy inspector was sailing pretty close to the wind in his
+answers."
+
+"You think he really has some private information?"
+
+"Depends upon what you mean by 'information.' The police are not a
+speculative body. They wouldn't be taking all this trouble unless they
+had a pretty straight tip from somebody. How are Mr. and Miss
+Bellingham? I used to know them slightly when they lived here."
+
+I was considering a discreet answer to this question when we swept into
+the station yard. At the same moment the train drew up at the platform,
+and, with a hurried hand-shake and hastily spoken thanks, I sprang from
+the dog-cart and darted into the station.
+
+During the rather slow journey homewards I read over my notes and
+endeavoured to extract from the facts they set forth some significance
+other than that which lay on the surface, but without much success. Then
+I fell to speculating on what Thorndyke would think of the evidence at
+the inquest and whether he would be satisfied with the information that
+I had collected. These speculations lasted me, with occasional
+digressions, until I arrived at the Temple and ran up the stairs rather
+eagerly to my friend's chambers.
+
+But here a disappointment awaited me. The nest was empty with the
+exception of Polton, who appeared at the laboratory door in his white
+apron, with a pair of flat-nosed pliers in his hand.
+
+"The Doctor has had to go down to Bristol to consult over an urgent
+case," he explained, "and Doctor Jervis has gone with him. They'll be
+away a day or two, I expect, but the Doctor left this note for you."
+
+He took a letter from a shelf, where it had been stood conspicuously on
+edge, and handed it to me. It was a short note from Thorndyke
+apologising for his sudden departure and asking me to give Polton my
+notes with any comments that I had to make.
+
+"You will be interested to learn," he added, "that the application will
+be heard in the Probate Court the day after to-morrow. I shall not be
+present, of course, nor will Jervis, so I should like you to attend and
+keep your eyes open for anything that may happen during the hearing and
+that may not appear in the notes that Marchmont's clerk will be
+instructed to take. I have retained Dr. Payne to stand by and help you
+with the practice, so that you can attend the Court with a clear
+conscience."
+
+This was highly flattering and quite atoned for the small
+disappointment; with deep gratification at the trust that Thorndyke had
+reposed in me, I pocketed the letter, handed my notes to Polton, wished
+him "Good evening," and betook myself to Fetter Lane.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+WHICH CARRIES THE READER INTO THE PROBATE COURT
+
+
+The Probate Court wore an air of studious repose when I entered with
+Miss Bellingham and her father. Apparently the great and inquisitive
+public had not become aware of the proceedings that were about to take
+place, or had not realised their connection with the sensational
+"Mutilation Case"; but barristers and Press-men, better informed, had
+gathered in some strength, and the hum of their conversation filled the
+air like the droning of the voluntary that ushers in a cathedral
+service.
+
+As we entered, a pleasant-faced, elderly gentleman rose and came forward
+to meet us, shaking Mr. Bellingham's hand cordially and saluting Miss
+Bellingham with a courtly bow.
+
+"This is Mr. Marchmont, Doctor," said the former, introducing me; and
+the solicitor, having thanked me for the trouble I had taken in
+attending at the inquest, led us to a bench, at the farther end of which
+was seated a gentleman whom I recognised as Mr. Hurst.
+
+Mr. Bellingham recognised him at the same moment and glared at him
+wrathfully.
+
+"I see that scoundrel is here!" he exclaimed in a distinctly audible
+voice, "pretending that he doesn't see me, because he is ashamed to look
+me in the face, but--"
+
+"Hush! hush! my dear sir," exclaimed the horrified solicitor; "we
+mustn't talk like that, especially in this place. Let me beg you--let me
+entreat you to control your feelings, to make no indiscreet remarks; in
+fact, to make no remarks at all," he added, with the evident conviction
+that any remarks that Mr. Bellingham might make would be certain to be
+indiscreet.
+
+"Forgive me, Marchmont," Mr. Bellingham replied contritely. "I will
+control myself; I will really be quite discreet. I won't even look at
+him again--because, if I do, I shall probably go over and pull his
+nose."
+
+This particular form of discretion did not appear to be quite to Mr.
+Marchmont's liking, for he took the precaution of insisting that Miss
+Bellingham and I should sit on the farther side of his client, and thus
+effectually separate him from his enemy.
+
+"Who's the long-nosed fellow talking to Jellicoe?" Mr. Bellingham asked.
+
+"That is Mr. Loram, K.C., Mr. Hurst's counsel; and the convivial-looking
+gentleman next to him is our counsel, Mr. Heath, a most able man
+and"--here Mr. Marchmont whispered behind his hand--"fully instructed by
+Doctor Thorndyke."
+
+At this juncture the judge entered and took his seat; the usher
+proceeded with great rapidity to swear in the jury, and the Court
+gradually settled down into that state of academic quiet which it
+maintained throughout the proceedings, excepting when the noisy
+swing-doors were set oscillating by some bustling clerk or reporter.
+
+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. George Hurst, is now applying to the
+Court for permission to presume the death of the testator and prove the
+will. As the time which has elapsed since the testator was last seen
+alive is only two years, the application is based upon the circumstances
+of the disappearance, which were, in many respects, very singular, the
+most remarkable feature of that disappearance being, perhaps, its
+suddenness and completeness."
+
+Here the judge remarked in a still, small voice that "It would, perhaps,
+have been even more remarkable if the testator had disappeared gradually
+and incompletely."
+
+"No doubt, my Lord," agreed Mr. Loram; "but the point is that the
+testator, whose habits had always been regular and orderly, disappeared
+on the date mentioned without having made any of the usual provisions
+for the conduct of his affairs, and has not since then been seen or
+heard of."
+
+With this preamble Mr. Loram proceeded to give a narrative of the events
+connected with the disappearance of John Bellingham, which was
+substantially identical with that which I had read in the newspapers;
+and having laid the actual facts before the jury, he went on to discuss
+their probable import.
+
+"Now, what conclusion," he asked, "will this strange, this most
+mysterious train of events suggest to an intelligent person who shall
+consider it impartially? Here is a man who steps forth from the house of
+his cousin or his brother, as the case may be, and forthwith, in the
+twinkling of an eye, vanishes from human ken. What is the explanation?
+Did he steal forth and, without notice or hint of his intention, take
+train to some seaport, thence to embark for some distant land, leaving
+his affairs to take care of themselves and his friends to speculate
+vainly as to his whereabouts? Is he now in hiding abroad, or even at
+home, indifferent alike to the safety of his own considerable property
+and the peace of mind of his friends? Or is it that death has come upon
+him unawares by sickness, by accident, or, more probably, by the hand of
+some unknown criminal? Let us consider the probabilities.
+
+"Can he have disappeared by his own deliberate act? Why not? it may be
+asked. Men undoubtedly do disappear from time to time, to be discovered
+by chance or to reappear voluntarily after intervals of years and find
+their names almost forgotten and their places filled by new-comers. Yes;
+but there is always some reason for a disappearance of this kind, even
+though it be a bad one. Family discords that make life a weariness;
+pecuniary difficulties that make life a succession of anxieties;
+distaste for particular circumstances and surroundings from which there
+seems no escape; inherent restlessness and vagabond tendencies, and so
+on.
+
+"Do any of these explanations apply to the present case? No, they do
+not. Family discords--at least those capable of producing chronic
+misery--appertain exclusively to the married state. But the testator was
+a bachelor with no encumbrances whatever. Pecuniary anxieties can be
+equally excluded. The testator was in easy, in fact, in affluent
+circumstances. His mode of life was apparently agreeable and full of
+interest and activity, and he had full liberty to change it if he
+wished. He had been accustomed to travel, and could do so again without
+absconding. He had reached an age when radical changes do not seem
+desirable. He was a man of fixed and regular habits, and his regularity
+was of his own choice and not due to compulsion or necessity. When last
+seen by his friends, as I shall prove, he was proceeding to a definite
+destination with the expressed intention of returning for purposes of
+his own appointing. He did return and then vanished, leaving those
+purposes unachieved.
+
+"If we conclude that he has voluntarily disappeared and is at present in
+hiding, we adopt an opinion that is entirely at variance with all these
+weighty facts. If, on the other hand, we conclude that he has died
+suddenly, or has been killed by an accident or otherwise, we are
+adopting a view that involves no inherent improbabilities and that is
+entirely congruous with the known facts; facts that will be proved by
+the testimony of the witnesses whom I shall call. The supposition that
+the testator is dead is not only more probable than that he is alive; I
+submit that it is the only reasonable explanation of the circumstances
+of his disappearance.
+
+"But this is not all. The presumption of death which arises so
+inevitably out of the mysterious and abrupt manner in which the testator
+disappeared has recently received most conclusive and dreadful
+confirmation. On the fifteenth of July last there were discovered at
+Sidcup the remains of a human arm--a left arm, gentlemen, from the hand
+of which the third, or ring, finger was missing. The doctor who has
+examined that arm will tell you that that finger was cut off either
+after death or immediately before; and his evidence will prove
+conclusively that that arm must have been deposited in the place where
+it was found just about the time when the testator disappeared. Since
+that first discovery, other portions of the same mutilated body have
+come to light; and it is a strange and significant fact that they have
+all been found in the immediate neighbourhood of Eltham or Woodford. You
+will remember, gentlemen, that it was either at Eltham or Woodford that
+the testator was last seen alive.
+
+"And now observe the completeness of the coincidence. These human
+remains, as you will be told presently by the experienced and learned
+medical gentleman who has examined them most exhaustively, are those of
+a man of about sixty years of age, about five feet eight inches in
+height, fairly muscular and well preserved, apparently healthy, and
+rather stoutly built. Another witness will tell you that the missing
+man was about sixty years of age, about five feet eight inches in
+height, fairly muscular and well preserved, apparently healthy, and
+rather stoutly built. And--another most significant and striking
+fact--the testator was accustomed to wear upon the third finger of his
+left hand--the very finger that is missing from the remains that were
+found--a most peculiar ring, which fitted so tightly that he was unable
+to get it off after once putting it on; a ring, gentlemen, of so
+peculiar a pattern that had it been found on the body must have
+instantly established the identity of the remains. In a word, gentlemen,
+the remains which have been found are those of a man exactly like the
+testator; they differ from him in no respect whatever; they display a
+mutilation which suggests an attempt to conceal an identifying
+peculiarity which he undoubtedly presented; and they were deposited in
+their various hiding-places about the time of the testator's
+disappearance. Accordingly, when you have heard these facts proved by
+the sworn testimony of competent witnesses, together with the facts
+relating to the disappearance, I shall ask you for a verdict in
+accordance with that evidence."
+
+Mr. Loram sat down, and adjusting a pair of pince-nez, rapidly glanced
+over his brief while the usher was administering the oath to the first
+witness.
+
+This was Mr. Jellicoe, who stepped into the box and directed a stony
+gaze at the (apparently) unconscious judge. The usual preliminaries
+having been gone through, Mr. Loram proceeded to examine him.
+
+"You were the testator's solicitor and confidential agent, I believe?"
+
+"I was--and am."
+
+"How long have you known him?"
+
+"Twenty-seven years."
+
+"Judging from your experience of him, should you say that he was a
+person likely to disappear voluntarily and suddenly to cease to
+communicate with his friends?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Kindly give your reasons for that opinion."
+
+"Such conduct on the part of the testator would be entirely opposed to
+his habits and character as they are known to me. He was exceedingly
+regular and business-like in his dealings with me. When travelling
+abroad he always kept me informed as to his whereabouts, or, if he was
+likely to be beyond reach of communications, he always advised me
+beforehand. One of my duties was to collect a pension which he drew from
+the Foreign Office, and on no occasion, previous to his disappearance,
+has he ever failed to furnish me punctually with the necessary
+documents."
+
+"Had he, so far as you know, any reasons for wishing to disappear?"
+
+"No."
+
+"When and where did you last see him alive?"
+
+"At six o'clock in the evening, on the fourteenth of October, nineteen
+hundred and two, at 141 Queen Square, Bloomsbury."
+
+"Kindly tell us what happened on that occasion."
+
+"The testator had called for me at my office at a quarter past three,
+and asked me to come with him to his house to meet Doctor Norbury. I
+accompanied him to 141 Queen Square, and shortly after we arrived Doctor
+Norbury came to look at some antiquities that the testator proposed to
+give to the British Museum. The gift consisted of a mummy with the four
+Canopic jars and other tomb-furniture, which the testator stipulated
+should be exhibited together in a single case and in the state in which
+they were then presented. Of these objects, the mummy only was ready for
+inspection. The tomb-furniture had not yet arrived in England, but was
+expected within a week. Doctor Norbury accepted the gift on behalf of
+the Museum, but could not take possession of the objects until he had
+communicated with the Director and obtained his formal authority. The
+testator accordingly gave me certain instructions concerning the
+delivery of the gift, as he was leaving England that evening."
+
+"Are those instructions relevant to the subject of this inquiry?"
+
+"I think they are. The testator was going to Paris, and perhaps from
+thence to Vienna. He instructed me to receive and unpack the
+tomb-furniture on its arrival, and to store it, with the mummy, in a
+particular room, where it was to remain for three weeks. If he returned
+within that time he was to hand it over in person to the Museum
+authorities; if he had not returned within that time, he desired me to
+notify the Museum authorities that they were at liberty to take
+possession of and remove the collection at their convenience. From these
+instructions I gathered that the testator was uncertain as to the length
+of his absence from England and the extent of his journey."
+
+"Did he state precisely where he was going?"
+
+"No. He said that he was going to Paris and perhaps to Vienna, but he
+gave no particulars and I asked for none."
+
+"Do you, in fact, know where he went?"
+
+"No. He left the house at six o'clock wearing a long, heavy overcoat
+and carrying a suit-case and an umbrella. I wished him 'Good-bye' at the
+door and watched him walk away as if going towards Southampton Row. I
+have no idea where he went, and I never saw him again."
+
+"Had he no other luggage than the suit-case?"
+
+"I do not know, but I believe not. He was accustomed to travel with the
+bare necessaries, and to buy anything further that he wanted _en
+route_."
+
+"Did he say nothing to the servants as to the probable date of his
+return?"
+
+"There were no servants excepting the caretaker. The house was not used
+for residential purposes. The testator slept and took his meals at his
+club, though he kept his clothes at the house."
+
+"Did you receive any communication from him after he left?"
+
+"No. I never heard from him again in any way. I waited for three weeks
+as he had instructed me, and then notified the Museum authorities that
+the collection was ready for removal. Five days later Doctor Norbury
+came and took formal possession of it, and it was transferred to the
+Museum forthwith."
+
+"When did you next hear of the testator?"
+
+"On the twenty-third of November following at a quarter past seven in
+the evening. Mr. George Hurst came to my rooms, which are over my
+office, and informed me that the testator had called at his house during
+his absence and had been shown into the study to wait for him. That on
+his--Mr. Hurst's--arrival it was found that the testator had disappeared
+without acquainting the servants with his intended departure, and
+without being seen by anyone to leave the house. Mr. Hurst thought this
+so remarkable that he had hastened up to town to inform me. I also
+thought it a remarkable circumstance, especially as I had received no
+communication from the testator, and we both decided that it was
+advisable to inform the testator's brother, Godfrey, of what had
+happened.
+
+"Accordingly Mr. Hurst and I proceeded as quickly as possible to
+Liverpool Street and took the first train available to Woodford, where
+Mr. Godfrey Bellingham then resided. We arrived at his house at five
+minutes to nine, and were informed by the servant that he was not at
+home, but that his daughter was in the library, which was a detached
+building situated in the grounds. The servant lighted a lantern and
+conducted us through the grounds to the library, where we found Mr.
+Godfrey Bellingham and Miss Bellingham. Mr. Godfrey had only just come
+in and had entered by the back gate, which had a bell that rang in the
+library. Mr. Hurst informed Mr. Godfrey of what had occurred, and then
+we all left the library to walk up to the house. A few paces from the
+library I noticed by the light of the lantern, which Mr. Godfrey was
+carrying, a small object lying on the lawn. I pointed it out to him and
+he picked it up, and then we all recognised it as a scarab that the
+testator was accustomed to wear on his watch-chain. It was fitted with a
+gold wire passed through the suspension hole and a gold ring. Both the
+wire and the ring were in position, but the ring was broken. We went to
+the house and questioned the servants as to visitors; but none of them
+had seen the testator, and they all agreed that no visitor whatsoever
+had come to the house during the afternoon, or evening. Mr. Godfrey and
+Miss Bellingham both declared that they had neither seen nor heard
+anything of the testator, and were both unaware that he had returned to
+England. As the circumstances were somewhat disquieting, I communicated,
+on the following morning, with the police and requested them to make
+inquiries; which they did, with the result that a suit-case, bearing the
+initials 'J.B.', was found to be lying unclaimed in the cloak-room at
+Charing Cross Station. I was able to identify the suit-case as that
+which I had seen the testator carry away from Queen Square. I was also
+able to identify some of the contents. I interviewed the cloak-room
+attendant, who informed me that the suit-case had been deposited on the
+twenty-third at about 4.15 P.M. He had no recollection of the person who
+deposited it. It remained unclaimed in the possession of the railway
+company for three months, and was then surrendered to me."
+
+"Were there any marks or labels on it showing the route by which it had
+travelled?"
+
+"There were no labels on it and no marks other than the initials 'J.B.'"
+
+"Do you happen to know the testator's age?"
+
+"Yes. He was fifty-nine on the eleventh of October, nineteen hundred and
+two."
+
+"Can you tell us what his height was?"
+
+"Yes. He was exactly five feet eight inches."
+
+"What sort of health had he?"
+
+"So far as I know his health was good. I am not aware that he suffered
+from any disease. I am only judging by his appearance, which was that of
+a healthy man."
+
+"Should you describe him as well preserved or otherwise?"
+
+"I should describe him as a well-preserved man for his age."
+
+"How should you describe his figure?"
+
+"I should describe him as rather broad and stout in build, and fairly
+muscular, though not exceptionally so."
+
+Mr. Loram made a rapid note of these answers, and then said:
+
+"You have told us, Mr. Jellicoe, that you have known the testator
+intimately for twenty-seven years. Now, did you ever notice whether he
+was accustomed to wear any rings upon his fingers?"
+
+"He wore upon the third finger of his left hand a copy of an antique
+ring which bore the device of the Eye of Osiris. That was the only ring
+he ever wore as far as I know."
+
+"Did he wear it constantly?"
+
+"Yes, necessarily; because it was too small for him, and having once
+squeezed it on he was never able to get it off again."
+
+This was the sum of Mr. Jellicoe's evidence, and at its conclusion the
+witness glanced inquiringly at Mr. Bellingham's counsel. But Mr. Heath
+remained seated, attentively considering the notes that he had just
+made, and finding that there was to be no cross-examination, Mr.
+Jellicoe stepped down from the box. I leaned back on my bench, and,
+turning my head, observed Miss Bellingham deep in thought.
+
+"What do you think of it?" I asked.
+
+"It seems very complete and conclusive," she replied. And then, with a
+sigh, she murmured: "Poor old Uncle John! How horrid it sounds to talk
+of him in this cold-blooded, business-like way, as 'the testator,' as if
+he were nothing but a sort of algebraical sign."
+
+"There isn't much room for sentiment, I suppose, in the proceedings of
+the Probate Court," I replied. To which she assented, and then asked:
+"Who is this lady?"
+
+"This lady" was a fashionably dressed young woman who had just bounced
+into the witness-box and was now being sworn. The preliminaries being
+finished, she answered Miss Bellingham's question and Mr. Loram's by
+stating that her name was Augustina Gwendoline Dobbs, and that she was
+housemaid to Mr. George Hurst, of "The Poplars," Eltham.
+
+"Mr. Hurst lives alone, I believe?" said Mr. Loram.
+
+"I don't know what you mean by that," Miss Dobbs began; but the
+barrister explained:
+
+"I mean that I believe he is unmarried?"
+
+"Well, and what about it?" the witness demanded tartly.
+
+"I am asking you a question."
+
+"I know that," said the witness viciously; "and I say that you've no
+business to make any such insinuations to a respectable young lady when
+there's a cook-housekeeper and a kitchenmaid living in the house, and
+him old enough to be my father----"
+
+Here his lordship flattened his eyelids with startling effect, and Mr.
+Loram interrupted: "I make no insinuations. I merely ask, Is your
+employer, Mr. Hurst, an unmarried man, or is he not?"
+
+"I never asked him," said the witness sulkily.
+
+"Please answer my question--yes or no?"
+
+"How can I answer your question? He may be unmarried or he may not. How
+do I know? I'm not a private detective."
+
+Mr. Loram directed a stupefied gaze at the witness, and in the ensuing
+silence a plaintive voice came from the bench:
+
+"Is the point material?"
+
+"Certainly, my lord," replied Mr. Loram.
+
+"Then, as I see that you are calling Mr. Hurst, perhaps you had better
+put the question to him. He will probably know."
+
+Mr. Loram bowed, and as the judge subsided into his normal state of coma
+he turned to the triumphant witness.
+
+"Do you remember anything remarkable occurring on the twenty-third of
+November the year before last?"
+
+"Yes. Mr. John Bellingham called at our house."
+
+"How did you know he was Mr. John Bellingham?"
+
+"I didn't; but he said he was, and I supposed he knew."
+
+"At what time did he arrive?"
+
+"At twenty minutes past five in the evening."
+
+"What happened then?"
+
+"I told him that Mr. Hurst had not come home yet, and he said he would
+wait for him in the study and write some letters; so I showed him into
+the study and shut the door."
+
+"What happened next?"
+
+"Nothing. Then Mr. Hurst came home at his usual time--a quarter to
+six--and let himself in with his key. He went straight through into the
+study, where I supposed Mr. Bellingham still was, so I took no notice,
+but laid the table for two. At six o'clock Mr. Hurst came into the
+dining-room--he has tea in the City and dines at six--and when he saw
+the table laid for two he asked the reason. I said I thought Mr.
+Bellingham was staying to dinner.
+
+"'Mr. Bellingham!' says he. 'I didn't know he was here. Why didn't you
+tell me?' he says. 'I thought he was with you, sir,' I said. 'I showed
+him into the study,' I said. 'Well, he wasn't there when I came in,' he
+said, 'and he isn't there now,' he said. 'Perhaps he has gone to wait in
+the drawing-room,' he said. So we went and looked in the drawing-room,
+but he wasn't there. Then Mr. Hurst said he thought Mr. Bellingham must
+have got tired of waiting and gone away; but I told him I was quite sure
+he hadn't, because I had been watching all the time. Then he asked me if
+Mr. Bellingham was alone or whether his daughter was with him, and I
+said that it wasn't that Mr. Bellingham at all, but Mr. John Bellingham,
+and then he was more surprised than ever. I said we had better search
+the house to make sure whether he was there or not, and Mr. Hurst said
+he would come with me; so we went all over the house and looked in all
+the rooms, but there was not a sign of Mr. Bellingham in any of them.
+Then Mr. Hurst got very nervous and upset, and when he had just snatched
+a little dinner he ran off to catch the six-thirty train up to town."
+
+"You say that Mr. Bellingham could not have left the house because you
+were watching all the time. Where were you while you were watching?"
+
+"I was in the kitchen. I could see the front gate from the kitchen
+window."
+
+"You say that you laid the table for two. Where did you lay it?"
+
+"In the dining-room, of course."
+
+"Could you see the front gate from the dining-room?"
+
+"No, but I could see the study door. The study is opposite the
+dining-room."
+
+"Do you have to come upstairs to get from the kitchen to the
+dining-room?"
+
+"Yes, of course you do!"
+
+"Then might not Mr. Bellingham have left the house while you were coming
+up the stairs?"
+
+"No, he couldn't have done."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because it would have been impossible."
+
+"But why would it have been impossible?"
+
+"Because he couldn't have done it."
+
+"I suggest that Mr. Bellingham left the house quietly while you were on
+the stairs?"
+
+"No, he didn't."
+
+"How do you know he did not?"
+
+"I am quite sure he didn't."
+
+"What makes you feel sure he did not?"
+
+"I am quite certain he didn't."
+
+"But how can you be certain?"
+
+"Because I should have seen him if he had."
+
+"But I mean when you were on the stairs."
+
+"He was in the study when I was on the stairs."
+
+"How do you know he was in the study?"
+
+"Because I showed him in there and he hadn't come out."
+
+Mr. Loram paused and took a deep breath, and his lordship flattened his
+eyelids.
+
+"Is there a side gate to the premises?" the barrister resumed wearily.
+
+"Yes. It opens into a narrow lane at the side of the house."
+
+"And there is a French window in the study, is there not?"
+
+"Yes; it opens on to the small grass plot opposite the side gate."
+
+"Were the window and the gate locked, or would it have been possible for
+Mr. Bellingham to let himself out into the lane?"
+
+"The window and the gate both have catches on the inside. He could have
+got out that way, but, of course, he didn't."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Well, no gentleman would go creeping out by the back way like a thief."
+
+"Did you look to see if the French window was shut and fastened after
+you missed Mr. Bellingham?"
+
+"I looked at it when we shut the house up for the night. It was then
+shut and fastened on the inside."
+
+"And the side gate?"
+
+"That was shut and latched. You have to slam the gate to make the latch
+fasten, so no one could have gone out of that gate without being heard."
+
+Here the examination-in-chief ended, and Mr. Loram sat down with an
+audible sigh of relief. Miss Dobbs was about to step down from the
+witness-box when Mr. Heath rose to cross-examine.
+
+"Did you see Mr. Bellingham in a good light?" he asked.
+
+"Pretty good. It was dark outside, but the hall-lamp was alight."
+
+"Kindly look at this"--here a small object was passed across to the
+witness. "It is a trinket that Mr. Bellingham is stated to have carried
+suspended from his watch-guard. Can you remember if he was wearing it in
+that manner when he came to the house?"
+
+"No, he was not."
+
+"You are sure of that?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"Thank you. And now I want to ask you about the search that you have
+mentioned. You say that you went all over the house. Did you go into the
+study?"
+
+"No--at least, not until Mr. Hurst had gone to London."
+
+"When you did go in, was the window fastened?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Could it have been fastened from the outside?"
+
+"No; there is no handle outside."
+
+"What furniture is there in the study?"
+
+"There is a writing-table, a revolving-chair, two easy chairs, two large
+bookcases, and a wardrobe that Mr. Hurst keeps his overcoats and hats
+in."
+
+"Does the wardrobe lock?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Was it locked when you went in?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know. I don't go about trying the cupboards and
+drawers."
+
+"What furniture is there in the drawing-room?"
+
+"A cabinet, six or seven chairs, a Chesterfield sofa, a piano, a
+silver-table, and one or two occasional tables."
+
+"Is the piano a grand or an upright."
+
+"It is an upright grand."
+
+"In what position is it placed?"
+
+"It stands across a corner near the window."
+
+"Is there sufficient room behind it for a man to conceal himself?"
+
+Miss Dobbs was amused and did not dissemble. "Oh, yes," she sniggered,
+"there's plenty of room for a man to hide behind it."
+
+"When you searched the drawing-room, did you look behind the piano?"
+
+"No, I didn't!" Miss Dobbs replied scornfully.
+
+"Did you look under the sofa?"
+
+"Certainly not!"
+
+"What did you do, then?"
+
+"We opened the door and looked into the room. We were not looking for a
+cat or a monkey; we were looking for a middle-aged gentleman."
+
+"And am I to take it that your search over the rest of the house was
+conducted in a similar manner?"
+
+"Certainly. We looked into the rooms, but we did not search under the
+beds or in the cupboards."
+
+"Are all the rooms in the house in use as living or sleeping rooms?"
+
+"No; there is one room on the second floor that is used as a store and
+lumber room, and one on the first floor that Mr. Hurst uses to store
+trunks and things that he is not using."
+
+"Did you look in those rooms when you searched the house?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Have you looked in them since?"
+
+"I have been in the lumber-room since, but not in the other. It is
+always kept locked."
+
+At this point an ominous flattening became apparent in his lordship's
+eyelids, but these symptoms passed off when Mr. Heath sat down and
+indicated that he had no further questions to ask.
+
+Miss Dobbs once more prepared to step down from the witness-box, when
+Mr. Loram shot up like a jack-in-the-box.
+
+"You have made certain statements," said he, "concerning the scarab
+which Mr. Bellingham was accustomed to wear suspended from his
+watch-guard. You say that he was not wearing it when he came to Mr.
+Hurst's house on the twenty-third of November, nineteen hundred and two.
+Are you quite sure of that?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"I must ask you to be very careful in your statement on this point. The
+question is a highly important one. Do you swear that the scarab was not
+hanging from his watch-guard?"
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+"Did you notice the watch-guard particularly?"
+
+"No, not particularly."
+
+"Then what makes you so sure that the scarab was not attached to it?"
+
+"It couldn't have been."
+
+"Why could it not?"
+
+"Because if it had been there I should have seen it."
+
+"What kind of a watch-guard was Mr. Bellingham wearing?"
+
+"Oh, an ordinary sort of watch-guard."
+
+"I mean, was it a chain or a ribbon or a strap?"
+
+"A chain, I think--or perhaps a ribbon--or it might have been a strap."
+
+His lordship flattened his eyelids, but made no further sign, and Mr.
+Loram continued:
+
+"Did you or did you not notice what kind of watch-guard Mr. Bellingham
+was wearing?"
+
+"I did not. Why should I? It was no business of mine."
+
+"But yet you are sure about the scarab?"
+
+"Yes, quite sure."
+
+"You noticed that, then?"
+
+"No, I didn't. How could I when it wasn't there?"
+
+Mr. Loram paused and looked helplessly at the witness; a suppressed
+titter arose from the body of the Court, and a faint voice from the
+bench inquired:
+
+"Are you _quite_ incapable of giving a straightforward answer?"
+
+Miss Dobbs' only reply was to burst into tears; whereupon Mr. Loram
+abruptly sat down and abandoned his re-examination.
+
+The witness-box vacated by Miss Dobbs was occupied successively by Dr.
+Norbury, Mr. Hurst, and the cloak-room attendant, none of whom
+contributed any new facts, but merely corroborated the statements made
+by Mr. Jellicoe and the housemaid. Then came the labourer who discovered
+the bones at Sidcup, and who repeated the evidence that he had given at
+the inquest, showing that the remains could not have been lying in the
+watercress-bed more than two years. Finally Dr. Summers was called, and,
+after he had given a brief description of the bones that he had
+examined, was asked by Mr. Loram:
+
+"You have heard the description that Mr. Jellicoe has given of the
+testator?"
+
+"I have."
+
+"Does that description apply to the person whose remains you examined?"
+
+"In a general way, it does."
+
+"I must ask you for a direct answer--yes or no. Does it apply?"
+
+"Yes. But I ought to say that my estimate of the height of the deceased
+is only approximate."
+
+"Quite so. Judging from your examination of those remains and from Mr.
+Jellicoe's description, might those remains be the remains of the
+testator, John Bellingham?"
+
+"Yes, they might."
+
+On receiving this admission Mr. Loram sat down, and Mr. Heath
+immediately rose to cross-examine.
+
+"When you examined these remains, Doctor Summers, did you discover any
+personal peculiarities which would enable you to identify them as the
+remains of any one individual rather than any other individual of
+similar size, age, and proportions?"
+
+"No. I found nothing that would identify the remains as those of any
+particular individual."
+
+As Mr. Heath asked no further questions, the witness received his
+dismissal, and Mr. Loram informed the Court that that was his case. The
+judge bowed somnolently, and then Mr. Heath rose to address the Court on
+behalf of the respondent. It was not a long speech, nor was it enriched
+by any displays of florid rhetoric; it concerned itself exclusively with
+a rebutment of the arguments of the counsel for the petitioner.
+
+Having briefly pointed out that the period of absence was too short to
+give rise of itself to the presumption of death, Mr. Heath continued:
+
+"The claim therefore rests upon evidence of a positive character. My
+learned friend asserts that the testator is presumably dead, and it is
+for him to prove what he has affirmed. Now, has he done this? I submit
+that he has not. He has argued with great force and ingenuity that the
+testator, being a bachelor, a solitary man without wife or child,
+dependent or master, public or private office or duty, or any bond,
+responsibility, or any other condition limiting his freedom of action,
+had no reason or inducement for absconding. This is my learned friend's
+argument, and he has conducted it with so much skill and ingenuity that
+he has not only succeeded in proving his case; he has proved a great
+deal too much. For if it is true, as my learned friend so justly argues,
+that a man thus unfettered by obligations of any kind has no reason for
+disappearing, is it not even more true that he has no reason for _not_
+disappearing? My friend has urged that the testator was at liberty to go
+where he pleased, when he pleased, and how he pleased; and that
+therefore there was no need for him to abscond. I reply, if he was at
+liberty to go away, whither, when, and how he pleased, why do we express
+surprise that he has made use of his liberty? My learned friend points
+out that the testator notified to nobody his intention of going away and
+has acquainted no one with his whereabouts; but, I ask, whom should he
+have notified? He was responsible to nobody; there was no one dependent
+upon him; his presence or absence was the concern of nobody but himself.
+If circumstances suddenly arising made it desirable that he should go
+abroad, why should he not go? I say there was no reason whatever.
+
+"My learned friend has said that the testator went away leaving his
+affairs to take care of themselves. Now, gentlemen, I ask you if this
+can fairly be said of a man whose affairs are, as they have been for
+years, in the hands of a highly capable, completely trustworthy agent
+who is better acquainted with them than the testator himself? Clearly it
+cannot.
+
+"To conclude this part of the argument: I submit that the circumstances
+of the so-called disappearance of the testator present nothing out of
+the ordinary. The testator is a man of ample means, without any
+responsibilities to fetter his movements and has been in the constant
+habit of travelling, often into remote and distant regions. The mere
+fact that he has been absent somewhat longer than usual affords no
+ground whatever for the drastic proceeding of presuming his death and
+taking possession of his property.
+
+"With reference to the human remains which have been mentioned in
+connection with the case I need say but little. The attempt to connect
+them with the testator has failed completely. You yourselves have heard
+Doctor Summers state on oath that they cannot be identified as the
+remains of any particular person. That would seem to dispose of them
+effectually. I must remark upon a very singular point that has been
+raised by the learned counsel for the petitioner, which is this:
+
+"My learned friend points out that these remains were discovered near
+Eltham and near Woodford and that the testator was last seen alive at
+one of these two places. This he considers for some reason to be a
+highly significant fact. But I cannot agree with him. If the testator
+had been last seen alive at Woodford and the remains had been found at
+Woodford, or if he had disappeared from Eltham and the remains had been
+found at Eltham, that would have had some significance. But he can only
+have been last seen at one of the places, whereas the remains have been
+found at both places. Here again my learned friend seems to have proved
+too much."
+
+"But I need not occupy your time further. I repeat that, in order to
+justify us in presuming the death of the testator, clear and positive
+evidence would be necessary. That no such evidence has been brought
+forward. Accordingly, seeing that the testator may return at any time
+and is entitled to find his property intact, I shall ask you for a
+verdict that will secure to him this measure of ordinary justice."
+
+At the conclusion of Mr. Heath's speech the judge, as if awakening from
+a refreshing nap, opened his eyes; and uncommonly shrewd, intelligent
+eyes they were, when the expressive eyelids were duly tucked up out of
+the way. He commenced by reading over a part of the will and certain
+notes--which he appeared to have made in some miraculous fashion with
+his eyes shut--and then proceeded to review the evidence and the
+counsels' arguments for the instruction of the jury.
+
+"Before considering the evidence which you have heard, gentlemen," he
+said, "it will be well for me to say a few words to you on the general
+legal aspects of the case which is occupying our attention."
+
+"If a person goes abroad or disappears from his home and his ordinary
+places of resort and is absent for a long period of time, the
+presumption of death arises at the expiration of seven years from the
+date on which he was last heard of. That is to say, that the total
+disappearance of an individual for seven years constitutes presumptive
+evidence that the said individual is dead; and the presumption can be
+set aside only by the production of evidence that he was alive at some
+time within that period of seven years. But if, on the other hand, it
+is sought to presume the death of a person who has been absent for a
+shorter period than seven years, it is necessary to produce such
+evidence as shall make it highly probable that the said person is dead.
+Of course, presumption implies supposition as opposed to actual
+demonstration; but, nevertheless, the evidence in such a case must be of
+a kind that tends to create a very strong belief that death has
+occurred; and I need hardly say that the shorter the period of absence,
+the more convincing must be the evidence.
+
+"In the present case, the testator, John Bellingham, has been absent
+somewhat under two years. This is a relatively short period, and in
+itself gives rise to no presumption of death. Nevertheless, death has
+been presumed in a case where the period of absence was even shorter and
+the insurance recovered; but here the evidence supporting the belief in
+the occurrence of death was exceedingly weighty.
+
+"The testator in this case was a shipmaster, and his disappearance was
+accompanied by the disappearance of the ship and the entire ship's
+company in the course of a voyage from London to Marseilles. The loss of
+the ship and her crew was the only reasonable explanation of the
+disappearance, and, short of actual demonstration, the facts offered
+convincing evidence of the death of all persons on board. I mention this
+case as an illustration. You are not dealing with speculative
+probabilities. You are contemplating a very momentous proceeding, and
+you must be very sure of your ground. Consider what it is that you are
+asked to do.
+
+"The petitioner asks permission to presume the death of the testator in
+order that the testator's property may be distributed among the
+beneficiaries under the will. The granting of such permission involves
+us in the gravest responsibility. An ill-considered decision might be
+productive of a serious injustice to the testator, an injustice that
+could never be remedied. Hence it is incumbent upon you to weigh the
+evidence with the greatest care, to come to no decision without the
+profoundest consideration of all the facts.
+
+"The evidence that you have heard divides itself into two parts--that
+relating to the circumstances of the testator's disappearance, and that
+relating to certain human remains. In connection with the latter I can
+only express my surprise and regret that the application was not
+postponed until the completion of the coroner's inquest, and leave you
+to consider the evidence. You will bear in mind that Doctor Summers has
+stated explicitly that the remains cannot be identified as those of any
+particular individual, but that the testator and the unknown deceased
+had so many points of resemblance that they might possibly be one and
+the same person.
+
+"With reference to the circumstances of the disappearance, you have
+heard the evidence of Mr. Jellicoe to the effect that the testator has
+on no previous occasion gone abroad without informing him as to his
+proposed destination. But in considering what weight you are to give to
+this statement you will bear in mind that when the testator set out for
+Paris after his interview with Doctor Norbury he left Mr. Jellicoe
+without any information as to his specific destination, his address in
+Paris, or the precise date when he should return, and that Mr. Jellicoe
+was unable to tell us where the testator went or what was his business.
+Mr. Jellicoe was, in fact, for a time without any means of tracing the
+testator or ascertaining his whereabouts.
+
+"The evidence of the housemaid, Dobbs, and of Mr. Hurst is rather
+confusing. It appears that the testator came to the house, was shown
+into a certain room, and when looked for later was not to be found. A
+search of the premises showed that he was not in the house, whence it
+seems to follow that he must have left it; but since no one was informed
+of his intention to leave, and he had expressed the intention of staying
+to see Mr. Hurst, his conduct in thus going away surreptitiously must
+appear somewhat eccentric. The point that you have to consider,
+therefore, is whether a person who is capable of thus departing in a
+surreptitious and eccentric manner from a house, without giving notice
+to the servants, is capable also of departing in a surreptitious and
+eccentric manner from his usual places of resort without giving notice
+to his friends or thereafter informing them of his whereabouts.
+
+"The questions, then, gentlemen, that you have to ask yourselves before
+deciding on your verdict are two: first, Are the circumstances of the
+testator's disappearance and his continued absence incongruous with his
+habits and personal peculiarities as they are known to you? and second,
+Are there any facts which indicate in a positive manner that the
+testator is dead? Ask yourselves these questions, gentlemen, and the
+answers to them, furnished by the evidence that you have heard, will
+guide you to your decision."
+
+Having delivered himself of the above instructions, the judge applied
+himself to the perusal of the will with professional gusto, in which
+occupation he was presently disturbed by the announcement of the foreman
+of the jury that a verdict had been agreed upon.
+
+The judge sat up and glanced at the jury-box, and when the foreman
+proceeded to state that "We find no sufficient reason for presuming the
+testator, John Bellingham, to be dead," he nodded approvingly. Evidently
+that was his opinion, too, as he was careful to explain when he conveyed
+to Mr. Loram the refusal of the Court to grant the permission applied
+for.
+
+The decision was a great relief to me, and also, I think, to Miss
+Bellingham; but most of all to her father, who, with instinctive good
+manners, since he could not suppress a smile of triumph, rose hastily
+and stumped out of the Court, so that the discomfited Hurst should not
+see him. His daughter and I followed, and as we left the Court she
+remarked, with a smile:
+
+"So our pauperism is not, after all, made absolute. There is still a
+chance for us in the Chapter of Accidents--and perhaps even for poor old
+Uncle John."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
+
+
+The morning after the hearing saw me setting forth on my round in more
+than usually good spirits. The round itself was but a short one, for my
+list contained only a couple of "chronics," and this, perhaps,
+contributed to my cheerful outlook on life. But there were other
+reasons. The decision of the Court had come as an unexpected reprieve
+and the ruin of my friends' prospects was at least postponed. Then, I
+had learned that Thorndyke was back from Bristol and wished me to look
+in on him; and, finally, Miss Bellingham had agreed to spend this very
+afternoon with me, browsing round the galleries at the British Museum.
+
+I had disposed of my two patients by a quarter to eleven, and three
+minutes later was striding down Mitre Court, all agog to hear what
+Thorndyke had to say with reference to my notes on the inquest. The
+"oak" was open when I arrived at his chambers, and a modest flourish on
+the little brass knocker of the inner door was answered by my quondam
+teacher himself.
+
+"How good of you, Berkeley," he said, shaking hands genially, "to look
+me up so early. I am all alone, just looking through the report of the
+evidence in yesterday's proceedings."
+
+He placed an easy chair for me, and, gathering up a bundle of
+type-written papers, laid them aside on the table.
+
+"Were you surprised at the decision?" I asked.
+
+"No," he answered. "Two years is a short period of absence; but still,
+it might easily have gone the other way. I am greatly relieved. The
+respite gives us time to carry out our investigations without undue
+hurry."
+
+"Did you find my notes of any use?" I asked.
+
+"Heath did. Polton handed them to him, and they were invaluable to him
+for his cross-examination. I haven't seen them yet; in fact, I have only
+just got them back from him. Let us go through them together now."
+
+He opened a drawer, and taking from it my note-book, seated himself, and
+began to read through my notes with grave attention, while I stood and
+looked shyly over his shoulder. On the page that contained my sketches
+of the Sidcup arm, showing the distribution of the snails' eggs on the
+bones, he lingered with a faint smile that made me turn hot and red.
+
+"Those sketches look rather footy," I said; "but I had to put something
+in my note-book."
+
+"You didn't attach any importance, then, to the facts that they
+illustrated?"
+
+"No. The egg-patches were there, so I noted the fact. That's all."
+
+"I congratulate you, Berkeley. There is not one man in twenty who would
+have the sense to make a careful note of what he considers an
+unimportant or irrelevant fact; and the investigator who notes only
+those things that appear significant is perfectly useless. He gives
+himself no material for reconsideration. But you don't mean that these
+egg-patches and worm-tubes appeared to you to have no significance at
+all?"
+
+"Oh, of course, they show the position in which the bones were lying."
+
+"Exactly. The arm was lying, fully extended, with the dorsal side
+uppermost. There is nothing remarkable in that. But we also learn from
+these egg-patches that the hand had been separated from the arm before
+it was thrown into the pond; and there is something very remarkable in
+that."
+
+I leaned over his shoulder and gazed at my sketches, amazed at the
+rapidity with which he had reconstructed the limb from my rough drawings
+of the individual bones.
+
+"I don't quite see how you arrived at it, though," I said.
+
+"Well, look at your drawings. The egg-patches are on the dorsal surface
+of the scapula, the humerus, and the bones of the fore-arm. But here you
+have shown six of the bones of the hand: two metacarpals, the os magnum,
+and three phalanges; and they all have egg-patches on the _palmar_
+surface. Therefore the hand was lying palm upwards."
+
+"But the hand may have been pronated."
+
+"If you mean pronated in relation to the arm, that is impossible, for
+the position of the egg-patches shows clearly that the bones of the arm
+were lying in the position of supination. Thus the dorsal surface of the
+arm and the palmar surface of the hand respectively were uppermost,
+which is an anatomical impossibility so long as the hand is attached to
+the arm."
+
+"But might not the hand have become detached after lying in the pond
+some time?"
+
+"No. It could not have been detached until the ligaments had decayed,
+and if it had been separated after the decay of the soft parts, the
+bones would have been thrown into disorder. But the egg-patches are all
+on the palmar surface, showing that the bones were still in their normal
+relative positions. No, Berkeley, that hand was thrown into the pond
+separately from the arm."
+
+"But why should it have been?" I asked.
+
+"Ah, there is a very pretty little problem for you to consider. And,
+meantime, let me tell you that your expedition has been a brilliant
+success. You are an excellent observer. Your only fault is that when you
+have noted certain facts you don't seem fully to appreciate their
+significance--which is merely a matter of inexperience. As to the facts
+that you have collected, several of them are of prime importance."
+
+"I am glad you are satisfied," said I, "though I don't see that I have
+discovered much excepting those snails' eggs; and they don't seem to
+have advanced matters very much."
+
+"A definite fact, Berkeley, is a definite asset. Perhaps we may
+presently find a little space in our Chinese puzzle which this fact of
+the detached hand will just drop into. But, tell me, did you find
+nothing unexpected or suggestive about those bones--as to their number
+and condition, for instance?"
+
+"Well, I thought it a little queer that the scapula and clavicle should
+be there. I should have expected him to cut the arm off at the
+shoulder-joint."
+
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "so should I; and so it has been done in every
+case of dismemberment that I am acquainted with. To an ordinary person,
+the arm seems to join on to the trunk at the shoulder-joint, and that is
+where he would naturally sever it. What explanation do you suggest of
+this unusual mode of severing the arm?"
+
+"Do you think the fellow could have been a butcher?" I asked,
+remembering Dr. Summers' remark. "This is the way a shoulder of mutton
+is taken off."
+
+"No," replied Thorndyke. "A butcher includes the scapula in a shoulder
+of mutton for a specific purpose, namely, to take off a given quantity
+of meat. And also, as a sheep has no clavicle, it is the easiest way to
+detach the limb. But I imagine a butcher would find himself in
+difficulties if he attempted to take off a man's arm in that way. The
+clavicle would be a new and perplexing feature. Then, too, a butcher
+does not deal very delicately with his subject; if he has to divide a
+joint, he just cuts through it and does not trouble himself to avoid
+marking the bones. But you note here that there is not a single scratch
+or score on any one of the bones, not even where the finger was removed.
+Now, if you have ever prepared bones for a museum, as I have, you will
+remember the extreme care that is necessary in disarticulating joints to
+avoid disfiguring the articular ends of the bones with cuts and
+scratches."
+
+"Then you think that the person who dismembered this body must have had
+some anatomical knowledge and skill?"
+
+"That is what has been suggested. The suggestion is not mine."
+
+"Then I infer that you don't agree?"
+
+Thorndyke smiled. "I am sorry to be so cryptic, Berkeley, but you
+understand that I can't make statements. Still, I am trying to lead you
+to make certain inferences from the facts that are in your possession."
+
+"If I make the right inference, will you tell me?" I asked.
+
+"It won't be necessary," he answered, with the same quiet smile. "When
+you have fitted a puzzle together you don't need to be told that you
+have done it."
+
+It was most infernally tantalising. I pondered on the problem with a
+scowl of such intense cogitation that Thorndyke laughed outright.
+
+"It seems to me," I said, at length, "that the identity of the remains
+is the primary question and that is a question of fact. It doesn't seem
+any use to speculate about it."
+
+"Exactly. Either these bones are the remains of John Bellingham or they
+are not. There will be no doubt on the subject when all the bones are
+assembled--if ever they are. And the settlement of that question will
+probably throw light on the further question: Who deposited them in the
+places in which they were found? But to return to your observations: did
+you gather nothing from the other bones? From the complete state of the
+neck vertebrae, for instance?"
+
+"Well, it did strike me as rather odd that the fellow should have gone
+to the trouble of separating the atlas from the skull. He must have been
+pretty handy with the scalpel to have done it as cleanly as he seems to
+have done; but I don't see why he should have gone about the business in
+the most inconvenient way."
+
+"You notice the uniformity of method. He has separated the head from the
+spine, instead of cutting through the spine lower down, as most persons
+would have done: he removed the arms with the entire shoulder-girdle,
+instead of simply cutting them off at the shoulder-joints. Even in the
+thighs the same peculiarity appears; for in neither case was the
+knee-cap found with the thigh-bone, although it seems to have been
+searched for. Now the obvious way to divide the leg is to cut through
+the patellar ligament, leaving the knee-cap attached to the thigh. But
+in this case, the knee-cap appears to have been left attached to the
+shank. Can you explain why this person should have adopted this unusual
+and rather inconvenient method? Can you suggest a motive for this
+procedure, or can you think of any circumstances which might lead a
+person to adopt this method by preference?"
+
+"It seems as if he wished, for some reason, to divide the body into
+definite anatomical regions."
+
+Thorndyke chuckled. "You are not offering that suggestion as an
+explanation, are you? Because it would require more explaining than the
+original problem. And it is not even true. Anatomically speaking, the
+knee-cap appertains to the thigh rather than to the shank. It is a
+sesamoid bone belonging to the thigh muscles; yet in this case it has
+been left attached, apparently, to the shank. No, Berkeley, that cat
+won't jump. Our unknown operator was not preparing a skeleton as a
+museum specimen; he was dividing a body up into convenient-sized
+portions for the purpose of conveying them to various ponds. Now what
+circumstances might have led him to divide it in this peculiar manner?"
+
+"I am afraid I have no suggestion to offer. Have you?"
+
+Thorndyke suddenly lapsed into ambiguity. "I think," he said, "it is
+possible to conceive such circumstances, and so, probably, will you if
+you think it over."
+
+"Did you gather anything of importance from the evidence at the
+inquest?" I asked.
+
+"It is difficult to say," he replied. "The whole of my conclusions in
+this case are based on what is virtually circumstantial evidence. I have
+not one single fact of which I can say that it admits only of a single
+interpretation. Still, it must be remembered that even the most
+inconclusive facts, if sufficiently multiplied, yield a highly
+conclusive total. And my little pile of evidence is growing, particle by
+particle; but we mustn't sit here gossiping at this hour of the day; I
+have to consult with Marchmont and you say that you have an early
+afternoon engagement. We can walk together as far as Fleet Street."
+
+A minute or two later we went our respective ways, Thorndyke towards
+Lombard Street and I to Fetter Lane, not unmindful of those coming
+events that were casting so agreeable a shadow before them.
+
+There was only one message awaiting me, and when Adolphus had delivered
+it (amidst mephitic fumes that rose from the basement, premonitory of
+fried plaice), I pocketed my stethoscope and betook myself to Gunpowder
+Alley, the aristocratic abode of my patient, joyfully threading the now
+familiar passages of Gough Square and Wine Office Court, and meditating
+pleasantly on the curious literary flavour that pervades these
+little-known regions. For the shade of the author of _Rasselas_ still
+seems to haunt the scenes of his Titanic labours and his ponderous but
+homely and temperate rejoicings. Every court and alley whispers of books
+and of the making of books; forms of type, trundled noisily on trollies
+by ink-smeared boys, salute the wayfarer at odd corners; piles of
+strawboard, rolls or bales of paper, drums of printing-ink or
+roller-composition stand on the pavement outside dark entries; basement
+windows give glimpses into Hadean caverns tenanted by legions of
+printer's devils; and the very air is charged with the hum of press and
+with odours of glue and paste and oil. The entire neighbourhood is given
+up to the printer and binder; and even my patient turned out to be a
+guillotine-knife grinder--a ferocious and revolutionary calling
+strangely at variance with his harmless appearance and meek bearing.
+
+I was in good time at my tryst, despite the hindrances of fried plaice
+and invalid guillotinists; but, early as I was, Miss Bellingham was
+already waiting in the garden--she had been filling a bowl with
+flowers--ready to sally forth.
+
+"It is quite like old times," she said, as we turned into Fetter Lane,
+"to be going to the Museum together. It brings back the Tell el Amarna
+tablets and all your kindness and unselfish labour. I suppose we shall
+walk there to-day?"
+
+"Certainly," I replied; "I am not going to share your society with the
+common mortals who ride in omnibuses. That would be sheer, sinful waste.
+Besides, it is more companionable to walk."
+
+"Yes, it is; and the bustle of the streets makes one more appreciative
+of the quiet of the Museum. What are we going to look at when we get
+there?"
+
+"You must decide that," I replied. "You know the collection much better
+than I do."
+
+"Well, now," she mused, "I wonder what you would like to see; or, in
+other words, what I should like you to see. The old English pottery is
+rather fascinating, especially the Fulham ware. I rather think I shall
+take you to see that."
+
+She reflected awhile, and then, just as we reached the gate of Staple
+Inn, she stopped and looked thoughtfully down the Gray's Inn Road.
+
+"You have taken a great interest in our 'case,' as Doctor Thorndyke
+calls it. Would you like to see the churchyard where Uncle John wished
+to be buried? It is a little out of our way, but we are not in a hurry,
+are we?"
+
+I, certainly, was not. Any deviation that might prolong our walk was
+welcome, and, as to the place--why, all places were alike to me if only
+she were by my side. Besides, the churchyard was really of some
+interest, since it was undoubtedly the "exciting cause" of the obnoxious
+paragraph two of the disputed will. I accordingly expressed a desire to
+make its acquaintance, and we crossed to the entrance to Gray's Inn
+Road.
+
+"Do you ever try," she asked, as we turned down the dingy thoroughfare,
+"to picture to yourself familiar places as they looked a couple of
+hundred years ago?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, "and very difficult I find it. One has to manufacture
+the materials for reconstruction, and then the present aspect of the
+place will keep obtruding itself. But some places are easier to
+reconstitute than others."
+
+"That is what I find," said she. "Now Holborn, for example, is quite
+easy to reconstruct, though I daresay the imaginary form isn't a bit
+like the original. But there are fragments left, like Staple Inn and the
+front of Gray's Inn; and then one has seen prints of the old Middle Row
+and some of the taverns, so that one has some material with which to
+help out one's imagination. But this road that we are walking in always
+baffles me. It looks so old and yet is, for the most part, so new that I
+find it impossible to make a satisfactory picture of its appearance,
+say, when Sir Roger de Coverley might have strolled in Gray's Inn Walks,
+or farther back, when Francis Bacon had chambers in the Inn."
+
+"I imagine," said I, "that part of the difficulty is in the mixed
+character of the neighbourhood. Here, on the one side, is old Gray's
+Inn, not much changed since Bacon's time--his chambers are still to be
+seen, I think, over the gateway; and there, on the Clerkenwell side, is
+a dense and rather squalid neighbourhood which has grown up over a
+region partly rural and wholly fugitive in character. Places like
+Bagnigge Wells and Hockley in the Hole would not have had many buildings
+that were likely to survive; and in the absence of surviving specimens
+the imagination hasn't much to work from."
+
+"I daresay you are right," said she. "Certainly, the purlieus of old
+Clerkenwell present a very confused picture to me; whereas, in the case
+of an old street like, say, Great Ormond Street, one has only to sweep
+away the modern buildings and replace them with glorious old houses like
+the few that remain, dig up the roadway and pavements and lay down
+cobble-stones, plant a few wooden posts, hang up one or two oil-lamps,
+and the transformation is complete. And a very delightful transformation
+it is."
+
+"Very delightful; which, by the way, is a melancholy thought. For we
+ought to be doing better work than our forefathers; whereas what we
+actually do is to pull down the old buildings, clap the doorways,
+porticoes, panelling, and mantels in our museums, and then run up
+something inexpensive and useful and deadly uninteresting in their
+place."
+
+My companion looked at me and laughed softly. "For a naturally cheerful,
+and even gay young man," said she, "you are most amazingly pessimistic.
+The mantle of Jeremiah--if he ever wore one--seems to have fallen on
+you, but without in the least impairing your good spirits excepting in
+regard to matters architectural."
+
+"I have much to be thankful for," said I. "Am I not taken to the Museum
+by a fair lady? And does she not stay me with mummy cases and comfort me
+with crockery?"
+
+"Pottery," she corrected; and then, as we met a party of grave-looking
+women emerging from a side-street, she said: "I suppose those are lady
+medical students."
+
+"Yes, on their way to the Royal Free Hospital. Note the gravity of their
+demeanour and contrast it with the levity of the male student."
+
+"I was doing so," she answered, "and wondering why professional women
+are usually so much more serious than men."
+
+"Perhaps," I suggested, "it is a matter of selection. A peculiar type of
+woman is attracted to the professions, whereas every man has to earn his
+living as a matter of course."
+
+"Yes, I daresay that is the explanation. This is our turning."
+
+We passed into Heathcote Street, at the end of which was an open gate
+giving entrance to one of those disused and metamorphosed burial-grounds
+that are to be met with in the older districts of London; in which the
+dispossessed dead are jostled into corners to make room for the living.
+Many of the headstones were still standing, and others, displaced to
+make room for asphalted walks and seats, were ranged around by the
+walls, exhibiting inscriptions made meaningless by their removal. It was
+a pleasant enough place on this summer afternoon, contrasted with the
+dingy street whence we had come, though its grass was faded and yellow
+and the twitter of the birds in the trees mingled with the hideous
+Board-school drawl of the children who played around the seats and the
+few remaining tombs.
+
+"So this is the last resting-place of the illustrious house of
+Bellingham," said I.
+
+"Yes; and we are not the only distinguished people who repose in this
+place. The daughter of no less a person than Richard Cromwell is buried
+here; the tomb is still standing--but perhaps you have been here before,
+and know it."
+
+"I don't think I have ever been here before; and yet there is something
+about the place that seems familiar." I looked around, cudgelling my
+brains for the key to the dimly reminiscent sensations that the place
+evoked; until, suddenly, I caught sight of a group of buildings away to
+the west, enclosed within a wall heightened by a wooden trellis.
+
+"Yes, of course!" I exclaimed. "I remember the place now. I have never
+been in this part before, but in that enclosure beyond which opens at
+the end of Henrietta Street, there used to be and may be still, for all
+I know, a school of anatomy, at which I attended in my first year; in
+fact, I did my first dissection there."
+
+"There was a certain gruesome appropriateness in the position of the
+school," remarked Miss Bellingham. "It would have been really convenient
+in the days of the resurrection men. Your material would have been
+delivered at your very door. Was it a large school?"
+
+"The attendance varied according to the time of the year. Sometimes I
+worked there quite alone. I used to let myself in with a key and hoist
+my subject out of a sort of sepulchral tank by means of a chain tackle.
+It was a ghoulish business. You have no idea how awful the body used to
+look, to my unaccustomed eyes, as it rose slowly out of the tank. It was
+like the resurrection scenes that you see on some old tombstones, where
+the deceased is shown rising out of his coffin while the skeleton,
+Death, falls vanquished with his dart shattered and his crown toppling
+off.
+
+"I remember, too, that the demonstrator used to wear a blue apron, which
+created a sort of impression of a cannibal butcher's shop. But I am
+afraid I am shocking you."
+
+"No, you are not. Every profession has its unpresentable aspects, which
+ought not to be seen by out-siders. Think of a sculptor's studio and of
+the sculptor himself when he is modelling a large figure or group in the
+clay. He might be a bricklayer or a road-sweeper if you judge by his
+appearance. This is the tomb I was telling you about."
+
+We halted before the plain coffer of stone, weathered and wasted by age,
+but yet kept in decent repair by some pious hands, and read the
+inscription, setting forth with modest pride, that here reposed Anna,
+sixth daughter of Richard Cromwell, "The Protector." It was a simple
+monument and commonplace enough, with the crude severity of the ascetic
+age to which it belonged. But still, it carried the mind back to those
+stirring times when the leafy shades of Gray's Inn Lane must have
+resounded with the clank of weapons and the tramp of armed men; when
+this bald recreation-ground was a rustic churchyard, standing amidst
+green fields and hedgerows, and countrymen leading their pack-horses
+into London through the Lane would stop to look in over the wooden gate.
+
+Miss Bellingham looked at me critically as I stood thus reflecting, and
+presently remarked, "I think you and I have a good many mental habits in
+common."
+
+I looked up inquiringly, and she continued: "I notice that an old
+tombstone seems to set you meditating. So it does me. When I look at an
+ancient monument, and especially an old headstone, I find myself almost
+unconsciously retracing the years to the date that is written on the
+stone. Why do you think that is? Why should a monument be so stimulating
+to the imagination? And why should a common headstone be more so than
+any other?"
+
+"I suppose it is," I answered reflectively, "that a churchyard monument
+is a peculiarly personal thing and appertains in a peculiar way to a
+particular time. And the circumstance that it has stood untouched by the
+passing years while everything around has changed, helps the imagination
+to span the interval. And the common headstone, the memorial of some
+dead and gone farmer or labourer who lived and died in the village hard
+by, is still more intimate and suggestive. The rustic, childish
+sculpture of the village mason and the artless doggerel of the village
+schoolmaster, bring back the time and place and the conditions of life
+much more vividly than the more scholarly inscriptions and the more
+artistic enrichments of monuments of greater pretensions. But where are
+your own family tombstones?"
+
+"They are over in that farther corner. There is an intelligent, but
+inopportune, person apparently copying the epitaphs. I wish he would go
+away. I want to show them to you."
+
+I now noticed, for the first time, an individual engaged, note-book in
+hand, in making a careful survey of a group of old headstones. Evidently
+he was making a copy of the inscriptions, for not only was he poring
+attentively over the writing on the face of the stone, but now and again
+he helped out his vision by running his fingers over the worn lettering.
+
+"That is my grandfather's tombstone that he is copying now," said Miss
+Bellingham; and even as she spoke, the man turned and directed a
+searching glance at us with a pair of keen, spectacled eyes.
+
+Simultaneously we uttered an exclamation of surprise; for the
+investigator was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+"O! ARTEMIDORUS, FAREWELL!"
+
+
+Whether or not Mr. Jellicoe was surprised to see us, it is impossible to
+say. His countenance (which served the ordinary purposes of a face,
+inasmuch as it contained the principal organs of special sense, with the
+inlets to the alimentary and respiratory tracts) was, as an apparatus
+for the expression of the emotions, a total failure. To a thought-reader
+it would have been about as helpful as the face carved upon the handle
+of an umbrella; a comparison suggested, perhaps, by a certain
+resemblance to such an object. He advanced, holding his open note-book
+and pencil, and having saluted us with a stiff bow and an old-fashioned
+flourish of his hat, shook hands rheumatically and waited for us to
+speak.
+
+"This is an unexpected pleasure, Mr. Jellicoe," said Miss Bellingham.
+
+"It is very good of you to say so," he replied.
+
+"And quite a coincidence--that we should all happen to come here on the
+same day."
+
+"A coincidence, certainly," he admitted; "and if we had all happened not
+to come--which must have occurred frequently--that also would have been
+a coincidence."
+
+"I suppose it would," said she, "but I hope we are not interrupting
+you."
+
+"Thank you, no. I had just finished when I had the pleasure of
+perceiving you."
+
+"You were making some notes in reference to the case, I imagine," said
+I. It was an impertinent question, put with malice aforethought for the
+mere pleasure of hearing him evade it.
+
+"The case?" he repeated. "You are referring, perhaps, to Stevens versus
+the Parish Council?"
+
+"I think Doctor Berkeley was referring to the case of my uncle's will,"
+Miss Bellingham said quite gravely, though with a suspicious dimpling
+about the corners of her mouth.
+
+"Indeed," said Mr. Jellicoe. "There is a case, is there; a suit?"
+
+"I mean the proceedings instituted by Mr. Hurst."
+
+"Oh, but that was merely an application to the Court, and is, moreover,
+finished and done with. At least, so I understand. I speak, of course,
+subject to correction; I am not acting for Mr. Hurst, you will be
+pleased to remember. As a matter of fact," he continued, after a brief
+pause, "I was just refreshing my memory as to the wording of the
+inscriptions on these stones, especially that of your grandfather,
+Francis Bellingham. It has occurred to me that if it should appear by
+the finding of the coroner's jury that your uncle is deceased, it would
+be proper and decorous that some memorial should be placed here. But, as
+the burial-ground is closed, there might be some difficulty about
+erecting a new monument, whereas there would probably be none in adding
+an inscription to one already existing. Hence these investigations. For
+if the inscription on your grandfather's stone had set forth that 'here
+rests the body of Francis Bellingham,' it would have been manifestly
+improper to add 'also that of John Bellingham, son of the above.'
+Fortunately the inscription was more discreetly drafted, merely
+recording the fact that this monument is 'sacred to the memory of the
+said Francis,' and not committing itself as to the whereabouts of the
+remains. But perhaps I am interrupting you?"
+
+"No, not at all," replied Miss Bellingham (which was grossly untrue; he
+was interrupting _me_ most intolerably); "we were going to the British
+Museum and just looked in here on our way."
+
+"Ha," said Mr. Jellicoe, "now, I happen to be going to the Museum too,
+to see Doctor Norbury. I suppose that is another coincidence?"
+
+"Certainly it is," Miss Bellingham replied; and then she asked: "Shall
+we walk there together?" and the old curmudgeon actually said
+"yes"--confound him!
+
+We returned to the Gray's Inn Road, where, as there was now room for us
+to walk abreast, I proceeded to indemnify myself for the lawyer's
+unwelcome company by leading the conversation back to the subject of the
+missing man.
+
+"Was there anything, Mr. Jellicoe, in Mr. John Bellingham's state of
+health that would make it probable that he might die suddenly?"
+
+The lawyer looked at me suspiciously for a few moments and then
+remarked:
+
+"You seem to be greatly interested in John Bellingham and his affairs."
+
+"I am. My friends are deeply concerned in them, and the case itself is
+of more than common interest from a professional point of view."
+
+"And what is the bearing of this particular question?"
+
+"Surely it is obvious," said I. "If a missing man is known to have
+suffered from some affection, such as heart disease, aneurism, or
+arterial degeneration, likely to produce sudden death, that fact will
+surely be highly material to the question as to whether he is probably
+dead or alive."
+
+"No doubt you are right," said Mr. Jellicoe. "I have little knowledge of
+medical affairs, but doubtless you are right. As to the question itself,
+I am Mr. Bellingham's lawyer, not his doctor. His health is a matter
+that lies outside my jurisdiction. But you heard my evidence in Court,
+to the effect that the testator appeared, to my untutored observation,
+to be a healthy man. I can say no more now."
+
+"If the question is of any importance," said Miss Bellingham, "I wonder
+they did not call his doctor and settle it definitely. My own impression
+is that he was--or is--rather a strong and sound man. He certainly
+recovered very quickly and completely after his accident."
+
+"What accident was that?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, hasn't my father told you? It occurred while he was staying with
+us. He slipped from a high kerb and broke one of the bones of the left
+ankle--somebody's fracture--"
+
+"Pott's?"
+
+"Yes, that was the name--Pott's fracture; and he broke both his
+knee-caps as well. Sir Morgan Bennet had to perform an operation, or he
+would have been a cripple for life. As it was, he was about again in a
+few weeks, apparently none the worse excepting for a slight weakness of
+the left ankle."
+
+"Could he walk upstairs?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, yes; and play golf and ride a bicycle."
+
+"You are sure he broke both knee-caps?"
+
+"Quite sure. I remember that it was mentioned as an uncommon injury, and
+that Sir Morgan seemed quite pleased with him for doing it."
+
+"That sounds rather libellous; but I expect he was pleased with the
+result of the operation. He might well be."
+
+Here there was a brief lull in the conversation, and, even as I was
+trying to think of a poser for Mr. Jellicoe, that gentleman took the
+opportunity to change the subject.
+
+"Are you going to the Egyptian Rooms?" he asked.
+
+"No," replied Miss Bellingham; "we are going to look at the pottery."
+
+"Ancient or modern?"
+
+"The old Fulham ware is what chiefly interests us at present; that of
+the seventeenth century. I don't know whether you would call that
+ancient or modern."
+
+"Neither do I," said Mr. Jellicoe. "Antiquity and modernity are terms
+that have no fixed connotation. They are purely relative and their
+application in a particular instance has to be determined by a sort of
+sliding scale. To a furniture collector, a Tudor chair or a Jacobean
+chest is ancient; to an architect, their period is modern, whereas an
+eleventh-century church is ancient; but to an Egyptologist, accustomed
+to remains of a vast antiquity, both are products of modern periods
+separated by an insignificant interval. And, I suppose," he added,
+reflectively, "that to a geologist, the traces of the very earliest dawn
+of human history appertain only to the recent period. Conceptions of
+time, like all other conceptions, are relative."
+
+"You appear to be a disciple of Herbert Spencer," I remarked.
+
+"I am a disciple of Arthur Jellicoe, sir," he retorted. And I believed
+him.
+
+By the time we had reached the Museum he had become almost genial; and,
+if less amusing in this frame, he was so much more instructive and
+entertaining that I refrained from baiting him, and permitted him to
+discuss his favourite topic unhindered, especially since my companion
+listened with lively interest. Nor, when we entered the great hall, did
+he relinquish possession of us, and we followed submissively, as he led
+the way past the winged bulls of Nineveh and the great seated statues,
+until we found ourselves, almost without the exercise of our volition,
+in the upper room amidst the glaring mummy cases that had witnessed the
+birth of my friendship with Ruth Bellingham.
+
+"Before I leave you," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I should like to show you that
+mummy that we were discussing the other evening; the one, you remember,
+that my friend, John Bellingham, presented to the Museum a little time
+before his disappearance. The point that I mentioned is only a trivial
+one, but it may become of interest hereafter if any plausible
+explanation should be forthcoming." He led us along the room until we
+arrived at the case containing John Bellingham's gift, where he halted
+and gazed in at the mummy with the affectionate reflectiveness of the
+connoisseur.
+
+"The bitumen coating was what we were discussing, Miss Bellingham,"
+said he. "You have seen it, of course."
+
+"Yes," she answered. "It is a dreadful disfigurement, isn't it?"
+
+"Aesthetically it is to be deplored, but it adds a certain speculative
+interest to the specimen. You notice that the black coating leaves the
+principal decoration and the whole of the inscription untouched, which
+is precisely the part that one would expect to find covered up; whereas
+the feet and the back, which probably bore no writing, are quite thickly
+encrusted. If you stoop down, you can see that the bitumen was daubed
+freely into the lacings of the back, where it served no purpose, so that
+even the strings are embedded." He stooped, as he spoke, and peered up
+inquisitively at the back of the mummy, where it was visible between the
+supports.
+
+"Has Doctor Norbury any explanation to offer?" asked Miss Bellingham.
+
+"None whatever," replied Mr. Jellicoe. "He finds it as great a mystery
+as I do. But he thinks that we may get some suggestion from the Director
+when he comes back. He is a very great authority, as you know, and a
+practical excavator of great experience too. But I mustn't stay here
+talking of these things, and keeping you from your pottery. Perhaps I
+have stayed too long already. If I have I ask your pardon, and I will
+now wish you a very good afternoon." With a sudden return to his
+customary wooden impassivity, he shook hands with us, bowed stiffly, and
+took himself off towards the curator's office.
+
+"What a strange man that is," said Miss Bellingham, as Mr. Jellicoe
+disappeared through the doorway at the end of the room, "or perhaps I
+should say, a strange being, for I can hardly think of him as a man. I
+have never met any other human creature at all like him."
+
+"He is certainly a queer old fogey," I agreed.
+
+"Yes, but there is something more than that. He is so emotionless, so
+remote and aloof from all mundane concerns. He moves among ordinary men
+and women, but as a mere presence, an unmoved spectator of their
+actions, quite dispassionate and impersonal."
+
+"Yes, he is astonishingly self-contained; in fact, he seems, as you say,
+to go to and fro among men, enveloped in a sort of infernal atmosphere
+of his own, like Marley's ghost. But he is lively and human enough as
+soon as the subject of Egyptian antiquities is broached."
+
+"Lively, but not human. He is always, to me, quite unhuman. Even when he
+is most interested, and even enthusiastic, he is a mere personification
+of knowledge. Nature ought to have furnished him with an ibis' head like
+Tahuti; then he would have looked his part."
+
+"He would have made a rare sensation in Lincoln's Inn if she had," said
+I; and we both laughed heartily at the imaginary picture of Tahuti
+Jellicoe, slender-beaked and top-hatted, going about his business in
+Lincoln's Inn and the Law Courts.
+
+Insensibly, as we talked, we had drawn near to the mummy of Artemidorus,
+and now my companion halted before the case with her thoughtful grey
+eyes bent dreamily on the face that looked out at us. I watched her with
+reverent admiration. How charming she looked as she stood with her
+sweet, grave face turned so earnestly to the object of her mystical
+affection! How dainty and full of womanly dignity and grace! And then,
+suddenly, it was borne in upon me that a great change had come over her
+since the day of our first meeting. She had grown younger, more girlish,
+and more gentle. At first she had seemed much older than I; a sad-faced
+woman, weary, solemn, enigmatic, almost gloomy, with a bitter, ironic
+humour and a bearing distant and cold. Now she was only maidenly and
+sweet; tinged, it is true, with a certain seriousness, but frank and
+gracious and wholly lovable.
+
+Could the change be due to our growing friendship? As I asked myself the
+question, my heart leaped with a new-born hope. I yearned to tell her
+all that she was to me--all that I hoped we might be to one another in
+the years to come.
+
+At length I ventured to break in upon her reverie.
+
+"What are you thinking about so earnestly, fair lady?"
+
+She turned quickly with a bright smile and sparkling eyes that looked
+frankly into mine. "I was wondering," said she, "if he was jealous of my
+new friend. But what a baby I am to talk such nonsense!"
+
+She laughed softly and happily with just an adorable hint of shyness.
+
+"Why should he be jealous?" I asked.
+
+"Well, you see, before--we were friends, he had me all to himself. I
+have never had a man-friend before--except my father--and no really
+intimate friend at all. And I was very lonely in those days, after our
+troubles had befallen. I am naturally solitary, but still, I am only a
+girl; I am not a philosopher. So when I felt very lonely, I used to come
+here and look at Artemidorus and make believe that he knew all the
+sadness of my life and sympathised with me. It was very silly, I know,
+but yet, somehow it was a real comfort to me."
+
+"It was not silly of you at all. He must have been a good man, a gentle,
+sweet-faced man who had won the love of those who knew him, as this
+beautiful memorial tells us; and it was wise and good of you to sweeten
+the bitterness of your life with the fragrance of this human love that
+blossoms in the dust after the lapse of centuries. No, you were not
+silly, and Artemidorus is not jealous of your new friend."
+
+"Are you sure?" She still smiled as she asked the question, but her
+glance was soft--almost tender--and there was a note of whimsical
+anxiety in her voice.
+
+"Quite sure. I give you my confident assurance."
+
+She laughed gaily. "Then," said she, "I am satisfied, for I am sure you
+know. But here is a mighty telepathist who can read the thoughts even of
+a mummy. A most formidable companion. But tell me how you know."
+
+"I know, because it is he who gave you to me to be my friend. Don't you
+remember?"
+
+"Yes, I remember," she answered, softly. "It was when you were so
+sympathetic with my foolish whim that I felt we were really friends."
+
+"And I, when you confided your pretty fancy to me, thanked you for the
+gift of your friendship, and treasured it, and do still treasure it,
+above everything on earth."
+
+She looked at me quickly with a sort of nervousness in her manner, and
+cast down her eyes. Then, after a few moments' almost embarrassed
+silence, as if to bring our talk back to a less emotional plane, she
+said:
+
+"Do you notice the curious way in which this memorial divides itself up
+into two distinct parts?"
+
+"How do you mean?" I asked, a little disconcerted by the sudden descent.
+
+"I mean that there is a part of it that is purely decorative and a part
+that is expressive or emotional. You notice that the general design and
+scheme of decoration, although really Greek in feeling, follows rigidly
+the Egyptian conventions. But the portrait is entirely in the Greek
+manner, and when they came to that pathetic farewell, it had to be
+spoken in their own tongue, written in their own familiar characters."
+
+"Yes. I have noticed that and admired the taste with which they have
+kept the inscription so inconspicuous as not to clash with the
+decoration. An obtrusive inscription in Greek characters would have
+spoiled the consistency of the whole scheme."
+
+"Yes, it would." She assented absently as if she were thinking of
+something else, and once more gazed thoughtfully at the mummy. I watched
+her with deep content: noted the lovely contour of her cheek, the soft
+masses of hair that strayed away so gracefully from her brow, and
+thought her the most wonderful creature that had ever trod the earth.
+Suddenly she looked at me reflectively.
+
+"I wonder," she said, "what made me tell you about Artemidorus. It was a
+rather silly, childish sort of make-believe, and I wouldn't have told
+anyone else for the world; not even my father. How did I know that you
+would sympathise and understand?"
+
+She asked the question in all simplicity with her serious, grey eyes
+looking inquiringly into mine. And the answer came to me in a flash,
+with the beating of my own heart.
+
+"I will tell you how you knew, Ruth," I whispered passionately. "It was
+because I loved you more than anyone in the world has ever loved you,
+and you felt my love in your heart and called it sympathy."
+
+I stopped short, for she had blushed scarlet and then turned deathly
+pale. And now she looked at me wildly, almost with terror.
+
+"Have I shocked you, Ruth, dearest?" I exclaimed penitently, "have I
+spoken too soon? If I have, forgive me. But I had to tell you. I have
+been eating my heart out for love of you for I don't know how long. I
+think I have loved you from the first day we met. Perhaps I shouldn't
+have spoken yet, but, Ruth, dear, if you only knew what a sweet girl you
+are, you wouldn't blame me."
+
+"I don't blame you," she said, almost in a whisper; "I blame myself. I
+have been a bad friend to you, who have been so loyal and loving to me.
+I ought not to have let this happen. For it can't be, Paul; I can't say
+what you want me to say. We can never be anything more to one another
+than friends."
+
+A cold hand seemed to grasp my heart--a horrible fear that I had lost
+all that I cared for--all that made life desirable.
+
+"Why can't we?" I asked. "Do you mean that--that the gods have been
+gracious to some other man?"
+
+"No, no," she answered, hastily--almost indignantly, "of course I don't
+mean that."
+
+"Then it is only that you don't love me yet. Of course you don't. Why
+should you? But you will, dear, some day. And I will wait patiently
+until that day comes and not trouble you with entreaties. I will wait
+for you as Jacob waited for Rachel; and as the long years seemed to him
+but as a few days because of the love he bore her, so it shall be with
+me, if only you will not send me away quite without hope."
+
+She was looking down, white-faced, with a hardening of the lips as if
+she were in bodily pain. "You don't understand," she whispered. "It
+can't be--it can never be. There is something that makes it impossible,
+now and always. I can't tell you more than that."
+
+"But, Ruth, dearest," I pleaded despairingly, "may it not become
+possible some day? Can it not be made possible? I can wait, but I can't
+give you up. Is there no chance whatever that this obstacle may be
+removed?"
+
+"Very little, I fear. Hardly any. No, Paul; it is hopeless, and I can't
+bear to talk about it. Let me go now. Let us say good-bye here and see
+one another no more for a while. Perhaps we may be friends again some
+day--when you have forgiven me."
+
+"Forgiven you, dearest!" I exclaimed. "There is nothing to forgive. And
+we are friends, Ruth. Whatever happens, you are the dearest friend I
+have on earth, or can ever have."
+
+"Thank you, Paul," she said faintly. "You are very good to me. But let
+me go, please. I must go. I must be alone."
+
+She held out a trembling hand, and, as I took it, I was shocked to see
+how terribly agitated and ill she looked.
+
+"May I not come with you, dear?" I pleaded.
+
+"No, no!" she exclaimed breathlessly; "I must go away by myself. I want
+to be alone. Good-bye!"
+
+"Before I let you go, Ruth--if you must go--I must have a solemn promise
+from you."
+
+Her sad grey eyes met mine and her lips quivered with an unspoken
+question.
+
+"You must promise me," I went on, "that if ever this barrier that parts
+us should be removed, you will let me know instantly. Remember that I
+love you always, and that I am waiting for you always on this side of
+the grave."
+
+She caught her breath in a little quick sob, and pressed my hand.
+
+"Yes," she whispered: "I promise. Good-bye." She pressed my hand again
+and was gone; and, as I gazed at the empty doorway through which she had
+passed, I caught a glimpse of her reflection in a glass case on the
+landing, where she had paused for a moment to wipe her eyes. I felt it,
+in a manner, indelicate to have seen her, and turned away my head
+quickly; and yet I was conscious of a certain selfish satisfaction in
+the sweet sympathy that her grief bespoke.
+
+But now that she was gone a horrible sense of desolation descended on
+me. Only now, by the consciousness of irreparable loss, did I begin to
+realise the meaning of this passion of love that had stolen unawares
+into my life. How it had glorified the present and spread a glamour of
+delight over the dimly considered future: how all pleasures and desires,
+all hopes and ambitions, had converged upon it as a focus; how it had
+stood out as the one great reality behind which the other circumstances
+of life were as a background, shimmering, half seen, immaterial, and
+unreal. And now it was gone--lost, as it seemed, beyond hope; and that
+which was left to me was but the empty frame from which the picture had
+vanished.
+
+I have no idea how long I stood rooted to the spot where she had left
+me, wrapped in a dull consciousness of pain, immersed in a half-numb
+reverie. Recent events flitted, dream-like, through my mind; our happy
+labours in the reading-room; our first visit to the Museum; and this
+present day that had opened so brightly and with such joyous promise.
+One by one these phantoms of a vanished happiness came and went.
+Occasional visitors sauntered into the room--but the galleries were
+mostly empty that day--gazed inquisitively at my motionless figure, and
+went their way. And still the dull, intolerable ache in my breast went
+on, the only vivid consciousness that was left to me.
+
+Presently I raised my eyes and met those of the portrait. The sweet,
+pensive face of the old Greek settler looked out at me wistfully as
+though he would offer comfort; as though he would tell me that he, too,
+had known sorrow when he lived his life in the sunny Fayyum. And a
+subtle consolation, like the faint scent of old rose leaves, seemed to
+exhale from that friendly face that had looked on the birth of my
+happiness and had seen it wither and fade. I turned away, at last, with
+a silent farewell; and when I looked back, he seemed to speed me on my
+way with gentle valediction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE ACCUSING FINGER
+
+
+Of my wanderings after I left the Museum on that black and dismal _dies
+irae_, I have but a dim recollection. But I must have travelled a quite
+considerable distance, since it wanted an hour or two to the time for
+returning to the surgery, and I spent the interval walking swiftly
+through streets and squares, unmindful of the happenings around, intent
+only on my present misfortune, and driven by a natural impulse to seek
+relief in bodily exertion. For mental distress sets up, as it were, a
+sort of induced current of physical unrest; a beneficent arrangement, by
+which a dangerous excess of emotional excitement may be transformed into
+motor energy, and so safely got rid of. The motor apparatus acts as a
+safety-valve to the psychical; and if the engine races for a while, with
+the onset of bodily fatigue the emotional pressure-gauge returns to a
+normal reading.
+
+And so it was with me. At first I was conscious of nothing but a sense
+of utter bereavement, of the shipwreck of all my hopes. But, by degrees,
+as I threaded my way among the moving crowds, I came to a better and
+more worthy frame of mind. After all, I had lost nothing that I had ever
+had. Ruth was still all that she had ever been to me--perhaps even more;
+and if that had been a rich endowment yesterday, why not to-day also?
+And how unfair it would be to her if I should mope and grieve over a
+disappointment that was no fault of hers and for which there was no
+remedy! Thus I reasoned with myself, and to such purpose that, by the
+time I reached Fetter Lane, my dejection had come to quite manageable
+proportions and I had formed the resolution to get back to the _status
+quo ante bellum_ as soon as possible.
+
+About eight o'clock, as I was sitting alone in the consulting-room,
+gloomily persuading myself that I was now quite resigned to the
+inevitable, Adolphus brought me a registered packet, at the handwriting
+on which my heart gave such a bound that I had much ado to sign the
+receipt. As soon as Adolphus had retired (with undissembled contempt of
+the shaky signature) I tore open the packet, and as I drew out a letter
+a tiny box dropped on the table.
+
+The letter was all too short, and I devoured it over and over again with
+the eagerness of a condemned man reading a reprieve:--
+
+"My Dear Paul,
+
+"Forgive me for leaving you so abruptly this afternoon, and leaving you
+so unhappy, too. I am more sane and reasonable now, and so send you
+greeting and beg you not to grieve for that which can never be. It is
+quite impossible, dear friend, and I entreat you, as you care for me,
+never to speak of it again; never again to make me feel that I can give
+so little when you have given so much. And do not try to see me for a
+little while. I shall miss your visits, and so will my father, who is
+very fond of you; but it is better that we should not meet, until we can
+take up the old relations--if that can ever be.
+
+"I am sending you a little keepsake in case we should drift apart on
+the eddies of life. It is the ring that I told you about--the one that
+my uncle gave me. Perhaps you may be able to wear it as you have a small
+hand, but in any case keep it in remembrance of our friendship. The
+device on it is the Eye of Osiris, a mystic symbol for which I have a
+sentimentally superstitious affection, as also had my poor uncle, who
+actually bore it tattooed in scarlet on his breast. It signifies that
+the great judge of the dead looks down on men to see that justice is
+done and that truth prevails. So I commend you to the good Osiris; may
+his eye be upon you, ever watchful over your welfare in the absence of
+
+"Your affectionate friend
+
+"RUTH."
+
+It was a sweet letter, I thought, even if it carried little comfort;
+quiet and reticent like its writer, but with an undertone of sincere
+affection. I laid it down at length, and, taking the ring from its box,
+examined it fondly. Though but a copy, it had all the quaintness and
+feeling of the antique original, and, above all, it was fragrant with
+the spirit of the giver. Dainty and delicate, wrought of silver and
+gold, with an inlay of copper, I would not have exchanged it for the
+Koh-i-noor; and when I had slipped it on my finger its tiny eye of blue
+enamel looked up at me so friendly and companionable that I felt the
+glamour of the old-world superstition stealing over me, too.
+
+Not a single patient came in this evening, which was well for me (and
+also for the patient), as I was able forthwith to write in reply a long
+letter; but this I shall spare the long-suffering reader excepting its
+concluding paragraph:--
+
+"And now, dearest, I have said my say; once for all, I have said it, and
+I will not open my mouth on the subject again (I am not actually opening
+it now) 'until the times do alter.' And if the times do never alter--if
+it shall come to pass, in due course, that we two shall sit side by
+side, white-haired, and crinkly-nosed, and lean our poor old chins upon
+our sticks and mumble and gibber amicably over the things that might
+have been if the good Osiris had come up to the scratch--I will still be
+content, because your friendship, Ruth, is better than another woman's
+love. So you see, I have taken my gruel and come up to time smiling--if
+you will pardon the pugilistic metaphor--and I promise you loyally to do
+your bidding and never again to distress you.
+
+"Your faithful and loving friend,
+
+"PAUL."
+
+This letter I addressed and stamped, and then, with a wry grimace which
+I palmed off on myself (but not on Adolphus) as a cheerful smile, I went
+out and dropped it into the post-box; after which I further deluded
+myself by murmuring _Nunc dimittis_ and assuring myself that the
+incident was now absolutely closed.
+
+But, despite this comfortable assurance, I was, in the days that
+followed, an exceedingly miserable young man. It is all very well to
+write down troubles of this kind as trivial and sentimental. They are
+nothing of the kind. When a man of an essentially serious nature has
+found the one woman of all the world who fulfils his highest ideals of
+womanhood, who is, in fact, a woman in ten thousand, to whom he has
+given all that he has to give of love and worship, the sudden wreck of
+all his hopes is no small calamity. And so I found it. Resign myself as
+I would to the bitter reality, the ghost of the might-have-been haunted
+me night and day, so that I spent my leisure wandering abstractedly
+about the streets, always trying to banish thought and never for an
+instant succeeding. A great unrest was upon me; and when I received a
+letter from Dick Barnard announcing his arrival at Madeira, homeward
+bound, I breathed a sigh of relief. I had no plans for the future, but I
+longed to be rid of the, now irksome, routine of the practice--to be
+free to come and go when and how I pleased.
+
+One evening, as I sat consuming with little appetite my solitary supper,
+there fell on me a sudden sense of loneliness. The desire that I had
+hitherto felt to be alone with my own miserable reflections gave place
+to a yearning for human companionship. That, indeed, which I craved for
+most was forbidden, and I must abide by my lady's wishes; but there were
+my friends in the Temple. It was more than a week since I had seen them;
+in fact, we had not met since the morning of that unhappiest day of my
+life. They would be wondering what had become of me. I rose from the
+table, and, having filled my pouch from a tin of tobacco, set forth for
+King's Bench Walk.
+
+As I approached the entry of No. 5A in the gathering darkness I met
+Thorndyke himself emerging, encumbered with two deck-chairs, a
+reading-lantern, and a book.
+
+"Why, Berkeley!" he exclaimed, "is it indeed thou? We have been
+wondering what had become of you."
+
+"It _is_ a long time since I looked you up," I admitted.
+
+He scrutinised me attentively by the light of the entry lamp, and then
+remarked: "Fetter Lane doesn't seem to be agreeing with you very well,
+my son. You are looking quite thin and peaky."
+
+"Well, I've nearly done with it. Barnard will be back in about ten days.
+His ship is putting in at Madeira to coal and take in some cargo, and
+then he is coming home. Where are you going with those chairs?"
+
+"I am going to sit down at the end of the Walk by the garden railings.
+It's cooler there than indoors. If you will wait a moment I will fetch
+another chair for Jervis, though he won't be back for a little while."
+He ran up the stairs, and presently returned with a third chair, and we
+carried our impedimenta down to the quiet corner at the bottom of the
+Walk.
+
+"So your term of servitude is coming to an end," said he when we had
+placed the chairs and hung the lantern on the railings. "Any other
+news?"
+
+"No. Have you any?"
+
+"I am afraid I have not. All my inquiries have yielded negative results.
+There is, of course, a considerable body of evidence, and it all seems
+to point one way. But I am unwilling to make a decisive move without
+something more definite. I am really waiting for confirmation or
+otherwise of my ideas on the subject; for some new item of evidence."
+
+"I didn't know there was any evidence."
+
+"Didn't you?" said Thorndyke. "But you know as much as I know. You have
+all the essential facts; but apparently you haven't collated them and
+extracted their meaning. If you had, you would have found them
+curiously significant."
+
+"I suppose I mustn't ask what their significance is?"
+
+"No, I think not. When I am conducting a case I mention my surmises to
+nobody--not even to Jervis. Then I can say confidently that there has
+been no leakage. Don't think I distrust you. Remember that my thoughts
+are my client's property, and that the essence of strategy is to keep
+the enemy in the dark."
+
+"Yes, I see that. Of course, I ought not to have asked."
+
+"You ought not to need to ask," Thorndyke replied, with a smile; "you
+should put the facts together and reason from them yourself."
+
+While we had been talking I had noticed Thorndyke glance at me
+inquisitively from time to time. Now, after an interval of silence, he
+asked suddenly:
+
+"Is anything amiss, Berkeley? Are you worrying about your friends'
+affairs?"
+
+"No, not particularly; though their prospects don't look very rosy."
+
+"Perhaps they are not quite so bad as they look," said he. "But I am
+afraid something is troubling you. All your gay spirits seem to have
+evaporated." He paused for a few moments, and then added: "I don't want
+to intrude on your private affairs, but if I can help you by advice or
+otherwise, remember that we are old friends and that you are my academic
+offspring."
+
+Instinctively, with a man's natural reticence, I began to mumble a
+half-articulate disclaimer; and then I stopped. After all, why should I
+not confide in him? He was a good man and a wise man, full of human
+sympathy, as I knew, though so cryptic and secretive in his
+professional capacity. And I wanted a friend badly just now.
+
+"I am afraid," I began shyly, "it is not a matter that admits of much
+help, and it's hardly the sort of thing that I ought to worry you by
+talking about----"
+
+"If it is enough to make you unhappy, my dear fellow, it is enough to
+merit serious consideration by your friend; so, if you don't mind
+telling me----"
+
+"Of course I don't, sir!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Then fire away; and don't call me 'sir.' We are brother practitioners
+now."
+
+Thus encouraged, I poured out the story of my little romance; bashfully
+at first and with halting phrases, but, later, with more freedom and
+confidence. He listened with grave attention, and once or twice put a
+question when my narrative became a little disconnected. When I had
+finished he laid his hand softly on my arm.
+
+"You have had rough luck, Berkeley. I don't wonder that you are
+miserable. I am more sorry than I can tell you."
+
+"Thank you," I said. "It's exceedingly good of you to listen so
+patiently, but it's a shame for me to pester you with my sentimental
+troubles."
+
+"Now, Berkeley, you don't think that, and I hope you don't think that I
+do. We should be bad biologists and worse physicians if we should
+under-estimate the importance of that which is Nature's chiefest care.
+The one salient biological truth is the paramount importance of sex; and
+we are deaf and blind if we do not hear and see it in everything that
+lives when we look abroad upon the world; when we listen to the spring
+song of the birds, or when we consider the lilies of the field. And as
+is man to the lower organisms, so is human love to their merely reflex
+manifestations of sex. I will maintain, and you will agree with me, I
+know, that the love of a serious and honourable man for a woman who is
+worthy of him is the most momentous of all human affairs. It is the
+foundation of social life, and its failure is a serious calamity, not
+only to those whose lives may be thereby spoilt, but to society at
+large."
+
+"It's a serious enough matter for the parties concerned," I agreed; "but
+that is no reason why they should bore their friends."
+
+"But they don't. Friends should help one another and think it a
+privilege."
+
+"Oh, I shouldn't mind coming to you for help, knowing you as I do. But
+no one can help a poor devil in a case like this--and certainly not a
+medical jurist."
+
+"Oh, come, Berkeley!" he protested, "don't rate us too low. The humblest
+of creatures has its uses--'even the little pismire,' you know, as Isaak
+Walton tells us. Why, I have got substantial help from a
+stamp-collector. And then reflect upon the motor-scorcher and the
+earthworm and the blow-fly. All these lowly creatures play their parts
+in the scheme of Nature; and shall we cast out the medical jurist as
+nothing worth?"
+
+I laughed dejectedly at my teacher's genial irony.
+
+"What I meant," said I, "was that there is nothing to be done but
+wait--perhaps for ever. I don't know why she isn't able to marry me, and
+I mustn't ask her. She can't be married already."
+
+"Certainly not. She told you explicitly that there was no man in the
+case."
+
+"Exactly. And I can think of no other valid reason, excepting that she
+doesn't care enough for me. That would be a perfectly sound reason, but
+then it would only be a temporary one, not the insuperable obstacle that
+she assumes to exist, especially as we really got on excellently
+together. I hope it isn't some confounded perverse feminine scruple. I
+don't see how it could be; but women are most frightfully tortuous and
+wrong-headed at times."
+
+"I don't see," said Thorndyke, "why we should cast about for perversely
+abnormal motives when there is a perfectly reasonable explanation
+staring us in the face."
+
+"Is there?" I exclaimed. "I see none."
+
+"You are, not unnaturally, overlooking some of the circumstances that
+affect Miss Bellingham; but I don't suppose she has failed to grasp
+their meaning. Do you realise what her position really is? I mean with
+regard to her uncle's disappearance?"
+
+"I don't think I quite understand you."
+
+"Well, there is no use in blinking the facts," said Thorndyke. "The
+position is this: If John Bellingham ever went to his brother's house at
+Woodford, it is nearly certain that he went there after his visit to
+Hurst. Mind, I say '_if_ he went'; I don't say that I believe he did.
+But it is stated that he appears to have gone there; and if he did go,
+he was never seen alive afterwards. Now, he did not go in at the front
+door. No one saw him enter the house. But there was a back gate, which
+John Bellingham knew, and which had a bell which rang in the library.
+And you will remember that, when Hurst and Jellicoe called, Mr.
+Bellingham had only just come in. Previous to that time Miss Bellingham
+had been alone in the library; that is to say, she was alone in the
+library at the very time when John Bellingham is said to have made his
+visit. That is the position, Berkeley. Nothing pointed has been said up
+to the present. But, sooner or later, if John Bellingham is not found,
+dead or alive, the question will be opened. Then it is certain that
+Hurst, in self-defence, will make the most of any facts that may
+transfer suspicion from him to someone else. And that someone else will
+be Miss Bellingham."
+
+I sat for some moments literally paralysed with horror. Then my dismay
+gave place to indignation. "But, damn it!" I exclaimed, starting up--"I
+beg your pardon--but could anyone have the infernal audacity to
+insinuate that that gentle, refined lady murdered her uncle?"
+
+"That is what will be hinted, if not plainly asserted; and she knows it.
+And that being so, is it difficult to understand why she should refuse
+to allow you to be publicly associated with her? To run the risk of
+dragging your honourable name into the sordid transactions of the
+police-court or the Old Bailey? To invest it, perhaps, with a dreadful
+notoriety?"
+
+"Oh, don't! for God's sake! It is too horrible! Not that I would care
+for myself. I would be proud to share her martyrdom of ignominy, if it
+had to be; but it is the sacrilege, the blasphemy of even thinking of
+her in such terms, that enrages me."
+
+"Yes," said Thorndyke; "I understand and sympathise with you. Indeed, I
+share your righteous indignation at this dastardly affair. So you
+mustn't think me brutal for putting the case so plainly."
+
+"I don't. You have only shown me the danger that I was fool enough not
+to see. But you seem to imply that this hideous position has been
+brought about deliberately."
+
+"Certainly I do! This is no chance affair. Either the appearances
+indicate the real events--which I am sure they do not--or they have been
+created of a set purpose to lead to false conclusions. But the
+circumstances convince me that there has been a deliberate plot; and I
+am waiting--in no spirit of Christian patience, I can tell you--to lay
+my hand on the wretch who has done this."
+
+"What are you waiting for?" I asked.
+
+"I am waiting for the inevitable," he replied; "for the false move that
+the most artful criminal invariably makes. At present he is lying low;
+but presently he must make a move, and then I shall have him."
+
+"But he may go on lying low. What will you do then?"
+
+"Yes, that is the danger. We may have to deal with the perfect villain
+who knows when to leave well alone. I have never met him, but he may
+exist, nevertheless."
+
+"And then we should have to stand by and see our friends go under."
+
+"Perhaps," said Thorndyke; and we both subsided into gloomy and silent
+reflection.
+
+The place was peaceful and quiet, as only a backwater of London can be.
+Occasional hoots from far-away tugs and steamers told of the busy life
+down below in the crowded Pool. A faint hum of traffic was borne in from
+the streets outside the precincts, and the shrill voices of newspaper
+boys came in unceasing chorus from the direction of Carmelite Street.
+They were too far away to be physically disturbing, but the excited
+yells, toned down as they were by distance, nevertheless stirred the
+very marrow in my bones, so dreadfully suggestive were they of those
+possibilities of the future at which Thorndyke had hinted. They seemed
+like the sinister shadows of coming misfortunes.
+
+Perhaps they called up the same association of ideas in Thorndyke's
+mind, for he remarked presently: "The newsvendor is abroad to-night like
+a bird of ill-omen. Something unusual has happened: some public or
+private calamity, most likely, and these yelling ghouls are out to feast
+on the remains. The newspaper men have a good deal in common with the
+carrion-birds that hover over a battle-field."
+
+Again we subsided into silence and reflection. Then, after an interval,
+I asked:
+
+"Would it be possible for me to help in any way in this investigation of
+yours?"
+
+"That is exactly what I have been asking myself," replied Thorndyke. "It
+would be right and proper that you should, and I think you might."
+
+"How?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"I can't say off-hand; but Jervis will be going away for his holiday
+almost at once--in fact, he will go off actual duty to-night. There is
+very little doing; the long vacation is close upon us, and I can do
+without him. But if you would care to come down here and take his place,
+you would be very useful to me; and if there should be anything to be
+done in the Bellinghams' case, I am sure you would make up in enthusiasm
+for any deficiency in experience."
+
+"I couldn't really take Jervis's place," said I, "but if you would let
+me help you in any way it would be a great kindness. I would rather
+clean your boots than be out of it altogether."
+
+"Very well. Let us leave it that you come here as soon as Barnard has
+done with you. You can have Jervis's room, which he doesn't often use
+nowadays, and you will be more happy here than elsewhere, I know. I may
+as well give you my latchkey now. I have a duplicate upstairs, and you
+understand that my chambers are yours too from this moment."
+
+He handed me the latchkey and I thanked him warmly from my heart, for I
+felt sure that the suggestion was made, not for any use that I should be
+to him, but for my own peace of mind. I had hardly finished speaking
+when a quick step on the paved walk caught my ear.
+
+"Here is Jervis," said Thorndyke. "We will let him know that there is a
+locum tenens ready to step into his shoes when he wants to be off." He
+flashed the lantern across the path, and a few moments later his junior
+stepped up briskly with a bundle of newspapers tucked under his arm.
+
+It struck me that Jervis looked at me a little queerly when he
+recognised me in the dim light; also that he was a trifle constrained in
+his manner, as if my presence were an embarrassment. He listened to
+Thorndyke's announcement of our newly made arrangement without much
+enthusiasm and with none of his customary facetious comments. And again
+I noticed a quick glance at me, half curious, half uneasy, and wholly
+puzzling to me.
+
+"That's all right," he said when Thorndyke had explained the situation.
+"I daresay you'll find Berkeley as useful as me, and, in any case, he'll
+be better here than staying on with Barnard." He spoke with unwonted
+gravity, and there was in his tone a solicitude for me that attracted my
+notice and that of Thorndyke as well, for the latter looked at him
+curiously, though he made no comment. After a short silence, however, he
+asked: "And what news does my learned brother bring? There is a mighty
+shouting among the outer barbarians, and I see a bundle of newspapers
+under my learned friend's arm. Has anything in particular happened?"
+
+Jervis looked more uncomfortable than ever. "Well--yes," he replied
+hesitatingly, "something has happened--there! It's no use beating about
+the bush; Berkeley may as well learn it from me as from those yelling
+devils outside." He took a couple of papers from his bundle and silently
+handed one to me and the other to Thorndyke.
+
+Jervis's ominous manner, naturally enough, alarmed me not a little. I
+opened the paper with a nameless dread. But whatever my vague fears,
+they fell far short of the occasion; and when I saw those yells from
+without crystallised into scare headlines and flaming capitals I turned
+for a moment sick and dizzy with fear.
+
+The paragraph was only a short one, and I read it through in less than a
+minute:
+
+"THE MISSING FINGER
+
+"DRAMATIC DISCOVERY AT WOODFORD.
+
+"The mystery that has surrounded the remains of a mutilated human body,
+portions of which have been found in various places in Kent and Essex,
+has received a partial and very sinister solution. The police have, all
+along, suspected that these remains were those of a Mr. John Bellingham
+who disappeared under circumstances of some suspicion about two years
+ago. There is now no doubt upon the subject, for the finger which was
+missing from the hand that was found at Sidcup has been discovered at
+the bottom of a disused well _together with a ring_, which has been
+identified as one habitually worn by Mr. John Bellingham.
+
+"The house in the garden of which the well is situated was the property
+of the murdered man, and was occupied at the time of the disappearance
+by his brother, Mr. Godfrey Bellingham. But the latter left it very soon
+after, and it has been empty ever since. Just lately it has been put in
+repair, and it was in this way that the well came to be emptied and
+cleaned out. It seems that Detective-Inspector Badger, who was searching
+the neighbourhood for further remains, heard of the emptying of the well
+and went down in the bucket to examine the bottom, where he found the
+three bones and the ring.
+
+"Thus the identity of the body is established beyond all doubt, and the
+question that remains is, Who killed John Bellingham? It may be
+remembered that a trinket, apparently broken from his watch-chain, was
+found in the grounds of this house on the day that he disappeared, and
+that he was never again seen alive. What may be the import of these
+facts time will show."
+
+That was all; but it was enough. I dropped the paper to the ground and
+glanced round furtively at Jervis, who sat gazing gloomily at the toes
+of his boots. It was horrible; It was incredible! The blow was so
+crushing that it left my faculties numb, and for a while I seemed
+unable even to think intelligibly.
+
+I was aroused by Thorndyke's voice--calm, business-like, composed:
+
+"Time will show, indeed! But meanwhile we must go warily. And don't be
+unduly alarmed, Berkeley. Go home, take a good dose of bromide with a
+little stimulant, and turn in. I am afraid this has been rather a shock
+to you."
+
+I rose from my chair like one in a dream and held out my hand to
+Thorndyke; and even in the dim light and in my dazed condition I noticed
+that his face bore a look that I had never seen before: the look of a
+granite mask of Fate--grim, stern, inexorable.
+
+My two friends walked with me as far as the gateway at the top of Inner
+Temple Lane, and as we reached the entry a stranger, coming quickly up
+the Lane, overtook and passed us. In the glare of the lamp outside the
+porter's lodge he looked at us quickly over his shoulder, and though he
+passed on without halt or greeting, I recognised him with a certain dull
+surprise which I did not understand then and do not understand now. It
+was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+I shook hands once more with my friends and strode out into Fleet
+Street, but as soon as I was outside the gate I made direct for Nevill's
+Court. What was in my mind I do not know; only that some instinct of
+protection led me there, where my lady lay unconscious of the hideous
+menace that hung over her. At the entrance to the court a tall, powerful
+man was lounging against the wall, and he seemed to look at me curiously
+as I passed; but I hardly noticed him and strode forward into the narrow
+passage. By the shabby gateway of the house I halted and looked up at
+such of the windows as I could see over the wall. They were all dark.
+All the inmates, then, were in bed. Vaguely comforted by this, I walked
+on to the New Street end of the court and looked out. Here, too, a
+man--a tall, thick-set man--was loitering; and, as he looked
+inquisitively into my face, I turned and reentered the court, slowly
+retracing my steps. As I again reached the gate of the house I stopped
+to look up once more at the windows, and turning, I found the man whom I
+had last noticed close behind me. Then, in a flash of dreadful
+comprehension, I understood. These two men were plain-clothes policemen.
+
+For a moment a blind fury possessed me. An insane impulse urged me to
+give battle to this intruder; to avenge upon his person the insult of
+his presence. Fortunately the impulse was but momentary, and I recovered
+myself without making any demonstration. But the appearance of those two
+policemen brought the peril into the immediate present, imparted to it a
+horrible actuality. A chilly sweat of terror stood on my forehead, and
+my ears were ringing when I walked with faltering steps out into Fetter
+Lane.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+JOHN BELLINGHAM
+
+
+The next few days were a very nightmare of horror and gloom. Of course,
+I repudiated my acceptance of the decree of banishment that Ruth had
+passed upon me. I was her friend, at least, and in time of peril my
+place was at her side. Tacitly--though thankfully enough, poor
+girl!--she had recognised the fact and made me once more free of the
+house.
+
+For there was no disguising the situation. Newspaper boys yelled the
+news up and down Fleet Street from morning to night; soul-shaking
+posters grinned on gaping crowds; and the newspapers fairly wallowed in
+the "Shocking details." It is true that no direct accusations were made;
+but the original reports of the disappearance were reprinted with such
+comments as made me gnash my teeth with fury.
+
+The wretchedness of those days will live in my memory until my dying
+day. Never can I forget the dread that weighed me down, the horrible
+suspense, the fear that clutched at my heart as I furtively scanned the
+posters in the streets. Even the wretched detectives who prowled about
+the entrances to Nevill's Court became grateful to my eyes, for,
+embodying as they did the hideous menace that hung over my dear lady,
+their presence at least told me that the blow had not yet fallen.
+Indeed, we came, after a time, to exchange glances of mutual
+recognition, and I thought that they seemed to be sorry for her and for
+me, and had no great liking for their task. Of course, I spent most of
+my leisure at the old house, though my heart ached more there than
+elsewhere; and I tried, with but poor success, I fear, to maintain a
+cheerful, confident manner, cracking my little jokes as of old, and even
+essaying to skirmish with Miss Oman. But this last experiment was a dead
+failure; and when she had suddenly broken down in a stream of brilliant
+repartee to weep hysterically on my breast, I abandoned the attempt and
+did not repeat it.
+
+A dreadful gloom had settled down upon the old house. Poor Miss Oman
+crept silently but restlessly up and down the ancient stairs with dim
+eyes and a tremulous chin, or moped in her room with a parliamentary
+petition (demanding, if I remember rightly, the appointment of a female
+judge to deal with divorce and matrimonial causes) which lay on her
+table languidly awaiting signatures that never came. Mr. Bellingham,
+whose mental condition at first alternated between furious anger and
+absolute panic, was fast sinking into a state of nervous prostration
+that I viewed with no little alarm. In fact, the only really
+self-possessed person in the entire household was Ruth herself, and even
+she could not conceal the ravages of sorrow and suspense and
+overshadowing peril. Her manner was almost unchanged; or rather, I
+should say, she had gone back to that which I had first known--quiet,
+reserved, taciturn, with a certain bitter humour showing through her
+unvarying amiability. When she and I were alone, indeed, her reserve
+melted away and she was all sweetness and gentleness. But it wrung my
+heart to look at her, to see how, day by day, she grew ever more thin
+and haggard; to watch the growing pallor of her cheek; to look into her
+solemn grey eyes, so sad and tragic and yet so brave and defiant of
+fate.
+
+It was a terrible time; and through it all the dreadful questions
+haunted me continually: When will the blow fall? What is it that the
+police are waiting for? And when they do strike, what will Thorndyke
+have to say?
+
+So things went on for four dreadful days. But on the fourth day, just as
+the evening consultations were beginning and the surgery was filled with
+waiting patients, Polton appeared with a note, which he insisted, to the
+indignation of Adolphus, on delivering into my own hands. It was from
+Thorndyke, and was to the following effect:----
+
+"I learn from Dr. Norbury that he has recently heard from Herr
+Lederbogen, of Berlin--a learned authority on Oriental antiquities--who
+makes some reference to an English Egyptologist whom he met in Vienna
+about a year ago. He cannot recall the Englishman's name, but there are
+certain expressions in the letter which make Dr. Norbury suspect that he
+is referring to John Bellingham.
+
+"I want you to bring Mr. and Miss Bellingham to my chambers this evening
+at 8.30, to meet Dr. Norbury and talk over this letter; and in view of
+the importance of the matter, I look to you not to fail me."
+
+A wave of hope and relief swept over me. It was still possible that this
+Gordian knot might be cut; that the deliverance might come before it was
+too late. I wrote a hasty note in reply to Thorndyke and another to
+Ruth, making the appointment; and having given them both to the trusty
+Polton, returned somewhat feverishly to my professional duties. To my
+profound relief, the influx of patients ceased, and the practice sank
+into its accustomed torpor; whereby I was able, without base and
+mendacious subterfuge, to escape in good time to my tryst.
+
+It was near upon eight o'clock when I passed through the archway into
+Nevill's Court. The warm afternoon light had died away, for the summer
+was running out apace. The last red glow of the setting sun had faded
+from the ancient roofs and chimney-stacks, and down in the narrow court
+the shades of evening had begun to gather in nooks and corners. I was
+due at eight, and, as it still wanted some minutes to the hour, I
+sauntered slowly down the court, looking reflectively on the familiar
+scene and the well-known friendly faces.
+
+The day's work was drawing to a close. The little shops were putting up
+their shutters; lights were beginning to twinkle in parlour windows; a
+solemn hymn arose in the old Moravian chapel, and its echoes stole out
+through the dark entry that opens into the court under the archway.
+
+Here was Mr. Finneymore (a man of versatile gifts, with a leaning
+towards paint and varnish) sitting, white-aproned and shirt-sleeved, on
+a chair in his garden, smoking his pipe with a complacent eye on his
+dahlias. There at an open window a young man, with a brush in his hand
+and another behind his ear, stood up and stretched himself while an
+older lady deftly rolled up a large map. The barber was turning out the
+gas in his little saloon; the greengrocer was emerging with a cigarette
+in his mouth and an aster in his button-hole, and a group of children
+were escorting the lamplighter on his rounds.
+
+All these good, homely folk were Nevill's Courtiers of the genuine
+breed; born in the court, as had been their fathers before them for
+generations. And of such to a great extent was the population of the
+place. Miss Oman herself claimed aboriginal descent and so did the
+sweet-faced Moravian lady next door--a connection of the famous La
+Trobes of the old Conventicle, whose history went back to the Gordon
+Riots; and as to the gentleman who lived in the ancient
+timber-and-plaster house at the bottom of the court, it was reported
+that his ancestors had dwelt in that very house since the days of James
+the First.
+
+On these facts I reflected as I sauntered down the court: on the strange
+phenomenon of an old-world hamlet with its ancient population lingering
+in the very heart of the noisy city; an island of peace set in an ocean
+of unrest, an oasis in a desert of change and ferment.
+
+My meditations brought me to the shabby gate in the high wall, and as I
+raised the latch and pushed it open, I saw Ruth standing at the door of
+the house talking to Miss Oman. She was evidently waiting for me, for
+she wore her sombre black cloak and hat and a black veil, and when she
+saw me she came out, closing the door after her and holding out her
+hand.
+
+"You are punctual," said she. "St. Dunstan's clock is striking now."
+
+"Yes," I answered. "But where is your father?"
+
+"He has gone to bed, poor old dear. He didn't feel well enough to come,
+and I did not urge him. He is really very ill. This dreadful suspense
+will kill him if it goes on much longer."
+
+"Let us hope it won't," I said, but with little conviction, I fear, in
+my tone. It was harrowing to see her torn by anxiety for her father, and
+I yearned to comfort her. But what was there to say? Mr. Bellingham was
+breaking up visibly under the stress of the terrible menace that hung
+over his daughter, and no words of mine could make the fact less
+manifest.
+
+We walked silently up the court. The lady at the window greeted us with
+a smiling salutation, Mr. Finneymore removed his pipe and raised his
+cap, receiving a gracious bow from Ruth in return, and then we passed
+through the covered way into Fetter Lane, where my companion paused and
+looked about her.
+
+"What are you looking for?" I asked.
+
+"The detective," she answered quietly. "It would be a pity if the poor
+man should miss me after waiting so long. However, I don't see him"; and
+she turned away towards Fleet Street. It was an unpleasant surprise to
+me that her sharp eyes had detected the secret spy upon her movements;
+and the dry, sardonic tone of her remark pained me, too, recalling, as
+it did, the frigid self-possession that had so repelled me in the early
+days of our acquaintance. And yet I could not but admire the cool
+unconcern with which she faced her horrible peril.
+
+"Tell me a little more about this conference," she said, as we walked
+down Fetter Lane. "Your note was rather more concise than lucid; but I
+suppose you wrote it in a hurry."
+
+"Yes, I did. And I can't give you any details now. All I know is that
+Doctor Norbury has had a letter from a friend of his in Berlin, an
+Egyptologist, as I understand, named Lederbogen, who refers to an
+English acquaintance of his and Norbury's whom he saw in Vienna about a
+year ago. He cannot remember the Englishman's name, but from some of the
+circumstances Norbury seems to think that he is referring to your Uncle
+John. Of course, if this should turn out to be really the case, it would
+set everything straight; so Thorndyke was anxious that you and your
+father should meet Norbury and talk it over."
+
+"I see," said Ruth. Her tone was thoughtful but by no means
+enthusiastic.
+
+"You don't seem to attach much importance to the matter," I remarked.
+
+"No. It doesn't seem to fit the circumstances. What is the use of
+suggesting that poor Uncle John is alive--and behaving like an imbecile,
+which he certainly was not--when his dead body has actually been found?"
+
+"But," I suggested lamely, "there may be some mistake. It may not be his
+body after all."
+
+"And the ring?" she asked, with a bitter smile.
+
+"That may be just a coincidence. It was a copy of a well-known form of
+antique ring. Other people may have had copies made as well as your
+uncle. Besides," I added, with more conviction, "we haven't seen the
+ring. It may not be his at all."
+
+She shook her head. "My dear Paul," she said quietly, "it is useless to
+delude ourselves. Every known fact points to the certainty that it is
+his body. John Bellingham is dead: there can be no doubt of that. And to
+everyone except his unknown murderer and one or two of my own loyal
+friends, it must seem that his death lies at my door. I realised from
+the beginning that the suspicion lay between George Hurst and me; and
+the finding of the ring fixes it definitely on me. I am only surprised
+that the police have made no move yet."
+
+The quiet conviction of her tone left me for a while speechless with
+horror and despair. Then I recalled Thorndyke's calm, even confident
+attitude, and I hastened to remind her of it.
+
+"There is one of your friends," I said, "who is still undismayed.
+Thorndyke seems to anticipate no difficulties."
+
+"And yet," she replied, "he is ready to consider a forlorn hope like
+this. However, we shall see."
+
+I could think of nothing more to say, and it was in gloomy silence that
+we pursued our way down Inner Temple Lane and through the dark entries
+and tunnel-like passages that brought us out, at length, by the
+Treasury.
+
+"I don't see any light in Thorndyke's chambers," I said, as we crossed
+King's Bench Walk; and I pointed out the row of windows all dark and
+blank.
+
+"No: and yet the shutters are not closed. He must be out."
+
+"He can't be after making an appointment with you and your father. It is
+most mysterious. Thorndyke is so very punctilious about his
+engagements."
+
+The mystery was solved, when we reached the landing, by a slip of paper
+fixed by a tack on the iron-bound "oak."
+
+"A note for P.B. is on the table," was the laconic message: on reading
+which I inserted my key, swung the heavy door outward, and opened the
+lighter inner door. The note was lying on the table and I brought it
+out to the landing to read by the light of the staircase lamp.
+
+"Apologise to our friends," it ran, "for the slight change of programme.
+Norbury is anxious that I should get my experiments over before the
+Director returns, so as to save discussion. He has asked me to begin
+to-night and says he will see Mr. and Miss Bellingham here, at the
+Museum. Please bring them along at once. The hall porters are instructed
+to admit you and bring you to us. I think some matters of importance may
+transpire at the interview.--J.E.T."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I hope you don't mind," I said apologetically, when I had read the note
+to Ruth.
+
+"Of course I don't," she replied. "I am rather pleased. We have so many
+associations with the dear old Museum, haven't we?" She looked at me for
+a moment with a strange and touching wistfulness and then turned to
+descend the stone stairs.
+
+At the Temple gate, I hailed a hansom and we were soon speeding westward
+and north to the soft tinkle of the horse's bell.
+
+"What are these experiments that Doctor Thorndyke refers to?" she asked
+presently.
+
+"I can only answer you rather vaguely," I replied. "Their object, I
+believe, is to ascertain whether the penetrability of organic substances
+by the X-rays becomes altered by age; whether, for instance, an ancient
+block of wood is more or less transparent to the rays than a new block
+of the same size."
+
+"And of what use would the knowledge be, if it were obtained?"
+
+"I can't say. Experiments are made to obtain knowledge without regard
+to its utility. The use appears when the knowledge has been acquired.
+But in this case, if it should be possible to determine the age of any
+organic substance by its reaction to X-rays, the discovery might be of
+some value in legal practice--as in demonstrating a new seal on an old
+document, for instance. But I don't know whether Thorndyke has anything
+definite in view; I only know that the preparations have been on a most
+portentous scale."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"In regard to size. When I went into the workshop yesterday morning, I
+found Polton erecting a kind of portable gallows about nine feet high,
+and he had just finished varnishing a pair of enormous wooden trays,
+each over six feet long. It looked as if he and Thorndyke were
+contemplating a few private executions with subsequent post-mortems on
+the victims."
+
+"What a horrible suggestion!"
+
+"So Polton said, with his quaint, crinkly smile. But he was mighty close
+about the use of the apparatus all the same. I wonder if we shall see
+anything of the experiments, when we get there. This is Museum Street,
+isn't it?"
+
+"Yes." As she spoke, she lifted the flap of one of the little windows in
+the back of the cab and peered out. Then, closing it with a quiet,
+ironic smile, she said:
+
+"It is all right; he hasn't missed us. It will be quite a nice little
+change for him."
+
+The cab swung round into Great Russell Street, and, glancing out as it
+turned, I saw another hansom following; but before I had time to inspect
+its solitary passenger, we drew up at the Museum gates. The
+gate-porter, who seemed to expect us, ushered us up the drive to the
+great portico and into the Central Hall, where he handed us over to
+another official.
+
+"Doctor Norbury is in one of the rooms adjoining the Fourth Egyptian
+Room," the latter stated in answer to our inquiries: and, providing
+himself with a wire-guarded lantern, he prepared to escort us thither.
+
+Up the great staircase, now wrapped in mysterious gloom, we passed in
+silence with bitter-sweet memories of that day of days when we had first
+trodden its steps together: through the Central Saloon, the Mediaeval
+Room and the Asiatic Saloon, and so into the long range of the
+Ethnographical Galleries.
+
+It was a weird journey. The swaying lantern shot its beams abroad into
+the darkness of the great, dim galleries, casting instantaneous flashes
+on the objects in the cases, so that they leaped into being and vanished
+in the twinkling of an eye. Hideous idols with round, staring eyes
+started forth from the darkness, glared at us for an instant and were
+gone. Grotesque masks, suddenly revealed by the shimmering light, took
+on the semblance of demon faces that seemed to mow and gibber at us as
+we passed. As for the life-sized models--realistic enough by
+daylight--their aspect was positively alarming; for the moving light and
+shadow endowed them with life and movement, so that they seemed to watch
+us furtively, to lie in wait and to hold themselves in readiness to
+steal out and follow us. The illusion evidently affected Ruth as well as
+me, for she drew nearer to me and whispered:
+
+"These figures are quite startling. Did you see that Polynesian? I
+really felt as if he were going to spring out on us."
+
+"They are rather uncanny," I admitted, "but the danger is over now. We
+are passing out of their sphere of influence."
+
+We came out on a landing as I spoke and then turned sharply to the left
+along the North Gallery, from the centre of which we entered the Fourth
+Egyptian Room.
+
+Almost immediately, a door in the opposite wall opened; a peculiar,
+high-pitched humming sound became audible, and Jervis came out on tiptoe
+with his hand raised.
+
+"Tread as lightly as you can," he said. "We are just making an
+exposure."
+
+The attendant turned back with his lantern, and we followed Jervis into
+the room from whence he had come. It was a large room, and little
+lighter than the galleries, for the single glow-lamp that burned at the
+end where we entered left the rest of the apartment in almost complete
+obscurity. We seated ourselves at once on the chairs that had been
+placed for us, and, when the mutual salutations had been exchanged, I
+looked about me. There were three people in the room besides Jervis:
+Thorndyke, who sat with his watch in his hand, a grey-headed gentleman
+whom I took to be Dr. Norbury, and a smaller person at the dim farther
+end--undistinguishable, but probably Polton. At our end of the room were
+the two large trays that I had seen in the workshop, now mounted on
+trestles and each fitted with a rubber drain-tube leading down to a
+bucket. At the farther end of the room the sinister shape of the gallows
+reared itself aloft in the gloom; only now I could see that it was not a
+gallows at all. For affixed to the top cross-bar was a large,
+bottomless glass basin, inside which was a glass bulb that glowed with a
+strange green light; and in the heart of the bulb a bright spot of red.
+
+It was all clear enough so far. The peculiar sound that filled the air
+was the hum of the interrupter; the bulb was, of course, a Crookes tube,
+and the red spot inside it, the glowing red-hot disc of the
+anti-cathode. Clearly an X-ray photograph was being made; but of what? I
+strained my eyes, peering into the gloom at the foot of the gallows, but
+though I could make out an elongated object lying on the floor directly
+under the bulb, I could not resolve the dimly seen shape into anything
+recognisable. Presently, however, Dr. Norbury supplied the clue.
+
+"I am rather surprised," said he, "that you chose so composite an object
+as a mummy to begin on. I should have thought that a simpler object,
+such as a coffin or a wooden figure, would have been more instructive."
+
+"In some ways it would," replied Thorndyke, "but the variety of
+materials that the mummy gives us has its advantages. I hope your father
+is not ill, Miss Bellingham."
+
+"He is not at all well," said Ruth, "and we agreed that it was better
+for me to come alone. I knew Herr Lederbogen quite well. He stayed with
+us for a time when he was in England."
+
+"I trust," said Dr. Norbury, "that I have not troubled you for nothing.
+Herr Lederbogen speaks of 'our erratic English friend with the long name
+that I can never remember,' and it seemed to me that he might be
+referring to your uncle."
+
+"I should hardly have called my uncle erratic," said Ruth.
+
+"No, no. Certainly not," Dr. Norbury agreed hastily. "However, you shall
+see the letter presently and judge for yourself. We mustn't introduce
+irrelevant topics while the experiment is in progress, must we, Doctor?"
+
+"You had better wait until we have finished," said Thorndyke, "because I
+am going to turn out the light. Switch off the current, Polton."
+
+The green light vanished from the bulb, the hum of the interrupter swept
+down an octave or two and died away. Then Thorndyke and Dr. Norbury rose
+from their chairs and went towards the mummy, which they lifted tenderly
+while Polton drew from beneath it what presently turned out to be a huge
+black-paper envelope. The single glow-lamp was switched off, leaving the
+room in total darkness, until there burst out suddenly a bright
+orange-red light immediately above one of the trays.
+
+We all gathered round to watch, as Polton--the high-priest of these
+mysteries--drew from the black envelope a colossal sheet of bromide
+paper, laid it carefully in the tray and proceeded to wet it with a
+large brush which he had dipped in a pail of water.
+
+"I thought you always used plates for this kind of work," said Dr.
+Norbury.
+
+"We do, by preference; but a six-foot plate would be impossible, so I
+had a special paper made to the size."
+
+There is something singularly fascinating in the appearance of a
+developing photograph; in the gradual, mysterious emergence of the
+picture from the blank, white surface of plate or paper. But a
+skiagraph, or X-ray photograph, has a fascination all its own. Unlike
+an ordinary photograph, which yields a picture of things already seen,
+it gives a presentment of objects hitherto invisible; and hence, when
+Polton poured the developer on the already wet paper, we all craned over
+the tray with the keenest curiosity.
+
+The developer was evidently a very slow one. For fully half a minute no
+change could be seen in the uniform surface. Then, gradually, almost
+insensibly, the marginal portion began to darken, leaving the outline of
+the mummy in pale relief. The change, once started, proceeded apace.
+Darker and darker grew the margin of the paper until from slaty grey it
+had turned to black; and still the shape of the mummy, now in strong
+relief, remained an elongated patch of bald white. But not for long.
+Presently the white shape began to be tinged with grey, and, as the
+colour deepened, there grew out of it a paler form that seemed to steal
+out of the enshrouding grey like an apparition, spectral, awesome,
+mysterious. The skeleton was coming into view.
+
+"It is rather uncanny," said Dr. Norbury. "I feel as if I were assisting
+at some unholy rite. Just look at it now!"
+
+The grey shadow of the cartonnage, the wrappings and the flesh was
+fading away into the black background and the white skeleton stood out
+in sharp contrast. And it certainly was a rather weird spectacle.
+
+"You'll lose the bones if you develop much farther," said Dr. Norbury.
+
+"I must let the bones darken," Thorndyke replied, "in case there are any
+metallic objects. I have three more papers in the envelope."
+
+The white shape of the skeleton now began to grey over and, as Dr.
+Norbury had said, its distinctness became less and yet less. Thorndyke
+leaned over the tray with his eyes fixed on a point in the middle of the
+breast and we all watched him in silence. Suddenly he rose. "Now,
+Polton," he said sharply; "get the hypo on as quickly as you can."
+
+Polton, who had been waiting with his hand on the stop-cock of the
+drain-tube, rapidly ran off the developer into the bucket and flooded
+the paper with the fixing solution.
+
+"Now we can look at it at our leisure," said Thorndyke. After waiting a
+few seconds, he switched on one of the glow-lamps, and as the flood of
+light fell on the photograph, he added: "You see we haven't quite lost
+the skeleton."
+
+"No." Dr. Norbury put on a pair of spectacles and bent down over the
+tray; and at this moment I felt Ruth's hand touch my arm, lightly, at
+first, and then with a strong, nervous grasp; and I could feel that her
+hand was trembling. I looked round at her anxiously and saw that she had
+turned deathly pale.
+
+"Would you rather go out into the gallery?" I asked; for the room with
+its tightly shut windows was close and hot.
+
+"No," she replied quietly, "I will stay here. I am quite well." But
+still she kept hold of my arm.
+
+Thorndyke glanced at her keenly and then looked away as Dr. Norbury
+turned to him to ask a question.
+
+"Why is it, think you, that some of the teeth show so much whiter than
+others?"
+
+"I think the whiteness of the shadows is due to the presence of metal,"
+Thorndyke replied.
+
+"Do you mean that the teeth have metal fillings?" asked Dr. Norbury.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Really! This is very interesting. The use of gold stoppings--and
+artificial teeth, too--by the ancient Egyptians is well known, but we
+have no examples in the Museum. This mummy ought to be unrolled. Do you
+think all those teeth are filled with the same metal? They are not
+equally white."
+
+"No," replied Thorndyke. "Those teeth that are perfectly white are
+undoubtedly filled with gold, but that greyish one is probably filled
+with tin."
+
+"Very interesting," said Dr. Norbury. "_Very_ interesting! And what do
+you make of that faint mark across the chest, near the top of the
+sternum?"
+
+It was Ruth who answered his question.
+
+"It is the Eye of Osiris!" she exclaimed, in a hushed voice.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Dr. Norbury, "so it is. You are quite right. It is
+the Utchat--the Eye of Horus--or Osiris, if you prefer to call it so.
+That, I presume, will be a gilded device on some of the wrappings."
+
+"No: I should say it is a tattoo mark. It is too indefinite for a gilded
+device. And I should say further that the tattooing is done in
+vermilion, as carbon tattooing would cast no visible shadow."
+
+"I think you must be mistaken about that," said Dr. Norbury, "but we
+shall see, if the Director allows us to unroll the mummy. By the way,
+those little objects in front of the knees are metallic, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, they are metallic. But they are not in front of the knees; they
+are _in_ the knees. They are pieces of silver wire which have been used
+to repair fractured knee-caps."
+
+"Are you sure of that?" exclaimed Dr. Norbury, peering at the little
+white marks with ecstasy; "because, if you are, and if these objects are
+what you say they are, the mummy of Sebek-hotep is an absolutely unique
+specimen."
+
+"I am quite certain of it," said Thorndyke.
+
+"Then," said Dr. Norbury, "we have made a discovery, thanks to your
+inquiring spirit. Poor John Bellingham! He little knew what a treasure
+he was giving us! How I wish he could have known! How I wish he could
+have been here with us to-night!"
+
+He paused once more to gaze in rapture at the photograph. And then
+Thorndyke, in his quiet, impassive way, said:
+
+"John Bellingham is here, Doctor Norbury. This is John Bellingham."
+
+Dr. Norbury started back and stared at Thorndyke in speechless
+amazement.
+
+"You don't mean," he exclaimed, after a long pause, "that this mummy is
+the body of John Bellingham!"
+
+"I do, indeed. There is no doubt of it."
+
+"But it is impossible! The mummy was here in the gallery a full three
+weeks before he disappeared."
+
+"Not so," said Thorndyke. "John Bellingham was last seen alive by you
+and Mr. Jellicoe on the fourteenth of October, more than three weeks
+before the mummy left Queen Square. After that date he was never seen
+alive or dead by any person who knew him and could identify him."
+
+Dr. Norbury reflected awhile in silence. Then, in a faint voice, he
+asked: "How do you suggest that John Bellingham's body came to be
+inside that cartonnage?"
+
+"I think Mr. Jellicoe is the most likely person to be able to answer
+that question," Thorndyke replied drily.
+
+There was another interval of silence, and then Dr. Norbury asked
+suddenly:
+
+"But what do you suppose has become of Sebek-hotep? The real
+Sebek-hotep, I mean?"
+
+"I take it," said Thorndyke, "that the remains of Sebek-hotep, or at
+least a portion of them, are at present lying in the Woodford mortuary
+awaiting an adjourned inquest."
+
+As Thorndyke made this statement a flash of belated intelligence,
+mingled with self-contempt, fell on me. Now that the explanation was
+given, how obvious it was! And yet I, a competent anatomist and
+physiologist and actually a pupil of Thorndyke's, had mistaken those
+ancient bones for the remains of a recent body!
+
+Dr. Norbury considered the last statement for some time in evident
+perplexity. "It is all consistent enough, I must admit," said he, at
+length, "and yet--are you quite sure there is no mistake? It seems so
+incredible."
+
+"There is no mistake, I assure you," Thorndyke answered. "To convince
+you, I will give you the facts in detail. First, as to the teeth. I have
+seen John Bellingham's dentist and obtained particulars from his
+case-book. There were in all five teeth that had been filled. The right
+upper wisdom-tooth, the molar next to it, and the second lower molar on
+the left side, had all extensive gold fillings. You can see them all
+quite plainly in the skiagraph. The left lower lateral incisor had a
+very small gold filling, which you can see as a nearly circular white
+dot. In addition to these, a filling of tin amalgam had been inserted
+while the deceased was abroad, in the second left upper bicuspid, the
+rather grey spot that we have already noticed. These would, by
+themselves, furnish ample means of identification. But in addition,
+there is the tattooed device of the Eye of Osiris--"
+
+"Horus," murmured Dr. Norbury.
+
+"Horus, then--in the exact locality in which it was borne by the
+deceased and tattooed, apparently, with the same pigment. There are,
+further, the suture wires in the knee-caps; Sir Morgan Bennet, having
+looked up the notes of the operation, informs me that he introduced
+three suture wires into the left patella and two into the right; which
+is what the skiagraph shows. Lastly, the deceased had an old Pott's
+fracture on the left side. It is not very apparent now, but I saw it
+quite distinctly just now when the shadows of the bones were whiter. I
+think that you may take it that the identification is beyond all doubt
+or question."
+
+"Yes," agreed Dr. Norbury, with gloomy resignation, "it sounds, as you
+say, quite conclusive. Well, well, it is a most horrible affair. Poor
+old John Bellingham! It looks uncommonly as if he had met with foul
+play. Don't you think so?"
+
+"I do," replied Thorndyke. "There was a mark on the right side of the
+skull that looked rather like a fracture. It was not very clear, being
+at the side, but we must develop up the next negative to show it."
+
+Dr. Norbury drew his breath in sharply through his teeth. "This is a
+gruesome business, Doctor," said he. "A terrible business. Awkward for
+our people, too. By the way, what is our position in the matter? What
+steps ought we to take?"
+
+"You should give notice to the coroner--I will manage the police--and
+you should communicate with one of the executors of the will."
+
+"Mr. Jellicoe?"
+
+"No, not Mr. Jellicoe, under the peculiar circumstances. You had better
+write to Mr. Godfrey Bellingham."
+
+"But I rather understood that Mr. Hurst was the co-executor," said Dr.
+Norbury.
+
+"He is surely, as matters stand," said Jervis.
+
+"Not at all," replied Thorndyke. "He _was_ as matters _stood_; but he is
+not now. You are forgetting the conditions of clause two. That clause
+sets forth the conditions under which Godfrey Bellingham shall inherit
+the bulk of the estate and become the co-executor; and those conditions
+are: 'that the body of the testator shall be deposited in some
+authorised place for the reception of the bodies of the dead, situate
+within the boundaries of, or appertaining to some place of worship
+within, the parish of St. George, Bloomsbury, and St. Giles in the
+Fields or St. Andrew above the Bars and St. George the Martyr.' Now
+Egyptian mummies are the bodies of the dead, and this Museum is an
+authorised place for their reception; and this building is situate
+within the boundaries of the parish of St. George, Bloomsbury. Therefore
+the provisions of clause two have been duly carried out and therefore
+Godfrey Bellingham is the principal beneficiary under the will, and the
+co-executor, in accordance with the wishes of the testator. Is that
+quite clear?"
+
+"Perfectly," said Dr. Norbury; "and a most astonishing coincidence--but,
+my dear young lady, had you not better sit down? You are looking very
+ill."
+
+He glanced anxiously at Ruth, who was pale to the lips and was now
+leaning heavily on my arm.
+
+"I think, Berkeley," said Thorndyke, "you had better take Miss
+Bellingham out into the gallery, where there is more air. This has been
+a tremendous climax to all the trials that she has borne so bravely. Go
+out with Berkeley," he added gently, laying his hand on her shoulder,
+"and sit down while we develop the other negatives. You mustn't break
+down now, you know, when the storm has passed and the sun is beginning
+to shine." He held the door open, and as we passed out his face softened
+into a smile of infinite kindness. "You won't mind my locking you out,"
+said he; "this is a photographic dark-room at present."
+
+The key grated in the lock and we turned away into the dim gallery. It
+was not quite dark, for a beam of moonlight filtered in here and there
+through the blinds that covered the sky-lights. We walked on slowly, her
+arm linked in mine, and for a while neither of us spoke. The great rooms
+were very silent and peaceful and solemn. The hush, the stillness, the
+mystery of the half-seen forms in the cases around, were all in harmony
+with the deeply-felt sense of a great deliverance that filled our
+hearts.
+
+We had passed through into the next room before either of us broke the
+silence. Insensibly our hands had crept together, and as they met and
+clasped with mutual pressure, Ruth exclaimed: "How dreadful and tragic
+it is! Poor, poor Uncle John! It seems as if he had come back from the
+world of shadows to tell us of this awful thing. But, O God! what a
+relief it is!" She caught her breath in one or two quick sobs and
+pressed my hand passionately.
+
+"It is over, dearest," I said. "It is gone for ever. Nothing remains but
+the memory of your sorrow and your noble courage and patience."
+
+"I can't realise it yet," she murmured. "It has been like a frightful,
+interminable dream."
+
+"Let us put it away," said I, "and think only of the happy life that is
+opening."
+
+She made no reply, and only a quick catch in her breath, now and again,
+told of the long agony that she had endured with such heroic calm.
+
+We walked on slowly, scarcely disturbing the silence with our soft
+foot-falls, through the wide doorway into the second room. The vague
+shapes of the mummy-cases standing erect in the wall-cases, loomed out
+dim and gigantic, silent watchers keeping their vigil with the memories
+of untold centuries locked in their shadowy breasts. They were an
+awesome company. Reverend survivors from a vanished world, they looked
+out from the gloom of their abiding-place, but with no shade of menace
+or of malice in their silent presence; rather with a solemn benison on
+the fleeting creatures of to-day.
+
+Half-way along the room a ghostly figure, somewhat aloof from its
+companions, showed a dim, pallid blotch where its face would have been.
+With one accord we halted before it.
+
+"Do you know who it is, Ruth?" I asked.
+
+"Of course I do," she answered. "It is Artemidorus."
+
+We stood, hand in hand, facing the mummy, letting our memories fill in
+the vague silhouette with its well-remembered details. Presently I drew
+her nearer to me and whispered:
+
+"Ruth! do you remember when we last stood here?"
+
+"As if I could ever forget!" she answered passionately. "Oh, Paul! The
+sorrow of it! The misery! How it wrung my heart to tell you! Were you
+_very_ unhappy when I left you?"
+
+"Unhappy! I never knew, until then, what real, heart-breaking sorrow
+was. It seemed as if the light had gone out of my life for ever. But
+there was just one little spot of brightness left."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"You made me a promise, dear--a solemn promise; and I felt--at least I
+hoped--that the day would come, if I only waited patiently, when you
+would be able to redeem it."
+
+She crept closer to me and yet closer, until her head nestled on my
+shoulder and her soft cheek lay against mine.
+
+"Dear heart," I whispered, "is it now? Is the time fulfilled?"
+
+"Yes, dearest," she murmured softly. "It is now--and for ever."
+
+Reverently I folded her in my arms; gathered her to the heart that
+worshipped her utterly. Henceforth no sorrows could hurt us, no
+misfortunes vex; for we should walk hand in hand on our earthly
+pilgrimage and find the way all too short.
+
+Time, whose sands run out with such unequal swiftness for the just and
+the unjust, the happy and the wretched, lagged, no doubt, with the
+toilers in the room that we had left. But for us its golden grains
+trickled out apace and left the glass empty before we had begun to mark
+their passage. The turning of a key and the opening of a door aroused us
+from our dream of perfect happiness. Ruth raised her head to listen, and
+our lips met for one brief moment. Then, with a silent greeting to the
+friend who had looked on our grief and witnessed our final happiness, we
+turned and retraced our steps quickly, filling the great, empty rooms
+with chattering echoes.
+
+"We won't go back into the dark-room--which isn't dark now," said Ruth.
+
+"Why not?" I asked.
+
+"Because--when I came out I was very pale; and I'm--well, I don't think
+I am very pale now. Besides, poor Uncle John is in there--and--I should
+be ashamed to look at him with my selfish heart overflowing with
+happiness."
+
+"You needn't be," said I. "It is the day of our lives and we have a
+right to be happy. But you shan't go in, if you don't wish to," and I
+accordingly steered her adroitly past the beam of light that streamed
+from the open door.
+
+"We have developed four negatives," said Thorndyke, as he emerged with
+the others, "and I am leaving them in the custody of Doctor Norbury, who
+will sign each when they are dry, as they may have to be put in
+evidence. What are you going to do?"
+
+I looked at Ruth to see what she wished.
+
+"If you won't think me ungrateful," said she, "I should rather be alone
+with my father to-night. He is very weak, and--"
+
+"Yes, I understand," I said hastily. And I did. Mr. Bellingham was a man
+of strong emotions and would probably be somewhat overcome by the sudden
+change of fortune and the news of his brother's tragic death.
+
+"In that case," said Thorndyke, "I will bespeak your services. Will you
+go on and wait for me at my chambers, when you have seen Miss Bellingham
+home?"
+
+I agreed to this, and we set forth under the guidance of Dr. Norbury
+(who carried an electric lamp) to return by the way we had come; two of
+us, at least, in a vastly different frame of mind. The party broke up at
+the entrance gates, and as Thorndyke wished my companion "Good night,"
+she held his hand and looked up in his face with swimming eyes.
+
+"I haven't thanked you, Doctor Thorndyke," she said, "and I don't feel
+that I ever can. What you have done for me and my father is beyond all
+thanks. You have saved his life and you have rescued me from the most
+horrible ignominy. Good-bye! and God bless you!"
+
+The hansom that bowled along eastward--at most unnecessary speed--bore
+two of the happiest human beings within the wide boundaries of the town.
+I looked at my companion as the lights of the street shone into the cab,
+and was astonished at the transformation. The pallor of her cheek had
+given place to a rosy pink; the hardness, the tension, the haggard
+self-repression that had aged her face, were all gone, and the girlish
+sweetness that had so bewitched me in the early days of our love had
+stolen back. Even the dimple was there when the sweeping lashes lifted
+and her eyes met mine in a smile of infinite tenderness. Little was said
+on that brief journey. It was happiness enough to sit, hand clasped in
+hand, and know that our time of trial was past; that no cross of Fate
+could ever part us now.
+
+The astonished cabman set us down, according to instructions, at the
+entrance to Nevill's Court, and watched us with open mouth as we
+vanished into the narrow passage. The court had settled down for the
+night, and no one marked our return; no curious eye looked down on us
+from the dark house-front as we said "Good-bye" just inside the gate.
+
+"You will come and see us to-morrow, dear, won't you?" she asked.
+
+"Do you think it possible that I could stay away, then?"
+
+"I hope not. But come as early as you can. My father will be positively
+frantic to see you; because I shall have told him, you know. And,
+remember, that it is you who have brought us this great deliverance.
+Good night, Paul."
+
+"Good night, sweetheart."
+
+She put up her face frankly to be kissed and then ran up to the ancient
+door; whence she waved me a last good-bye. The shabby gate in the wall
+closed behind me and hid her from my sight; but the light of her love
+went with me and turned the dull street into a path of glory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A STRANGE SYMPOSIUM
+
+
+It came upon me with something of a shock of surprise to find the scrap
+of paper still tacked to the oak of Thorndyke's chambers. So much had
+happened since I had last looked on it that it seemed to belong to
+another epoch of my life. I removed it thoughtfully and picked out the
+tack before entering, and then, closing the inner door, but leaving the
+oak open, I lit the gas and fell to pacing the room.
+
+What a wonderful episode it had been! How the whole aspect of the world
+had been changed in a moment by Thorndyke's revelation! At another time,
+curiosity would have led me to endeavour to trace back the train of
+reasoning by which the subtle brain of my teacher had attained this
+astonishing conclusion. But now my own happiness held exclusive
+possession of my thoughts. The image of Ruth filled the field of my
+mental vision. I saw her again as I had seen her in the cab with her
+sweet, pensive face and downcast eyes; I felt again the touch of her
+soft cheek and the parting kiss by the gate, so frank and simple, so
+intimate and final.
+
+I must have waited quite a long time, though the golden minutes sped
+unreckoned, for when my two colleagues arrived they tendered needless
+apologies.
+
+"And I suppose," said Thorndyke, "you have been wondering what I wanted
+you for."
+
+I had not, as a matter of fact, given the matter a moment's
+consideration.
+
+"We are going to call on Mr. Jellicoe," Thorndyke explained. "There is
+something behind this affair, and until I have ascertained what it is,
+the case is not complete from my point of view."
+
+"Wouldn't it have done as well to-morrow?" I asked.
+
+"It might; and then it might not. There is an old saying as to catching
+a weasel asleep. Mr. Jellicoe is a somewhat wide-awake person, and I
+think it best to introduce him to Inspector Badger at the earliest
+possible moment."
+
+"The meeting of a weasel and a badger suggests a sporting interview,"
+remarked Jervis. "But you don't expect Jellicoe to give himself away, do
+you?"
+
+"He can hardly do that, seeing that there is nothing to give away. But I
+think he may make a statement. There were some exceptional
+circumstances, I feel sure."
+
+"How long have you known that the body was in the Museum?" I asked.
+
+"About thirty or forty seconds longer than you have, I should say."
+
+"Do you mean," I exclaimed, "that you didn't know until the negative was
+developed?"
+
+"My dear fellow," he replied, "do you suppose that, if I had had certain
+knowledge where the body was, I should have allowed that noble girl to
+go on dragging out a lingering agony of suspense that I could have cut
+short in a moment? Or that I should have made these humbugging pretences
+of scientific experiments if a more dignified course had been open to
+me?"
+
+"As to the experiments," said Jervis, "Norbury could hardly have
+refused if you had taken him into your confidence."
+
+"Indeed he could, and probably would. My 'confidence' would have
+involved a charge of murder against a highly respectable gentleman who
+was well known to him. He would probably have referred me to the police,
+and then what could I have done? I had plenty of suspicions, but not a
+single solid fact."
+
+Our discussion was here interrupted by hurried footsteps on the stairs
+and a thundering rat-tat on our knocker.
+
+As Jervis opened the door, Inspector Badger burst into the room in a
+highly excited state.
+
+"What is all this, Doctor Thorndyke?" he asked. "I see you've sworn an
+information against Mr. Jellicoe, and I have a warrant to arrest him;
+but before anything is done I think it right to tell you that we have
+more evidence than is generally known pointing to quite a different
+quarter."
+
+"Derived from Mr. Jellicoe's information," said Thorndyke. "But the fact
+is that I have just examined and identified the body at the British
+Museum, where it was deposited by Mr. Jellicoe. I don't say that he
+murdered John Bellingham--though that is what the appearances
+suggest--but I do say that he will have to account for his secret
+disposal of the body."
+
+Inspector Badger was thunderstruck. Also he was visibly annoyed. The
+salt which Mr. Jellicoe had so adroitly sprinkled on the constabulary
+tail appeared to develop irritating properties, for when Thorndyke had
+given him a brief outline of the facts he stuck his hands in his pockets
+and exclaimed gloomily:
+
+"Well, I'm hanged! And to think of all the time and trouble I've spent
+on those damned bones! I suppose they were just a plant?"
+
+"Don't let us disparage them," said Thorndyke. "They have played a
+useful part. They represent the inevitable mistake that every criminal
+makes sooner or later. The murderer will always do a little too much. If
+he would only lie low and let well alone, the detective might whistle
+for a clue. But it is time we were starting."
+
+"Are we all going?" asked the inspector, looking at me in particular
+with no very gracious recognition.
+
+"We will all come with you," said Thorndyke; "but you will, naturally,
+make the arrest in the way that seems best to you."
+
+"It's a regular procession," grumbled the inspector; but he made no more
+definite objection, and we started forth on our quest.
+
+The distance from the Temple to Lincoln's Inn is not great. In five
+minutes we were at the gateway in Chancery Lane, and a couple of minutes
+later saw us gathered round the threshold of the stately old house in
+New Square.
+
+"Seems to be a light in the first floor front," said Badger. "You'd
+better move away before I ring the bell."
+
+But the precaution was unnecessary. As the inspector advanced to the
+bell-pull a head was thrust out of the open window immediately above the
+street door.
+
+"Who are you?" inquired the owner of the head in a voice which I
+recognised as that of Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"I am Inspector Badger, of the Criminal Investigation Department. I
+wish to see Mr. Arthur Jellicoe."
+
+"Then look at me. I am Mr. Arthur Jellicoe."
+
+"I hold a warrant for your arrest, Mr. Jellicoe. You are charged with
+the murder of Mr. John Bellingham, whose body has just been discovered
+in the British Museum."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"By Doctor Thorndyke."
+
+"Indeed," said Mr. Jellicoe. "Is he here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Ha! And you wish to arrest me, I presume?"
+
+"Yes. That is what I am here for."
+
+"Well, I will agree to surrender myself subject to certain conditions."
+
+"I can't make any conditions, Mr. Jellicoe."
+
+"No. I will make them, and you will accept them. Otherwise you will not
+arrest me."
+
+"It's no use for you to talk like that," said Badger. "If you don't let
+me in I shall have to break in. And I may as well tell you," he added
+mendaciously, "that the house is surrounded."
+
+"You may accept my assurance," Mr. Jellicoe replied calmly, "that you
+will not arrest me if you do not accept my conditions."
+
+"Well, what are your conditions?" demanded Badger impatiently.
+
+"I desire to make a statement," said Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"You can do that, but I must caution you that anything you say may be
+used in evidence against you."
+
+"Naturally. But I wish to make the statement in the presence of Doctor
+Thorndyke, and I desire to hear a statement from him of the method of
+investigation by which he discovered the whereabouts of the body. That
+is to say, if he is willing."
+
+"If you mean that we should mutually enlighten one another, I am very
+willing indeed," said Thorndyke.
+
+"Very well. Then my conditions, Inspector, are that I shall hear Doctor
+Thorndyke's statement and that I shall be permitted to make a statement
+myself, and that until those statements are completed, with any
+necessary interrogation and discussion, I shall remain at liberty and
+shall suffer no molestation or interference of any kind. And I agree
+that, on the conclusion of the said proceedings, I will submit without
+resistance to any course that you may adopt."
+
+"I can't agree to that," said Badger.
+
+"Can't you?" said Mr. Jellicoe coldly; and, after a pause, he added:
+"Don't be hasty. I have given you full warning."
+
+There was something in Mr. Jellicoe's passionless tone that disturbed
+the inspector exceedingly, for he turned to Thorndyke and said in a low
+tone:
+
+"I wonder what his game is? He can't get away, you know."
+
+"There are several possibilities," said Thorndyke.
+
+"M'yes," said Badger, stroking his chin perplexedly.
+
+"After all, is there any objection? His statement might save trouble,
+and you'd be on the safe side. It would take you some time to break in."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Jellicoe, with his hand on the window, "do you
+agree--yes or no?"
+
+"All right," said Badger sulkily. "I agree."
+
+"You promise not to molest me in any way until I have quite finished?"
+
+"I promise."
+
+Mr. Jellicoe's head disappeared and the window closed. After a short
+interval we heard the jar of massive bolts and the clank of a chain,
+and, as the heavy door swung open, Mr. Jellicoe stood revealed, calm and
+impassive, with an old-fashioned office candlestick in his hand.
+
+"Who are the others?" he inquired, peering out sharply through his
+spectacles.
+
+"O, they are nothing to do with me," replied Badger.
+
+"They are Doctor Berkeley and Doctor Jervis," said Thorndyke.
+
+"Ha!" said Mr. Jellicoe; "very kind and attentive of them to call. Pray
+come in, gentlemen. I am sure you will be interested to hear our little
+discussion."
+
+He held the door open with a certain stiff courtesy, and we all entered
+the hall led by Inspector Badger. He closed the door softly and preceded
+us up the stairs and into the apartment from the window of which he had
+dictated the terms of surrender. It was a fine old room, spacious,
+lofty, and dignified, with panelled walls and a carved mantelpiece, the
+central escutcheon of which bore the initials "J.W.P." with the date
+"1671." A large writing-table stood at the farther end, and behind it an
+iron safe.
+
+"I have been expecting this visit," Mr. Jellicoe remarked tranquilly as
+he placed four chairs opposite the table.
+
+"Since when?" asked Thorndyke.
+
+"Since last Monday evening, when I had the pleasure of seeing you
+conversing with my friend Doctor Berkeley at the Inner Temple gate, and
+then inferred that you were retained in the case. That was a
+circumstance that had not been fully provided for. May I offer you
+gentlemen a glass of sherry?" As he spoke he placed on the table a
+decanter and a tray of glasses, and looked at us interrogatively with
+his hand on the stopper.
+
+"Well, I don't mind if I do, Mr. Jellicoe," said Badger, on whom the
+lawyer's glance had finally settled. Mr. Jellicoe filled a glass and
+handed it to him with a stiff bow; then, with the decanter still in his
+hand, he said persuasively: "Doctor Thorndyke, pray allow me to fill you
+a glass?"
+
+"No, thank you," said Thorndyke, in a tone so decided that the inspector
+looked round at him quickly. And as Badger caught his eye, the glass
+which he was about to raise to his lips became suddenly arrested and was
+slowly returned to the table untasted.
+
+"I don't want to hurry you, Mr. Jellicoe," said the inspector, "but it's
+rather late, and I should like to get this business settled. What is it
+that you wish to do?"
+
+"I desire," replied Mr. Jellicoe, "to make a detailed statement of the
+events that have happened, and I wish to hear from Doctor Thorndyke
+precisely how he arrived at his very remarkable conclusion. When this
+has been done I shall be entirely at your service; and I suggest that it
+would be more interesting if Doctor Thorndyke would give us his
+statement before I furnish you with the actual facts."
+
+"I am entirely of your opinion," said Thorndyke.
+
+"Then in that case," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I suggest that you disregard
+me, and address your remarks to your friends as if I were not present."
+
+Thorndyke acquiesced with a bow, and Mr. Jellicoe, having seated himself
+in his elbow-chair behind the table, poured himself out a glass of
+water, selected a cigarette from a neat silver case, lighted it
+deliberately, and leaned back to listen at his ease.
+
+"My first acquaintance with this case," Thorndyke began without
+preamble, "was made through the medium of the daily papers about two
+years ago; and I may say that, although I had no interest in it beyond
+the purely academic interest of a specialist in a case that lies in his
+particular specialty, I considered it with deep attention. The newspaper
+reports contained no particulars of the relations of the parties that
+could furnish any hints as to motives on the part of any of them, but
+merely a bare statement of the events. And this was a distinct
+advantage, inasmuch as it left one to consider the facts of the case
+without regard to motive--to balance the _prima facie_ probabilities
+with an open mind. And it may surprise you to learn that those _prima
+facie_ probabilities pointed from the very first to that solution which
+has been put to the test of experiment this evening. Hence it will be
+well for me to begin by giving the conclusions that I reached by
+reasoning from the facts set forth in the newspapers before any of the
+further facts came to my knowledge.
+
+"From the facts as stated in the newspaper reports it is obvious that
+there were four possible explanations of the disappearance.
+
+"1. The man might be alive and in hiding. This was highly improbable,
+for the reasons that were stated by Mr. Loram at the late hearing of the
+application, and for a further reason that I shall mention presently.
+
+"2. He might have died by accident or disease, and his body failed to be
+identified. This was even more improbable, seeing that he carried on his
+person abundant means of identification, including visiting cards.
+
+"3. He might have been murdered by some stranger for the sake of his
+portable property. This was highly improbable for the same reason: his
+body could hardly have failed to be identified.
+
+"These three explanations are what we may call the outside explanations.
+They touched none of the parties mentioned; they were all obviously
+improbable on general grounds; and to all of them there was one
+conclusive answer--the scarab which was found in Godfrey Bellingham's
+garden. Hence I put them aside and gave my attention to the fourth
+explanation. This was that the missing man had been made away with by
+one of the parties mentioned in the report. But, since the reports
+mentioned three parties, it was evident that there was a choice of three
+hypotheses, namely:
+
+"(_a_) That John Bellingham had been made away with by Hurst; or (_b_)
+by the Bellinghams; or (_c_) by Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"Now, I have constantly impressed on my pupils that the indispensable
+question that must be asked at the outset of such an inquiry as this is,
+'When was the missing person last undoubtedly seen or known to be
+alive?' That is the question that I asked myself after reading the
+newspaper report; and the answer was, that he was last certainly seen
+alive on the fourteenth of October, nineteen hundred and two, at 141
+Queen Square, Bloomsbury. Of the fact that he was alive at that time
+and place there could be no doubt whatever; for he was seen at the same
+moment by two persons, both of whom were intimately acquainted with him,
+and one of whom, Doctor Norbury, was apparently a disinterested witness.
+After that date he was never seen, alive or dead, by any person who knew
+him and was able to identify him. It was stated that he had been seen on
+the twenty-third of November following by the housemaid of Mr. Hurst;
+but as this person was unacquainted with him, it was uncertain whether
+the person whom she saw was or was not John Bellingham.
+
+"Hence the disappearance dated, not from the twenty-third of November,
+as everyone seems to have assumed, but from the fourteenth of October;
+and the question was not, 'What became of John Bellingham after he
+entered Mr. Hurst's house?' but, 'What became of him after his interview
+in Queen Square?'
+
+"But as soon as I had decided that that interview must form the real
+starting-point of the inquiry, a most striking set of circumstances came
+into view. It became obvious that if Mr. Jellicoe had had any reason for
+wishing to make away with John Bellingham, he had such an opportunity as
+seldom falls to the lot of an intending murderer.
+
+"Just consider the conditions. John Bellingham was known to be setting
+out alone upon a journey beyond the sea. His exact destination was not
+stated. He was to be absent for an undetermined period, but at least
+three weeks. His disappearance would occasion no comment; his absence
+would lead to no inquiries, at least for several weeks, during which the
+murderer would have leisure quietly to dispose of the body and conceal
+all traces of the crime. The conditions were, from a murderer's point of
+view, ideal.
+
+"But that was not all. During that very period of John Bellingham's
+absence Mr. Jellicoe was engaged to deliver to the British Museum what
+was admittedly a dead human body; and that body was to be enclosed in a
+sealed case. Could any more perfect or secure method of disposing of a
+body be devised by the most ingenious murderer? The plan would have had
+only one weak point: the mummy would be known to have left Queen Square
+_after_ the disappearance of John Bellingham, and suspicion might in the
+end have arisen. To this point I shall return presently; meanwhile we
+will consider the second hypothesis--that the missing man was made away
+with by Mr. Hurst.
+
+"Now, there seemed to be no doubt that some person, purporting to be
+John Bellingham, did actually visit Mr. Hurst's house; and he must
+either have left that house or remained in it. If he left, he did so
+surreptitiously; if he remained, there could be no reasonable doubt that
+he had been murdered and that his body had been concealed. Let us
+consider the probabilities in each case.
+
+"Assuming--as everyone seems to have done--that the visitor was really
+John Bellingham, we are dealing with a responsible, middle-aged
+gentleman, and the idea that such a person would enter a house, announce
+his intention of staying, and then steal away unobserved is very
+difficult to accept. Moreover, he would appear to have come down to
+Eltham by rail immediately on landing in England, leaving his luggage in
+the cloak-room at Charing Cross. This pointed to a definiteness of
+purpose quite inconsistent with his casual disappearance from the house.
+
+"On the other hand, the idea that he might have been murdered by Hurst
+was not inconceivable. The thing was physically possible. If Bellingham
+had really been in the study when Hurst came home, the murder could have
+been committed--by appropriate means--and the body temporarily concealed
+in the cupboard or elsewhere. But, although possible, it was not at all
+probable. There was no real opportunity. The risk and the subsequent
+difficulties would be very great; there was not a particle of positive
+evidence that a murder had occurred; and the conduct of Hurst in
+immediately leaving the house in possession of the servants is quite
+inconsistent with the supposition that there was a body concealed in it.
+So that, while it is almost impossible to believe that John Bellingham
+left the house of his own accord, it is equally difficult to believe
+that he did not leave it.
+
+"But there is a third possibility, which, strange to say, no one seems
+to have suggested. Supposing that the visitor was not John Bellingham at
+all, but someone who was personating him? That would dispose of the
+difficulties completely. The strange disappearance ceases to be strange,
+for a personator would necessarily make off before Mr. Hurst should
+arrive and discover the imposture. But if we accept this supposition, we
+raise two further questions: 'Who was the personator?' and 'What was the
+object of the personation?'
+
+"Now, the personator was clearly not Hurst himself, for he would have
+been recognised by his housemaid; he was therefore either Godfrey
+Bellingham or Mr. Jellicoe or some other person; and as no other person
+was mentioned in the newspaper reports I confined my speculations to
+these two.
+
+"And, first, as to Godfrey Bellingham. It did not appear whether he was
+or was not known to the housemaid, so I assumed--wrongly, as it turns
+out--that he was not. Then he might have been the personator. But why
+should he have personated his brother? He could not have already
+committed the murder. There had not been time enough. He would have had
+to leave Woodford before John Bellingham had set out from Charing Cross.
+And even if he had committed the murder, he would have had no object in
+raising this commotion. His cue would have been to remain quiet and know
+nothing. The probabilities were all against the personator being Godfrey
+Bellingham.
+
+"Then could it be Mr. Jellicoe? The answer to this question is contained
+in the answer to the further question: What could have been the object
+of the personation?
+
+"What motive could this unknown person have had in appearing, announcing
+himself as John Bellingham, and forthwith vanishing? There could only
+have been one motive: that, namely, of fixing the date of John
+Bellingham's disappearance--of furnishing a definite moment at which he
+was last seen alive.
+
+"But who was likely to have had such a motive? Let us see.
+
+"I said just now that if Mr. Jellicoe had murdered John Bellingham and
+disposed of the body in the mummy-case, he would have been absolutely
+safe for the time being. But there would be a weak spot in his armour.
+For a month or more the disappearance of his client would occasion no
+remark. But presently, when he failed to return, inquiries would be set
+on foot; and then it would appear that no one had seen him since he left
+Queen Square. Then it would be noted that the last person with whom he
+was seen was Mr. Jellicoe. It might, further, be remembered that the
+mummy had been delivered to the Museum some time _after_ the missing man
+was last seen alive. And so suspicion might arise and be followed by
+disastrous investigations. But supposing it should be made to appear
+that John Bellingham had been seen alive more than a month after his
+interview with Mr. Jellicoe and some weeks after the mummy had been
+deposited in the Museum? Then Mr. Jellicoe would cease to be in any way
+connected with the disappearance, and henceforth would be absolutely
+safe.
+
+"Hence, after carefully considering this part of the newspaper report, I
+came to the conclusion that the mysterious occurrence at Mr. Hurst's
+house had only one reasonable explanation, namely, that the visitor was
+not John Bellingham, but someone personating him; and that that someone
+was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"It remains to consider the case of Godfrey Bellingham and his daughter,
+though I cannot understand how any sane person can have seriously
+suspected either" (here Inspector Badger smiled a sour smile). "The
+evidence against them was negligible, for there was nothing to connect
+them with the affair save the finding of the scarab on their premises;
+and that event, which might have been highly suspicious under other
+circumstances, was robbed of any significance by the fact that the
+scarab was found on a spot which had been passed a few minutes
+previously by the other suspected party, Hurst. The finding of the
+scarab did, however, establish two important conclusions; namely, that
+John Bellingham had probably met with foul play, and that of the four
+persons present when it was found, one at least had had possession of
+the body. As to which of the four was the one, the circumstances
+furnished only a hint, which was this: If the scarab had been purposely
+dropped, the most likely person to find it was the one who dropped it.
+And the person who discovered it was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"Following up this hint, if we ask ourselves what motive Mr. Jellicoe
+could have had for dropping it--assuming him to be the murderer--the
+answer is obvious. It would not be his policy to fix the crime on any
+particular person, but rather to set up a complication of conflicting
+evidence which would occupy the attention of investigators and divert it
+from himself.
+
+"Of course, if Hurst had been the murderer, he would have had a
+sufficient motive for dropping the scarab, so that the case against Mr.
+Jellicoe was not conclusive; but the fact that it was he who found it
+was highly significant.
+
+"This completes the analysis of the evidence contained in the original
+newspaper report describing the circumstances of the disappearance. The
+conclusions that followed from it were, as you will have seen:
+
+"1. That the missing man was almost certainly dead, as proved by the
+finding of the scarab after his disappearance.
+
+"2. That he had probably been murdered by one or more of four persons,
+as proved by the finding of the scarab on the premises occupied by two
+of them and accessible to the others.
+
+"3. That, of those four persons, one--Mr. Jellicoe--was the last person
+who was known to have been in the company of the missing man; had had an
+exceptional opportunity for committing the murder; and was known to have
+delivered a dead body to the Museum subsequently to the disappearance.
+
+"4. That the supposition that Mr. Jellicoe had committed the murder
+rendered all the other circumstances of the disappearance clearly
+intelligible, whereas on any other supposition they were quite
+inexplicable.
+
+"The evidence of the newspaper report, therefore, clearly pointed to the
+probability that John Bellingham had been murdered by Mr. Jellicoe and
+his body concealed in the mummy-case.
+
+"I do not wish to give you the impression that I, then and there,
+believed that Mr. Jellicoe was the murderer. I did not. There was no
+reason to suppose that the report contained all the essential facts, and
+I merely considered it speculatively as a study in probabilities. But I
+did decide that that was the only probable conclusion from the facts
+that were given.
+
+"Nearly two years passed before I heard anything more of the case. Then
+it was brought to my notice by my friend, Doctor Berkeley, and I became
+acquainted with certain new facts, which I will consider in the order in
+which they became known to me.
+
+"The first new light on the case came from the will. As soon as I had
+read that document I felt convinced that there was something wrong. The
+testator's evident intention was that his brother should inherit the
+property, whereas the construction of the will was such as almost
+certainly to defeat that intention. The devolution of the property
+depended on the burial clause--clause two; but the burial arrangements
+would ordinarily be decided by the executor, who happened to be Mr.
+Jellicoe. Thus the will left the disposition of the property under the
+control of Mr. Jellicoe, though his action could have been contested.
+
+"Now, this will, although drawn up by John Bellingham, was executed in
+Mr. Jellicoe's office, as is proved by the fact that it was witnessed by
+two of his clerks. He was the testator's lawyer, and it was his duty to
+insist on the will being properly drawn. Evidently he did nothing of the
+kind, and this fact strongly suggested some kind of collusion on his
+part with Hurst, who stood to benefit by the miscarriage of the will.
+And this was the odd feature in the case; for whereas the party
+responsible for the defective provisions was Mr. Jellicoe, the party who
+benefited was Hurst.
+
+"But the most startling peculiarity of the will was the way in which it
+fitted the circumstances of the disappearance. It looked as if clause
+two had been drawn up with those very circumstances in view. Since,
+however, the will was ten years old, this was impossible. But if clause
+two could not have been devised to fit the disappearance, could the
+disappearance have been devised to fit clause two? That was by no means
+impossible: under the circumstances it looked rather probable. And if it
+had been so contrived, who was the agent in that contrivance? Hurst
+stood to benefit, but there was no evidence that he even knew the
+contents of the will. There remained only Mr. Jellicoe, who had
+certainly connived at the misdrawing of the will for some purpose of his
+own--some dishonest purpose.
+
+"The evidence of the will, then, pointed to Mr. Jellicoe as the agent
+in the disappearance, and, after reading it, I definitely suspected him
+of the crime.
+
+"Suspicion, however, is one thing and proof is another. I had not nearly
+enough evidence to justify me in laying an information, and I could not
+approach the Museum officials without making a definite accusation. The
+great difficulty of the case was that I could discover no motive. I
+could not see any way in which Mr. Jellicoe would benefit by the
+disappearance. His own legacy was secure, whenever and however the
+testator died. The murder and concealment apparently benefited Hurst
+alone; and, in the absence of any plausible motive, the facts required
+to be much more conclusive than they were."
+
+"Did you form absolutely no opinion as to motive?" asked Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+He put the question in a quiet, passionless tone, as if he were
+discussing some _cause celebre_ in which he had nothing more than a
+professional interest. Indeed, the calm, impersonal interest that he
+displayed in Thorndyke's analysis, his unmoved attention, punctuated by
+little nods of approval at each telling point in the argument, were the
+most surprising features of this astounding interview.
+
+"I did form an opinion," replied Thorndyke, "but it was merely
+speculative, and I was never able to confirm it. I discovered that about
+ten years ago Mr. Hurst had been in difficulties and that he had
+suddenly raised a considerable sum of money, no one knew how or on what
+security. I observed that this event coincided in time with the
+execution of the will, and I surmised that there might be some
+connection between them. But that was only a surmise; and, as the
+proverb has it, 'He discovers who proves.' I could prove nothing, so
+that I never discovered Mr. Jellicoe's motive, and I don't know it now."
+
+"Don't you, really?" said Mr. Jellicoe, in something approaching a tone
+of animation. He laid down the end of his cigarette, and, as he selected
+another from the silver case, he continued: "I think that is the most
+interesting feature of your really remarkable analysis. It does you
+great credit. The absence of motive would have appeared to most persons
+a fatal objection to the theory of, what I may call, the prosecution.
+Permit me to congratulate you on the consistency and tenacity with which
+you have pursued the actual, visible facts."
+
+He bowed stiffly to Thorndyke (who returned his bow with equal
+stiffness), lighted the fresh cigarette, and once more leaned back in
+his chair with the calm, attentive manner of a man who is listening to a
+lecture or a musical performance.
+
+"The evidence, then, being insufficient to act upon," Thorndyke resumed,
+"there was nothing for it but to wait for some new facts. Now, the study
+of a large series of carefully conducted murders brings into view an
+almost invariable phenomenon. The cautious murderer, in his anxiety to
+make himself secure, does too much; and it is this excess of precaution
+that leads to detection. It happens constantly; indeed, I may say that
+it always happens--in those murders that are detected; of those that are
+not we say nothing--and I had strong hopes that it would happen in this
+case. And it did.
+
+"At the very moment when my client's case seemed almost hopeless, some
+human remains were discovered at Sidcup. I read the account of the
+discovery in the evening paper, and, scanty as the report was, it
+recorded enough facts to convince me that the inevitable mistake had
+been made."
+
+"Did it, indeed?" said Mr. Jellicoe. "A mere, inexpert, hearsay report!
+I should have supposed it to be quite valueless from a scientific point
+of view."
+
+"So it was," said Thorndyke. "But it gave the date of the discovery and
+the locality, and it also mentioned what bones had been found. Which
+were all vital facts. Take the question of time. These remains, after
+lying _perdu_ for two years, suddenly come to light just as the
+parties--who have also been lying _perdu_--have begun to take action in
+respect of the will; in fact, within a week or two of the hearing of the
+application. It was certainly a remarkable coincidence. And when the
+circumstances that occasioned the discovery were considered, the
+coincidence became still more remarkable. For these remains were found
+on land actually belonging to John Bellingham, and their discovery
+resulted from certain operations (the clearing of the watercress-beds)
+carried out on behalf of the absent landlord. But by whose orders were
+those works undertaken? Clearly by the orders of the landlord's agent.
+But the landlord's agent was known to be Mr. Jellicoe. Therefore these
+remains were brought to light at this peculiarly opportune moment by the
+action of Mr. Jellicoe. The coincidence, I say again, was very
+remarkable.
+
+"But what instantly arrested my attention on reading the newspaper
+report was the unusual manner in which the arm had been separated; for,
+besides the bones of the arm proper, there were those of what anatomists
+call the 'shoulder-girdle'--the shoulder-blade and collar-bone. This was
+very remarkable. It seemed to suggest a knowledge of anatomy, and yet no
+murderer, even if he possessed such knowledge, would make a display of
+it on such an occasion. It seemed to me that there must be some other
+explanation. Accordingly, when other remains had come to light and all
+had been collected at Woodford, I asked my friend Berkeley to go down
+there and inspect them. He did so, and this is what he found:
+
+"Both arms had been detached in the same peculiar manner; both were
+complete, and all the bones were from the same body. The bones were
+quite clean--of soft structures, I mean. There were no cuts, scratches,
+or marks on them. There was not a trace of adipocere--the peculiar waxy
+soap that forms in bodies that decay in water or in a damp situation.
+The right hand had been detached at the time the arm was thrown into the
+pond, and the left ring finger had been separated and had vanished. This
+latter fact had attracted my attention from the first, but I will leave
+its consideration for the moment and return to it later."
+
+"How did you discover that the hand had been detached?" Mr. Jellicoe
+asked.
+
+"By the submersion marks," replied Thorndyke. "It was lying on the
+bottom of the pond in a position which would have been impossible if it
+had been attached to the arm."
+
+"You interest me exceedingly," said Mr. Jellicoe. "It appears that a
+medico-legal expert finds 'books in the running brooks, sermons in
+bones, and evidence in everything.' But don't let me interrupt you."
+
+"Doctor Berkeley's observations," Thorndyke resumed, "together with the
+medical evidence at the inquest, led me to certain conclusions.
+
+"Let me first state the facts which were disclosed.
+
+"The remains which had been assembled formed a complete human skeleton
+with the exception of the skull, one finger, and the legs from knee to
+ankle, including both knee-caps. This was a very impressive fact; for
+the bones that were missing included all those which could have been
+identified as belonging or not belonging to John Bellingham; and the
+bones that were present were the unidentifiable remainder.
+
+"It had a suspicious appearance of selection.
+
+"But the parts that were present were also curiously suggestive. In all
+cases the mode of dismemberment was peculiar; for an ordinary person
+would have divided the knee-joint leaving the knee-cap attached to the
+thigh, whereas it had evidently been left attached to the shin-bone; and
+the head would most probably have been removed by cutting through the
+neck instead of being neatly detached from the spine. And all these
+bones were also entirely free from marks or scratches such as would
+naturally occur in an ordinary dismemberment, and all were quite free
+from adipocere. And now as to the conclusions which I drew from these
+facts. First, there was the peculiar grouping of the bones. What was the
+meaning of that? Well, the idea of a punctilious anatomist was obviously
+absurd, and I put it aside. But was there any other explanation? Yes,
+there was. The bones had appeared in the natural groups that are held
+together by ligaments; and they had separated at points where they were
+attached principally by muscles. The knee-cap, for instance, which
+really belongs to the thigh, is attached to it by muscle, but to the
+shin-bone by a stout ligament. And so with the bones of the arm; they
+are connected to one another by ligaments; but to the trunk only by
+muscle, excepting at one end of the collar-bone.
+
+"But this was a very significant fact. Ligament decays much more slowly
+than muscle, so that in a body of which the muscles had largely decayed
+the bones might still be held together by ligament. The peculiar
+grouping therefore suggested that the body had been partly reduced to a
+skeleton before it was dismembered; that it had then been merely pulled
+apart and not divided with a knife.
+
+"This suggestion was remarkably confirmed by the total absence of
+knife-cuts or scratches.
+
+"Then there was the fact that all the bones were quite free from
+adipocere. Now, if an arm or a thigh should be deposited in water and
+left undisturbed to decay, it is certain that large masses of adipocere
+would be formed. Probably more than half of the flesh would be converted
+into this substance. The absence of adipocere therefore proved that the
+bulk of the flesh had disappeared or been removed from the bones before
+they were deposited in the pond. That, in fact, it was not a body, but a
+skeleton, that had been deposited.
+
+"But what kind of skeleton? If it was the recent skeleton of a murdered
+man, then the bones had been carefully stripped of flesh so as to leave
+the ligaments intact. But this was highly improbable; for there could be
+no object in preserving the ligaments. And the absence of scratches was
+against this view.
+
+"Then they did not appear to be graveyard bones. The collection was too
+complete. It is very rare to find a graveyard skeleton of which many of
+the small bones are not missing. And such bones are usually more or
+less weathered and friable.
+
+"They did not appear to be bones such as may be bought at an
+osteological dealer's, for these usually have perforations to admit the
+macerating fluid to the marrow cavities. Dealers' bones, too, are very
+seldom all from the same body; and the small bones of the hand are
+drilled with holes to enable them to be strung on catgut.
+
+"They were not dissecting-room bones, as there was no trace of red-lead
+in the openings for the nutrient arteries.
+
+"What the appearances did suggest was that these were parts of a body
+which had decayed in a very dry atmosphere (in which no adipocere would
+be formed), and which had been pulled or broken apart. Also that the
+ligaments which held the body--or rather skeleton--together were brittle
+and friable, as suggested by the detached hand, which had probably
+broken off accidentally. But the only kind of body that completely
+answers this description is an Egyptian mummy. A mummy, it is true, has
+been more or less preserved; but on exposure to the air of such a
+climate as ours it perishes rapidly, the ligaments being the last of the
+soft parts to disappear.
+
+"The hypothesis that these bones were parts of a mummy naturally
+suggested Mr. Jellicoe. If he had murdered John Bellingham and concealed
+his body in the mummy-case, he would have a spare mummy on his hands,
+and that mummy would have been exposed to the air and to somewhat rough
+handling.
+
+"A very interesting circumstance connected with these remains was that
+the ring finger was missing. Now, fingers have on sundry occasions been
+detached from dead hands for the sake of the rings on them. But in such
+cases the object has been to secure a valuable ring uninjured. If this
+hand was the hand of John Bellingham, there was no such object. The
+purpose was to prevent identification; and that purpose would have been
+more easily, and much more completely, achieved by sacrificing the ring,
+by filing through it or breaking it off the finger. The appearances,
+therefore, did not quite agree with the apparent purpose.
+
+"Then, could there be any other purpose with which they agreed better?
+Yes, there could.
+
+"If it had happened that John Bellingham were known to have worn a ring
+on that finger, and especially if that ring fitted tightly, the removal
+of the finger would serve a very useful purpose. It would create an
+impression that the finger had been removed on account of a ring, to
+prevent identification; which impression would, in turn, produce a
+suspicion that the hand was that of John Bellingham. And yet it would
+not be evidence that could be used to establish identity. Now, if Mr.
+Jellicoe were the murderer and had the body hidden elsewhere, vague
+suspicion would be precisely what he would desire, and positive evidence
+what he would wish to avoid.
+
+"It transpired later that John Bellingham did wear a ring on that finger
+and that the ring fitted very tightly. Whence it followed that the
+absence of the finger was an additional point tending to implicate Mr.
+Jellicoe.
+
+"And now let us briefly review this mass of evidence. You will see that
+it consists of a multitude of items, each either trivial or speculative.
+Up to the time of the actual discovery I had not a single crucial fact,
+nor any clue as to motive. But, slight as the individual points of
+evidence were, they pointed with impressive unanimity to one person--Mr.
+Jellicoe. Thus:
+
+"The person who had the opportunity to commit the murder and dispose of
+the body was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"The deceased was last certainly seen alive with Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"An unidentified human body was delivered to the Museum by Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"The only person who could have a motive for personating the deceased
+was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"The only known person who could possibly have done so was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"One of the two persons who could have had a motive for dropping the
+scarab was Mr. Jellicoe. The person who found that scarab was Mr.
+Jellicoe, although, owing to his defective eyesight and his spectacles,
+he was the most unlikely person of those present to find it.
+
+"The person who was responsible for the execution of the defective will
+was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"Then as to the remains. They were apparently not those of John
+Bellingham, but parts of a particular kind of body. But the only person
+who was known to have had such a body in his possession was Mr.
+Jellicoe.
+
+"The only person who could have had any motive for substituting those
+remains for the remains of the deceased was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"Finally, the person who caused the discovery of those remains at that
+singularly opportune moment was Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"This was the sum of the evidence that was in my possession up to the
+time of the hearing, and, indeed, for some time after, and it was not
+enough to act upon. But when the case had been heard in Court, it was
+evident either that the proceedings would be abandoned--which was
+unlikely--or that there would be new developments.
+
+"I watched the progress of events with profound interest. An attempt had
+been made (by Mr. Jellicoe or some other person) to get the will
+administered without producing the body of John Bellingham; and that
+attempt had failed. The coroner's jury had refused to identify the
+remains; the Probate Court had refused to presume the death of the
+testator. As affairs stood, the will could not be administered.
+
+"What would be the next move?
+
+"It was virtually certain that it would consist in the production of
+something which would identify the unrecognised remains as those of the
+testator.
+
+"But what would that something be?
+
+"The answer to that question would contain the answer to another
+question: Was my solution of the mystery the true solution?
+
+"If I was wrong, it was possible that some of the undoubtedly genuine
+bones of John Bellingham might presently be discovered; for instance,
+the skull, the knee-cap, or the left fibula, by any of which the remains
+could be positively identified.
+
+"If I was right, only one thing could possibly happen. Mr. Jellicoe
+would have to play the trump card that he had been holding back in case
+the Court should refuse the application; a card that he was evidently
+reluctant to play.
+
+"He would have to produce the bones of the mummy's finger, together
+with John Bellingham's ring. No other course was possible.
+
+"But not only would the bones and the ring have to be found together.
+They would have to be found in a place which was accessible to Mr.
+Jellicoe, and so far under his control that he could determine the exact
+time when the discovery should be made.
+
+"I waited patiently for the answer to my question. Was I right or was I
+wrong?
+
+"And in due course, the answer came.
+
+"The bones and the ring were discovered in the well in the grounds of
+Godfrey Bellingham's late house. That house was the property of John
+Bellingham. Mr. Jellicoe was John Bellingham's agent. Hence it was
+practically certain that the date on which the well was emptied was
+settled by Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"The Oracle had spoken.
+
+"The discovery proved conclusively that the bones were not those of John
+Bellingham (for if they had been the ring would have been unnecessary
+for identification). But if the bones were not John Bellingham's, the
+ring was; from which followed the important corollary that whoever had
+deposited those bones in the well had had possession of the body of John
+Bellingham. And there could be no doubt that that person was Mr.
+Jellicoe.
+
+"On receiving this final confirmation of my conclusions, I applied
+forthwith to Doctor Norbury for permission to examine the mummy of
+Sebek-hotep, with the result that you are already acquainted with."
+
+As Thorndyke concluded, Mr. Jellicoe regarded him thoughtfully for a
+moment, and then said: "You have given us a most complete and lucid
+exposition of your method of investigation, sir. I have enjoyed it
+exceedingly, and should have profited by it hereafter--under other
+circumstances. Are you sure you won't allow me to fill your glass?" He
+touched the stopper of the decanter, and Inspector Badger ostentatiously
+consulted his watch.
+
+"Time is running on, I fear," said Mr. Jellicoe.
+
+"It is, indeed," Badger assented emphatically.
+
+"Well, I need not detain you long," said the lawyer. "My statement is a
+mere narration of events. But I desire to make it, and you, no doubt,
+will be interested to hear it."
+
+He opened the silver case and selected a fresh cigarette, which,
+however, he did not light. Inspector Badger produced a funereal
+notebook, which he laid open on his knee; and the rest of us settled
+ourselves in our chairs with no little curiosity to hear Mr. Jellicoe's
+statement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE END OF THE CASE
+
+
+A profound silence had fallen on the room and its occupants. Mr.
+Jellicoe sat with his eyes fixed on the table as if deep in thought, the
+unlighted cigarette in one hand, the other grasping the tumbler of
+water. Presently Inspector Badger coughed impatiently and he looked up.
+"I beg your pardon, gentlemen," he said. "I am keeping you waiting."
+
+He took a sip from the tumbler, opened a matchbox and took out a match,
+but apparently altering his mind, laid it down and commenced:
+
+"The unfortunate affair which has brought you here to-night, had its
+origin ten years ago. At that time my friend Hurst became suddenly
+involved in financial difficulties--am I speaking too fast for you, Mr.
+Badger?"
+
+"No, not at all," replied Badger. "I am taking it down in shorthand."
+
+"Thank you," said Mr. Jellicoe. "He became involved in serious
+difficulties and came to me for assistance. He wished to borrow five
+thousand pounds to enable him to meet his engagements. I had a certain
+amount of money at my disposal, but I did not consider Hurst's security
+satisfactory; accordingly I felt compelled to refuse. But on the very
+next day, John Bellingham called on me with the draft of his will which
+he wished me to look over before it was executed.
+
+"It was an absurd will, and I nearly told him so; but then an idea
+occurred to me in connection with Hurst. It was obvious to me, as soon
+as I had glanced through the will, that, if the burial clause was left
+as the testator had drafted it, Hurst had a very good chance of
+inheriting the property; and, as I was named as the executor, I should
+be able to give full effect to that clause. Accordingly, I asked for a
+few days to consider the will, and I then called upon Hurst and made a
+proposal to him; which was this: That I should advance him five thousand
+pounds without security; that I should ask for no repayment, but that he
+should assign to me any interest that he might have or acquire in the
+estate of John Bellingham up to ten thousand pounds, or two-thirds of
+any sum that he might inherit if over that amount. He asked if John had
+yet made any will, and I replied, quite correctly, that he had not. He
+inquired if I knew what testamentary arrangements John intended to make,
+and again I answered, quite correctly, that I believed that John
+proposed to devise the bulk of his property to his brother, Godfrey.
+
+"Thereupon, Hurst accepted my proposal; I made him the advance and he
+executed the assignment. After a few days' delay, I passed the will as
+satisfactory. The actual document was written from the draft by the
+testator himself; and a fortnight after Hurst had executed the
+assignment, John signed the will in my office. By the provisions of that
+will I stood an excellent chance of becoming virtually the principal
+beneficiary, unless Godfrey should contest Hurst's claim and the Court
+should override the conditions of clause two.
+
+"You will now understand the motives which governed my subsequent
+actions. You will also see, Doctor Thorndyke, how very near to the truth
+your reasoning carried you; and you will understand, as I wish you to
+do, that Mr. Hurst was no party to any of those proceedings which I am
+about to describe.
+
+"Coming now to the interview in Queen Square in October, nineteen
+hundred and two, you are aware of the general circumstances from my
+evidence in Court, which was literally correct up to a certain point.
+The interview took place in a room on the third floor, in which were
+stored the cases which John had brought with him from Egypt. The mummy
+was unpacked, as were some other objects that he was not offering to the
+Museum, but several cases were still unopened. At the conclusion of the
+interview I accompanied Doctor Norbury down to the street door, and we
+stood on the doorstep conversing for perhaps a quarter of an hour. Then
+Doctor Norbury went away and I returned upstairs.
+
+"Now the house in Queen Square is virtually a museum. The upper part is
+separated from the lower by a massive door which opens from the hall and
+gives access to the staircase, and which is fitted with a Chubb
+night-latch. There are two latchkeys, of which John used to keep one and
+I the other. You will find them both in the safe behind me. The
+caretaker had no key and no access to the upper part of the house unless
+admitted by one of us.
+
+"At the time when I came in, after Doctor Norbury had left, the
+caretaker was in the cellar, where I could hear him breaking coke for
+the hot-water furnace. I had left John on the third floor opening some
+of the packing cases by the light of a lamp with a tool somewhat like a
+plasterer's hammer; that is, a hammer with a small axe-blade at the
+reverse of the head. As I stood talking to Doctor Norbury, I could hear
+him knocking out the nails and wrenching up the lids; and when I entered
+the doorway leading to the stairs, I could still hear him. Just as I
+closed the staircase door behind me, I heard a rumbling noise from
+above; then all was still.
+
+"I went up the stairs to the second floor, where, as the staircase was
+all in darkness, I stopped to light the gas. As I turned to ascend the
+next flight, I saw a hand projecting over the edge of the half-way
+landing. I ran up the stairs, and there, on the landing, I saw John
+lying huddled up in a heap at the foot of the top flight. There was a
+wound at the side of his forehead from which a little blood was
+trickling. The case-opener lay on the floor close by him and there was
+blood on the axe-blade. When I looked up the stairs I saw a rag of torn
+matting hanging over the top stair.
+
+"It was quite easy to see what had happened. He had walked quickly out
+on the landing with the case-opener in his hand. His foot had caught in
+the torn matting and he had pitched head foremost down the stairs, still
+holding the case-opener. He had fallen so that his head had come down on
+the upturned edge of the axe-blade; he had then rolled over and the
+case-opener had dropped from his hand.
+
+"I lit a wax match and stooped down to look at him. His head was in a
+very peculiar position, which made me suspect that his neck was broken.
+There was extremely little bleeding from the wound; he was perfectly
+motionless; I could detect no sign of breathing; and I felt no doubt
+that he was dead.
+
+"It was an exceedingly regrettable affair, and it placed me, as I
+perceived at once, in an extremely awkward position. My first impulse
+was to send the caretaker for a doctor and a policeman; but a moment's
+reflection convinced me that there were serious objections to this
+course.
+
+"There was nothing to show that I had not, myself, knocked him down with
+the case-opener. Of course, there was nothing to show that I had; but we
+were alone in the house with the exception of the caretaker, who was
+down in the basement out of ear-shot.
+
+"There would be an inquest. At the inquest, inquiries would be made as
+to the will which was known to exist. But, as soon as the will was
+produced, Hurst would become suspicious. He would probably make a
+statement to the coroner and I should be charged with the murder. Or,
+even if I were not charged, Hurst would suspect me and would probably
+repudiate the assignment; and, under the circumstances, it would be
+practically impossible for me to enforce it. He would refuse to pay and
+I could not take my claim into Court.
+
+"I sat down on the stairs just above poor John's body and considered the
+matter in detail. At the worst, I stood a fair chance of hanging; at the
+best, I stood to lose close upon fifty thousand pounds. These were not
+pleasant alternatives.
+
+"Supposing, on the other hand, I concealed the body and gave out that
+John had gone to Paris. There was, of course, the risk of discovery, in
+which case I should certainly be convicted of the murder. But if no
+discovery occurred, I was not only safe from suspicion, but I secured
+the fifty thousand pounds. In either case there was considerable risk,
+but in one there was the certainty of loss, whereas in the other there
+was a material advantage to justify the risk. The question was whether
+it would be possible to conceal the body. If it were, then the
+contingent profit was worth the slight additional risk. But a human body
+is a very difficult thing to dispose of, especially to a person of so
+little scientific culture as myself.
+
+"It is curious that I considered this question for a quite considerable
+time before the obvious solution presented itself. I turned over at
+least a dozen methods of disposing of the body, and rejected them all as
+impracticable. Then, suddenly, I remembered the mummy upstairs.
+
+"At first it only occurred to me as a fantastic possibility that I could
+conceal the body in the mummy-case. But as I turned over the idea, I
+began to see that it was really practicable; and not only practicable
+but easy; and not only easy but eminently safe. If once the mummy-case
+was in the Museum, I was rid of it for ever.
+
+"The circumstances were, as you, sir, have justly observed, singularly
+favourable. There would be no hue and cry, no hurry, no anxiety; but
+ample time for all the necessary preparations. Then the mummy-case
+itself was curiously suitable. Its length was ample, as I knew from
+having measured it. It was a cartonnage of rather flexible material and
+had an opening behind, secured with a lacing so that it could be opened
+without injury. Nothing need be cut but the lacing, which could be
+replaced. A little damage might be done in extracting the mummy and in
+introducing the deceased; but such cracks as might occur would all be
+at the back and would be of no importance. For here again Fortune
+favoured me. The whole of the back of the mummy-case was coated with
+bitumen, and it would be easy when once the deceased was safely inside
+to apply a fresh coat, which would cover up not only the cracks but also
+the new lacing.
+
+"After careful consideration, I decided to adopt the plan. I went
+downstairs and sent the caretaker on an errand to the Law Courts. Then I
+returned and carried the deceased up to one of the third-floor rooms,
+where I removed his clothes and laid him out on a long packing-case in
+the position in which he would lie in the mummy-case. I folded his
+clothes neatly and packed them, with the exception of his boots, in a
+suit-case that he had been taking to Paris and which contained nothing
+but his night-clothes, toilet articles, and a change of linen. By the
+time I had done this and thoroughly washed the oilcloth on the stairs
+and landing, the caretaker had returned. I informed him that Mr.
+Bellingham had started for Paris and then I went home. The upper part of
+the house was, of course, secured by the Chubb lock, but I had also--_ex
+abundantia cautelae_--locked the door of the room in which I had
+deposited the deceased.
+
+"I had, of course, some knowledge of the methods of embalming, but
+principally of those employed by the ancients. Hence, on the following
+day, I went to the British Museum library and consulted the most recent
+works on the subject; and exceedingly interesting they were, as showing
+the remarkable improvements that modern knowledge had effected in this
+ancient art. I need not trouble you with details that are familiar to
+you. The process that I selected as the simplest for a beginner was
+that of formalin injection, and I went straight from the Museum to
+purchase the necessary materials. I did not, however, buy an embalming
+syringe: the book stated that an ordinary anatomical injecting syringe
+would answer the purpose, and I thought it a more discreet purchase.
+
+"I fear that I bungled the injection terribly, although I had carefully
+studied the plates in a treatise on anatomy--Gray's, I think. However,
+if my methods were clumsy, they were quite effectual. I carried out the
+process on the evening of the third day; and when I locked up the house
+that night, I had the satisfaction of knowing that poor John's remains
+were secure from corruption and decay.
+
+"But this was not enough. The great weight of a fresh body as compared
+with that of a mummy would be immediately noticed by those who had the
+handling of the mummy-case. Moreover, the damp from the body would
+quickly ruin the cartonnage and would cause a steamy film on the inside
+of the glass case in which it would be exhibited. And this would
+probably lead to an examination. Clearly, then, it was necessary that
+the remains of the deceased should be thoroughly dried before they were
+enclosed in the cartonnage.
+
+"Here my unfortunate deficiency in scientific knowledge was a great
+drawback. I had no idea how this result would be achieved, and in the
+end was compelled to consult a taxidermist, to whom I represented that I
+wished to collect small animals and reptiles and rapidly dry them for
+convenience of transport. By this person I was advised to immerse the
+dead animals in a jar of methylated spirit for a week and then expose
+them in a current of warm, dry air.
+
+"But the plan of immersing the remains of the deceased in a jar of
+methylated spirit was obviously impracticable. However, I bethought me
+that we had in our collection a porphyry sarcophagus, the cavity of
+which had been shaped to receive a small mummy in its case. I tried the
+deceased in the sarcophagus and found that he just fitted the cavity
+loosely. I obtained a few gallons of methylated spirit which I poured
+into the cavity, just covering the body, and then I put on the lid and
+luted it down air-tight with putty. I trust I do not weary you with
+these particulars?"
+
+"I'll ask you to cut it as short as you can, Mr. Jellicoe," said Badger.
+"It has been a long yarn and time is running on."
+
+"For my part," said Thorndyke, "I find these details deeply interesting
+and instructive. They fill in the outline that I had drawn by
+inference."
+
+"Precisely," said Mr. Jellicoe; "then I will proceed.
+
+"I left the deceased soaking in the spirit for a fortnight and then took
+him out, wiped him dry, and laid him on four cane-bottomed chairs just
+over the hot-water pipes. I turned off the hot water in the other rooms
+so as to concentrate the heat in these pipes, and I let a free current
+of air pass through the room. The result interested me exceedingly. By
+the end of the third day the hands and feet had become quite dry and
+shrivelled and horny--so that the ring actually dropped off the shrunken
+finger--the nose looked like a fold of parchment; and the skin of the
+body was so dry and smooth that you could have engrossed a lease on it.
+For the first day or two I turned the deceased at intervals so that he
+should dry evenly, and then I proceeded to get the case ready. I
+divided the lacing and extracted the mummy with great care--with great
+care as to the case, I mean; for the mummy suffered some injury in the
+extraction. It was very badly embalmed, and so brittle that it broke in
+several places while I was getting it out; and when I unrolled it the
+head separated and both the arms came off.
+
+"On the sixth day after the removal from the sarcophagus, I took the
+bandages that I had removed from Sebek-hotep and very carefully wrapped
+the deceased in them, sprinkling powdered myrrh and gum benzoin freely
+on the body and between the folds of the wrappings to disguise the faint
+odour of the spirit and the formalin that still lingered about the body.
+When the wrappings had been applied, the deceased really had a most
+workmanlike appearance; he would have looked quite well in a glass case
+even without the cartonnage, and I felt almost regretful at having to
+put him out of sight for ever.
+
+"It was a difficult business getting him into the case without
+assistance, and I cracked the cartonnage badly in several places before
+he was safely enclosed. But I got him in at last, and then, when I had
+closed up the case with a new lacing, I applied a fresh layer of bitumen
+which effectually covered up the cracks and the new cord. A dusty cloth
+dabbed over the bitumen when it was dry disguised its newness, and the
+cartonnage with its tenant was ready for delivery. I notified Doctor
+Norbury of the fact, and five days later he came and removed it to the
+Museum.
+
+"Now that the main difficulty was disposed of, I began to consider the
+further difficulty to which you, sir, have alluded with such admirable
+perspicuity. It was necessary that John Bellingham should make one more
+appearance in public before sinking into final oblivion.
+
+"Accordingly, I devised the visit to Hurst's house, which was calculated
+to serve two purposes. It created a satisfactory date for the
+disappearance, eliminating me from any connection with it, and by
+throwing some suspicion on Hurst it would make him more amenable--less
+likely to dispute my claim when he learned the provisions of the will.
+
+"The affair was quite simple. I knew that Hurst had changed his servants
+since I was last at his house, and I knew his habits. On that day I took
+the suit-case to Charing Cross and deposited it in the cloak-room,
+called at Hurst's office to make sure that he was there, and went from
+thence direct to Cannon Street and caught the train to Eltham. On
+arriving at the house, I took the precaution to remove my
+spectacles--the only distinctive feature of my exterior--and was duly
+shown into the study at my request. As soon as the housemaid had left
+the room I quietly let myself out by the French window, which I closed
+behind me but could not fasten, went out at the side gate and closed
+that also behind me, holding the bolt of the latch back with my
+pocket-knife so that I need not slam the gate to shut it.
+
+"The other events of that day, including the dropping of the scarab, I
+need not describe, as they are known to you. But I may fitly make a few
+remarks on the unfortunate tactical error into which I fell in respect
+of the bones. That error arose, as you have doubtless perceived, from
+the lawyer's incurable habit of underestimating the scientific expert. I
+had no idea that mere bones were capable of furnishing so much
+information to a man of science.
+
+"The way in which the affair came about was this: The damaged mummy of
+Sebek-hotep, perishing gradually by exposure to the air, was not only an
+eyesore to me: it was a definite danger. It was the only remaining link
+between me and the disappearance. I resolved to be rid of it and cast
+about for some means of destroying it. And then, in an evil moment, the
+idea of utilising it occurred to me.
+
+"There was an undoubted danger that the Court might refuse to presume
+death after so short an interval; and if the permission should be
+postponed, the will might never be administered during my lifetime.
+Hence, if these bones of Sebek-hotep could be made to simulate the
+remains of the deceased testator, a definite good would be achieved. But
+I knew that the entire skeleton could never be mistaken for his. The
+deceased had broken his knee-caps and damaged his ankle, injuries which
+I assumed would leave some permanent trace. But if a judicious selection
+of the bones were deposited in a suitable place, together with some
+object clearly identifiable as appertaining to the deceased, it seemed
+to me that the difficulty would be met. I need not trouble you with
+details. The course which I adopted is known to you with the attendant
+circumstances, even to the accidental detachment of the right
+hand--which broke off as I was packing the arm in my handbag. Erroneous
+as that course was, it would have been successful but for the unforeseen
+contingency of your being retained in the case.
+
+"Thus, for nearly two years, I remained in complete security. From time
+to time I dropped in at the museum to see if the deceased was keeping
+in good condition; and on those occasions I used to reflect with
+satisfaction on the gratifying circumstance--accidental though it
+was--that his wishes, as expressed (very imperfectly) in clause two, had
+been fully complied with, and that without prejudice to my interests.
+
+"The awakening came on that evening when I saw you at the Temple gate
+talking with Doctor Berkeley. I suspected immediately that something had
+gone amiss and that it was too late to take any useful action. Since
+then, I have waited here in hourly expectation of this visit. And now
+the time has come. You have made the winning move and it remains only
+for me to pay my debts like an honest gambler."
+
+He paused and quietly lit his cigarette. Inspector Badger yawned and put
+away his note-book.
+
+"Have you done, Mr. Jellicoe?" the inspector asked. "I want to carry out
+my contract to the letter, you know, though it's getting devilish late."
+
+Mr. Jellicoe took his cigarette from his mouth and drank a glass of
+water.
+
+"I forgot to ask," he said, "whether you unrolled the mummy--if I may
+apply the term to the imperfectly treated remains of my deceased
+client."
+
+"I did not open the mummy-case," replied Thorndyke.
+
+"You did not!" exclaimed Mr. Jellicoe. "Then how did you verify your
+suspicions?"
+
+"I took an X-ray photograph."
+
+"Ah! Indeed!" Mr. Jellicoe pondered for some moments. "Astonishing!" he
+murmured; "and most ingenious. The resources of science at the present
+day are truly wonderful."
+
+"Is there anything more that you want to say?" asked Badger; "because,
+if you don't, time's up."
+
+"Anything more?" Mr. Jellicoe repeated slowly; "anything more?
+No--I--think--think--the time--is--up. Yes--the--the time--"
+
+He broke off and sat with a strange look fixed on Thorndyke.
+
+His face had suddenly undergone a curious change. It looked shrunken and
+cadaverous and his lips had assumed a peculiar cherry-red colour.
+
+"Is anything the matter, Mr. Jellicoe?" Badger asked uneasily. "Are you
+not feeling well, sir?"
+
+Mr. Jellicoe did not appear to have heard the question, for he returned
+no answer, but sat motionless, leaning back in his chair, with his hands
+spread out on the table and his strangely intent gaze bent on Thorndyke.
+
+Suddenly his head dropped on his breast and his body seemed to collapse;
+and as with one accord we sprang to our feet, he slid forward off his
+chair and disappeared under the table.
+
+"Good Lord! The man's fainted!" exclaimed Badger.
+
+In a moment he was down on his hands and knees, trembling with
+excitement, groping under the table. He dragged the unconscious lawyer
+out into the light and knelt over him, staring into his face.
+
+"What's the matter with him, Doctor?" he asked, looking up at Thorndyke.
+"Is it apoplexy? Or is it a heart attack, think you?"
+
+Thorndyke shook his head, though he stooped and put his fingers on the
+unconscious man's wrist. "Prussic acid or potassium cyanide is what the
+appearances suggest," he replied.
+
+"But can't you do anything?" demanded the inspector.
+
+Thorndyke dropped the arm, which fell limply to the floor.
+
+"You can't do much for a dead man," he said.
+
+"Dead! Then he has slipped through our fingers after all!"
+
+"He has anticipated the sentence. That is all." Thorndyke spoke in an
+even, impassive tone which struck me as rather strange, considering the
+suddenness of the tragedy, as did also the complete absence of surprise
+in his manner. He seemed to treat the occurrence as a perfectly natural
+one.
+
+Not so Inspector Badger; who rose to his feet and stood with his hands
+thrust into his pockets scowling sullenly down at the dead lawyer.
+
+"I was an infernal fool to agree to his blasted conditions," he growled
+savagely.
+
+"Nonsense," said Thorndyke. "If you had broken in, you would have found
+a dead man. As it was you found a live man and obtained an important
+statement. You acted quite properly."
+
+"How do you suppose he managed it?" asked Badger.
+
+Thorndyke held out his hand. "Let us look at his cigarette-case," said
+he.
+
+Badger extracted the little silver case from the dead man's pocket and
+opened it. There were five cigarettes in it, two of which were plain,
+while the other three were gold-tipped. Thorndyke took out one of each
+kind and gently pinched their ends. The gold-tipped one he returned;
+the plain one he tore through, about a quarter of an inch from the end;
+when two little white tabloids dropped out on the table. Badger eagerly
+picked one up and was about to smell it when Thorndyke grasped his
+wrist. "Be careful," said he; and when he had cautiously sniffed at the
+tabloid--held at a safe distance from his nose--he added: "Yes,
+potassium cyanide. I thought so when his lips turned that queer colour.
+It was in that last cigarette; you can see that he has bitten off the
+end."
+
+For some time we stood silently looking down at the still form stretched
+on the floor. Presently Badger looked up.
+
+"As you pass the porter's lodge on your way out," said he, "you might
+just drop in and tell him to send a constable to me."
+
+"Very well," said Thorndyke. "And by the way, Badger, you had better tip
+that sherry back into the decanter and put it under lock and key, or
+else pour it out of the window."
+
+"Gad, yes!" exclaimed the inspector. "I'm glad you mentioned it. We
+might have had an inquest on a constable as well as a lawyer. Good
+night, gentlemen, if you are off."
+
+We went out and left him with his prisoner--passive enough, indeed,
+according to his ambiguously worded promise. As we passed through the
+gateway Thorndyke gave the inspector's message, curtly and without
+comment, to the gaping porter, and then we issued forth into Chancery
+Lane.
+
+We were all silent and very grave, and I thought that Thorndyke seemed
+somewhat moved. Perhaps Mr. Jellicoe's last intent look--which I suspect
+he knew to be the look of a dying man--lingered in his memory as it did
+in mine. Half-way down Chancery Lane he spoke for the first time; and
+then it was only to ejaculate, "Poor devil!"
+
+Jervis took him up. "He was a consummate villain, Thorndyke."
+
+"Hardly that," was the reply. "I should rather say that he was
+non-moral. He acted without malice and without scruple or remorse. His
+conduct exhibited a passionless expediency which was rather dreadful
+because utterly unhuman. But he was a strong man--a courageous,
+self-contained man, and I had been better pleased if it could have been
+ordained that some other hand than mine should let the axe fall."
+
+Thorndyke's compunction may appear strange and inconsistent, but yet his
+feeling was also my own. Great as were the misery and suffering that
+this inscrutable man had brought into the lives of those I loved, I
+forgave him; and in his downfall forgot the callous relentlessness with
+which he had pursued his evil purpose. For he it was who had brought
+Ruth into my life; who had opened for me the Paradise of Love into which
+I had just entered. And so my thoughts turned away from the still shape
+that lay on the floor of the stately old room in Lincoln's Inn, away to
+the sunny vista of the future, where I should walk hand in hand with
+Ruth until my time, too, should come; until I, too, like the grim
+lawyer, should hear the solemn evening bell bidding me put out into the
+darkness of the silent sea.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANISHING MAN***
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