ssociate
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?" asked Mr. Bellingham.

"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 no 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, min