ructions, and as he came shoreward 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 laborer 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 stood 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 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, offhand, which finger those
bones belong to?"

I smothered a grin (for I had been expecting this question), and
answered:

"I can say offhand 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 s