il 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 did not 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 pretenses 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 else 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 i