mpletely
divided the heart from side to side, the only remaining attachment of
the upper portion to the lower being a small portion of the anterior
wall of the heart behind the sternum.

Such a wound was absolutely beyond explanation.

The instrument with which the crime had been committed by striking
between the ribs had penetrated to the heart with an unerring
precision, making a terrible wound eight times the size within, as
compared with the exterior puncture. And yet the weapon had been
withdrawn, and was missing!

For fully an hour we measured and discussed the strange discovery,
hoping all the time that Sir Bernard would arrive. The knife which the
man Short confessed he had taken down in self-defence we compared with
the exterior wound and found, as we anticipated, that just such a
wound could be caused by it. But the fact that the exterior cut was
cleanly done, while the internal injuries were jagged and the tissues
torn in a most terrible manner, caused a doubt to arise whether the
Indian knife, which was double-edged, had actually been used. To be
absolutely clear upon this point it would be necessary to examine it
microscopically, for the corpuscles of human blood are easily
distinguished beneath the lens.

We were about to conclude our examination in despair, utterly unable
to account for the extraordinary wound, when the door opened and Sir
Bernard entered.

He looked upon the body of his old friend, not a pleasing spectacle
indeed, and then grasped my hand without a word.

"I read the evening paper on my way up," he said at last in a voice
trembling with emotion. "The affair seems very mysterious. Poor
Courtenay! Poor fellow!"

"It is sad--very sad," I remarked. "We have just concluded the
post-mortem;" and then I introduced the police surgeon to the man
whose name was a household word throughout the medical profession.

I showed my chief the wound, explained its extraordinary features, and
asked his opinion. He removed his coat, turned up his shirt-cuffs,
adjusted his big spectacles, and, bending beside the board upon which
the body lay, made a long and careful inspection of the injury.

"Extraordinary!" he ejaculated. "I've never known of such a wound
before. One would almost suspect an explosive bullet, if it were not
for the clean incised wound on the exterior. The ribs seem grazed, yet
the manner in which such a hurt has been inflicted is utterly
unaccountable."

"We have been unable to