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