I shall call. The supposition that
the testator is dead is not only more probable than that he is alive; I
submit that it is the only reasonable explanation of the circumstances
of his disappearance.

"But this is not all. The presumption of death which arises so
inevitably out of the mysterious and abrupt manner in which the testator
disappeared has recently received most conclusive and dreadful
confirmation. On the fifteenth of July last there were discovered at
Sidcup the remains of a human arm--a left arm, gentlemen, from the hand
of which the third, or ring, finger was missing. The doctor who has
examined that arm will tell you that that finger was cut off either
after death or immediately before; and his evidence will prove
conclusively that that arm must have been deposited in the place where
it was found just about the time when the testator disappeared. Since
that first discovery, other portions of the same mutilated body have
come to light; and it is a strange and significant fact that they have
all been found in the immediate neighbourhood of Eltham or Woodford. You
will remember, gentlemen, that it was either at Eltham or Woodford that
the testator was last seen alive.

"And now observe the completeness of the coincidence. These human
remains, as you will be told presently by the experienced and learned
medical gentleman who has examined them most exhaustively, are those of
a man of about sixty years of age, about five feet eight inches in
height, fairly muscular and well preserved, apparently healthy, and
rather stoutly built. Another witness will tell you that the missing
man was about sixty years of age, about five feet eight inches in
height, fairly muscular and well preserved, apparently healthy, and
rather stoutly built. And--another most significant and striking
fact--the testator was accustomed to wear upon the third finger of his
left hand--the very finger that is missing from the remains that were
found--a most peculiar ring, which fitted so tightly that he was unable
to get it off after once putting it on; a ring, gentlemen, of so
peculiar a pattern that had it been found on the body must have
instantly established the identity of the remains. In a word, gentlemen,
the remains which have been found are those of a man exactly like the
testator; they differ from him in no respect whatever; they display a
mutilation which suggests an attempt to conceal an identifying
peculiarity which he undoubtedl