“It is very mysterious,” he said. “And looking at them in a row they strike me as curiously like tibiæ--in shape; not in size.” “The size,” said Thorndyke, “is about that of a sheep’s tibia.” “A sheep’s!” exclaimed Hemming, staring in amazement, first at the calcined bones and then at my colleague. “Yes; the upper half, sawn across in the middle of the shank.” Hemming was thunderstruck. “It is an astounding affair!” he exclaimed. “You mean to suggest----” “I suggest,” said Thorndyke, “that there is not a sign of a human bone in the whole collection. But there are very evident traces of at least five legs of mutton.” For a few moments there was a profound silence, broken only by a murmur of astonishment from the cemetery official and a low chuckle from Superintendent Miller, who had been listening with absorbed interest. At length Hemming spoke. “Then, apparently, there was no corpse in the coffin at all?” “No,” answered Thorndyke. “The weight was made up, and the ashes furnished, by joints of butcher’s meat. I dare say, if we go over the ashes carefully, we shall be able to judge what they were. But it is hardly necessary. The presence of five legs of mutton and the absence of a single recognizable fragment of a human skeleton, together with the forged certificates, gives us a pretty conclusive case. The rest, I think we can leave to Superintendent Miller.” “I take it, Thorndyke,” said I, as the train moved out of the station, “that you came here expecting to find what you did find?” “Yes,” he replied. “It seemed to me the only possibility, having regard to all the known facts.” “When did it first occur to you?” “It occurred to me as a possibility as soon as we discovered that the cremation certificates had been forged; but it was the undertaker’s statement that seemed to clench the matter.” “But he distinctly stated that he measured the body.” “True. But there was nothing to show that it was a dead body. What was perfectly clear was that there was something that must on no account be seen; and when Stalker told us of the embezzlement we had a body of evidence that could point to only one conclusion. Just consider that evidence. “Here we had a death, preceded by an obviously sham illness and followed by cremation with forged certificates. Now, what was it that had happened? There were four possible hypotheses. Normal death, suicide, murder, and fictitious death. Which of these hypotheses fitted the facts? “Normal death was apparently excluded by the forged certificates. “The theory of suicide did not account for the facts. It did not agree with the careful, elaborate preparation. And why the forged certificates? If Ingle had really died, Meeking would have certified the death. And why the cremation? There was no purpose in taking those enormous risks.