“A bit of writing-paper, with the heading still legible,” said the sheriff. “With this he accosted Gansett Jim, who after a night-long search had come out on the cliff. Jim, assuming that the sheriff knew all, told him of the identity of the body. The sheriff saw a chance for money in it—if I do you an injustice, Schlager, you’ll correct me.” “Go right ahead. Don’t mind me. I’ll take my medicine.” “Very well. Schlager adopted the ready-made theory which Mr. Jax had prepared for him, so to speak, that the body was washed ashore; and arranged, with the connivance of Doctor Breed, the medical officer, to bury it as an unknown. For this perversion of their duty, Mr. Blair rewarded them handsomely. As I understand it, he dreaded any publicity attaching itself to Hedgerow House and his family.” “God knows I had suffered enough of that!” murmured Blair. “Let us hope it is now ended. To avoid this, Mr. Blair was willing even to let the supposed murderer, whom he believed to be Sedgwick, go unscathed of justice. By chance, however, I saw the body on the beach. The most important discovery of all, I missed at that time very stupidly—the more so in that I had a clue, in the character of the assault upon Sedgwick—but I could not overlook the fact that the corpse had not been washed ashore. Moreover, the matter of the manacles stimulated my interest. Not until the inquest, however, did I realize the really startling and unique feature of the case. There is where you and Doctor Breed made your fatal error, Mr. Sheriff.” “That’s right. You saw the face when we lifted the lid, I s’pose.” “No. You were too quick in replacing it.” “Then how did you get on to the thing?” “From seeing the face after the body was returned to the court room.” “Hold on a bit,” interrupted Lawyer Bain. “I remember there was a fuss about the corpse not being publicly shown for identification. Some of us insisted. The sheriff gave in. The coffin lid wasn’t quarter off when Breed gave a yell and clapped it on again, and they took the body back to his house and shut themselves in with it for half an hour before they took it to the hall again. Naturally being suspicious, I looked at it pretty close; but I didn’t see anything queer.” “Possibly you didn’t notice a cut on the cheek?” suggested Kent. “Yes. Dennett spoke of it and the sheriff shut him up. But what of it? It might have been done in any one of a dozen ways.” “But it wasn’t there when the body lay on the beach.” “In the rolling and tossing of the journey there might easily be minor scarifications,” said Sedgwick. “True. But, Frank, what did you suppose that sudden shift on the part of the officers of the law meant?” “Perhaps that the body was not in fit condition to be viewed.” “In that case what could they have done to make it more fit?” “Nothing, I suppose. I didn’t consider that.” “I rather opined,” said Lawyer Bain, “that some one had changed bodies on ’em.”