out of him. I accordingly "opened out" on the subject of the
"remains."

"Have you been following these remarkable discoveries of human bones
that have been appearing in the papers?" I asked.

He looked at me stonily for some moments, and then replied:

"Human bones are rather more within your province than mine, but, now
that you mention it, I think I recall having read of some such
discoveries. They were disconnected bones, I believe."

"Yes; evidently parts of a dismembered body."

"So I should suppose. No, I have not followed the accounts. As we get
on in life our interests tend to settle into grooves, and my groove is
chiefly connected with conveyancing. These discoveries would be of
more interest to a criminal lawyer."

"I thought you might, perhaps, have connected them with the
disappearance of your client?"

"Why should I? What could be the nature of the connection?"

"Well," I said, "these are the bones of a man----"

"Yes; and my client was a man with bones. That is a connection,
certainly, though not a very specific or distinctive one. But perhaps
you had something more particular in your mind?"

"I had," I replied. "The fact that some of the bones were actually
found on land belonging to your client seemed to me rather significant."

"Did it, indeed?" said Mr. Jellicoe. He reflected for a few moments,
gazing steadily at me the while, and then continued: "In that I am
unable to follow you. It would have seemed to me that the finding of
human remains upon a certain piece of land might conceivably throw a
_prima facie_ suspicion upon the owner or occupant of the land as being
the person who deposited them. But the case that you suggest is the
one case in which this would be impossible. A man cannot deposit his
own dismembered remains."

"No, of course not. I was not suggesting that he deposited them
himself, but merely that the fact of their being deposited on his land,
in a way, connected these remains with him."

"Again," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I fail to follow you, unless you are
suggesting that it is customary for murderers who mutilate bodies to be
punctilious in depositing the dismembered remains upon land belonging
to their victims. In which case I am skeptical as to your facts. I am
not aware of the existence of any such custom. Moreover, it appears
that only a portion of the body was deposited on Mr. Bellingham's land,
the remaining portions having been scattered broadcast