vis. "The ring-finger. You mean that it may have
been removed for the sake of a ring that wouldn't come off."

"Yes. It would not be the first instance of the kind. Fingers have
been severed from dead hands--and even from living ones--for the sake
of rings that were too tight to be drawn off. And the fact that it is
the left hand supports the suggestion; for a ring that was
inconveniently tight would be worn by preference on the left hand, as
that is usually slightly smaller than the right. What is the matter,
Berkeley?"

A sudden light had burst upon me, and I suppose my countenance betrayed
the fact.

"I am a confounded fool!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, don't say that," said Jervis. "Give your friends a chance."

"I ought to have seen this long ago and told you about it. John
Bellingham did wear a ring, and it was so tight that, when once he had
got it on, he could never get it off again."

"Do you happen to know on which hand he wore it?" Thorndyke asked.

"Yes. It was on the left hand; because Miss Bellingham, who told me
about it, said that he would never have been able to get the ring on at
all but for the fact that his left hand was slightly smaller than his
right."

"There it is, then," said Thorndyke. "With this new fact in our
possession, the absence of the finger furnishes the starting-point of
some very curious speculations."

"As, for instance," said Jervis.

"Ah, under the circumstances, I must leave you to pursue those
speculations independently. I am now acting for Mr. Bellingham."

Jervis grinned and was silent for a-while, refilling his pipe
thoughtfully; but when he had got it alight he resumed.

"To return to the question of the disappearance; you don't consider it
highly improbable that Bellingham might have been murdered by Hurst?"

"Oh, don't imagine I am making an accusation. I am considering the
various probabilities merely in the abstract. The same reasoning
applies to the Bellinghams. As to whether any of them did commit the
murder, that is a question of personal character. I certainly do not
suspect the Bellinghams after having seen them, and with regard to
Hurst, I know nothing, or at least very little, to his disadvantage."

"Do you know anything?" asked Jervis.

"Well," Thorndyke said, with some hesitation, "it seems a thought
unkind to rake up the little details of a man's past, and yet it has to
be done. I have, of course, made the usual routine inquiries
conce