me next, and the cobbler's hair stood up
with unholy joy.

The finding of the lower half of the trunk in Staple's Pond at Loughton
was the inspector's own achievement, but he was not boastful about it.
The discovery, he remarked, followed naturally on the previous one in
the Cuckoo Pits.

"Had you any private information that led you to search this particular
neighborhood?" the cobbler asked.

"We had no private information whatever," replied Badger.

"Now I put it to you," pursued the juryman, shaking a forensic, and
very dirty, forefinger at the inspector; "here are certain remains
found at Sidcup; here are certain other remains found at St. Mary Cray,
and certain others at Lee. All those places are in Kent. Now isn't it
very remarkable that you should come straight down to Epping Forest,
which is in Essex, and search for those bones and find 'em?"

"We were making a systematic search of all likely places," replied
Badger.

"Exactly," said the cobbler, with a ferocious grin, "that's just my
point. I say, isn't it very funny that, after finding the remains in
Kent some twenty miles from here, with the River Thames between, you
should come here to look for the bones and go straight to Staple's
Pond, where they happen to be--and find 'em?"

"It would have been more funny," Badger replied sourly, "if we'd gone
straight to a place where they happened _not_ to be--and found them."

A gratified snigger arose from the other eleven good men and true, and
the cobbler grinned savagely; but before he could think of a suitable
rejoinder the coroner interposed.

"The question is not very material," he said, "and we mustn't embarrass
the police by unnecessary inquiries."

"It's my belief," said the cobbler, "that he knew they were there all
the time."

"The witness has stated that he had no private information," said the
coroner; and he proceeded to take the rest of the inspector's evidence,
watched closely by the critical juror.

The account of the finding of the remains having been given in full,
the police surgeon was called and sworn; the jurymen straightened their
backs with an air of expectancy, and I turned over a page of my
notebook.

"You have examined the bones at present lying in the mortuary and
forming the subject of this inquiry?" the coroner asked.

"I have."

"Will you kindly tell us what you have observed?"

"I find that the bones are human bones, and are, in my opinion, all
parts of the sam