arnard." He spoke with
unwonted gravity, and there was in his tone a solicitude for me that
attracted my notice and that of Thorndyke as well, for the latter
looked at him curiously, though he made no comment. After a short
silence, however, he asked: "And what news does my learned brother
bring? There is a mighty shouting among the outer barbarians and I see
a bundle of newspapers under my learned friend's arm. Has anything in
particular happened?"

Jervis looked more uncomfortable than ever. "Well--yes," he replied
hesitatingly, "something has happened--there! It's no use beating
about the bush; Berkeley may as well learn it from me as from those
yelling devils outside." He took a couple of papers from his bundle
and silently handed one to me and the other to Thorndyke.

Jervis's ominous manner, naturally enough, alarmed me not a little. I
opened the paper with a nameless dread. But whatever my vague fears,
they fell far short of the occasion; and when I saw those yells from
without crystallized into scare head-lines and flaming capitals I
turned for a moment sick and dizzy with fear.

The paragraph was only a short one, and I read it through in less than
a minute.

"THE MISSING FINGER

"DRAMATIC DISCOVERY AT WOODFORD

"The mystery that has surrounded the remains of a mutilated human body,
portions of which have been found in various places in Kent and Essex,
has received a partial and very sinister solution. The police have,
all along, suspected that those remains were those of a Mr. John
Bellingham who disappeared under circumstances of some suspicion about
two years ago. There is now no doubt upon the subject, for the finger
which was missing from the hand that was found at Sidcup has been
discovered at the bottom of a disused well _together with a ring_,
which has been identified as one habitually worn by Mr. John Bellingham.

"The house in the garden of which the well is situated was the property
of the murdered man, and was occupied at the time of the disappearance
by his brother, Mr. Godfrey Bellingham. But the latter left it very
soon after, and it has been empty ever since. Just lately it has been
put in repair, and it was in this way that the well came to be emptied
and cleaned out. It seems that Detective-Inspector Badger, who was
searching the neighborhood for further remains, heard of the emptying
of the well and went down in the bucket to examine the bottom, where he
found the th