oratory. As they passed the privy one of the officers asked what
place it was. "Dr. Webster's private lavatory," replied the janitor, who
was conducting them. At that moment Webster's voice called them away
to examine the store-room in the lower laboratory, and after a cursory
examination the officers departed.

The janitor, Ephraim Littlefield, did not take the opportunity afforded
him by the visit of the police officers to impart to them the feelings
of uneasiness; which the conduct of Professor Webster during the last
three days had excited in his breast. There were circumstances in the
Professor's behaviour which could not fail to attract the attention of
a man, whose business throughout the day was to dust and sweep
the College, light the fires and overlook generally the order and
cleanliness of the building.

Littlefield, it will be remembered, had seen Dr. Parkman on the Monday
before his disappearance, when he visited Webster at the College, and
been present at the interview, in the course of which the Doctor told
Webster that "something must be done." That Monday morning Webster asked
Littlefield a number of questions about the dissecting-room vault, which
was situated just outside the door of the lower laboratory. He asked
how it was built, whether a light could be put into it, and how it was
reached for the purpose of repair. On the following Thursday, the day
before Parkman's disappearance, the Professor told Littlefield to get
him a pint of blood from the Massachusetts Hospital; he said that
he wanted it for an experiment. On the morning of Friday, the day of
Parkman's disappearance, Littlefield informed the Professor that he had
been unsuccessful in his efforts to get the blood, as they had not been
bleeding anyone lately at the hospital. The same morning Littlefield
found to his surprise a sledge-hammer behind the door of the Professor's
back room; he presumed that it had been left there by masons, and took
it down to the lower laboratory. This sledge-hammer Littlefield never
saw again. About a quarter to two that afternoon Littlefield, standing
at the front door, after his dinner, saw Dr. Parkman coming towards
the College. At two o'clock Littlefield went up to Dr. Oliver Wendell
Holmes' room, immediately above Professor Webster's, to help the Doctor
to clear his table after his lecture, which was the last delivered that
day. About a quarter of an hour later he let Dr. Holmes out, locked the
front door