of the stairs connecting the
upper and lower laboratories. This room he found to be locked and the
key, a large one, had disappeared. He recollected that when the police
officers had paid their visit to the college, the Professor had
diverted their attention as they were about to inspect this room. The
only method by which, unknown to the Professor and without breaking open
the door, Littlefield could examine the vault of this retiring room was
by going down to the basement floor of the college and digging a hole
through the wall into the vault itself. This he determined to do.

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, Littlefield commenced operations with
a hatchet and a chisel. Progress was slow, as that evening he had been
invited to attend a festal gathering. On Friday the janitor, before
resuming work, acquainted two of the Professors of the college with
his proposed investigation, and received their sanction. As Webster,
however, was going constantly in and out of his rooms, he could make
little further progress that day. The Professor had come into town early
in the morning.

Before going to the college he purchased some fish-hooks and gave orders
for the making of a strong tin box with firm handles, a foot and a half
square and a little more than a foot in depth; during the rest of the
day he had been busy in his rooms until he left the college about four
o'clock. Not till then was the watchful janitor able to resume his
labours. Armed with a crowbar, he worked vigorously until he succeeded
in penetrating the wall sufficiently to admit a light into the vault of
the lavatory. The first objects which the light revealed to his eyes,
were the pelvis of a man and two parts of a human leg.

Leaving his wife in charge of the remains, Littlefield went immediately
to the house of Professor Bigelow, and informed him of the result of
his search. They returned to the college some twenty minutes later,
accompanied by the City Marshal. The human remains--a pelvis, a thigh
and a leg--were taken out of the vault, and on a further search some
pieces of bone were removed from one of the furnaces in the lower
laboratory. The City Marshal at once dispatched three of his officers to
Cambridge, to the house of Professor Webster.

To his immediate circle of friends and relations the conduct of
the Professor during this eventful week had betrayed no unwonted
discomposure or disturbance of mind. His evenings had been spent either
at the hous