I presume he
had overlooked. Embedded in the bone of the spine--in the left
transverse process of the fourth vertebra--I discovered a small particle
of steel, which I carefully extracted."

He drew his collecting-box from his pocket, and taking from it a
seed-envelope, handed the latter to the coroner. "That fragment of steel
is in this envelope," he said, "and it is possible that it may
correspond to the notch in the knife-blade."

Amidst an intense silence the coroner opened the little envelope, and
let the fragment of steel drop on to a sheet of paper. Laying the knife
on the paper, he gently pushed the fragment towards the notch. Then he
looked up at Thorndyke.

"It fits exactly," said he.

There was a heavy thud at the other end of the room and we all looked
round.

Petrofsky had fallen on to the floor insensible.

* * * * *

"An instructive case, Jervis," remarked Thorndyke, as we walked
homewards--"a case that reiterates the lesson that the authorities still
refuse to learn."

"What is that?" I asked.

"It is this. When it is discovered that a murder has been committed, the
scene of that murder should instantly become as the Palace of the
Sleeping Beauty. Not a grain of dust should be moved, not a soul should
be allowed to approach it, until the scientific observer has seen
everything _in situ_ and absolutely undisturbed. No tramplings of
excited constables, no rummaging by detectives, no scrambling to and fro
of bloodhounds. Consider what would have happened in this case if we had
arrived a few hours later. The corpse would have been in the mortuary,
the hair in the sergeant's pocket, the bed rummaged and the sand
scattered abroad, the candle probably removed, and the stairs covered
with fresh tracks.

"There would not have been the vestige of a clue."

"And," I added, "the deep sea would have uttered its message in vain."

THE END.

End of Project Gutenberg's John Thorndyke's Cases, by R. Austin Freeman

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