But, encourage himself as he would, the unexpected appearance of this lawyer had given his nerves a nasty jar. It suggested a number of rather disquieting questions. For instance, how came this man to turn up at this “psychological moment” like a vulture sniffing from afar a dead camel in the desert? Why was he looking at those soles with such extraordinary interest? Was it possible that he had seen those photographs? And if so, might they have shown something that was invisible to the unaided eye?

  These questions came crowding into Mr Pottermack’s mind, each one more disquieting than the others. But always he came back to the most disquieting one of all. How, in the name of Beelzebub, came this lawyer to make his appearance in the Borley mortuary at this critical and most inopportune moment?

  It was natural that Mr Pottermack should ask himself this very pertinent question; for, in truth, it did appear a singular coincidence. And inasmuch as coincidences usually seem to demand some explanation, we may venture to pursue the question that the reader may attain to the enlightenment that was denied to Mr Pottermack.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Dr Thorndyke’s Curiosity is Aroused

  The repercussions of Mr Pottermack’s activities made themselves felt at a greater distance than he had bargained for. By the agency of an enterprising local reporter they became communicated to the daily press, and thereby to the world at large, including Number 5A King’s Bench Walk, Inner Temple, London, EC, and the principal occupant thereof. The actual purveyor of intelligence to the latter was Mr Nathaniel Polton, and the communication took place in the afternoon of the day following the discovery. At this time Dr Thorndyke was seated at the table with an open brief before him, jotting down a few suggestions for his colleague, Mr Anstey, when to him entered Nathaniel Polton aforesaid, with a tray of tea-things in one hand and the evening paper in the other. Having set down the tray, he presented the paper, neatly folded into a small oblong, with a few introductory words.

  “There is a rather curious case reported in the Evening Post, sir. Looks rather like something in our line. I thought you might be interested to see it, so I’ve brought you the paper.”

  “Very good of you, Polton,” said Thorndyke, holding out his hand with slightly exaggerated eagerness. “Curious cases are always worth our attention.”

  Accordingly he proceeded to give his attention to the marked paragraph; but at the first glance at the heading, the interest which he had assumed out of courtesy to his henchman became real and intense. Polton noted the change, and his lined face crinkled up into a smile of satisfaction as he watched his employer reading the paragraph through with a concentration that, even to him, seemed hardly warranted by the matter. For, after all, there was no mystery about the affair, so far as he could see. It was just curious and rather gruesome. And Polton had distinct liking for the gruesome. So, apparently, had the reporter, for he used that very word to lend attraction to his heading. Thus: –

  “Gruesome Discovery at Borley

  “Yesterday afternoon some labourers who were digging gravel in a pit in Potter’s Wood, Borley, near Aylesbury, made a shocking discovery. When going round the pit to inspect a disused cart-shelter, they were horrified at coming suddenly upon the much-decomposed body of a man lying at the foot of the perpendicular ‘face,’ down which he had apparently fallen some months previously. Later it was ascertained that the dead man is a certain James Lewson, the late manager ofthe local branch of Perkins’ Bank, who disappeared mysteriously about nine months ago. An inquest on the body is to be held at the Town Hall, Borley, on Thursday next at 3 p.m., when the mystery of the disappearance and death will no doubt be elucidated.”

  “A very singular case, Polton,” said Thorndyke, as he returned the paper to its owner. “Thank you for drawing my attention to it.”

  “There doesn’t seem to be any mystery as to how the man met his death,” remarked Polton, cunningly throwing out this remark in the hope of eliciting some illuminating comments. “He seems to have just tumbled into the pit and broken his neck.”

  “That is what is suggested,” Thorndyke agreed. “But there are all sorts of other possibilities. It would be quite interesting to attend the inquest and hear the evidence.”

  “There is no reason why you shouldn’t, sir,” said Polton. “You’ve got no arrangements for Thursday that can’t easily be put off.”

  “No, that is true,” Thorndyke rejoined. “I must think it over and consider whether it would be worth giving up the time.”

  But he did not think it over, for the reason that he had already made up his mind. Even as he read the paragraph, it was clear to him that here was a case that called aloud for investigation.

  The call was twofold. In the first place he was profoundly interested in all the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of James Lewson. In any event he would have wished to make his understanding of the case complete. But there was another and a more urgent reason for inquiry. Hitherto his attitude had been simply spectatorial. Neither as a citizen nor as an officer of the law had he felt called upon to interfere. Now it became incumbent on him to test the moral validity of his position; to ascertain whether that detached attitude was admissible in these new circumstances.

  The discovery had taken him completely by surprise. Some developments he had rather expected. The appearance of the stolen notes, for instance, had not surprised him at all. It had seemed quite “according to plan”; just a manœuvre to shift the area of inquiry. But this new development admitted of no such explanation; for if it was an “arrangement” of some kind, what could be the motive? There appeared to be none.

  He was profoundly puzzled. If this was really James Lewson’s body, then the whole of his elaborate scheme of reasoning was fallacious. But it was not fallacious. For it had led him to the conclusion that Mr Marcus Pottermack was Jeffrey Brandon, deceased. And investigation had proved beyond a doubt that that conclusion was correct. But a hypothesis which, on being applied, yields a new truth – and one that is conditional upon its very terms – must be true. But again, if his reasoning was correct, this could not be Lewson’s body.

  But if it was not Lewson’s body, whose body was it? And how came it to be dressed in Lewson’s clothes – if they really were Lewson’s clothes and not a carefully substituted make-up? It was here that the question of public policy arose. For here was undoubtedly a dead person. If that person proved to be James Lewson, there was nothing more to be said. But if he were not James Lewson, then it became his, Thorndyke’s, duty as a citizen and a barrister to ascertain who he was and how his body came to be dressed in Lewson’s clothes; or, at least, to set going inquiries to that effect.

  That evening he rapidly reviewed the material on which his reasoning had been based. Then, unrolling the strip of photographs, he selected a pair of the most distinct – showing a right and a left foot – and, with the aid of the little document microscope, made an enlarged drawing of each on squared paper to a scale of three inches to the foot, i.e. a quarter of the natural size. The drawings, however, were little more than outlines, showing none of the detail of the soles; but the dimensions were accurately rendered, excepting those of the screws which secured the heels, which were drawn disproportionately large and the position of the slots marked in with special care and exactness.

  With these drawings in his pocket and the roll of photographs in his attaché-case for reference if any unforeseen question should arise, Thorndyke started forth on the Thursday morning en route for Borley. He did not anticipate any difficulties. An inquest which he had attended at Aylesbury some months previously had made him acquainted with the coroner who would probably conduct this inquiry; but in any case, the production of his card would secure him the necessary facilities.

  It turned out, however, that his acquaintance was to conduct the proceedings, though he had not yet arrived when Thorndyke presented himself at the Town Hall nearly an hour before the time when the inquest was due to open. But the police officer on duty, after a glance at his card, showed him up to the coroner’s room and provided him with a newspaper wherewith to while away the time of waiting; which Thorndyke made a show of reading, as a precaution against possible attempts at conversation, until the officer had retired, when he brought forth the two drawings and occupied himself in memorizing the dimensions and other salient characteristics of the footprints.

  He had been waiting close upon twenty minutes when he heard a quick step upon the stair and the coroner entered the room with extended hand.

  “How do you do, doctor?” he exclaimed, shaking Thorndyke’s hand warmly. “This is indeed an unexpected pleasure. Have you come down to lend us a hand in solving the mystery?”

  “Is there a mystery?” Thorndyke asked.

  “Well, no, there isn’t,” was the reply, “excepting how the poor fellow came to be wandering about the wood in the dark. But I take it, from your being here, that you are in some way interested or concerned in the case.”

  “Not in the case,” replied Thorndyke. “Only in the body. And my interest in that is rather academic. I understand that it is known to have been lying exposed in the open for nine months. Now, I have never had an opportunity of inspecting a body that has been exposed completely in the open for so long. Accordingly, as I happened to be in the neighbourhood, I thought that I would ask your kind permission just to look it over and make a few notes as to its condition.”

  “I see; so that you may know exactly what a nine-months-old exposed body looks like, with a view to future contingencies. But of course, my dear doctor, I shall be delighted to help you to this modest extent. Would you like to make your inspection now?”

  “How will that suit you?”

  “Perfectly. The jury will be going in to view the remains in about half an hour, but they won’t interfere with your proceedings. But you will probably be finished by then. Are you coming to the inquest?”

  “I may as well, as I have nothing special to do for an hour or two; and the evidence may help me to amplify my notes.”

  “Very well,” said the coroner, “then I will see that a chair is kept for you. And now I will tell Sergeant Tatnell to take you to the mortuary and see that you are not disturbed while you are making your notes.”

  Hereupon, the sergeant, being called in and given his instructions, took Thorndyke in custody and conducted him down a flight of stairs to a side door which opened on a small square, on the opposite side of which was the mortuary. A considerable crowd had already collected in front of the Town Hall and at the entrance of the square, and by its members Thorndyke’s emergence with the sergeant by no means passed unnoticed; and when the latter proceeded to unlock the mortuary door and admit the former, there was a general movement of the crowd into the square with a tendency to converge on the mortuary door.

  The sergeant, having admitted Thorndyke, gazed at him hungrily as he pointed out the rather obvious whereabouts of the corpse and the clothing. Then, with evident reluctance, he retired, leaving the door half open and stationing himself on guard in a position which commanded an unobstructed view of the interior. Thorndyke would rather have had the door closed, but he realized the sergeant’s state of mind and viewed it not unsympathetically. And a spectator or two was of no consequence since he was merely making an inspection.

  As the sergeant had obligingly explained, the body was in the open shell or coffin which rested on one of the tables, while the clothing was laid out on an adjoining table in a manner slightly reminiscent of a rummage sale or a stall in the Petticoat Lane Market. Having put down his attaché-case, Thorndyke began his inspection with the clothing, and, bearing in mind the sergeant’s eye, which was following his every movement, he first looked over the garments, one by one, until he came naturally to the shoes. These he inspected from various points of view, and when he had minutely examined the uppers he picked up the right shoe, and, turning it over, looked at the heel. And in the instant that his glance fell on it his question was answered.

  It was not Lewson’s shoe.

  Putting it down, he picked up the left shoe and inspected it in the same manner. It gave the same answer as the right had done, and each confirmed the other with the force of cumulative evidence. These were not James Lewson’s shoes. There was no need to apply the measurements that he had marked on his diagrams. The single fact which he had elicited settled the matter.

  It was quite a plain and obvious fact, too, though it had escaped the police for the simple reason that they were not looking for it. It was just a discrepancy in the position of the screws. But it was absolutely conclusive. For the central screw by which a circular rubber heel is secured is of necessity a fixture. When once it is driven in, it remains immovable so long as the heel continues in position. For if the screw turns in the slightest degree, its hold is loosened, it unscrews from its hole and the heel comes off. But these heels had not come off. They were quite firmly attached, as Thorndyke ascertained by grasping them and as was proved by the extent to which they were worn down. Therefore the screws could not have moved. But yet their slots were at a totally different angle from the slots of the screws in Lewson’s shoes.

  He was standing with the shoe in his hand when a sharply spoken command from the sergeant to “pass along, please” caused him half-unconsciously to turn his head. As he did so, he became aware of Mr Pottermack gazing at him through the half-open door with an expression of something very like consternation. The glance was only momentary, for, even as their eyes met, Pottermack moved away in obedience to the sergeant’s command, reinforced by a vigorous vis a tergo applied by the spectators in his rear.

  Thorndyke smiled grimly at the coincidence – which was hardly a coincidence at all – and then returned to the consideration of the shoes. He had thoroughly memorized his drawings, but still, his rigorously exact mind demanded verification. Accordingly he placed both shoes sole uppermost and – with his back to the sergeant – produced the drawings from his pocket for comparison with the shoes. Of course he had made no mistake. In the drawing of the right foot, the slot of the screw was at a right angle to the long axis of the shoe – in the position of the hands of a clock at a quarter to three; in the right shoe before him, the slot was oblique – in the position of the clock-hands at five minutes past seven. So with the left; in the drawing it was in the position of ten minutes to four; in the mortuary shoe it was in that of twenty minutes to two.

  The proof was conclusive, and it justified Thorndyke’s forecast. For he had assumed that if the shoes on the discovered body were counterfeits, the one detail which the counterfeiter would overlook or neglect would be the position of the screw-slots; while, by the ordinary laws of probability, it was infinitely unlikely that the positions of the slots would happen to match in both feet by mere chance.

  But, this point being settled, a more important one arose. If the shoes were not Lewson’s shoes, the body was probably not Lewson’s body. And if it were not, then it was the body of some other person; which conclusion would raise the further question, How was that body obtained? This was the vitally important issue, for it would appear that the having possession of a dead human body almost necessarily implies the previous perpetration of some highly criminal act.

  So Thorndyke reflected, a little anxiously, as he stood by the open shell, looking down on the scanty remains of what had once been a man. His position was somewhat difficult, for, since he had never seen Lewson and knew nothing of his personal characteristics beyond his approximate age and what he had inferred from the footprints – that he was a man approaching six feet in height, which appeared to be also true of the body in the shell – he had no effective means of identification. Nevertheless, it was possible that a careful examination might bring into view some distinctive characters that furnish a basis for further inquiry when the witnesses should presently be called.

  Thus encouraging himself, he began to look over the gruesome occupant of the shell more critically. And now, as his eye travelled over it, he began to be conscious of an indefinite something in its aspect that was not quite congruous with the ostensible circumstances. It seemed to have wasted in a somewhat unusual manner. Then his attention was attracted by the very peculiar appearance of the toenails. They showed a distinct orange-yellow coloration which was obviously abnormal, and when he turned for comparison to the fingernails, traces of the same unnatural colour were detectable though much less distinct.

  Here was a definite suggestion. Following it up, he turned his attention to the teeth, and at once the suggestion was confirmed. These were the teeth of no modern civilized European. The crowns of the molars, cuspless and ground down to a level surface, spoke of the gritty meal from a hand-quern and other refractory food-stuffs beyond the powers of degenerate civilized man. Still following the clue, Thorndyke peered into the nasal cavities, the entrance to which had been exposed by the almost complete disappearance of the nose. With the aid of a tiny pocket electric lamp, he was able to make out on both sides extensive fractures of the inner bones – the turbinates and ethmoid. In the language of the children’s game, he was “getting warm”; and when he had made a close and prolonged examination of the little that was left of the abdomen, his last lingering doubts were set at rest.

  He stood up, at length, with a grim but appreciative smile, and recapitulated his findings. Here was a body, found in a gravel-pit, clothed in the habiliments of one James Lewson. The toe and finger nails were stained with henna; the teeth were the characteristic teeth of somewhat primitive man; the ethmoid and turbinate bones were fractured in a manner incomprehensible in connection with any known natural agency but in precisely the manner in which they would have been damaged by the embalmer’s hook; there was not the faintest trace of any abdominal viscera, and there did appear to be – though this was not certain, owing to the wasted condition of the remains – some signs of an incision in the abdominal wall; and finally, the hair showed evidence of chemical corrosion, not to be accounted for by any mere exposure to the weather. In short, this body displayed a group of distinctive features which, taken collectively, were characteristic of, and peculiar to, an Egyptian mummy; and that it was an Egyptian mummy he felt no doubt whatever.