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"Well, I thought it a little queer that the scapula and clavicle should be there I should have expected him to cut the arm off at the shoulder-joint"

"Yes," said Thorndyke; "so should I; and so it has been done in every case of dismemberment that I am acquainted with To an ordinary person, the arm seems to join on to the trunk at the shoulder-joint, and that is where he would naturally sever it What explanation do you suggest of this unusualthe arm?"

"Do you think the fellow could have been a butcher?" I asked, re Dr Summers' remark "This is the way a shoulder of mutton is taken off"

"No," replied Thorndyke "A butcher includes the scapula in a shoulder of iven quantity of meat And also, as a sheep has no clavicle, it is the easiest way to detach the liine a butcher would find himself in difficulties if he attempted to take off a man's ar feature Then, too, a butcher does not deal very delicately with his subject; if he has to divide a joint, he just cuts through it and does not trouble hi the bones But you note here that there is not a single scratch or score on any one of the bones, not even where the finger was removed Now, if you have ever prepared bones for a museum, as I have, you will re joints to avoid disfiguring the articular ends of the bones with cuts and scratches"

"Then you think that the person who dise and skill?"

"That is what has been suggested The suggestion is not ree?"

Thorndyke smiled "I am sorry to be so cryptic, Berkeley, but you understand that I can'tto lead you to make certain inferences from the facts that are in your possession"

"If I ht inference, will you tell me?" I asked

"It won't be necessary," he answered, with the saether you don't need to be told that you have done it"

It wasI pondered on the problehed outright

"It seeth, "that the identity of the remains is the primary question and that is a question of fact It doesn't seem any use to speculate about it"