XI

New possibilities crowded into the thoughts of Mr. Barnes as he heard

this unexpected statement. Berial hired Morgan to procure the wagon! Did

it follow, then, that Berial was the principal, or was he in turn but

the tool of another? Amos Quadrant had confessed that secretly it had

not been his wish to have his brother cremated. Yet his was the

authority which had engaged the undertaker and directed the funeral. Had

he chosen to avoid the cremation without permitting the widow to know

that his will accomplished her wish, how easy for him to engage the

undertaker to carry out his purpose, oddly planned as it was! How

readily might the poor undertaker have been bribed by this wealthy man

to take the risk! After all, if this were the explanation, wherein lay

the crime? By what name would it be designated in the office of the

district attorney? Yet, even now, when all seemed known, two unexplained

facts stood out prominently. How was it that the foot of the deceased

Quadrant showed no scar? And what of the assertion made by Mr. Mitchel

that a human body had been cremated? Could it be that Berial, taking

advantage of the opportunity offered by his employer, had secretly

disposed of some other body, while merely supposed to have removed Rufus

Quadrant from his coffin? If so, whose body was it that had been

cremated, and how could identification be looked for among the ashes in

the urn at the cemetery? Mr. Barnes was chagrined to find such questions

in his mind with no answer, when Mr. Mitchel might arrive with his

promised surprise at any moment. Perhaps Morgan was lying when he

accused the undertaker.

"Have you been able yet," asked Mr. Barnes, "to verify any part of this

man's story?"

"Well, we only arrived at six this morning, but I may say yes, I have

found some corroborative evidence."

"What?"

"I have the shroud in which Rufus Quadrant was dressed in his coffin."

"That is important. Where did you find it?"

"In quite a suggestive place. It was locked up in old Berial's private

closet at the shop, which we searched this morning."

"That certainly is significant. But even so, Tom, how do we know that

this Morgan, who robs the dead and has duplicate screw-drivers for

opening patented coffin fastenings, would hesitate to place a shroud

where it would seem to substantiate his accusation of another?"

"We do not know positively, of course. We have not fully solved this

mystery yet, Mr. Barnes."

"I fear not, Tom," said Mr. Barnes, glancing at the clock as he heard a

voice asking for him in the adjoining office; "but here comes a man who

claims that he has done so."

Mr. Mitchel entered and saluted the two men cordially, after receiving

an introduction to the younger.

"Well, Mr. Barnes," said Mr. Mitchel, "shall I surprise you with my

story, or have you two gentlemen worked it all out?"

"I do not know whether you will surprise us or not," said Mr. Barnes.

"We do not claim to have fully solved this mystery; that much we will

admit at once. But we have done a great deal of work, and have learned

facts which must in the end lead to the truth."

"Ah, I see. You know some things, but not all. The most important fact,

of course, would be the identity of the body which is the centre of this

mystery. Do you know that much?"

"I have no doubt that it has been correctly identified," said Mr.

Barnes, boldly, though not as confident as he pretended. "It was the

corpse of Rufus Quadrant, of course."

"You are speaking of the body at the Morgue?"

"Certainly. What other?"

"I alluded to the body which was cremated," said Mr. Mitchel quietly.

"It has not been proven that any body was cremated," replied Mr. Barnes.

"Has it not? I think it has."

"Ah, you know that? Well, tell us. Who was the man?"

"The man in the coffin, do you mean?"

"Yes. The man who was cremated in place of Mr. Quadrant."

"Have you any suspicion?"

"I did have until an hour ago. I supposed that the criminal who managed

this affair had thus disposed of the remains of a pal whom he had killed

in a saloon row--a man called Tommy White."

"No, that is wrong. The body cremated was the corpse of a woman."

"Of a woman!" exclaimed both detectives in concert.

"Yes, gentlemen," said Mr. Mitchel, "it was a woman's body that was

placed in the furnace. I think, Mr. Barnes, that I suggested such a

possibility to you on the day when you first called my attention to this

affair?"

"Yes. You said it might be a woman as well as a man. But that was merely

a caution against hastily deciding as to the sex of the victim,

supposing that a murder had been committed and the criminal had thus

proceeded to hide his crime. But subsequent investigations have not

brought to us even a suspicion that any woman has been foully dealt

with, who could have been placed in the coffin by any who had the

opportunity."

"Which only proves," said Mr. Mitchel, "that as usual you detectives

have worked in routine fashion, and consequently, by beginning at the

wrong end, you have not reached the goal. Now I have reached the goal,

and I venture the belief that I have not done one half of the work that

either of you have been compelled to bestow upon your investigations."

"We cannot all be as intellectually brilliant as yourself," said Mr.

Barnes testily.

"Come, come, Mr. Barnes. No offense meant, I assure you. I am only

upholding the argument, which I have advanced previously, that the very

routine which gentlemen of your calling feel bound to follow often

hampers if it does not hinder your work. I am merely a tyro, but not

being professionally engaged on this case I was perhaps freer to see

things with eyes unblinded by traditional methods of work. It is just as

the onlooker often sees an opportunity to win, which the men playing a

game of chess overlook. The player has his mind upon many combinations

and sees much that the onlooker does not see. So here. You and Mr.

Burrows have probably discovered many things that I do not even suspect,

but it has been my luck to get at the truth. If you care to hear it, I

will describe in detail how I worked out the problem."

"Of course we wish to hear the truth," said Mr. Barnes reluctantly;

"that is, if indeed you have learned what it is."

"Very good. As I have said, hampered by the seeming necessity of

following your investigations along customary lines, you probably began

with the body at the Morgue. I pursued the opposite course. The case

seemed so unique that I was convinced that the motive would prove to be

equally uncommon. If the body at the Morgue were really that of Mr.

Quadrant, as seemed probable from the identifications by the family and

the doctor, I was sure that it had been taken from the coffin to make

room for the corpse of another. No other motive occurred to my mind

which appeared to be adequate. Consequently I thought that the first

essential in unravelling the mystery would be the establishment of the

fact that a human body had been cremated, and then, if possible, to

discover the identity of that body."

"In other words, to identify the ashes of a cremated body," interjected

Mr. Barnes, with a slight sneer.

"Just so. That in itself was a problem so novel that it attracted my

interest. It is usually considered that cremation has the objectionable

feature that it offers a means of hiding the crime of murder. This idea

has contributed not a little to thwart those who have endeavored to make

this means of disposing of the dead popular. Would it not be an

achievement to prove that incineration is not necessarily a barrier

against identification?"

"I should say so," said Mr. Barnes.

"So thought I, and that was the task which I set myself. I visited the

chief of the detective bureau, and soon interested him in my theories.

He even permitted me to be present at the examination of the ashes,

which was undertaken at my suggestion, an expert chemist and his

assistant going with us. At the cemetery the urn was brought forth and

its contents spread out on a clean marble slab. It was not difficult to

discern that a human being had been cremated."

"Why was it not difficult?"

"When one hears of the ashes of the dead, perhaps it is not unnatural to

think of these human ashes as similar to cigar ashes, or the ashes of a

wood fire. Where complete combustion occurs the residue is but an

impalpable powder. But this is not commonly the result in the cremation

of the dead, or at least it does not invariably occur. It did not in

this instance, and that is the main point for us. On the contrary, some

of the bones, and parts of others, sufficiently retained their form to

be readily distinguishable as having come from the human skeleton."

"As I have never examined a cremated body," said Mr. Barnes, "I must

admit that your statement surprises me. I had supposed that all parts of

the body would be brought to a similar state. But even if what you say

is true, and granting that from pieces of charred bone it could be

demonstrated that a human being had been burned, still I would like you

to explain how you could differentiate between man and woman."

"Perhaps it would be difficult, or even impossible, judging from the

charred bits of skeleton alone. But if we remember that a woman's garb

is different from the dress of a man, we might find a clue. For example,

if you saw what could unmistakably be recognized as parts of corset

steels, what would you think?"

"Of course the deduction would be that the body had been that of a

woman, but I should think it an odd circumstance to find that a body

prepared for burial had been corseted."

"The same thought occurred to me, and from it I drew an important

deduction, since substantiated by facts. I concluded from the corset

steels that the body had not been prepared for burial."

"I follow you," said Mr. Barnes, now thoroughly interested in Mr.

Mitchel's analytical method. "You mean that this woman was placed in the

coffin clothed as she had died?"

"Practically so, but I did not decide that she had necessarily died

clothed as she was when placed in the coffin. My conclusion was that it

must have been as essential to dispose of the clothing as of the body.

Thus the clothing would have been placed in the coffin with her, even

though perhaps not on her."

"A good point! A good point!" nodded the detective, approvingly.

"So, you see, the ashes of the dead had already revealed two clues. We

knew that a human being had been cremated, and we could feel reasonably

sure, though not absolutely positive, that it had been a woman. Next,

the question arose as to the identity. If cremation would hide that,

then the criminal might hope to escape justice by this means."

"It seems incredible that the ashes could be identified, unless indeed

some object, provably connected with a certain person, and which would

resist fire, had been placed in the coffin."

"No, that would not satisfy me. A false identification could thus be

planned by your thoughtful murderer. What I sought was some means of

identifying the actual remains of a cremated body. I have succeeded."

"You have succeeded?"

"Yes. I had a theory which has proven to be a good one. If some of the

bones of the body resist cremation, or at least retain their form though

calcined, it should follow that the teeth, being the most resistant

bones, and, moreover, protected by being imbedded in other bones, might

well be expected to remain intact. If not all, at least a sufficient

number of them might be found to serve the ends of justice."

"Even if you could find the teeth with shape undisturbed, I fail to see

how you could identify the remains by them."

"The method is as reliable as it is unique. In these days of advanced

dentistry, the people of this country have been educated up to such an

appreciation of their dental organs that, from the highest to the

lowliest, we find the people habitually saving their teeth by having

them filled. I knew by personal experience that it is a common practice

among dentists to register in a book of record all work done for a

patient. In these records they have blank charts of the teeth, and on

the diagram of each tooth, as it is filled, they mark in ink the size

and position of the filling inserted. Now while the teeth themselves

might resist the heat of the furnace, retaining their shapes, we would

not expect the fillings, whether of gold or other material, to do so.

Thus, I expected to find the teeth with cavities in them. I did find

fourteen of the teeth fairly whole, sufficiently so that we might

identify them, and know what position in the mouth they had occupied. No

less than ten of these teeth had cavities, which, from the regularity of

their outline, it was fair to assume had been filled. These I took to my

dentist for an opinion. He was at once interested, because it seems

that members of the dental profession have long urged upon the police

the reliance that may be placed upon the dentist in identifying living

criminals or unknown dead bodies. He examined the charred teeth, and

taking a blank chart of the mouth, he plotted out the size and positions

of the fillings which once had been present. Another very interesting

point was that we found two teeth, known as the central incisor and the

cuspid (the latter commonly called the eye-tooth), united together by a

staple of platinum. This staple had of course resisted the heat because

platinum melts at so high a temperature. My dentist pointed out to me

that this staple had been a foundation for what he called a bridge. One

end of the staple had been forced into the root of one tooth, the other

end passing similarly into the other. Thus the space was spanned, and an

artificial tooth had been attached to the bar, thus filling the space.

He also pointed out that the bar was covered with a mass which was

evidently the porcelain of the tooth which had melted in the furnace."

"This is very interesting," said Mr. Barnes, "but unless you could find

the man who did that work, you still could not identify the person

cremated."

"My dentist, as I have said, made out for me a chart of the person's

mouth, which you may examine. You will see that it is quite specific.

With that number of fillings, occupying definite positions in special

teeth, and coupled with the presence of the tooth bridged in and the

manner of making the bridge, it would be an unexampled coincidence to

find that two persons had obtained exactly similar dental services.

Would it not?"

[Illustration: Missing teeth marked with X--Of 14 teeth examined 10

contain cavities--16 in all.--Central incisor and cuspid united with

platinum bar, originally held by fillings.--Remains of porcelain

material fused on the bar.