“I fear that I bungled the injection terribly, although I had carefully studied the plates in a treatise on anatomy—­Gray’s, I think.  However, if my methods were clumsy, they were quite effectual.  I carried out the process on the evening of the third day; and when I locked up the house that night, I had the satisfaction of knowing that poor John’s remains were secure from corruption and decay.

“But this was not enough.  The great weight of a fresh body as compared with that of a mummy would be immediately noticed by those who had the handling of the mummy-case.  Moreover, the damp from the body would quickly ruin the cartonnage and would cause a steamy film on the inside of the glass case in which it would be exhibited.  And this would probably lead to an examination.  Clearly, then, it was necessary that the remains of the deceased should be thoroughly dried before they were enclosed in the cartonnage.

“Here my unfortunate deficiency in scientific knowledge was a great drawback.  I had no idea how this result would be achieved, and in the end was compelled to consult a taxidermist, to whom I represented that I wished to collect small animals and reptiles and rapidly dry them for convenience of transport.  By this person I was advised to immerse the dead animals in a jar of methylated spirit for a week and then expose them in a current of warm, dry air.

“But the plan of immersing the remains of the deceased in a jar of methylated spirit was obviously impracticable.  However, I bethought me that we had in our collection a porphyry sarcophagus, the cavity of which had been shaped to receive a small mummy in its case.  I tried the deceased in the sarcophagus and found that he just fitted the cavity loosely.  I obtained a few gallons of methylated spirit which I poured into the cavity, just covering the body, and then I put on the lid and luted it down air-tight with putty.  I trust I do not weary you with these particulars?”

“I’ll ask you to cut it as short as you can, Mr. Jellicoe,” said Badger.  “It has been a long yarn and time is running on.”

“For my part,” said Thorndyke, “I find these details deeply interesting and instructive.  They fill in the outline that I had drawn by inference.”

“Precisely,” said Mr. Jellicoe; “then I will proceed.

“I left the deceased soaking in the spirit for a fortnight and then took him out, wiped him dry, and laid him on four cane-bottomed chairs just over the hot-water pipes.  I turned off the hot water in the other rooms so as to concentrate the heat in these pipes, and I let a free current of air pass through the room.  The result interested me exceedingly.  By the end of the third day the hands and feet had become quite dry and shrivelled and horny—­so that the ring actually dropped off the shrunken finger—­the nose looked like a fold of parchment; and the skin of the body was so dry and smooth that you could have engrossed a lease on it.  For the first day or