“‘I have taken the liberty of calling on you, Mr. Challoner,’ my visitor began, ‘to make a few enquiries concerning—­er—­skeletons.’

“’I nodded gravely and smothered a giggle.  He was a simple soul, this Ramchild.  ‘Concerning skeletons!’ What an expression for a man of science to use!  An artless creature indeed!  A veritable Ramchild of nature, so to speak.

“‘I understand,’ he continued, ’that you have a famous collection of—­er—­skeletons.’  I nodded again.  Of course I had not anything of the kind.  Mine was only a little private collection.  But it was of no consequence.  ‘So,’ he concluded, ’I have called to ask if you would be so kind as to let me see them.’

“‘From whom did you hear of my collection?’ I asked.

“’It was mentioned to me by my friend Mr.—­er—­Mr. Winterbottom, of Cambridge.’

“‘Ah,’ said I, ‘I remember Winterbottom very well.  How is he?’

“‘He’s very well, thank you,’ replied the detective, looking mightily surprised; and not without reason, seeing that he had undoubtedly invented the name Winterbottom on the spur of the moment.

“’Is there any branch of the subject that you are especially interested in?’ I asked, purposely avoiding giving him a lead.

“‘No,’ he replied.  ’No, not particularly.  The fact is that I thought of starting a collection myself if it wouldn’t be too expensive.  But you have a regular museum, haven’t you?’

“‘Yes.  Come and have a look at it.’

“He rose with alacrity and I led him through the dining-room to the museum wing, and I noticed that, if he did not know much about osteology, he was uncommonly observant of the details of house-construction.  He looked very hard at the safe, the mahogany casing of which failed to disguise its nature from the professional eye, and noted the massive door that gave entrance to the museum wing and the Yale lock that secured it.  In the museum his eye riveted itself on the five human skeletons in the great wall-case, but I perversely led him to the case containing my curious collection of abnormal and deformed skeletons of the lower animals.

“‘There,’ I said complacently, ’that is my little hoard.  Is there any specimen that you would like to take out and examine?’

“He gazed vaguely into the case and murmured that ’they were all very interesting,’ and again I caught his eye wandering to the great case opposite.  I was in the act of reaching out a porcupine with an ankylosed knee-joint, when he plucked up courage to say frankly, ’The fact is, I am principally interested in human skeletons.’

“I replaced the porcupine and walked across to the great wall-case.  ’I am sorry I have not more to show you,’ I said apologetically.  ’This is only the beginning of a collection, you see; but still, the specimens are of considerable interest.  Don’t you find them so?’

“Apparently he did, for he scrutinized the dates on the dwarf-pedestals with the deepest attention and finally remarked, ’I see you have written a date on each of these.  What does that signify?’