way, and he began to let the hammer down preparatory to cutting the string.  Just then the hammer slipped, and the next minute Mr. Potts’ tooth was flying through the air at the rate of fifty miles a minute, and he was rolling over on the floor howling and spitting blood.  After Mrs. Potts had picked him up and given him water with which to wash out his mouth he went down to the front window.  While he was sitting there thinking that maybe it was all for the best, he saw some men coming by carrying a body on a shutter.  He asked what was the matter, and they told him that Bill Dingus had been murdered by somebody.

Mr. Potts thought he would put on his hat and go down to the coroner’s office and see what the tragedy was.  When he got there, Mr. Dingus had revived somewhat, and he told his story to the coroner.  He was trimming a tree in Butterwick’s garden, when he suddenly heard the explosion of a gun, and the next minute a bullet struck him in the thigh and he fell to the ground.  He said he couldn’t imagine who did it.  Then the doctor examined the wound and found a string hanging from it, and a large bullet suspended upon the string.  When he pulled the string it would not move any, and he said it must be tied to some other missile still in the flesh.  He said it was the most extraordinary case on record.  The medical books reported nothing of the kind.

Then the doctor gave Mr. Dingus chloroform and proceeded to cut into him with a knife to find the other end of the string, and while he was at work Mr. Potts began to feel sick at his stomach and to experience a desire to go home.  At last the doctor cut deep enough; and giving the string a jerk, out came a molar tooth that looked as if it might have been aching.  Then the doctor said the case was ’more extraordinary than he had thought it was.  He said that tooth couldn’t have been fired from a gun, because it would have been broken to pieces; it couldn’t have been swallowed by Dingus and then broken through and buried itself in his thigh, for then how could the string and ball be accounted for?

“The occurrence is totally unaccountable upon any reasonable theory,” said the doctor, “and I do not know what to believe, unless we are to conceive that the tooth and the ball were really meteoric stones that have assumed these remarkable shapes and been shot down upon the earth with such force as to penetrate Mr. Dingus’ leg, and this is so very improbable that we can hardly accept it unless it is impossible to find any other.  Hallo!  What’s the matter with you, Potts?  Your mouth and shirt are all stained with blood!”

“Oh, nothing,” said Potts, forgetting himself.  “I just lost a tooth, and—­”

“You lost a—­Who pulled it?” asked the doctor.

“Gentlemen,” said Potts, “the fact is I shot it out with my gun.”

Then they put Potts under bail for attempted assassination, and Dingus said that as soon as he got well he would bang Mr. Potts with a club.  When the crowd had gone, the coroner said to Potts,