“I have had things kept just as we found them,” explained Andrews.
Kennedy peered into the broken coffin long and attentively. With a little effort I, too, followed the course of the circle of light. The body was, as Andrews had said, in an excellent, indeed a perfect, state of preservation. There were, strange to say, no marks of decay.
“Strange, very strange,” muttered Kennedy to himself.
“Could it have been some medical students, body-snatchers?” I asked musingly. “Or was it simply a piece of vandalism? I wonder if there could have been any jewels buried with him, as Shaughnessy said? That would make the motive plain robbery.”
“There were no jewels,” said Andrews, his mind not on the first part of my question, but watching Kennedy intently.
Craig had dropped on his knees on the damp, mildewed floor, and bringing his bull’s-eye close to the stones, was examining some spots here and there.
“There could not have been any substitution?” I whispered, with, my mind still on the broken coffin. “That would cover up the evidence of a poisoning, you know.”
“No,” replied Andrews positively, “although bodies can be obtained cheaply enough from a morgue, ostensibly for medical purposes. No, that is Phelps, all right.”
“Well, then,” I persisted, “body-snatchers, medical students?”
“Not likely, for the same reason,” he rejected.