"You," H.M. said to Martin. "Burn it, you must have seen the row of cricket bats in Fleet's study! On Sunday night I remembered 'em; I remembered the 'Low-high' cut; I wanted to look it up in my book. And I remembered something else too: Or. Laurier, old Dr. Laurier, rocking back and forth before the skeleton-clock mutterin', ‘Would a man of honour have done it?'
"Done what? We know that after Fleet fell Dr. Laurier (quote) 'made as if he was examining all over Sir George.' He ordered the constable to take the head, in spite of an argument, and he took the legs. He was the old family friend, the one who cherished Aunt Cicely, and he knew all about the boy's psychopathic traits. He saw in a second this wasn't accident. Finally, remember, he was the police-surgeon,
"The awful creepin' danger was that the coppers, especially Scotland Yard, would tumble to the fracture at the back of both legs, when Fleet fell in a way where that couldn't have happened. Then the gaff would be blown.
"At the post-mortem there wasn't much danger — everybody's concentrated on the stomach-contents, as usual — of too-close investigation. Laurier had sworn (which was the lie I told you about) there hadn't been other injuries to the body. But Aunt Cicely intervened, weepin' and pleadin'. And at her insistence old Laurier… amputated just above both ankles before burial.
"It was a fat-headed thing to do; but our Cicely pleaded they couldn't prove anything against her boy, which was true, if that was done. Also (here I'm on ground I don't know) there had to be hanky-panky with the undertaker.
"I won't go into grisly details," growled H.M., "about how Laurier removed flesh and sinew from what was left It was only long afterwards, when age wore on him and he got a bit senile, that he built the skeleton-clock for his parlour, where everybody could see but nobody knew, as his penance. Anybody here examined that clock?"
"Yes. I have," said Martin out of a thick throat
"Did you look inside? Look close?"
"There was some kind of platform round the ankles and feet, apparently to keep the skeleton upright…"
"Dr. Laurier took his old anatomical-specimen skeleton," said H.M., "He removed what had to be removed, and he attached — what had to be attached. It was a skillful job of fittin'. But any medical man could have seen at a glance that the ankle-bones and feet of a big man don't belong to the skeleton of a small man. Unless there's a wooden platform built up round 'em which gives you only a glimpse of the feet and curves round the ankles. You cant probe the truth about that skeleton until you take it out of the clock. And I hadn't time before Sophie stole it