“‘I will not argue the point, sir; but you certainly have no authority for locating two ribs in the neck, and for placing a row of teeth upon the upper side of the right foot. That foot, Mr. McSorley, is nothing but a fragment of a lower jawbone, depend upon it.’
“‘How do you know that the deceased had no teeth there? You doctors always want to insist that every man is constructed on the same plan. I used to know a man in Canada who had four molar teeth in his ankle; and two of them were plugged. This appears to be a similar case.’
“‘But you never knew a man who had a thighbone where his shoulder-blade ought to be, like this one, did you? You never saw a man with a knee-cap in the small of his back, either, did you?”
“You never Saw a Man with a Knee-cap in the Small of his Back.”
“‘Maybe I did, and maybe I didn’t. I have no time to discuss the subject now. The inquest that I am about to hold will bring out the facts. Mr. O’Flynn, swear in the jury!’”
The evidence that was given by the witnesses was of the most varied and entertaining character; and though much of it was vague and much was irrelevant, the jury appeared to have no difficulty in reaching a conclusion, for, after a few minutes’ deliberation, they brought in a verdict that “the deceased, Henry P. Cowdrick, came to his death from cause or causes unknown;” and then they collected their fees and dispersed, with a grateful consciousness that they had fully discharged their duty to society.
But, of course, perfectly disinterested persons, persons who were not in the way of earning jury fees, were disposed to regard with incredulity the conclusions reached by the coroner and his friends, and still it was for the community a vexed question—What had become of Mr. Cowdrick?
The coroner’s theory, however, was not entirely forgotten, because Dr. Wattles sent to one of the daily papers a communication, in which he expressed his opinion of the bones over which the inquest was held. This provoked from “An Eminent Scientist,” who had not seen the bones, a suggestion of the possibility that they may have belonged to some mysterious creature who was the missing link between man and the lower orders of mammalia.
To this there came a hot response from Father Tunicle and several other clergymen, who proceeded to show the monstrous folly and wickedness of such a supposition, and who demonstrated that Science and Infidelity, not to say sheer Paganism, were pretty nearly one and the same thing.