«Then the man was a pauper from the workhouse.»

«Well, he must have been, I suppose.»

«Are workhouse paupers usually fat and well-fed?»

«Well, no — come to think of it, not as a rule.»

«In fact, it struck Tommy Pringle and his friend that this was something a little out of the way in a workhouse subject?»

«Yes.»

«And if the alimentary canal was so entertaining to these gentlemen, I imagine the subject had come by his death shortly after a full meal.»

«Yes — oh, yes — he'd have had to, wouldn't he?»

«Well, I don't know,» said Lord Peter. «That's in your department, you know. That would be your inference, from what they said.»

«Oh, yes. Undoubtedly.»