Someone else had evidently arrived at the same conclusion, and had communicated his opinion to Inspector Badger; for it was clear that that gentleman was in full cry after the missing finger.

But why was he searching for it here when the hand had been found at Sidcup?
And what did he expect to learn from it when he found it?
There is nothing particularly characteristic about a finger, or, at least, the bones of one; and the object of the present researches was to determine the identity of the person of whom these bones were the remains.

There was something mysterious about the affair, something suggesting that Inspector Badger was in possession of private information of some kind.

But what information could he have?
And whence could he have obtained it?
These were questions to which I could find no answer, and I was still fruitlessly revolving them when I arrived at the modest inn where the inquest was to be held, and where I proposed to fortify myself with a correspondingly modest lunch as a preparation for my attendance at that inquiry..