10 THE CAUSE AND THE CAUSER.

“Decidedly dead, gentlemen! has been dead,
in fact, for hours.”

“So far, so good !” remarked the ie magis-
trate of the occasion—a splendidly band-marxed
snail, whose horns were extended to their utter-
most as he watched Dr. Earwig from the shelter of
a hart’s-tongue fern. He was there with a party
of bumble-bee barristers overhead, bent on dis-
covering what could have happened to reduce so
fine a moth to such a condition in the prime of
youth ; and moreover, who was answerable for it
—-there being some little consolation under mis-
fortune in finding fault even if you cannot punish.

“You have cleared the case up to this point
very satisfactorily, sir,’ he continued. ‘“ Now we
must trouble you a little further, if you please.
Be so good as to examine into the cause of the
death. Can’t be a natural one, you know, doctor,
at deceased’s age and surrounded with food. So
keep your eyes open and your feelers alive. I
shall be out again by the time you’ve finished. I
wish to think a little just now.”

It is a golden maxim with snails that the less