INCIDENT OF THE HUNGRY CORPSE

As Sergeant Cargo released the bolt on the trap door in the stone floor of the huge unused storeroom, Professor Fordney observed a curious expression on Hannah Deegle’s face. The old servant’s raised hand fell to her side as she turned toward the kitchen.

In a corner of the huge, dark, rat-infested cellar they found Oren Badger sitting in a decrepit rocking chair, a bullet in his head, a revolver on the floor.

Strewn about on all sides was food; raw and cooked meat, vegetables, cheese. The heel of Badger’s left foot, which had been gnawed to the bone, indicated what would have happened without such provender. Badger had been dead about three days.

* * * *

On a long table in the wealthy recluse’s library Fordney found his will, mortgages, bonds, insurance policies and considerable cash neatly stacked. A large piece of paper bearing the scrawled words ’All In Order’ lay on top of the pile.

Cargo barely succeeded in choking off a startled protest as the Professor removed a bundle of bills and slipped it into his pocket as Hannah entered. She repeated her story. Badger, in ill health for months, had several times threatened suicide. She had left Sunday at 3 o’clock and on his orders had not returned until that Wednesday morning at 7. Failing to find him, she notified the police.

“I ain’t surprised he killed himself,” Hannah concluded.

“Mr. Badger was murdered,” quietly said Fordney.

What clue spelled murder to the Professor? Turn page for solution.