“Oh, yes—Davenant did it, didn’t he? They were telling me about it at the station.” “Well, you see, Reeves must have started by saying ‘About Brotherhood,’ or something like that. And then, like a fool, you dropped the tube and legged it for London.” “Well, upon my word! Do you know, Gordon, now I come to think of it, I don’t mind if I do.” Chapter XXIV Gordon offers the Consolation of Philosophy¹ ¹ To the Reader—This chapter may be omitted if the book be thought too long. Gordon fell into Reeves’ other arm-chair and shouted with laughter. Nothing could be more disagreeable to nerves already jangled. Reeves almost shook him into position, demanding explanations. “It’s all right,” he said at last. “You get all the luck, Reeves. Marryatt wasn’t listening at the other end of the metaphone. And all the time you were talking through it, it was just a soliloquy.” “Thank God for that! But how did you explain it all? What did you tell him?” “Oh, I just told him the truth—part of the truth. And you must really get out of that habit of wheezing, because it was your wheezing behind the secret panel that made Marryatt think it was Brotherhood’s ghost sitting in your room last night!” “You mean that’s what frightened Marryatt? Why did he run away this morning, then?” “He thought it was Brotherhood telephoning to him. Lord, what a day!” “And you’ve explained everything to him?” “Yes, I’ve explained it all; I’d have explained it yesterday, if you’d let me.” “Come now, don’t try and persuade me you didn’t think yourself that Marryatt was guilty?” “Guilty of murder? Not for a single, solitary moment. I did think there was something wrong with him—so there was, he was hag-ridden with nightmare about Brotherhood. But I never agreed with you about Marryatt being a murderer, and, to do me justice, I never said so.” “That’s all very well, but you never showed me where I was wrong in my interpretation of the whole thing.” “I know; it was no good showing you where you were wrong, because you were so confoundedly ingenious at devising fresh explanations. Honestly, I did put one or two difficulties to you, but in a second you’d persuaded yourself to believe that they were no difficulties at all. And of course there were heaps more.” “Such as?” “Well, you persisted in regarding the whole thing as a deliberate, carefully planned murder. But if you come to think of it, the circumstances that favoured the murder were just the sort of circumstances that couldn’t have been foreseen. How could a man like Marryatt know that Brotherhood was due to go bankrupt? He knows no more about the City than you do. And the fog—look how the fog played up all through! How was Marryatt to know there was going to be a fog on the very day on which his attempt would be made? Yet, without a fog, the attempt would have been perfectly desperate.” “Yes, I suppose that’s true.”