Page:The Viaduct Murder (1926).pdf/188

"Yes, but this wasn't a change of⁠ . . . "

"Oh, don't you see? The sleeper was for Tuesday the 16th, the day of the murder. Brotherhood meant to go straight from Binver. The murderer found this sleeper-coupon in his pocket, and saw a golden opportunity of clinching his faked evidence about the trains. He could have destroyed the document, of course⁠—it was dangerous to him, because it proved that Brotherhood was really on the fast train. But he could do better by faking that too; changing Tuesday into Thursday and 16 into 18. Look here, how easy it is to do⁠ ⁠. . . There! Very little risk of detection there. But there was just a slight risk of detection, and this man wasn't taking any risks, So, having changed Tuesday the 16th into Thursday the 18th, he deliberately crossed out Thursday the 18th, and wrote in 'Wednesday' the '17th.' Double bluff, that is. People don't look for two corrections where they can see that there's one."

"I say, this murderer is some fellow!"

"Some fellow, but that fellow's name isn't Davenant. Don't you see, we've got the porter's word for it that Davenant came up from London by the later train, the 3.47. And Miss Rendall-Smith can also witness that he took the later train. So that, long before Davenant had got as far as Paston Oatvile⁠—actually, when he was only seven minutes out of London⁠—Brotherhood was falling down that embankment. And where's your conviction now?"

"Quite true⁠—if we're right. But it is only cir-