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cumstantial evidence, isn't it? We've proved our own case more plausible than the case against Davenant, but we haven't shown that the case against Davenant is impossible. However, if we're right, one thing is pretty clear⁠—that the murder was a deliberate one, deeply and carefully planned. And we've got to find somebody who had the motive and the opportunity to carry out this very elaborate scheme."

"I know. The police will never look at our objections until they lead us to find the real man. The police always want to have a victim."

"And we can't show, can we, that it was impossible for Davenant to throw a man out of the 4.50 train?"

"We can show it's improbable. Remember how crowded the 4.50 always is, how crowded it was on the day when you and I travelled by it. The three o'clock train from London, of course, wouldn't be a bit crowded; people haven't started getting away from business by then⁠—it's only for ladies who have been up to shop. One could secure privacy even in a third-class carriage on that train."

"But it's only circumstantial evidence still."

"There are two other things we want to get to work on; the washing-list, as we called it, though I'm pretty certain it's nothing of the kind, which we found on the back of the cipher, and the golf-ball which we found beside the line."

"We want a theory, too, about the cipher. I wonder if Davenant admits that he wrote that ci-