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"That's true. But mightn't it be a blind? Remember, we're dealing with an extraordinarily clever criminal. He faked the ticket; he faked the watches; he faked the sleeper-coupon: mayn't he have managed to fake Brotherhood's train-literature as well?"

"We're dealing with a clever man, but not with one who's clever enough to come up here by the three o'clock, simultaneously leaving a book lying about in the 3.47."

"No, that's true; it does seem difficult. But there must be some explanation, mustn't there? Wait a minute⁠ . . . I know! When Carmichael got that book from the porter, the porter said he had taken it off that train. But a porter, when he says 'off the 3.47' doesn't necessarily mean 'off the 3.47 on Tuesday'⁠—the day you are asking about. The 3.47 is to him a single entity which renews itself from day to day. He took that book off the train on Monday, depend upon it. Brotherhood left Momerie in the train when he came down on the Monday afternoon; consequently, Brotherhood probably never read the cipher that would have warned him of his danger. It wasn't till Friday that Carmichael made inquiries about the book, and of course by that time the porter wouldn't be able to remember, even if he tried, which day it was that the book was found."

"There's sense in that. I don't like it, though, I'm hanged if I do."

The hour after breakfast on Sunday was an hour