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are alone in yours. Possibly he is asleep, but if so you've no means of knowing. You might, of course, bore a hole between the two carriages⁠—and then? Put a cobra through, like the Speckled Band, to make him jump out of the train, or to kill him as he sits there? Not very probable, I think; cobras are so difficult to buy, as you rightly observe, without attracting suspicion. Or could you let loose some poisonous gas through the hole? That is a really bright idea; I give you 90 per cent. for it, only I hardly think a very practicable solution, my dear Reeves, if you don't mind my saying so. You would look such a fool getting into the train with a couple of oxygen cylinders, or a large balloon. No, you can't do anything with holes in the partition. To do anything, you must be leaning out of the window. If anything is to be done, you must both be leaning out of the window.

"Of course people do lean out of the window when the train stops and there isn't a station there. But you can't be certain that your man will look out: and people generally look out in the direction in which the train is curving: they can see more that way. And you could only make him look out⁠—steady on! Keep steady, Reeves! Oh yes, you could certainly do that: thank you very much indeed; the whole thing becomes a good deal clearer. And then you hit him a good smack on the head, that stuns him anyhow, with a stick. That must have made you rather noticeable, because people don't take sticks up to London much⁠—strong sticks,