Page:The Viaduct Murder (1926).pdf/41

"Yes, but somebody's dead; you've got to find a gap somewhere in the ranks of Society to match our corpus."

"Still, that's mere negative arguing. And there are several points that tell against its being Brotherhood. In the first place, that ticket. Brotherhood goes up and down every day; do you mean to tell me he hasn't got a season? Second point, if it was Brotherhood there's an odd coincidence—he died within ten minutes' walk of his own bungalow; why there, any more than anywhere else on the line?"

"It's a coincidence that Brotherhood should be killed so near his own bungalow. But the murder, whether we like it or not, has been committed just there, so I don't see why it shouldn't be him as much as anybody else. However, go on."

"Third point, the handkerchief. Why should Brotherhood be carrying somebody else's handkerchief?"

"If it comes to that, why should somebody else be carrying Brotherhood's correspondence?"

"Oh, Brotherhood is mixed up in it somehow right enough. We shall see. Next point to be considered, was it accident, suicide, or murder?"

"You can cut out accident, surely. That would be a coincidence—somebody carrying Brotherhood's letter to fall out of the train by mere accident just where Brotherhood lives."

"Very well, for the present we'll ask Murder or Suicide? Now, I've several arguments against sui-