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CHAPTER VII

CARMICHAEL'S ACCOUNT OF IT

" Good Lord," said Reeves, when the first shock of astonishment was over, "tell us some more about it. How did you know?"

Carmichael joined the tips of his fingers and beamed at them, secure of an audience at last. "Well, you've just admitted that all you can remember about Davenant is hair and spectacles. That is, his disguise. Of course the man wore a wig. He was a fictitious personality from start to finish."

"Except for his golf," suggested Gordon.

"Yes, that was real enough; but Brotherhood's wasn't. Don't you see that the two characters are complementary, suspiciously complementary? Brotherhood is here all the week, but never during the week-ends; Davenant is only seen from Saturday to Monday. Davenant is Catholic, so as to be violently distinguished from the atheist Brotherhood. Davenant is good at golf; so Brotherhood has to be distinguished by being very bad at golf, and that, to me, is the mystery of the whole concern. How a scratch player could have the iron

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