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making your signature in a forged writing. So Davenant will have banked in London. By the way, that's another point, did you notice that Davenant always used a typewriter? He couldn't risk the use of a false handwriting."

"Elementary, my dear Watson," murmured Gordon to himself.

"Well, he knew when the crash was coming; it was all carefully prearranged. He had even the impudence to book a sleeping car to Glasgow."

"But that's a difficulty, surely," put in Reeves. "Because he ordered the sleeper not as Davenant but as Brotherhood. Now, you make out that Brotherhood was to have disappeared, as from yesterday, and Davenant was to have become a permanency. Why didn't he order a sleeper in the name of Davenant?"

"How often am I to tell you, my dear Reeves, that you are dealing with a genius? If Davenant had ordered a sleeper just at that moment, attention might have been directed to him. But ordering a sleeper for Brotherhood would merely strengthen the impression that Brotherhood had disappeared. If that was all—personally I believe the scheme was even more audacious. I believe Davenant did mean to go away, for a time at any rate, and by that very train. He would join it at Crewe, travelling in an ordinary first-class carriage. Then at Wigan—bless my soul!"

"What's the matter?" asked Gordon.