Sir Charles paused again, to let the magnitude of this task sink into the minds of the others; apparently he had overlooked the fact that his problem must have been common to all. Roger, who with difficulty had remained silent so long, interposed a gentle question.
"Had you already made up your mind as to the criminal, Sir Charles?"
"I had already answered to my own satisfaction the question I had posed to myself, to which I made reference a few minutes ago," replied Sir Charles, with dignity but without explicitness.
"I see. You had made up your mind," Roger pinned him down. "It would be interesting to know, so that we can follow better your way of approaching the proof. You used inductive methods then?"
"Possibly, possibly," said Sir Charles testily. Sir Charles strongly disliked being pinned down. He glowered for a moment in silence, to recover from this indignity.
"The task, I saw at once," he resumed, in a sterner voice, "was not going to be an easy one. The period at my disposal was extremely limited, far - reaching enquiries were obviously necessary, my own time was far too closely engaged to permit me to make in person, any investigations I might find advisable. I thought the matter over and decided that the only possible way in which I could arrive at a conclusion was to consider the facts of the case for a sufficient length of time till I was enabled to formulate a theory which would stand every test I could apply to it out of such knowledge as was already at my disposal, and then make a careful list of further points which were outside my own knowledge but which must be facts if my theory were correct; these points could then be investigated by persons acting on my behalf and, if they were substantiated, my theory would be conclusively proved." Sir Charles drew a breath.
"In other words," Roger murmured with a smile to Alicia Dammers, turning a hundred words into six, '"I decided to employ inductive methods.'" But he spoke so softly that nobody but Miss Dammers heard him.
She smiled back appreciatively. The art of the written word is not that of the spoken one.
"I formed my theory," announced Sir Charles, with surprising simplicity. Perhaps he was still a little short of breath.
"I formed my theory. Of necessity much of it was guesswork. Let me give an example. The possession by the criminal of a sheet of Mason & Sons' notepaper had puzzled me more than anything. It was not an article which the individual I had in mind might be expected to possess, still less to be able to acquire. I could not conceive any method by which, the plot already decided upon and the sheet of paper required for its accomplishment, such a thing could be deliberately acquired by the individual in question without suspicion being raised afterwards.
"I therefore formed the conclusion that it was the actual ability to obtain a piece of Mason's note - paper in a totally unsuspicious way, which was the reason of the notepaper of that particular firm being employed at all." Sir Charles looked triumphantly round as if awaiting something.
Roger supplied it; no less readily for all that the point must have occurred to every one as being almost too obvious to need any comment. "That's a very interesting point indeed, Sir Charles. Most ingenious."
Sir Charles nodded his agreement. "Sheer guess - work, I admit. Nothing but guesswork. But guesswork that was justified in the result." Sir Charles was becoming so lost in admiration of his own perspicacity that he had forgotten all his love of long, winding sentences and smooth - rolling subordinate clauses. His massive head positively jerked on his shoulders.
"I considered how such a thing might come into one's possession, and whether the possession could be verified afterwards. It occurred to me at last that many firms insert a piece of notepaper with a receipted bill, with the words 'With Compliments' or some such phrase typed on it. That gave me three questions. Was this practice employed at Mason's? Had the individual in question an account at Mason's, or more particularly, to explain the yellowed edge of the paper, had there been such an account in the past? Were there any indications on the paper of such a phrase having been carefully erased?
"Ladies and gentlemen," boomed Sir Charles, puce with excitement, "you will see that the odds against those three questions being answered in the affirmative were enormous. Overwhelming. Before I posed them I knew that, should it prove to be the case, no mere chance could be held responsible." Sir Charles dropped his voice. "I knew," he said slowly, "that if those three questions of mine were answered in the affirmative, the individual I had in mind must be as guilty as if I had actually watched the poison being injected into those chocolates."
He paused and looked impressively round him, riveting all eyes on his face.
"Ladies and gentlemen, those three questions were answered in the affirmative."
Oratory is a powerful art. Roger knew perfectly well that Sir Charles, out of sheer force of habit, was employing on them all the usual and hackneyed forensic tricks. It was with difficulty, Roger felt that he refrained from adding "of the jury" to his "Ladies and gentlemen." But really this was only what might have been expected. Sir Charles had a good story to tell, and a story in which he obviously sincerely believed, and he was simply telling it in the way which, after all these years of practice, came most naturally to him. That was not what was annoying Roger.
What did annoy him was that he himself had been plodding on the scent of quite a different hare and, convinced as he had been that his must be the right one, had at first been only mildly amused as Sir Charles flirted round the skirts of his own quarry. Now he had allowed himself to be influenced by mere rhetoric, cheap though he knew it to be, into wondering.
But was it only rhetoric that had made him begin to doubt? Sir Charles seemed to have some substantial facts to weave into the airy web of his oratory. And pompous old fellow though he might be, he was certainly no fool. Roger began to feel distinctly uneasy. For his own hare, he had to admit, was a very elusive one.
As Sir Charles proceeded to develop his thesis, Roger's uneasiness began to turn into downright unhappiness.
"There can be no doubt about it. I ascertained through an agent that Mason's, an old - fashioned firm, invariably paid such private customers as had an account with them (nine - tenths of their business of course is wholesale) the courtesy of including a statement of thanks, just two or three words typed in the middle of a sheet of notepaper. I ascertained that this individual had had an account with the firm, which was apparently closed five months ago; that is to say, a cheque was sent then in settlement and no goods have been ordered since.
"Moreover I found time to pay a special visit myself to Scotland Yard in order to examine that letter again. By looking at the back I could make out quite distinct though indecipherable traces of former typewritten words in the middle of the page. These latter cut halfway down one of the lines of the letter and so prove that they could not have been an erasure from that; they correspond in length to the statement I expected; and they show signs of the most careful attempts, by rubbing, rolling and re - roughening the smoothed paper, to eradicate not only the typewriter - ink but even the actual indentations caused by the metal letter - arms. "This I held to be conclusive proof that my theory was correct, and at once I set about clearing up such other doubtful points as had occurred to me. Time was short, and I had recourse to no less than four firms of trustworthy inquiry - agents among whom I divided the task of providing the data I was seeking. This not only saved me considerable time, but had the advantage of not putting the sum - total of the information obtained into any hands but my own. Indeed I did my best so to split up my queries as to prevent any of the firms from even guessing what object I had in mind; and in this I am of the opinion that I have been successful.