at
Oxford some time past decade very urgent and confidential.

My friend replied in the following telegram, which reached me next
morning (the morning of the inquest):

Marlowe was member O.U.D.S. for three years and president 19--
played Bardolph Cleon and Mercutio excelled in character acting and
imitations in great demand at smokers was hero of some historic
hoaxes.

I had been led to send the telegram which brought this very helpful
answer by seeing on the mantel-shelf in Marlowe's bedroom a photograph
of himself and two others in the costume of Falstaff's three followers,
with an inscription from _The Merry Wives_, and by noting that it bore
the imprint of an Oxford firm of photographers.

(4) During his connection with Manderson, Marlowe had lived as one of
the family. No other person, apart from the servants, had his
opportunities for knowing the domestic life of the Mandersons in detail.

(5) I ascertained beyond doubt that Marlowe arrived at a hotel in
Southampton on the Monday morning at six-thirty, and there proceeded to
carry out the commission which, according to his story, and to the
statement made to Mrs. Manderson in the bedroom by the false Manderson,
had been entrusted to him by his employer. He had then returned in the
car to Marlstone, where he had shown great amazement and horror at the
news of the murder.

* * * * *

These, I say, are the relevant facts about Marlowe. We must now examine
fact number _five_ (as set out above) in connection with conclusion
number _five_ about the false Manderson.

I would first draw attention to one important fact. _The only person who
professed to have heard Manderson mention Southampton at all before he
started in the car was Marlowe._ His story--confirmed to some extent by
what the butler overheard--was that the journey was all arranged in a
private talk before they set out, and he could not say, when I put the
question to him, why Manderson should have concealed his intentions by
giving out that he was going with Marlowe for a moonlight drive. This
point, however, attracted no attention. Marlowe had an absolutely
air-tight alibi in his presence at Southampton by six-thirty; nobody
thought of him in connection with a murder which must have been
committed after twelve-thirty--the hour at which Martin, the butler, had
gone to bed. But it was the Manderson who came back from the drive who
went out of h