thought. Watson Bard thought. They thought in silence.
Cleggett could almost feel these three master brains pulsating in
unison, working in rhythmic accord, there in the silence; the sense of
this intense cerebral effort became almost oppressive....

Finally Wilton Barnstable began to stroke his mustache, and a pleased
smile stole over his plump and benign visage. Barton Ward also began
to stroke his mustache and smile. But it was twenty seconds more
before Watson Bard's corrugated brow relaxed and his eyes twinkled with
the idea that had come so much more readily to the other two.

"Cleggett," said Wilton Barnstable, "you have heard of the deductive
method as applied to the work of the detective?"

"I have," said Cleggett. "I have read Poe's detective tales and
Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories."

"Ah! Sherlock Holmes!" The three detectives looked at each other with
glances in which were mingled both bitterness and amusement; the look
seemed to dispose of Sherlock Holmes. Once again Cleggett had a
fleeting thought that Wilton Barnstable might possibly be a vain man.

"Sherlock Holmes," said Barnstable, "never existed. His marvelous
feats are not possible in real life, Cleggett. But the deductive
method which he pretended to use--mind you, I say PRETENDED,
Cleggett!--is, nevertheless, sound."

And then the three detectives gave Cleggett an example of the
phenomenal cleverness.

"Mr. Ward," said Wilton Barnstable, "Logan Black entered this hold."

"He did," said Barton Ward.

"He is not here now," said Wilton Barnstable.

"He is not," said Watson Bard.

"Therefore he has escaped," said Wilton Barnstable.

"But how?" said Barton Ward.

"Only a ghost or an insect could leave this hold otherwise than by the
hatchway, to all appearances," said Wilton Barnstable.

"Logan Black is not a ghost," said Barton Ward firmly.

"Logan Black is not an insect," said Watson Bard with conviction.

"Then," said Barnstable, "that eliminates the supernatural and
the--the----"

"The entomological?" suggested Cleggett.

The three detectives stared at him fixedly for a moment, as if
surprised at the interruption. But if they were miffed they were too
dignified to do more than hint it. Barnstable continued:

"There is no such thing as magic."

"There is not," said Ward.

"The fourth dimension does not exist," said Bard.

"Therefore Logan Black's exit," said Barnstable, "was in accordance
with well-known phy