larious mission, he has come across the dead body of Sir
Horace Fewbanks--murdered in his own house. Mark that! he tells them
freely and openly--tells Hill--as soon as he gets in the flat. Allowing
for possible defects in my previous reasoning against Hill's story,
admitting that an adroit prosecuting counsel may be able to buttress up
some of the weak points, allowing that you may have other circumstantial
evidence supporting your case, that is the fatal flaw in your chain:
because of Birchill's statement on his return to the flat no jury in the
world ought to convict him."

"I don't see why," said Rolfe.

Crewe fixed his deep eyes intently on Rolfe as he replied:

"Because, if Birchill had committed this murder, he would never have
admitted immediately on his returning, least of all to Hill, anything
about the dead body."

"But he told Hill that he didn't commit the murder," protested Rolfe.

"But you say that he did commit the murder," retorted the detective.
"You cannot use that piece of evidence both ways. Your case is that this
man Birchill, while visiting Riversbrook to commit a burglary which he
and Hill arranged, encountered Sir Horace Fewbanks and murdered him. I
say that his admission to Hill on his return to the flat that he had come
across the body of Sir Horace Fewbanks, is proof that Birchill did not
commit the murder. No murderer would make such a damning admission, least
of all to a man he didn't trust--to a man who he believed was capable of
entrapping him. Next you have Birchill consenting to a message being sent
to Scotland Yard conveying the information that Sir Horace had been
murdered. Is that the action of a guilty man? Wouldn't it have been more
to his interest to leave the dead man's body undiscovered in the empty
house and bolt from the country? It might have remained a week or more
before being discovered. True, he would have had to find some way of
silencing Hill while he got away from the country. He might have had to
resort to the crude method of tying Hill up, gagging him, and leaving him
in the flat. But even that would have been better than to inform the
police immediately of the murder and place his life at the mercy of Hill,
whom he distrusted."

"Looked at your way, I admit that there are some weak points in our
case," said Rolfe. "But you'll find that our Counsel will be able to
answer most of them in his address to the jury. If Birchill didn't
commit the murder, who did? Do y