ncentrate his mind on nothing, and only the exigencies of
railway travelling kept him off his legs. Luckily for Langholm, however,
sleep came to him when least expected, in his cool corner of the
corridor train, and he only awoke in time for luncheon before the
change at York. His tired brain was vastly refreshed, but so far he
could not concentrate it, even on the events of these eventful days. He
was still in the thick of them. A sense of proportion was as yet
impossible, and a consecutive review the most difficult of intellectual
feats. Langholm was too excited, and the situation too identical with
suspense, for a clear sight of all its bearings and potentialities; and
then there was the stern self-discipline, the determined bridling of the
imagination, in which he had not yet relaxed. Once in the night,
however, in the hopeless hours between darkness and broad day, he had
seen clearly for a while, and there and then pinned his vision down to
paper. It concerned only one aspect of the case, but this was how
Langholm found that he had stated it, on taking out his pocket-book
during the final stages of his journey--

PROVISIONAL CASE AGAINST ---- ---- ----

1. Was in Sloane Street on the night of the murder, at an hotel
about a mile from the house in which the murder was committed.
This can be proved.

2. Left hotel shortly after arrival towards midnight, believed to
have returned between two and three, and would thus have been
absent at very time at which crime was committed according to
medical evidence adduced at trial. But exact duration of absence
from hotel can he proved.

3. Knew M. in Australia, but was in England unknown to M. till two
mornings before murder, when M. wrote letter on receipt of which
---- ---- ---- came up to town (arriving near scene of murder as
above stated, about time of commission). All this morally certain
and probably capable of legal proof.

4. "So then I asked why a man he hadn't seen for so long should pay
his debts; but M. only laughed and swore, and said he'd make him."
C. could be subpoenaed to confirm if not to amplify this statement
to me, with others to effect that it was for money M. admitted
having written to "a millionaire."

5. Attended Mrs. M.'s trial throughout, thereafter making her
acquaintance and offering marriage without any previous private
knowledge whatsoever of her character or antecedents