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day, although one would have expected him to want to clear out on Tuesday. Our explanation, you see, was that coming to Paston Whitchurch on the 4.50 would make it too late for him to get a sleeper that night. But apparently we were wrong, because he came on the three o'clock from London; and I remember, when I looked it up in the timetable, I found he could have caught his train at Crewe⁠—going on from Binver, of course."

"Yes, that's true. Still, it's only a subsidiary point. Let's see⁠ . . . the sleeper had originally been dated for the Thursday, hadn't it; and then Thursday had been scratched out and Wednesday put instead?"

"Yes, but it was no good supposing that was a fraud. Because Thursday wouldn't be any more probable than Wednesday,⁠—in fact, less."

"Yes; it's confoundedly queer. I suppose he couldn't possibly⁠—Gordon, what date was the Wednesday?"

"The 17th."

"It was? Then the Tuesday would be the 16th, and the Thursday the 18th."

"My dear Reeves! How on earth⁠ ⁠. . . "

"Child's play, my dear Gordon. No, but look here, it's serious. Don't you see that if there's one day of the week whose name can be easily changed to another it's Tuesday, which you can always change to Thursday? And that if there's one number which can be easily changed it's 6, which you can always change to 8?"