“Might be done. I don’t see anything wildly improbable in it.”
“Oh, no; not wildly improbable. But improbable enough, for all that. Have you ever done it, for instance?”
“Put a thing in the wrong pocket? Lord, yes; heaps of times.”
“No, you idiot. Not just in any wrong pocket. In the upper pocket of a waistcoat instead of the lower.”
Alec considered. “I don’t know. Haven’t I!”
“Probably not. Once again, it’s an unnatural mistake. One doesn’t use the upper pockets of a waistcoat much. They’re not easy to get at. But consider this. When you want to slip a thing into the lower pocket of a waistcoat that’s hanging on a chair, it’s the easiest thing in the world to put it in the upper pocket by mistake. Done it myself hundreds of times.”
Alec whistled softly. “I see what you’re getting at. You mean——”
“Absolutely! A waistcoat worn by somebody else is in the same category as a waistcoat hanging on a chair. If we’re to go by probabilities, then the most likely thing is that somebody else put those keys in that pocket. Not Stanworth himself at all.”
“But who on earth do you imagine did it? Jefferson?”
“Jefferson!” Roger repeated scornfully. “Of course not Jefferson! That’s the whole point. Jefferson was looking for those keys; and it’s just because they were in the wrong pocket and he didn’t know it, that he couldn’t find them. That’s plain enough.”