"He travelled then by Lewes and not by the direct route?"
"Presumably. He had a season ticket via Lewes, since our business often took him there. Had he intended to travel by Hayward's Heath," said Mr. Taynton rather laboriously, as if explaining something to a child, "he could not have intended to get out at Falmer."
Mr. Figgis had to think over this, which he did with his mouth open.
"Seeing that the Hayward's Heath line does not pass Falmer," he suggested.
Mr. Taynton drew a sheet of paper toward him and kindly made a rough sketch-map of railway lines.
"And his season ticket went by the Lewes line," he explained.
Superintendent Figgis appeared to understand this after a while. Then he sighed heavily, and changed the subject with rather disconcerting abruptness.
"From my notes I understand that Mr. Morris Assheton ascertained that the missing individual had left his flat in London on Thursday afternoon," he said.
"Yes, Mr. Assheton is a client of ours, and he wished to see my partner on a business matter. In fact, when Mr. Mills was found not to have returned on Thursday evening, he went up to London next day to see him, since we both supposed he had been detained there."
Mr. Figgis looked once more mournfully at his notes, altered a palpably mistaken "Wednesday" into Thursday, and got up.