The Eye of Osiris

by R. Austin Freeman

"Mighty little, excepting that you were the late John Bellingham's man of business."

"The 'late John Bellingham,' hey! How do you know he is the late
John Bellingham?"

"As a matter of fact, I don't; only I rather understood that that was your own belief."

"You understood! Now from whom did you 'understand' that? From Godfrey Bellingham? H'm! And how did he know what I believe? I never told him. It is a very unsafe thing, my dear sir, to expound another man's beliefs."

"Then you think that John Bellingham is alive?"

"Do I? Who said so? I did not, you know."

"But he must be either dead or alive."

"There," said Mr. Jellicoe, "I am entirely with you. You have stated an undeniable truth."

"It is not a very illuminating one, however," I replied, laughing.

"Undeniable truths often are not," he retorted. "They are apt to be extremely general. In fact, I would affirm that the certainty of the truth of a given proposition is directly proportional to its generality."