“But seriously, isn’t it almost certain that those were the words of the original, before the sheet was torn in half? What connected them, of course, we can’t say. But they’re all ecclesiastical words—at least, you can say that ‘harvest’ is an ecclesiastical word at this time of the year, with harvest festivals coming on. Could such a sheet of paper have been lying about and been taken up carelessly anywhere but in a clergyman’s rooms? And honestly, doesn’t that clinch the case against Marryatt?”
“Well, it certainly looks as if one would like to ask Marryatt a few questions. Though, mark you, I refuse to believe that Marryatt laid hands on Brotherhood.”
“We can’t ask him questions. We must put him to a test.”
“What sort of a test?”
“Well, surely the stick might come in handy there. If we could somehow confront him with it suddenly, and see how he takes it—I believe they do that sort of thing in America.”
“Carmichael, I fancy, would tell you that the system was originally Danish.”
“Why Danish?”
“Really, Reeves, what is the use of all your researches into Hamlet, if you don’t realize that your present idea is just what Hamlet does to the King and Queen when the Players come on? I think, you know, it’s rather a dangerous method, because it’s so easy to suggest things to a person’s mind when they’re not there already. But this I will say, if Marryatt recoils from the sight of that stick which you picked up this afternoon, or shows any trace of confusion when he sees it, then—I won’t say I’ll be prepared to regard Marryatt as guilty, but I’ll be prepared to ask him for an explanation.”
“Well, Sadducee, have it your own way. We’ll put that stick and the golf-ball lying out prominently in my room. At dinner we’ll ask Marryatt to come along afterwards. We’ll go out of dinner early, and get into the secret passage. From there we can watch and see what happens when he comes in.”
“Don’t you think it would be a mistake to ask him in? It might somehow put him on his guard. . . . Yes, I know, I can make sure that he comes into your room without being asked. Leave that part to me, and stand by as soon as dinner’s over. We can go up into the passage by the billiard-room end.”