“Yes,” replied the vicar, “that is your truly wise and happy course; and now you can patiently wait.—But stay; it just occurs to me, now I have been mentioning Dr Prosser, that he must have been travelling by the very train on to which the bag was dropped. It was the night of 23rd December last, was it not?”
“Yes, sir, that was the night.”
“And it was dropped on to the express train from the north to London?”
“It was, sir; but what then?”
“Why, don’t you remember what the doctor said as we were walking with him to the station the morning when he left us? Don’t you remember his saying that his luggage was put on the top of the carriage he was in, and that he was angry with the porter for his carelessness in not covering it properly?”
“Yes, sir; I think I remember it now, but other things have put it out of my head.”
“Well, Thomas, it seems to me not at all impossible that the bag was dropped on to this carriage; and you know that the train did not stop till it reached London.”
“Well, sir?”
“Might not the bag have been reckoned by the porter at London as part of the doctor’s luggage, if it was just on the top of it, and have been carried off by him?”
“Possible, sir, but I’m afraid not very likely.”