a friend to go to the Hotel there and collect her luggage and pay her bill. Then you get the receipted bill with the proper date on it.”
“I think on the whole we have worked out a very sound hypothesis,” said Tommy. “The next thing to do is to catch the twelve o’clock train to Torquay tomorrow and verify our brilliant conclusions.”
Armed with a portfolio of photographs, Tommy and Tuppence duly established themselves in a first class carriage the following morning, and booked seats for the second lunch.
“It probably won’t be the same dining car attendants,” said Tommy. “That would be too much luck to expect. I expect we shall have to travel up and down to Torquay for days before we strike the right ones.”
“This alibi business is very trying,” said Tuppence. “In books it is all passed over in two or three paragraphs. Inspector Something then boarded the train to Torquay and questioned the dining car attendants and so ended the story.”
For once, however, the young couple’s luck was in. In answer to their question the attendant who brought their bill for lunch proved to be the same one who had been on duty the preceding Tuesday. What Tommy called the ten shilling note touch then came into action and Tuppence produced the portfolio.
“I want to know,” said Tommy, “if any of these ladies had lunch on this train on Tuesday last?”
In a gratifying manner worthy of the best detective fiction the man