But my tactics of studied prolixity were a complete failure. The attempt to fatigue Thorndyke’s brain with superabundant detail was like trying to surfeit a pelican with whitebait. He consumed it all with calm enjoyment and asked for more; and when, at last, I did really begin to think that I had bored him a little, he staggered me by reading over his notes and starting a brisk cross-examination to elicit fresh facts! And the most surprising thing of all was that when I had finished I seemed to know a great deal more about the case than I had ever known before.

“It was a very remarkable affair,” he observed, when the cross-examination was over⁠—leaving me somewhat in the condition of a cider-apple that has just been removed from a hydraulic press⁠—“a very suspicious affair with a highly unsatisfactory end. I am not sure that I entirely agree with your police officer. Nor do I fancy that some of my acquaintances at Scotland Yard would have agreed with him.”

“Do you think I ought to have taken any further measures?” I asked uneasily.