“Ordinary!” he cried. “Ordinary! Well, I’m dashed! Ordinary! If only one thing would happen in an ordinary way, we might do something, but everything is ridiculous.” Bill brightened up again.

“Ridiculous? How?”

“Every way. Take those ridiculous clothes we found last night. You can explain the brown suit, but why the under clothes. You can explain the underclothes in some absurd way, if you like⁠—you can say that Mark always changed his underclothes whenever he interviewed anybody from Australia⁠—but why, in that case, my dear Watson, why didn’t he change his collar?”

“His collar?” said Bill in amazement.

“His collar, Watson.”

“I don’t understand.”

“And it’s all so ordinary,” scoffed Antony.