You say certain things have happened.
I say they didn't, for the very sound reason that they couldn't. I
am not going to tell you the truth, because I am a long way from
that myself, and I dare say you'll strike it yet before I do; but I
am going to prove that a good few things you think are true can't
be--that events you take for granted never happened at all. We've
got but few senses and they are easily deluded. In fact a man's a
darned clumsy box of tricks at his best and I wouldn't swap a hill
of beans for what my senses can assure me; but, as a wise man says,
'Art is with us to save us from too much truth,' so I say 'Reason is
with us to save us from too much evidence of our senses--often
false.'
"Now see how reason bears on the evidence of Robert Redmayne and his
trick acts since first he disappeared. A thing occurs and there are
only certain ways--very limited in number--to explain it. Either
Robert Redmayne killed Michael Pendean, or else he did not. And if
he did, he was sane or insane at the time.
Pages:
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281