CHAPTER XVIITo some extent Macdonald had forestalled the criticism he anticipated from Colonel Wragley and the inevitable question, “What tangible evidence have you against Rockingham?” by having written up a series of notes concerning his own observations and deductions, which, while mainly theoretical and tentative, had led him to his project of rattling up his private suspect in the hope of making him show his hand.
Macdonald admitted that he had formulated no fewer than five theories as to the possible originators of the Belfry crime, the last of which proved to have been the right one.
(1) The obvious reading of the evidence was that Debrette, having blackmailed Attleton, killed him at the Belfry. Theory disproved (to Macdonald’s mind) by Debrette’s inexplicable foolishness in showi
