Yet how it stuck, and how it grew! There was the fire, as though lit on purpose; in a minute the written evidence could be destroyed for ever; and there was no other kind.

Dead men tell no tales, and live men only those that suit them! It all fitted in so marvellously.

To a villain it would have been less a temptation than a veritable gift of his ends.

Langholm almost wished he were a villain.
There was Steel.

Something remained for explanation there, but there really was a case against him.