To this elaborate and plausible hypothesis the answer of the police and
of the company was, first, that no such ticket was found; secondly,
that the slow train would never run parallel to the express; and,
thirdly, that the local train had been stationary in King's Langley
Station when the express, going at fifty miles an hour, had flashed
past it. So perished the only satisfying explanation, and five years
have elapsed without supplying a new one. Now, at last, there comes a
statement which covers all the facts, and which must be regarded as
authentic. It took the shape of a letter dated from New York, and
addressed to the same criminal investigator whose theory I have quoted. It is given here in extenso, with the exception of the two opening
paragraphs, which are personal in their nature:

"You'll excuse me if I'm not very free with names. There's less reason
now than there was five years ago when mother was still living. But
for all that, I had rather cover up our tracks all I can. But I owe
you an explanation, for if your idea of it was wrong, it was a mighty
ingenious one all the same. I'll have to go back a little so as you
may understand all about it. "My people came from Bucks, England, and emigrated to the States in the
early fifties. They settled in Rochester, in the State of New York,
where my father ran a large dry goods store. There were only two sons:
myself, James, and my brother, Edward. I was ten years older than my
brother, and after my father died I sort of took the place of a father
to him, as an elder brother would. He was a bright, spirited boy, and
just one of the most beautiful creatures that ever lived. But there
was always a soft spot in him, and it was like mould in cheese, for it
spread and spread, and nothing that you could do would stop it. Mother
saw it just as clearly as I did, but she went on spoiling him all the
same, for he had such a way with him that you could refuse him nothing. I did all I could to hold him in, and he hated me for my pains. "At last he fairly got his head, and nothing that we could do would
stop him. He got off into New York, and went rapidly from bad to
worse. At first he was only fast, and then he was criminal; and then,
at the end of a year or two, he was one of the most notorious young
crooks in the city. He had formed a friendship with Sparrow MacCoy,
who was at the head of his profession as a bunco-steerer, green
goodsman and general rascal. They took to card-sharping, and frequented
some of the best hotels in New York. My brother was an excellent actor
(he might have made an honest name for himself if he had chosen), and
he would take the parts of a young Englishman of title, of a simple lad
from the West, or of a college undergraduate, whichever suited Sparrow
MacCoy's purpose. And then one day he dressed himself as a girl, and
he carried it off so well, and made himself such a valuable decoy, that
it was their favourite game afterwards. They had made it right with
Tammany and with the police, so it seemed as if nothing could ever stop
them, for those were in the days before the Lexow Commission, and if
you only had a pull, you could do pretty nearly everything you wanted. "And nothing would have stopped them if they had only stuck to cards
and New York, but they must needs come up Rochester way, and forge a
name upon a cheque. It was my brother that did it, though everyone
knew that it was under the influence of Sparrow MacCoy. I bought up
that cheque, and a pretty sum it cost me. Then I went to my brother,
laid it before him on the table, and swore to him that I would
prosecute if he did not clear out of the country. At first he simply
laughed. I could not prosecute, he said, without breaking our mother's
heart, and he knew that I would not do that. I made him understand,
however, that our mother's heart was being broken in any case, and that
I had set firm on the point that I would rather see him in Rochester
gaol than in a New York hotel. So at last he gave in, and he made me a
solemn promise that he would see Sparrow MacCoy no more, that he would
go to Europe, and that he would turn his hand to any honest trade that
I helped him to get. I took him down right away to an old family
friend, Joe Willson, who is an exporter of American watches and clocks,
and I got him to give Edward an agency in London, with a small salary
and a 15 per cent commission on all business. His manner and
appearance were so good that he won the old man over at once, and
within a week he was sent off to London with a case full of samples. "It seemed to me that this business of the cheque had really given my
brother a fright, and that there was some chance of his settling down
into an honest line of life. My mother had spoken with him, and what
she said had touched him, for she had always been the best of mothers
to him and he had been the great sorrow of her life. But I knew that
this man Sparrow MacCoy had a great influence over Edward and my chance
of keeping the lad straight lay in breaking the connection between
them. I had a friend in the New York detective force, and through him
I kept a watch upon MacCoy. When, within a fortnight of my brother's
sailing, I heard that MacCoy had taken a berth in the Etruria, I was as
certain as if he had told me that he was going over to England for the
purpose of coaxing Edward back again into the ways that he had left. In an instant I had resolved to go also, and to pit my influence
against MacCoy's. I knew it was a losing fight, but I thought, and my
mother thought, that it was my duty. We passed the last night together
in prayer for my success, and she gave me her own Testament that my
father had given her on the day of their marriage in the Old Country,
so that I might always wear it next my heart. "I was a fellow-traveller, on the steamship, with Sparrow MacCoy, and
at least I had the satisfaction of spoiling his little game for the
voyage. The very first night I went into the smoking-room, and found
him at the head of a card-table, with a half a dozen young fellows who
were carrying their full purses and their empty skulls over to Europe. He was settling down for his harvest, and a rich one it would have
been. But I soon changed all that. "'Gentlemen,' said I, 'are you aware whom you are playing with?' "'What's that to you? You mind your own business!' said he, with an
oath. "'Who is it, anyway?' asked one of the dudes. "'He's Sparrow MacCoy, the most notorious card-sharper in the States.' "Up he jumped with a bottle in his hand, but he remembered that he was
under the flag of the effete Old Country, where law and order run, and
Tammany has no pull. Gaol and the gallows wait for violence and
murder, and there's no slipping out by the back door on board an ocean
liner. "'Prove your words, you----!' said he. "'I will!' said I. 'If you will turn up your right shirt-sleeve to the
shoulder, I will either prove my words or I will eat them.' "He turned white and said not a word.