Explore "The Viaduct Murder" by Ronald A. Knox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Mordaunt Reeves looked up in a dazed way, still holding the tube. "What was that you said?"
"I said, Davenant's confessed. It's an extraordinary thing, you know, the way we use ambiguous expressions, and expect the other man to interpret them in the right sense. Davenant, now, is a Catholic, and therefore it's absurd for me to say ‘Davenant's confessed' as if I were to rush into the room and say ‘Davenant's shaved. ' But when I say ‘Davenant's confessed,' I mean, and expect you to understand me as meaning, Davenant has confessed to the police that he murdered Brotherhood."