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s they were afraid to. It was a time when it paid to be discreet.'
'Yes; but I'll tell you something even odder. You know' that Henry brought a Bill of Attainder against Richard after Bosworth. Before Parliament, I mean. Well, he accuses Richard of cruelty and tyranny but, doesn't even mention the murder.'
'What!' said Grant, startled.
'Yes, you may well look startled.'
'Are you sure!'
'Quite sure.'
'But Henry got possession of the Tower immediately on his arrival in London after Bosworth. If the boys were missing it is incredible that he should not publish the fact immediately. It was the trump card in his hand.' He lay in surprised silence for a little. The sparrows on the window-sill quarrelled loudly. 'I can't make sense of it,' he said.
'What possible explanation can there be for his omission to snake capital out of the fact that the boys were missing?'
Brent shifted his long legs to a more comfortable position. 'There is only one explanation,' he said. 'And that is that the boys weren't missing.'
There was a still longer silence this time, while they stared at each other.
'Oh, no, it's nonsense,' Grant said. 'There must be some obvious explanation that we are failing to see.'
'As what, for instance?