Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example.

I followed you.' I saw no one.' That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.

Only that I insist upon your dining with us. It will be ready in half an hour. I have oysters and a brace of grouse, with something a little choice in white wines. Watson, you have never yet recognized my merits as a housekeeper. ~ Sherlock Holmes

A trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still more so.

The ideal reasoner, he remarked, would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it.

You wish to put me in the dark. I tell you that I will never be put in the dark. You wish to beat me. I tell you that you will never beat me.

…but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.