“To end the suspense, as yours truly did, · Discover the way to Sydney from Sid”

The third riddle is the clue that reopens the hunt for the Penny Black thief after the investigators’ theory about Sid Towers collapses. Its couplet points from Sid toward Sydney, but at this stage the reference is unexplained: the verse renews the investigation rather than solving it.

The Verse and Its Immediate Effect

Arnold Musgrave reads the new riddle aloud: “To end the suspense, as yours truly did, Discover the way to Sydney from Sid.” The couplet arrives as evidence that Sid Towers could not have been the criminal mastermind who devised the rhymes and stole the Penny Black. Its appearance therefore reverses the investigators’ confidence in their earlier theory and establishes that the thief remains at large.

The line linking Sid and Sydney directs attention away from a simple identification of Towers as the author. Peter Diamond pauses over the destination, while John Wigfull dismisses the rhymes as gibberish that can only be understood after the event. Diamond resists that conclusion: the earlier riddles had made sense, he argues, once the investigators possessed the relevant information.

The Earlier Case and the Limits of Prediction

The discarded accusation against Towers had seemed to have material support. At a previous meeting, Diamond produced a paper bag bearing lists of rhyming words, which appeared to clinch the case against him. The new verse unsettles that reading: the lists had helped make Towers look like the riddle-maker, but the fresh challenge shows that the real author has not been caught.

The riddle also sharpens the difference between solving a clue retrospectively and predicting a crime in advance. Wigfull notes that the first riddle could not have told them that the Postal Museum was about to be robbed. Diamond nevertheless sees reason to keep working: the investigators now know how two riddles turned out and have gained some insight into the author’s thinking. The verse thus offers a limited advantage, not a complete key to what follows.

Sydney as an Open Clue

The destination remains unresolved in this exchange. Arnold Musgrave cautions against assuming that the criminal is a man and asks whether anyone connected with the case has an Australian connection. Diamond says that no such connection has emerged. By ending on that unanswered possibility, the riddle keeps several readings open without establishing which one is correct.

Its function is consequently both informational and disruptive. The couplet confirms that the investigation’s apparent solution was wrong, gives the team a new direction to examine, and makes the wordplay’s delayed intelligibility part of the mystery. “To end the suspense” promises an answer, but the reference to Sydney prolongs it.