The Abandoned Room eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 307 pages of information about The Abandoned Room.

The Abandoned Room eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 307 pages of information about The Abandoned Room.

“That’s going pretty far, Hartley.”

“It’s a chance.  A physical one.”

A pretty maid opened the door.  Her face was troubled.  She studied them with frank disappointment.

“I thought—­” she began.

“That your mistress was coming back?” Graham flashed.

There was no concealment in the girl’s manner.  It was certain that Maria was not in the apartment.

“You remember me?” Bobby asked.

“Yes.  You have been here.  You are a friend of mademoiselle’s.  You can, perhaps, tell me where she is.”

Bobby shook his head.  The girl spread her hands.  She burst out excitedly: 

“What is one to do?  I have telephoned the theatre.  There was no one there who knew anything at all, except that mademoiselle had not appeared at the performance last night.”

Graham glanced at Bobby.

“When,” he asked, “did you see her last?”

“It was before luncheon yesterday.”

“Did she leave no instructions?  Didn’t she say when she would be back?”

The girl nodded.

“That’s what worries me, for she said she would be back after the performance last night.”

“She left no instructions?” Graham repeated.

“Only that if any one called or telephoned I was to make no appointments.  What am I to do?  Perhaps I shouldn’t be talking to you.  She would never forgive me for an indiscretion.”

“For the present I advise you to do nothing,” Graham said.  “You can safely leave all that to her managers.  I am going to see them now.  I will tell them what you have said.”

The girl’s eyes moistened.

“Thank you, sir.  I have been at my wits’ end.”

Apparently she withheld nothing.  She played no part to confuse the dancer’s friends.

On the way to the managers’ office, with the trailing car behind them, Graham reasoned excitedly: 

“For the first time we seem to be actually on the track.  Here’s a tangible clue that may lead to the heart of the case.  Maria pulled the wool over the maid’s eyes, too.  She didn’t want her to know her plans, but her instructions show that she had no intention of returning last night.  She probably made a bee line for the Cedars.  It was probably she that you saw at the lake, probably she who cried last night.  If only she hadn’t written that note!  I can’t get the meaning of it.  It’s up to her managers now.  If they haven’t heard from her it’s a safe guess she’s playing a deep game, connected with the crying, and the light at the deserted house, and the disappearance of Paredes before dawn.  You must realize the connection between that and your condition the other evening after you had left them.”

Bobby nodded.  He began to hope that at the managers’ office they would receive no explanation of Maria’s absence destructive to Graham’s theory.  Early as it was they found a bald-headed man in his shirt sleeves pacing with an air of panic a blantantly furnished office.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Abandoned Room from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.