Six

INeither the night porter nor the barman proved helpful. The night porterremembered ringing up to Miss Keene’s room just after midnight and get-ting no reply. He had not noticed Mr. Bartlett leaving or entering the hotel.

A lot of gentlemen and ladies were strolling in and out, the night beingfine. And there were side doors off the corridor as well as the one in themain hall. He was fairly certain Miss Keene had not gone out by the maindoor, but if she had come down from her room, which was on the firstfloor, there was a staircase next to it and a door out at the end of the cor-ridor, leading on to the side terrace. She could have gone out of that un-seen easily enough. It was not locked until the dancing was over at twoo’clock.

The barman remembered Mr. Bartlett being in the bar the precedingevening but could not say when. Somewhere about the middle of the even-ing, he thought. Mr. Bartlett had sat against the wall and was lookingrather melancholy. He did not know how long he was there. There were alot of outside guests coming and going in the bar. He had noticed Mr. Bart-lett but he couldn’t fix the time in any way.