All that could be learned from them was that Archie Voss had not come home from the party, and that his friends were greatly alarmed about him.

Mr.Birtwell had no information to give.

The young man had been at his house, and had gone away some time during the night, but precisely at what hour he could not tell.
"You noticed him through the evening ?" said one of the policemen.
"Oh yes, certainly.

We know Archie very well.

He's always been intimate at our house." "Did he take wine freely ?" An indignant denial leaped to Mr.Birtwell's tongue, but the words died unspoken, for the image of Archie, with flushed face and eyes too bright for sober health, holding in his hand a glass of sparkling champagne, came vividly before him.
"Not more freely than other young men," he replied.