He was gazing at it when the blind flapped, and the door of the wardrobe creaked.
"Confound it!" he cried.

"The bedroom door was fastened by accident! The man forgot his key.

Look here! I'll show you just how it came about." He illustrated the slipping of the clubs, and his theory was borne out subsequently by the negro porter who had brought Curtis's belongings upstairs.

But an atmosphere of suspicion, of non-comprehension, had been created around the missing man, and it was not to be dispelled, even in Steingall's acute mind, by whittling away the mystery of the blocked door to a minor incident which might occur in any hotel any day.
Leaving the mechanic and the negro to patch the shattered door sufficiently to serve its purpose until it was replaced by another in the morning, the clerk escorted the representatives of the law downstairs.

Of course, their departure from the hall and their prolonged absence had been noted by the phalanx of reporters, and they were surrounded instantly.