d not look under bed. Did you look under it
after the theft?

DE LEVIS. No. I didn't.

INSPECTOR. Ah! Now, what did you do after you came back from your bath?
Just give us that precisely.

DE LEVIS. Locked the door and left the key in. Put back my sponge, and
took off my dressing-gown and put it there. [He points to the footrails
of the bed] Then I drew the curtains, again.

INSPECTOR. Shutting the window?

DE LEVIS. No. I got into bed, felt for my watch to see the time. My
hand struck the pocket-book, and somehow it felt thinner. I took it out,
looked into it, and found the notes gone, and these shaving papers
instead.

INSPECTOR. Let me have a look at those, sir. [He applies the
spy-glasses] And then?

DE LEVIS. I think I just sat on the bed.

INSPECTOR. Thinkin' and cursin' a bit, I suppose. Ye-es?

DE LEVIS. Then I put on my dressing-gown and went straight to Mr WINSOR.

INSPECTOR. Not lockin' the door?

DE LEVIS. No.

INSPECTOR. Exactly. [With a certain finality] Now, sir, what time did
you come up?

DE LEVIS. About eleven.

INSPECTOR. Precise, if you can give it me.

DE LEVIS. Well, I know it was eleven-fifteen when I put my watch under
my pillow, before I went to the bath, and I suppose I'd been about a
quarter of an hour undressing. I should say after eleven, if anything.

INSPECTOR. Just undressin'? Didn't look over your bettin' book?

DE LEVIS. No.

INSPECTOR. No prayers or anything?

DE LEVIS. No.

INSPECTOR. Pretty slippy with your undressin' as a rule?

DE LEVIS. Yes. Say five past eleven.

INSPECTOR. Mr WINSOR, what time did the gentleman come to you?

WINSOR. Half-past eleven.

INSPECTOR. How do you fix that, sir?

WINSOR. I'd just looked at the time, and told my wife to send her maid
off.

INSPECTOR. Then we've got it fixed between 11.15 and 11.30. [Jots] Now,
sir, before we go further I'd like to see your butler and the footman
that valets this gentleman.

WINSOR. [With distaste] Very well, Inspector; only--my butler has been
with us from a boy.

INSPECTOR. Quite so. This is just clearing the ground, sir.

WINSOR. General, d'you mind touching that bell?

CANYNGE rings a bell by the bed.

INSPECTOR. Well, gentlemen, there are four possibilities. Either the
thief was here all the time, waiting under the bed, and slipped out after
this gentleman had gone to Mr WINSOR. Or he came in with a key that fits
the lock;