Mr. Cleek?" queried Trent, in amazement. "You don't
surely mean to say that you can make anything important out of a
table and a vase of flowers? Because, I may tell you that Loti is mad
on flowers, and always has a vase of them in the room somewhere."

"Does he, indeed? Natural inclination of the artistic temperament, I
dare say. But never mind, get on with the story. Mrs. Sherman fixes
the hour when she noticed this as half-past four, you say? How, then,
does the porter who showed the boy into the glass-room fix it, may
I ask?"

"By the same means precisely--the striking of the church clock. He
remembers hearing it just as he reached the partition door, and
was, indeed, at particular pains to take out his watch to see if it
tallied with it. Also, three of our scene painters were passing
along the hall at the foot of the short flight of steps leading up to
the glass-room at the time. They were going out to tea; and one of
them sang out to him laughingly, 'Hallo, Ginger, how does that
two-shilling turnip of yours make it? Time for tea at Buckingham
Palace?' for he had won the watch at a singing contest only the
night before, and his mates had been chaffing him about it all
day. In that manner the exact time of his going to the door with
the boy is fixed, and with three persons to corroborate it. A second
later the porter saw the boy push open the swing-door and walk into
the place, and as he turned and went back downstairs he distinctly
heard him say, 'Good afternoon, sir. Mr. Trent said I might come
up and watch, if you don't mind.'"

"Did he hear anybody reply?"

"No, he did not. He heard no one speak but the boy."

"I see. So, then, there is no actual proof that Loti _was_ in there
at the time, which, of course, makes the testimony of Mrs. Sherman
and her daughter appear reliable when they say that the room was
empty."

"Still the boy was there if Loti wasn't, Mr. Cleek. There's proof
enough that he did go into the place even though those two women
declare that the room was empty."

"Quite so, quite so. And when two and two don't make four, 'there's
something rotten in the state of Denmark.' What does Loti himself say
with regard to the circumstance? Or hasn't he been spoken to about
it?"

"My hat, yes! I went to him about it the very first thing. He says
the boy never put in an appearance, to _his_ knowledge; that he
never saw him. In fact, that just before half-past four he was
taken with a violent atta