mething, and the
detective knocked again, somewhat more insistently. Now they were
intent for the slightest noise behind that closed door, and they caught
a subdued groan or whine, followed by the metallic creak of a bed-frame.

At that instant a chamber-maid hurried up.

"I was just going to 'phone the office," she said to the clerk. "A
little while ago I tried to enter that room, but my key would not turn
in the lock."

"Did you hear anyone stirring within?" asked the clerk.

"No, sir. I knocked, and there was no answer."

"Listen now, then."

A third time did Steingall rap on the door, and the strange whine was
repeated, while there could be no question that a bed was being dragged
or shoved to and fro on a carpeted floor.

"My land!" whispered the girl in an awed tone. "There's something
wrong in there!"

"Let me try your key," said the clerk. He rattled the master-key in
the keyhole, but with no avail.

"I suppose it acts all right in every other lock?" he growled.

"Oh, yes, sir. I've been using it all the evening."

"Someone has tampered with the lock from the outside," he said
savagely. "There is nothing for it but to send for the engineer.
Before we're through with this business we'll pull the d--d hotel to
pieces. A nice reputation the place will get if all this door-forcing
appears in the papers to-morrow."

Certainly the clerk was to be pitied. Never before had the decorum of
the Central Hotel been so outraged. Its air of smug respectability
seemed to have vanished. Even to the clerk's own disturbed imagination
the establishment had suddenly grown raffish, and its dingy paint and
drab upholstery resembled the make-up and cloak of a scowling tragedian.

A strong-armed workman came joyously. He had already figured as a
personage below stairs, because of his earlier experiences, and it was
a cheering thing to be called on twice in one night to participate in a
mystery which was undoubtedly connected with the murder in the street.

Before adopting more strenuous methods he inserted a piece of strong
wire into the keyhole, thinking to pick the lock by that means; but he
soon desisted.

"Some joker has been at that game before me," he announced. "A chunk
of wire has been forced in there after the door was locked."

"From the outside?" inquired Steingall.

"Yes, sir. These locks work by a key only from without. There is a
handle inside. . . . Well, here goes!"

A few blows wit