CHAPTER I

“MR. ROHMER, I am certain that a woman entered my room last night.”

Carl Rohmer sat back in his chair and smiled.

During the twenty years he had managed the Hotel Splendide he had listened to stories and theories sufficient to fill a library. Few of the confidences received by him ever became public. It was his uncanny ability to stifle gossip and scandal that had won for him his position in Sydney’s largest and most luxurious hotel.

“And, the lady, M’sieu. What did she do?” Rohmer carelessly picked up an ivory, paper-knife from the desk, tapping with the blade, softly and irregularly, on the polished wood.

“You think I had a pipe-dream?” the man on the opposite side of the desk, laughed lightly. “Let me tell you, Mr. Rohmer–”

“Tut, tut!” Rohmer’s white hand waved away the suggestion. “I asked the question, Mr. Therrold, in the way of business. It is well to commence at the beginning of the story. M’sieu had supper and retired to his apartments, yes?”

Mark Therrold nodded; A tall; clean-shaven man of about 35 years of age, he seemed strangely perturbed, huddling down in the big lounge chair and running his fingers, continually, through his fast-greying hair.

“My supper, if you call it so, consisted of a few sandwiches and a whisky-soda at the bar,” he retorted. “Then I went up to my room. It was a hot night and after a shower I sat I smoking and reading for an hour. Then I turned in.”

“And the time?” The hotel manager nodded encouragingly.

“When I went to bed? About 12.30, I should say. I did not look at my watch.”

“M’sieu slept well, eh?”

“No. It was too hot to sleep. S’pose I dozed a bit. Anyway, it was some time after I turned in that I had an idea that there was someone in my room.”

“The person–a woman, M’sieu suggested–made, some noise?”

“Hardly a sound. I woke suddenly with the idea that there was someone in the room; but I could hear nothing.” Therrold shifted restlessly. “I simply felt there, was someone hear. Oh, I can’t explain. I had the feeling that there was a woman near.”

“A woman?”

“I saw her, later. I lay still, with my eyes half-opened, watching. Shifting restlessly, I managed to roll over so that I could watch the half-lights through the windows. After some considerable time, I saw a shadow lift before the light. I thought she was making for the bathroom, but she came to the side of the bed and bent over me.”

“M’sieu says that the lady bent over him as he lay in bed. What then did she do?”

“Nothing. She stood for a minute as if listening to my breathing. Probably wanted to see if I was; asleep. I lay quiet, hoping to find out what she was after, but she seemed to move quite aimlessly around the room. Once I caught a fair view of her. She appeared to be about 25 years of age, and fair. I noticed that her hair