Gourel seemed greatly perplexed. He had come with positive orders, a precise mission, within the limits of which his mind was able to exert itself. Outside those limits he did not quite know how to act: "If the chief were here," he muttered, "if the chief were here. . . ." He showed his card and stated his quality. Then he said, on the off-chance: "So you have not seen them come in?" "No." "But you saw them go out?" "No, I can't say I did." "In that case, how do you know that they went out?" "From a gentleman who called yesterday afternoon." "A gentleman with a dark mustache?" "Yes. I met him as he was going away, about three o'clock. He said: 'The people in 415 have gone out. Mr. Kesselbach will stay at Versailles to-night, at the Reservoirs; you can send his letters on to him there.'" "But who was this gentleman? By what right did he speak?" "I don't know." Gourel felt uneasy. It all struck him as rather queer. "Have you the key?" "No. Mr. Kesselbach had special keys made." "Let's go and look." Gourel rang again furiously. Nothing happened. He was about to go when, suddenly, he bent down and clapped his ear to the keyhole: "Listen. . . . I seem to hear . . . Why, yes . . . it's quite distinct. . . . I hear moans. . . ." He gave the door a tremendous blow with his fist. "But, sir, you have not the right . . ." "Oh, hang the right!" He struck the door with renewed force, but to so little purpose that he abandoned the attempt forthwith: "Quick, quick, a locksmith!" One of the waiters started off at a run. Gourel, blustering and undecided, walked to and fro. The servants from the other floors collected in groups. People from the office, from the manager's department arrived. Gourel cried: "But why shouldn't we go in though the adjoining rooms? Do they communicate with this suite?" "Yes; but the communicating doors are always bolted on both sides." "Then I shall telephone to the detective-office," said Gourel, to whose mind obviously there existed no salvation without his chief. "And to the commissary of police," observed some one. "Yes, if you like," he replied, in the tone of a gentleman who took little or no interest in that formality. When he returned from the telephone, the locksmith had nearly finished trying the keys. The last worked the lock. Gourel walked briskly in. He at once hastened in the direction from which the moans came and hit against the bodies of Chapman the secretary, and Edwards the manservant. One of them, Chapman, had succeeded, by dint of patience, in loosening his gag a little and was uttering short, stifled moans. The other seemed asleep. They were released. But Gourel was anxious: "Where's Mr. Kesselbach?" He went into the sitting-room. Mr. Kesselbach was sitting strapped to the back of the arm-chair, near the table. His head hung on his chest. "He has fainted," said Gourel, going up to him. "He must have exerted himself beyond his strength."