"We're waiting for you, suh! Mr. Ryder, what'll you take, suh? And I'd like your opinion on this important matter. It will cost us, severally and collectively, some money to keep this house open. I, for one, will assume my share of the obligation and trust to getting back at Bangs afterward. What do you say, Mr. Ryder?" The discussion of ways and means claimed the attention of John Ryder. Yet he glanced back at the stranger again as he entered the café. The latter was moving toward the stairway clutching the bellboy firmly by the shoulder. Back in the mind of Ryder was this comment: "Odd about that fellow. Acts strange. White? Don't know anyone of the name--that I remember. Suite Three? Why--what's the number of our suite? I thought that was Number Three. Must be Number Two. Odd----" CHAPTER V THE ARROW OF SUSPICION The first excitement having worn away, the Council of War was now organized. Colonel Brack had gathered together those men best fitted to form a working committee--and likewise best able to finance any scheme decided upon for the keeping open of Pinewood Inn. The situation was already thoroughly canvassed. No other hotel in the vicinity was open. To escape from the place by either motor or train--at least for some hours, if not days--was impossible. Local residents could not take in the hotel guests had they so desired. Here were women and children used to every luxury who were threatened with dismissal from the hotel at once. As the colonel loudly said, it was brutal. The track to Pinewood was for the accommodation of freight for the most part. For the very reason that the owners of the Barnaby property wished to keep the hotel exclusive, they had fought any improvement in railroad accommodations. At this time of night even the station telegraph office was closed; and George had already informed the guests that there had been a break in the long-distance telephone service since dark. Any such thing as a special train to transport the guests to New York could not be arranged for until the following day. "And we'd have to put up with vile accommodations from here to the Junction," explained the excitable Jimson. "Do you realize that this spur-track roadbed is scarcely fit to pull coal cars over? My wife couldn't stand it, I am sure." "How about getting across to the island and to the regular railroad station at Barr?" John Ryder asked. "That bridge is practically a wreck. Do you know the bus slumped clear through it, and will have to be raised by a derrick? And the road to any other station is impossible for autos. No, we can't get away and that's all there is to it." This was the consensus of opinion. The disorganization of the hotel employees which would follow the closing of the doors of the house and its abandonment by the guests would make it unsafe to leave personal property in the hotel. There were half a hundred reasons, and all very good ones, that proved the guests must remain.