“Oh, hullo, Alice. I say, I seem to have lost my fountain pen. You haven’t seen it about anywhere, have you?” The girl shook her head. “No, sir, that I haven’t. It wasn’t in here when I did the room this morning, I’m sure.” “H’m! That’s a nuisance. I’ve missed it since last night. The last time I remember having it was in the library a short time before dinner. I wonder if I can have left it in there. Do you do the library?” “Oh, no, sir. I only do the bedrooms. Mary does the downstairs rooms.” “I see. Well, do you think I could have a word with Mary, if she’s not too busy? Perhaps you could send her up here?” “Yes, sir. I’ll tell her at once.” “Thank you, Alice.” In due course Mary made her appearance. “I say, Mary,” Roger remarked confidentially, “I’ve lost my fountain pen, and Alice tells me that she hasn’t come across it in here. Now the last time I had it was in the library yesterday, some time between tea and dinner; I’ve been looking round for it in there, but I can’t see it. I suppose you haven’t tidied up the library since then, or seen anything of it?” “Yes, sir, I tidied up the library last night while they were in at dinner. And little did I think when I was doing it that——” “Yes, quite so,” Roger put in soothingly. “Shocking business! But what did the tidying up consist of, Mary? I mean, if it was only cursory you might not have noticed the pen. What did you do exactly?” “Well, sir, I put the chairs straight and tidied up the cigarette ends in the hearth and emptied the ashtrays.” “What about the settee? I remember sitting on the settee with the pen in my hand.” “It wasn’t there then, sir,” Mary said with decision. “I took up all the cushions and shook them, and there wasn’t anything there. I should have noticed it if there had been.” “I see. You did the settee quite thoroughly, in fact? Brushed it, and all that sort of thing?” “Yes, sir. I always run a brush over the settee and the armchairs of an evening. They get so terribly dusty with all those windows, and that black rep shows the dust up something awful.” “Well, thank you, Mary. I suppose I must have left it somewhere else, after all. By the way, you haven’t done the library at all to-day, have you?” “No, sir,” Mary replied with a little shiver. “Nor wouldn’t like to; not alone, at all events. Creepy, I should call it, sir, with that poor gentleman sitting there all night like a——” “Yes, yes,” said Roger with mechanical haste. “Shocking! Well, I’m sorry to have brought you all this way for nothing, Mary; but if you ever come across it, you might let me know.” “Yes, sir,” Mary said with a pleasant smile. “Thank you, sir.” “And that is that!” Roger murmured confidentially to the closing door. He completed his changing as rapidly as possible and, hurrying along to Alec’s room, recounted the facts he had just learnt.