The room telephone rang. Quickly Craig jumped to it and took down the receiver.
"Hello," he called. "Yes, this is Mr. Whitney."
A silence ensued during which, of course, I could not gather any idea of what was going on over the wire.
"The deuce!" exclaimed Kennedy, working the hook up and down but receiving no response. "The fellow caught on. Something must have happened to Norton, too."
"How's that?" I asked.
"Why," he replied, "some one just called up Whitney and said that
Norton had got away from him."
"Perhaps they're trying to keep him out of the way just as they are with us," I suggested. "I think the thing is a plant."
Down the hall, Kennedy stopped and tapped lightly at the door of 810, the de Moche suite. I think he was surprised when the Senora's maid opened it.
"Tell Senora de Moche it is Professor Kennedy," he said quickly, "and that I must see her."
The maid admitted us into the sitting-room where we had had our first interview with her and a moment later she appeared. She was evidently not dressed for dinner, although it was almost time, and I saw Kennedy's eye travel from her to a chair in the corner over which was draped a linen automobile coat and a heavy veil. Had she been preparing to go somewhere, too? The door to Alfonso's room was open and he clearly was not there. What did it all mean?