"Uh?" he said. "Then who was making those noises? Who?’
"Never mind that. Where's the 'phone?"
"There's no 'phone," said Bowers blankly, and the ground went from under my feet. "No 'phone. The governor don't like 'em." He was still held by that curious dullness of shock, without thought for more than the figure in the chair, and he spoke in an almost ordinary tone. "I say, it's all wrong. The furniture's all changed about!"
"What?"
"'Strue. Look: move the light. That big desk where he
you know," he nodded, "that's usually in front of the other window." He indicated another hanging lampcord by the window nearer us, with a brown-and-yellow lamp-shade patterned in German lettering. "And that shade is always on the other light. That clock over the mantel — it don't belong there: it belongs on the wall opposite. Them long pipes should be on the big desk. The chairs are all changed…. For God's sake get some light!"
I thought it was safe to let go his arm now. I hurried over and picked up the bulb from the desk, telling Bowers to throw the switch from the door. And, just before he did so, the cupboard door opened.
Bowers gave a yelp as something came out. I almost missed getting the light into the socket, but it went on: it was a 200 watt bulb, and it made a naked glare which momentarily blinded both of us. Whatever had come out of the cupboard did not make a run for the door, or even move fast. On the contrary, the figure sat down in a chair..
Then we found ourselves looking at a very pale, very quiet-faced woman sitting bolt upright in the wing-chair. Though her breast rose and fell perkily, she eyed us as calmly as she could. She was very good-looking in spite of a somewhat blunt nose and broad mouth; her dark-yellow hair was parted in the middle and drawn over her ears, and her blue eyes were reddish round the lids. She wore a tweed suit with a white silk blouse and dark tie, and her fingers were gripped round a snakeskin handbag. As though to show how cool she was, she took a packet of cigarettes and a lighter out of the handbag. Then she lit a cigarette, although the flame of the lighter at first missed it altogether.
"I thought I had better come out," she said, "before I made a spectacle of myself, being dragged out. I suppose you'll want this?"