"It's amazing what a lot of stuff you can carry under a rug," said Teal, "if you know the trick of packing it."
Returning downstairs to the manager's office, he learnt, as he expected, that the car had been ordered by the hotel on behalf of Mr. Halliday.
"We arrange these things," said the manager.
"And sometimes," said Teal, with a certain morose enthusiasm, "you pay for them, too."
The manager was not entirely green.
"I suppose," he said, "we needn't expect them back?"
"You needn't," said Teal. "That's another eccentricity of these very wealthy Americans."
He hurried back to Scotland Yard, and by the time he arrived there he had decided that there was only one place in England where Jill Trelawney and Simon Templar could plausibly be going that night.
He tried to telephone to Essenden, and was informed that the line was out of order. Then he tried to get in touch with the assistant commissioner, but Cullis had left the Yard at six o'clock, and was not to be found either at his private address or at his club.
Teal was left with only one thing to do; for he had a profound contempt for all police officials outside the Metropolitan area.