"I see." Hallet looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "You went back later, perhaps."
"I did not," said Egan promptly. "I came directly here and went to bed."
"Who saw you?"
"No one. My clerk goes off duty at eleven. The hotel is open, but there is no one in charge. My patronage is—not large."
"You came here at eleven-thirty and went to bed," Hallet said. "But no one saw you. Tell me, were you well acquainted with Dan Winterslip?"
Egan shook his head. "In the twenty-three years I've been in Honolulu, I had never spoken to him until I called him on the telephone yesterday morning."
"Humph." Hallet leaned back in his chair and spoke in a more amiable tone. "As a younger man, I believe you traveled a lot?"
"I drifted about a bit," Egan admitted. "I was just eighteen when I left England—"
"At your family's suggestion," smiled the captain.
"What's that to you?" Egan flared.