"She hasn't come down," he said, "and I've certainly not passed her on the stairs. Is there any other way out?"
"No way that she could use," said the colonel shaking his head. "I've had new locks put on all the doors." He thought a moment. "If she hasn't come down she's gone up."
They went up the stairs together and searched, first Pinto's flat, and then the store-rooms and empty apartments on the floor higher up.
"Go down to the door and wait, in case she tries to get out," said the colonel.
He returned to the room with the two men and they looked at one another in frank astonishment.
"Have you any idea what's happened, Crewe?" asked the colonel suspiciously.
"No idea in the world," said Crewe.
"But she went downstairs," said the colonel. "I heard the alarm click."
"The alarm?" questioned Crewe.