The porter demurred.
“I’ll lose my job,” he pleaded. “Can’t you knock?”
“Knocking is my speciality—I don’t pass a day without knocking somebody,” replied Elk, “but I want that key.”
He did not doubt that Lola would have bolted her door, and his surmise proved sound. He had both to knock and ring before the light showed behind the transom, and Lola in a kimono and boudoir cap appeared.
“What is the meaning of this, Mr. Elk?” she demanded. She did not even attempt to appear surprised.
“A friendly call—can I come in?”
She opened the door wider, and Elk went in, followed by Gordon and two detectives. Dick she ignored.
“I’m seeing the Commissioner to-morrow,” she said, “and if he doesn’t give me satisfaction I’ll get on to the newspapers. This persecution is disgraceful. To break into a single girl’s flat in the middle of the night, when she is alone and unprotected——”
“If there is any time when a single girl should be alone and unprotected, it is in the middle of the night,” said Elk primly. “I’m just going to have a look at your little home, Lola. We’ve got information that you’ve been burgled, Lola. Perhaps at this very minute there’s a sinister man hidden under your bed. The idea of leaving you alone, so to speak, at the mercy of unlawful characters, is repugnant to our feelin’s. Try the dining-room, Williams; I’ll search the parlour—and the bedroom.”
“You’ll keep out of my room if you’ve any sense of decency,” said the girl.