“Are you all right?” I asked anxiously.
“Quite. Why shouldn’t I be?” She smiled at my look of concern.
“Oh, I don’t know, but I felt worried about you before I went off to sleep last night. I didn’t like to think of you alone. I wish my room were next to yours.”
“It’s just as well that I had a bolt, Mr. Jeffcock, for when I went to lock the door, I found that the key had disappeared! I am quite certain it was there this afternoon.”
“Look here, I shan’t go to bed. I’ll pretend to, and then come back and lie down in the drawing-room with the door open.”
“No, please, Mr. Jeffcock, I don’t want you to do anything that might call for comment. I shall be perfectly safe. No one will very easily get past that bolt, and I have a revolver with me as well. Here’s Dr. Wallace coming back. Please don’t fuss.”
The doctor came back holding a note addressed to Annie which he placed on the hall-table. “Now for bed,” he said.
We went up-stairs side by side. The doctor disappeared into his room, Janet into hers. I lingered outside my door until I heard her bolt shot home, then I turned the key in my own door, undressed and tumbled into bed.
Chapter XIV.
A Bird Bath and an Inquest
In spite of my succession of broken nights, I woke shortly after seven, and I got up as soon as Annie knocked at my door. No one was about when I made my way to the bathroom; the cans of hot water were still doing sentry duty outside the bedroom doors. I bathed and shaved at leisure and sauntered down-stairs to find the breakfast table being set, Annie hurrying to and fro. She spoke to me at once about the accident to cook.