It was Kenneth, of course, who spoke, and Ralph nodded his agreement. “We ought to search all the rooms,” he said.
Almost beyond hearing any more, I burst out with, “For God’s sake do let us go to bed and leave Allport to do his own dirty work!” I spoke querulously and with more feeling than I really intended. My voice was out of control. I felt the others looking at me in surprise.
The Tundish hesitated. “Well, it’s just a chance, but I don’t think we gain very much if the paper is found. I know that if I were guilty it wouldn’t be in my room that any one would find it.”
They were persistent, however, and while Ethel was too tired to take any interest, Margaret seemed inclined to agree with the boys. The doctor assented good-naturedly, and I gave way with the best grace I could.
We dealt first with the rooms belonging to the girls, so that they could complete their broken rest. Kenneth proposed that they might be allowed to deal with each other’s, but the doctor would have none of it; moreover, he insisted on our all keeping together as the rooms were searched in turn. “One of us is a liar and worse than a liar and not to be trusted alone.”
We unmade the beds. We pulled up all the carpets and turned out all the drawers, scattering the clothing on the floor. Nothing was neglected, saving modesty, and nothing incriminating found. Ethel went back to bed. We heard the key turn in the door of her room, and then we moved across the landing into mine.
I stood in the doorway watching the others at work, with Margaret, who said she was sure she would never get to sleep again, at my side. “Isn’t it all too fearfully thrilling?” she whispered confidentially clutching her dressing-gown together with exaggerated modesty. I could cheerfully have slain her on the spot.
Before a bare couple of minutes had passed, Kenneth, who was emptying my few belongings out of the chest of drawers, held up a news sheet above his head in triumph. “I knew we should find it. I knew I was right,” he cried triumphantly. “What have all of you got to say to that?” He might have spotted a Derby winner.
We crowded round him. He held the paper up to the light and we could see at once where here and there odd words and letters had been cut away. That this was the paper that had been used there could be no shadow of a doubt.
They turned to me with questioning glances. Margaret whispered an audible, “Oh! You!”