“You gathered the impression there were people in the bedroom?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Did you think one of those persons was Serle?”
“That handkerchief didn’t smell like it.”
“And you say the dishes were empty?”
“That’s right.”
“Nothing left?”
“Clean as a bone.”
“The men must have been hungry then?”
“Well, in taking a dinner out that way, you can’t carry too much. You can’t carry soup, and water, and all that stuff. You’re luck to pile the grub on the dishes, and get it there while it’s still warm. People don’t eat as much in a restaurant as they think they do. That’s because we bring them crackers and butter and go off and leave them for a while, and they munch on crackers. Then after a while, we bring them soup, and then we leave them alone, then bring them bread and butter. They don’t start eating the main order until anywhere from ten to twenty minutes after they sit down, sometimes half an hour. It depends on the crowd?”