“If it’s a trick,” Judge Treadwell said, “it will prove an expensive one for the parties who perpetrated it. I’ll see that they occupy a room where they’ll be kept out of mischief for some time.”
Dr. Londonberry said wrathfully to the nurse, “You’re responsible for this. How could it have happened?”
“I’m sure I don’t know, Doctor,” she said, and her startled eyes and puzzled countenance indicated her complete mystification. “I looked in on the patient about an hour ago. About ten minutes later a man stopped me in the corridor, and said he was a visitor for Alden Leeds. I told him that orders were very strict, that Alden Leeds was to have no visitors. He said that... ”
“This man stopped you in the corridor! ” Dr. Londonberry interrupted. “How did he get in the corridor? Visitors are supposed to apply at the office.”
“I don’t know, Doctor,” the nurse said. “He was here. That’s all I know. I told him it would be absolutely impossible. He said the doctor in charge had told him it would be all right.”
“The doctor in charge,” Dr. Londonberry repeated.
“Yes, Doctor.”
“Did he mention my name?”
“No, he just said the doctor in charge. He seemed quite positive about it, so I took him to the door of thirty-five, and showed him that there was a ‘No Visitors’ sign on it. I said that the patient was psychopathic, and under no circumstances were visitors permitted without direct orders from you. Shortly after that, the patient in fifteen had a sinking spell. That’s a post-operative case, and I carried on the best I could. There was evidence of internal hemorrhage. I had my hands full until just a few moments ago when she rested easier. The last time I looked in here the patient seemed cheerful and quite relaxed.”
“Can you describe this man who called as a visitor?” Judge Treadwell asked.