"Oh, only an instant. I don't pretend it was long."
"Long enough for you to be sure?" I said.
"Sure he wasn't there?"
"Yes, and that you were not mistaken, not the victim of some hocus-pocus of your eyesight."
"I may have been mistaken, but I don't believe it. At any rate, that's just why I want you to look in his room."
I thought a moment. "How can I, when even his wife doesn't dare to?"
"She wants to; propose it to her. It wouldn't take much to make her. She does suspect."
I thought another moment. "Did he seem to know?"
"That I had missed him? So it struck me, but he thought he had been quick enough."
"Did you speak of his disappearance?"