“I am sorry, sir, but you will have to go to the booth in the room behind the stairs. Mr. Rebener’s telephone is out of order.”
“What do you mean, ‘my telephone is out of order’?” Rebener glanced up sharply. “I used it not twenty minutes ago.” And going into the adjoining room he tried to speak to the floor switchboard.
“The fellow’s right,” he admitted on returning to the table. “You’ll have to use the booth, Jack. Waiter, show Mr. Edestone where to go.”
“This way, sir,” said the waiter, and he conducted Edestone down the long corridor, passing one of Captain Bright’s cavalrymen at almost every turn. Just around the foot of the stairs the waiter showed him a door.
“There it is, sir,” he pointed.
Edestone went in and found himself in a room that was almost dark. It was lighted only by a shaded electric bulb used by the man at the switchboard, who sat facing the door but hidden from anyone entering by the high instrument in front of him. Edestone walked over to him, finding him almost obscured by the huge green shade pulled down over his eyes, and seemingly very much occupied with both incoming and outgoing calls.
“Is there a call for Mr. Edestone?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” said the man without looking up from his plugs. “The second booth from this end, No. 2.”
Edestone, turning, saw in the dim light a row of booths against the wall over beyond the door. It was quite dark in that corner, but he could see that the door of the second booth was open. He went inside, muttering as he did so, “I think they might give a fellow a little more light.”
As he sat down and took up the receiver, he put out his hand to stop the door from slowly closing, apparently by itself. It was one of those double-walled, sound-proof, stuffy boxes, and he did not want the door shut tight, so he put out his foot to hold it open. But he was just a moment too late. The door shut with a little bang, and when he tried to open it again, he found that it seemed to have jammed.