“Who was here this morning with you and Lady Rawson?”
“No one; nevare any person at all!” she cried emphatically.
“But you expected someone; that was why Lady Rawson waited.”
She shook her head, but her eyes did not meet his, and her hands were trembling as she still fidgeted with her apron.
“Zere vas no one, zere nevare has been no one; I have told all, signor.”
He found it was useless to question her further, and decided that he would not wait on the chance of learning anything from Cacciola. He gathered that the old man seldom returned till long after midnight.
Groping his way down the dark staircase, he reached the high road just in time to board a tram going eastwards, which set him down at the terminus within a few hundred yards from the hospital to which Sadler had been taken. He might as well call and inquire as to the man’s condition. If there was anything to report there was still time to telephone to the office.
A minute later he pushed back the swing-door and entered the lobby of the hospital, to find himself face to face with Snell.