“All right, we’ll wait,” said Joe.
Before long, all the bellboys were back, and Joe had had a good look at the entire staff. Not one resembled the boy who had come to his room.
“I can’t understand it,” mused the clerk, to whom the boys had been careful not to impart their suspicions. “It must have been sent in by somebody from the outside. It’s certain that it wasn’t sent up from here.”
“Oh, well,” said Joe carelessly, “it doesn’t matter. I just wanted to find out, so that I could thank the one who did it. Sorry to have troubled you.”
They strolled off indifferently and returned to their room.
“‘Thank’ is good,” said Jim, as soon as they were out of earshot.
“I’ll thank him all right,” replied Joe grimly. “In fact I’ll thank him so warmly that it will stagger him.”
“May I be there to see!” replied Jim gruffly. “I can figure out the whole thing now. Fleming had had that lemonade doped and it was meant to put you out of business. It was easy to find out what hotel you were stopping at, as that’s been in all the papers. Then it was a simple thing to glance over the register and get the number of your room. He’s either got a bellboy from some other hotel or dressed up somebody in a bellboy’s uniform. He’s probably bribed him well, and it’s been all the easier because he didn’t have to let on to the boy that there was anything crooked about it. Told him perhaps that he was just playing a little joke on a friend or something like that. There’s the whole story.”
“I guess that’s about right,” agreed Joe. “Gee, Jim, it’s mighty lucky that you knocked that glass out of my hand. I had noticed that it tasted rather bitter, but put that down to too little sugar.”