"If mademoiselle would be so good as to tell me something in return—?"
"If I can…."
"Then why, mademoiselle, did you try my door last night?"
"It was neither locked nor bolted on my side. I wished to make sure—"
"So one fancied. Thank you. Good-night, mademoiselle…?"
She was impervious to his hint. "Good-night, Monsieur Duchemin," she said, and closed the door.
Now Lanyard's quarters opened not on this alleyway fore-and-aft but on a short and narrow athwartship passage. And as he turned away he saw out of the corner of an eye a white-jacketed figure emerge from this passageway and move hurriedly aft. Something furtive in the round of the fellow's shoulders challenged his curiosity. He called quietly:
"Steward!"
There was no answer. By now the white jacket was no more than a blur moving in that deep gloom. He cried again, more loudly:
"I say, steward!"