“It is apparent, of course, that the man in Room 18 must have had some sort of light, if only for a second, in order to conceal the radium. Higgins knew where it was all the time. He swore to me that he had slept through the whole night. Well——” O’Leary’s shoulders lifted a little.
“We will never know now what Higgins saw,” I commented, my thoughts sombre.
O’Leary raised his eyes from the pencil for a moment.
“Don’t be too sure of that, Miss Keate. Did you get the speaker for me?”
“Yes.”
“Put it in a safe place?”
I nodded. “I longed to look inside it but did not.”
He smiled.
“Suppose we look now.”
The rustle of my starched skirts echoed against the empty gray-white walls. The general office was deserted, likewise the stairs and corridors. Once in my room I unlocked the door of the chifferette, withdrew the speaker, and holding it carefully, hastened back to the south wing. O’Leary was still sitting beside the chart desk, his gray gaze on Maida, who was bent over an entry she was making on Three’s chart. If she wondered what I was doing with the loud speaker she did not say so but returned immediately to Three.