"We have not seen them either."
"Then they also did not sleep in the hotel?"
"I suppose not."
"You suppose not? But you ought to be certain."
"Why? Mr. Kesselbach is not staying in the hotel; he is at home here, in his private flat. He is not waited on by us, but by his own man; and we know nothing of what happens inside."
"That's true. . . . That's true. . . ."
Gourel seemed greatly perplexed. He had come with positive orders, a precise mission, within the limits of which his mind was able to exert itself. Outside those limits he did not quite know how to act:
"If the chief were here," he muttered, "if the chief were here. . . ."
He showed his card and stated his quality. Then he said, on the off-chance:
"So you have not seen them come in?"