“No one,” said the maid. “The hotel uses it.”
“What goes on in there anyway? I thought I heard teletype machines.”
The maid was unfamiliar with the technical name Penny had used. “It’s just a contraption that prints letters and figures,” she informed. “When I first came to work at the hotel I made a mistake and went in there to do some cleaning. Mr. Fergus, he didn’t like it and said I wasn’t to bother to dust up there again.”
“Doesn’t anyone go into the room except Mr. Fergus?”
“Just him and George Jewitt.”
“And who is he? One of the owners of the hotel?”
“Oh, no. George Jewitt works for Mr. Fergus. He takes care of the machines, I guess.”
“You were saying that the machine prints letters and figures,” prompted Penny. “Do you mean messages one can read?”
“It was writing crazy-like when I watched it. The letters didn’t make sense nohow. Mr. Fergus he told me the machines were being used in some experiment the hotel was carrying on.”
“Who occupies the nearby rooms?” Penny questioned. “I should think they would be disturbed by the machines.”