"Very," said Keane.
"She is in now," said the president. "Could you—just to avoid possible scandal—inasmuch as you don't intend to knock before entering——"
He glanced at Beatrice. Keane smiled.
"I'll have Miss Dale go in first. If Madame Sin is undressed or—entertaining—Miss Dale can apologize and retreat. But I am sure Madame Sin will be unaware of intrusion. In spite of the conviction of your key clerk that she is in, I am quite sure that, at least figuratively, she is out."
"Figuratively out?" echoed Gest. "I don't understand."
"You will later—unless this is my fated time to lose in the fight I have made against the devil who calls himself Doctor Satan. Are Chichester and Kroner in the hotel?"
Gest shook his head.
"Kroner is in the Turkish bath two blocks down the street. Chichester went home ten minutes ago."
"Madame Sin will be unaware of intrusion," Keane repeated enigmatically and with seeming irrelevance.
He turned to Beatrice, and the two went to the woman's rooms.