Sime briskly gave his orders to the bar attendant.
"You know," pursued Cairn, "I cannot get out of my head the idea that there was someone wearing a crocodile mask in the garden a while ago."
"Look here," growled Sime, studying the operations of the cocktail manufacturer, "suppose there were—what about it?"
"Well, it's odd that nobody else saw him."
"I suppose it hasn't occurred to you that the fellow might have removed his mask?"
Cairn shook his head slowly.
"I don't think so," he declared; "I haven't seen him anywhere in the hotel."
"Seen him?" Sime turned his dull gaze upon the speaker. "How should you know him?"
Cairn raised his hand to his forehead in an oddly helpless way.
"No, of course not—it's very extraordinary."