“Oh! Where was Mr. Joel this noon?”
“I don’t know, sir. I haven’t seen him since breakfast.”
“Did you happen to hear him come home tonight?”
“No, sir. I did not.”
“Through what door did the girls and the others enter the house tonight?”
“Through the door at the end of the wing, I suppose, or the door into the billiard-room from the sunken garden. I heard them come into the large rear hall and thence into the front hall. That’s as I judged by ear, sir.”
“Couldn’t they have come into the back hall from the library?” asked Landis.
“Hardly, sir. That would mean they entered the house through the front door. I would have heard them through the dining-room. And that would be a long way round, sir.”
“Why, so it would,” said Landis. “Now what did you gather from what you heard? Who came first and so on?”
“I believe the two young ladies came in first with Mr. Russell and Mr. Allen. Miss Isabelle and Miss Anita went through to the front hall and up the front stairs. The young gentlemen came with them as far as the hall and then, I think, turned back to their rooms in the wing. A moment or so later I heard Mr. and Mrs. Graham come in and follow the young ladies upstairs. They were quite animated.”