Miss Cornelia gave a slight laugh. “You know better than that, though, don’t you?”
Billy’s Oriental placidity remained unruffled. He neither admitted nor denied. He shrugged his shoulders.
“Funny house,” he said laconically. “Find window open—nobody there. Door slam—nobody there!”
On the heels of his words came a single, startling bang from the kitchen quarters—the bang of a slammed door!
CHAPTER FIVE
ALOPECIA AND RUBEOLA
Miss Cornelia dropped her newspaper. Lizzie, frankly frightened, gave a little squeal and moved closer to her mistress. Only Billy remained impassive but even he looked sharply in the direction whence the sound had come.
Miss Cornelia was the first of the others to recover her poise.
“Stop that! It was the wind!” she said, a little irritably—the “Stop that!” addressed to Lizzie who seemed on the point of squealing again.
“I think not wind,” said Billy. His very lack of perturbation added weight to the statement. It made Miss Cornelia uneasy. She took out her knitting again.
“How long have you lived in this house, Billy?”