The interrupter was one of the police officers holding Drayton. Mercy turned upon him with furious face, but Justice Supreme waved him to silence. "You may speak, Forty-five. Mr. Mercy, I am conducting this inquiry. Kindly refrain from intimidating the witness."
"Your Supremity, two hours ago or thereabouts, Mr. Mercy come to me and says 'Forty-five, is the door of the library locked to-day?' I says, no, I thought not, as Your Supremity had been in there reading. On days when you cared to read, you very seldom kept it locked. No one would ever dare go in there, anyway. Then he says-"
"Wait a minute!" came a voice of repressed fury from the throne. "Mr. Pity, will you take this down, please?"
Pity drew forth his fountain pen and a small blank book. He began to scribble furiously.
"'Your Supremity,' he says then, 'is the door actually open?' I didn't believe so, but I walked over into Corridor 27 just to have a look. Of course the door was shut. Mr. Mercy, he followed right along behind. 'If I were you,' he says, 'I'd open that door and turn on the fan at the end of the corridor. His Supremity was complaining to me it was that stifling in the library it pretty near made him sick.' Well, I thought it was a queer thing Your Supremity hadn't spoke to me if you wished the room ventilated. But Mr. Mercy, being one of the Inner Order, and of such high authority-"
"I understand," snapped the high priest. "Get on. You opened it?"
"I did, Your Supremity, with Mr. Mercy looking on. Then I went to turn on the fan, and Mr. Mercy strolled off. Without meaning to spy on him, I followed. My rubber soles don't make much noise, of course, and I guess he didn't hear me. He went around a corner. Just before I reached it myself I heard him speaking. Thinking he would blame me if he thought I was spying on him, I stopped where I was. He was talking to this prisoner here, as I found out later. First he says, 'Were you looking for some one, Mr. Drayton?' The prisoner, he says no; he was merely strolling around and got lost and can't find his way back to the Green Room. 'I'll take you there myself,' says Mr. Mercy. 'But have you seen the library?'"
At this a sort of gasp came from Mercy. He staggered slightly where he stood. He dared not interrupt, however, and the policeman continued.
"This Mr. Drayton says, no, he ain't saw it, but he'd be real glad to-in fact, there wasn't anything much he'd rather see. So Mr. Mercy says, 'You go on around that corner straight along the corridor and you'll come to it. The door is open and you can go right in.' This Mr. Drayton says he's understood strangers was not allowed in there. Mr. Mercy says, 'Oh, you're as good as a Superlative already. This library is open to officials.'
"The gentleman thanked him and come on around the corner and past me, but Mr. Mercy he goes the other way."