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Updated: June 10, 2025
Delora's disappearance by the proprietor of the hotel," the inspector answered. "How do you know that it is a disappearance at all?" I asked. "Mr. Delora may have met some friends. He is not obliged to come here. In other words, if he chooses to disappear, he surely has a perfect right to! Are you acting upon Miss Delora's instructions?" "No!" the inspector answered.
There would be nothing," he added, "to prevent your seeking his friendship or the friendship of his niece." "Very well," I agreed. "I will spend the night in Mr. Delora's rooms. I shall leave it to you to make all the arrangements." Louis looked at me with a curious expression in his face. "You understand, monsieur," he said slowly, "that there may be danger?" "Naturally I understand," I said.
There scarcely remained any doubt in my mind now but that some part of Delora's business, at any rate, in this country, was criminal. Louis' manner, his emphatic stipulation, made it a matter of certainty. Again I found myself confronted by the torturing thought that if this were so Felicia could scarcely be altogether innocent. Once when Louis passed me I stopped him.
Delora's bedroom, and of that there will be, after midnight, a key upon the mantelpiece in the sitting-room." "But Miss Delora?" I asked. "What of her? The sitting-room connects, also, with her apartments." "Mademoiselle will be told something of this during the evening," Louis answered. "It will be better.
I dismissed the subject from my thoughts. It was just then I remembered that, after all, I had not gathered from Louis a single shred of information on the subject in which I was most interested. I almost smiled when I remembered how admirably he had contrived to elude my curiosity. The only thing which I gathered from his manner was that Mr. Delora's disappearance was unexpected by him.
For once, at any rate, he had lost his nerve. I could see that he was shaking with fear. "Come, Louis," I said, "put my stick down and talk like a man, if you can." The stick fell from his fingers. He had scarcely strength enough left to hold it. Then the man who had been examining Delora's room came back and stepped past Louis up to me. "I do not know why you are here, sir," he said.
Ashley, who came out to meet me, drew me at once upon one side with a little gesture of apology. "Mr. Delora has returned, sir," he said. For the moment I had forgotten the sensation which Delora's non-arrival on that first evening had made, and which had always left behind it a flavor of mystery. I could see from Ashley's face that he was puzzled. "Is Mr. Delora with his niece?" I asked.
"It is not possible," I declared, "for a man to disappear in London." "A man may disappear anywhere," Lamartine said dryly, "when such people as Louis are interested in him! However, we do no good by comparing notes when we neither of us know anything. If I should gain any information of Mr. Delora's whereabouts " I gave him my card quickly. "We will exchange our news," I assured him.
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