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I wanted Rangon to see what was on the table.... "'You'll see by my footprints how far from that table I've been, I said. 'Will you pick it up? "And Rangon, stepping forward, picked up from the middle of the table my cigarette case." Loder had finished. Nobody spoke. For quite a minute nobody spoke, and then Loder himself broke the silence, turning to me. "Make anything of it?" he said.
I really don't blame Rangon for the way he took it when we told him, you know he thought we were pulling his leg, of course, and he wasn't having any; not he!
I went through all my pockets, and then I asked Carroll if he'd got it. "'No, he replied.... 'Think you left it behind at that place last night? "'Yes; did you? Rangon popped in with a twinkle. "I went through all my pockets again. No cigarette case.... "Of course, it was possible that I'd left it behind, and I was annoyed again.
I think the restaurant we dined in was the only one in the place, and our gaillard of a host he was a straight-backed, well-set-up chap, with rather fine eyes did us on the whole pretty well. His wine certainly was good stuff, and set our tongues going.... "A moment ago I said a fellow like Rangon leads a restricted sort of life in those parts. I saw this more clearly as dinner went on.
"I was irritated because we were two to one, you see, and Carroll backed me up. 'A double door, with a grille in front of it, he repeated for the fiftieth time.... Rangon merely replied that it wasn't our good faith he doubted. He didn't actually use the word 'drunk.... "'Mais tiens, he said suddenly, trying to conceal his mirth.
Carroll opened, and we stood for a moment motioning to one another to step in. Then Rangon went in first, and I heard him murmur 'Pardon, Mesdames.... "Now this is the odd part. We passed into a sort of vestibule or hall, with a burst lead pipe in the middle of a dry tank in the centre of it.
A roaring day it was, I remember.... But the wind fell a little late in the afternoon, and we were poring over what it had left of our Ordnance Survey like fools, we'd got the unmounted paper maps instead of the linen ones when Rangon himself found us, coming out to meet us in a very badly turned-out trap.
It was a dilapidated, deserted ruelle, and I was positively angry when Rangon pointed to a blistered old porte-cochère with a half-unhinged railing in front of it. "'Is it that, your house? he asked. "'No, says I, and 'No, says Carroll ... and off we started again.... "But another half-hour brought us back to the same place, and Carroll scratched his head.
"'If one tried the restaurant first ? Rangon suggested, smiling again. "'By all means, said I stuffily, though I remembered having the case after we'd left the restaurant. "We were round at the restaurant by half-past nine. The case wasn't there. I'd known jolly well beforehand it wasn't, and I saw Rangon's mouth twitching with amusement.
"'It is possible that for even a less rental "Rangon murmured, dragging his forefinger across the hand-rail and leaving an inch-deep furrow.... "'Come upstairs, said I suddenly.... "Up we went. All was in the same state there. A clutter of stuff came down as I pushed at the double doors of the salon, and I had to strike a stinking French sulphur match to see into the room at all.
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