9
I Ring Up a Dead Man
I RANG up the Secretariat about nine o'clock and asked for Lavelle.
The concierge informed me that I could not be put straight through to him, because there was no night service on the internal exchange, but he volunteered to go and fetch him while I held the line.
After an interval of some minutes, the concierge returned to the telephone and told me that M. Lavelle had not yet arrived at the Secretariat.
I asked whether he was absolutely sure of this, to which he replied that he had come on duty about eight-thirty ; that no one had passed either in or out since that hour ; but that M. Lavelle might quite possibly have come in before, as his room was locked, though he had received no reply to his knocking.
I rang off and reported the news to my friends.
"Proba
