"Very well.... And, by the way, who on this corridor is likely to have ordered that whiskey?"
"Very likely the gentleman next door, sir----"
"All right," said Guild quietly. "Try the door while I stand here and look on."
With equanimity unimpaired the waiter stepped to the next door on the corridor, placed his tray flat on the palm of his left hand, and, with his right hand, began to turn the knob, using, apparently, every precaution to make no noise.
But he was not successful; the glassware on his tray suddenly gave out a clear, tinkling clash, and, at the same moment the bedroom door opened from within and a man in evening dress appeared dimly framed by the doorway.
"Sorry, sir," said the waiter, "your whiskey, sir----"
He stepped inside the room and the door closed behind him. Guild quietly waited. Presently the waiter reappeared without the tray.
The waiter said: "Yes, sir," in a natural voice. Doubtless the man next door could hear it, too.
Guild, annoyed, lowered his own voice: "Who is the gentleman in the next room?"
"You don't happen to know his business, do you?"
"I ask--it's merely curiosity. Wait a moment." He turned, picked up a sovereign from a heap of coins on his night-table and gave it to the waiter.
"No need to repeat to anybody what I have asked you."
"All right. Listen very attentively to what I tell you. When I arrived here this afternoon I desired the management to hire for my use a powerful and absolutely reliable touring car and a chauffeur. I mentioned the Edmeston Agency and a Mr. Louis Grätz.
"Half an hour later the management informed me that they had secured such a car for me from Mr. Louis Grätz at the Edmeston Agency; that I was permitted sufficient gasoline to take me from here to Westheath, back here again, and then to the docks of the Holland Steamship Company next Sunday.
"I've changed my mind. Tomorrow is Wednesday and a steamer sails from Fresh Wharf for Amsterdam. Tell the management that I'll take that steamer and that I want them to telephone the Edmeston Agency to have the car here at six o'clock tomorrow morning."
"Go down and tell them now. Ask them to confirm the change of orders by telephone."
A quarter of an hour later the bell tinkled in his room: "Are you there, sir? Thank you, sir. The car is to be here at six o'clock. What time would you breakfast, Mr. Guild?"