Loyalties | Page 3

Fetch the servants out of their rooms?
Search the grounds? It'll make the devil of a scandal.
DE LEVIS. Who's next to me?
LADY A. [Coldly] Oh! Mr De Levis!
WINSOR. Next to you? The Dancys on this side, and Miss Orme on
the other. What's that to do with it?
DE LEVIS. They may have heard something.
WINSOR. Let's get them. But Dancy was down stairs when I came up.
Get Morison, Adela! No. Look here! When was this exactly? Let's have
as many alibis as we can.
DE LEVIS. Within the last twenty minutes, certainly.
WINSOR. How long has Morison been up with you?
LADY A. I came up at eleven, and rang for her at once.
WINSOR. [Looking at his watch] Half an hour. Then she's all right.
Send her for Margaret and the Dancys--there's nobody else in this wing.

No; send her to bed. We don't want gossip. D'you mind going yourself,
Adela?
LADY A. Consult General Canynge, Charlie.
WINSOR. Right. Could you get him too? D'you really want the police,
De Levis?
DE LEVIS. [Stung by the faint contempt in his tone of voice] Yes, I do.
WINSOR. Then, look here, dear! Slip into my study and telephone to
the police at Newmarket. There'll be somebody there; they're sure to
have drunks. I'll have Treisure up, and speak to him. [He rings the bell].
LADY ADELA goes out into her room and closes the door.
WINSOR. Look here, De Levis! This isn't an hotel. It's the sort of thing
that doesn't happen in a decent house. Are you sure you're not mistaken,
and didn't have them stolen on the course?
DE LEVIS. Absolutely. I counted them just before putting them under
my pillow; then I locked the door and had the key here. There's only
one door, you know.
WINSOR. How was your window?
DE LEVIS. Open.
WINSOR. [Drawing back the curtains of his own window] You've got
a balcony like this. Any sign of a ladder or anything?
DE LEVIS. No.
WINSOR. It must have been done from the window, unless someone
had a skeleton key. Who knew you'd got that money? Where did
Kentman pay you?
DE LEVIS. Just round the corner in the further paddock.
WINSOR. Anybody about?
DE LEVIS. Oh, yes!
WINSOR. Suspicious?
DE LEVIS. I didn't notice anything.
WINSOR. You must have been marked down and followed here.
DE LEVIS. How would they know my room?
WINSOR. Might have got it somehow. [A knock from the corridor]
Come in.
TREISURE, the Butler, appears, a silent, grave man of almost
supernatural conformity. DE LEVIS gives him a quick, hard look,
noted and resented by WINSOR.
TREISURE. [To WINSOR] Yes, sir?

WINSOR. Who valets Mr De Levis?
TREISURE. Robert, Sir.
WINSOR. When was he up last?
TREISURE. In the ordinary course of things, about ten o'clock, sir.
WINSOR. When did he go to bed?
TREISURE. I dismissed at eleven.
WINSOR. But did he go?
TREISURE. To the best of my knowledge. Is there anything I can do,
sir?
WINSOR. [Disregarding a sign from DE LEVIS] Look here, Treisure,
Mr De Levis has had a large sum of money taken from his bedroom
within the last half hour.
TREISURE. Indeed, Sir!
WINSOR. Robert's quite all right, isn't he?
TREISURE. He is, sir.
DE LEVIS. How do you know?
TREISURE's eyes rest on DE LEVIS.
TREISURE. I am a pretty good judge of character, sir, if you'll excuse
me.
WINSOR. Look here, De Levis, eighty or ninety notes must have been
pretty bulky. You didn't have them on you at dinner?
DE LEVIS. No.
WINSOR. Where did you put them?
DE LEVIS. In a boot, and the boot in my suitcase, and locked it.
TREISURE smiles faintly.
WINSOR. [Again slightly outraged by such precautions in his house]
And you found it locked--and took them from there to put under your
pillow?
DE LEVIS. Yes.
WINSOR. Run your mind over things, Treisure--has any stranger been
about?
TREISURE. No, Sir.
WINSOR. This seems to have happened between 11.15 and 11.30. Is
that right? [DE LEVIS nods] Any noise-anything outside-anything
suspicious anywhere?
TREISURE. [Running his mind--very still] No, sir.
WINSOR. What time did you shut up?

TREISURE. I should say about eleven-fifteen, sir. As soon as Major
Colford and Captain Dancy had finished billiards. What was Mr De
Levis doing out of his room, if I may ask, sir?
WINSOR. Having a bath; with his room locked and the key in his
pocket.
TREISURE. Thank you, sir.
DE LEVIS. [Conscious of indefinable suspicion] Damn it! What do
you mean? I WAS!
TREISURE. I beg your pardon, sir.
WINSOR. [Concealing a smile] Look here, Treisure, it's infernally
awkward for everybody.
TREISURE. It is, sir.
WINSOR. What do you suggest?
TREISURE. The proper thing, sir, I suppose, would be a cordon and