Loyalties | Page 5

we're expecting the police.
TREISURE. I trust they will not find a mare's nest, sir, if I may say so.
He goes.
WINSOR. De Levis has got wrong with Treisure. [Suddenly] But, I say,
what would any of us have done if we'd been in his shoes?
MARGARET. A thousand pounds? I can't even conceive having it.
DANCY. We probably shouldn't have found it out.
LADY A. No--but if we had.
DANCY. Come to you--as he did.
WINSOR. Yes; but there's a way of doing things.
CANYNGE. We shouldn't have wanted the police.
MARGARET. No. That's it. The hotel touch.
LADY A. Poor young man; I think we're rather hard on him.
WINSOR. He sold that weed you gave him, Dancy, to Kentman, the
bookie, and these were the proceeds.
DANCY. Oh!
WINSOR. He'd tried her high, he said.
DANCY. [Grimly] He would.
MABEL. Oh! Ronny, what bad luck!
WINSOR. He must have been followed here. [At the window] After
rain like that, there ought to be footmarks.
The splutter of a motor cycle is heard.
MARGARET. Here's the wind!
WINSOR. What's the move now, General?
CANYNGE. You and I had better see the Inspector in De Levis's room,
WINSOR. [To the others] If you'll all be handy, in case he wants to put
questions for himself.
MARGARET. I hope he'll want me; it's just too thrilling.
DANCY. I hope he won't want me; I'm dog-tired. Come on, Mabel. [He
puts his arm in his wife's].
CANYNGE. Just a minute, Charles.
He draws dose to WINSOR as the others are departing to their rooms.
WINSOR. Yes, General?
CANYNGE. We must be careful with this Inspector fellow. If he
pitches hastily on somebody in the house it'll be very disagreeable.

WINSOR. By Jove! It will.
CANYNGE. We don't want to rouse any ridiculous suspicion.
WINSOR. Quite. [A knock] Come in!
TREISURE enters.
TREISURE. Inspector Dede, Sir.
WINSOR. Show him in.
TREISURE. Robert is in readiness, sir; but I could swear he knows
nothing about it.
WINSOR. All right.
TREISURE re-opens the door, and says "Come in, please." The
INSPECTOR enters, blue, formal, moustachioed, with a peaked cap in
his hand.
WINSOR. Good evening, Inspector. Sorry to have brought you out at
this time of night.
INSPECTOR. Good evenin', sir. Mr WINSOR? You're the owner here,
I think?
WINSOR. Yes. General Canynge.
INSPECTOR. Good evenin', General. I understand, a large sum of
money?
WINSOR. Yes. Shall we go straight to the room it was taken from?
One of my guests, Mr De Levis. It's the third room on the left.
CANYNGE. We've not been in there yet, Inspector; in fact, we've done
nothing, except to find out that the stable ladder has not been moved.
We haven't even searched the grounds.
INSPECTOR. Right, sir; I've brought a man with me.
They go out.
CURTAIN. And interval of a Minute.

SCENE II
[The same set is used for this Scene, with the different arrangement of
furniture, as specified.]
The bedroom of DE LEVIS is the same in shape as WINSOR'S
dressing- room, except that there is only one door--to the corridor. The
furniture, however, is differently arranged; a small four-poster bedstead
stands against the wall, Right Back, jutting into the room. A chair, on
which DE LEVIS's clothes are thrown, stands at its foot. There is a
dressing-table against the wall to the left of the open windows, where

the curtains are drawn back and a stone balcony is seen. Against the
wall to the right of the window is a chest of drawers, and a washstand is
against the wall, Left. On a small table to the right of the bed an electric
reading lamp is turned up, and there is a light over the dressing-table.
The INSPECTOR is standing plumb centre looking at the bed, and DE
LEVIS by the back of the chair at the foot of the bed. WINSOR and
CANYNGE are close to the door, Right Forward.
INSPECTOR. [Finishing a note] Now, sir, if this is the room as you left
it for your bath, just show us exactly what you did after takin' the
pocket-book from the suit case. Where was that, by the way?
DE LEVIS. [Pointing] Where it is now--under the dressing-table.
He comes forward to the front of the chair, opens the pocket-book, goes
through the pretence of counting his shaving papers, closes the
pocket-book, takes it to the head of the bed and slips it under the pillow.
Makes the motion of taking up his pyjamas, crosses below the
INSPECTOR to the washstand, takes up a bath sponge, crosses to the
door, takes out the key, opens the door.
INSPECTOR. [Writing]. We now have the room as it was when the
theft was committed. Reconstruct accordin' to 'uman nature,
gentlemen--assumin' the thief to be