“Mr. Thoms then asked about the condition,” added Roberts. “I said it was disquieting. I remember Sir John remarked that although he knew the patient personally he had had no idea he was ill. Nurse Banks and I lifted the patient on to the trolley and he was taken away.”

They did this with the dummy.

“Then I fainted,” said Jane.

“A dramatic finish—what?” shouted Thoms, who seemed to have quite recovered his equilibrium.

“The end,” said Alleyn, “came later. The patient was then taken back to his room, where you attended him, Dr. Roberts. Was anyone with you?”

“Nurse Graham was there throughout. I left her in the room when I returned here to report on the general condition, which I considered markedly worse.”

“And in the meantime Sir John and Mr. Thoms washed up in the anteroom?”

“Yes,” said Phillips.

“What did you talk about?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Oh yes, sir, you do, surely,” said Thoms. “We talked about Nurse Harden doing a faint, and I said I could see the operation had upset you, and you—” he grinned—“you first said it hadn’t, you know, and then said it had. Very natural, really,” he explained to Alleyn, who raised one eyebrow and turned to the nurses.

“And you cleaned up the theatre, and Miss Banks gave one of her well-known talks on the Dawn of the Proletariat Day?”

“I did,” said Banks with a snap.

“Meanwhile Dr. Roberts came down and reported, and you and Mr. Thoms, Sir John, went up to the patient?”

“Yes. The matron, Sister Marigold, joined us. We found the patient’s condition markedly worse. As you know, he died about half an hour later, without regaining consciousness.”

“Thank you. That covers the ground. I am extremely grateful to all of you for helping us with this rather unpleasant business. I won’t keep you any longer.” He turned to Phillips. “You would like to get out of your uniforms, I’m sure.”

“If you’re finished,” agreed Phillips. Fox opened the swing-door and he went through, followed by Thoms, Sister Marigold, Jane Harden, and Banks. Dr. Roberts crossed to the anæsthetising apparatus.

“I’ll get this out of the way,” he said.

“Oh—do you mind leaving it while you change?” said Alleyn. “I just want to make a plan of the floor.”

“Certainly,” said Roberts.

“Would you be very kind and see if you can beat me up a sheet of paper and a pencil, Dr. Roberts? Sorry to bother you, but I hardly like to send one of my own people hunting for it.”

“Shall I ask?” suggested Roberts.

He put his head round the door into the anteroom and spoke to someone on the other side.

“Inspector Alleyn would like—”

Fox walked heavily across from the other end of the theatre.

“I can hear a telephone ringing its head off out there, sir,” he said, looking fixedly at Alleyn.