The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-06-15
Chapter 27
WHENCE THE SMOKE?

bt1 SthSfN@s n was very cold, and the glow from the red ashes still lighted the room sufficiently for me to see that there was no one about and the table before the door was undis- turbed.
 My shoulder throbbed as I pulled a dressing gown around me ard went to the window. One casemeat was already a little open. and pulled it wider and opened the shut ters and looked down into the street.
 There was no one about. and closed the shutters and. partially, the window again.
 There was the courtyard.
 Cautiously moved the table aTay and opened the door.
 No one was in the long. half-dark corridor. Across the shadowy court the window and glass-paned door of the lobby made bright rectangles of light. and l could see two police men, they sat at small table di- rectly under the light and were placidly playing some kind of card game.
 The men were not smoking. al though. if they had been. the odor would never have reached m.' room
 But behind me the whole north wing was deserted and silent. ; walked carefully along its length l even opened, very cautiously. a door or two near my own room But the rooms were black cavities and the air that rushed to meet me was cold and stale and had that pc culiarly musty. dank smell or rooms that are very old and have beea empty for a long time.
 Moreover, the smell of tobacco smoke was much fainter here--was indeed so faint that 1 was not surt it was there at all. It was only when 1 returned to my room that i was definite and strong again. closed the door. puzzled. and snapped on the light.
 It puzzled me so much that l ex- amined the room and adjoining bathroom. There was no one there, of course. and no evidence thai anyone had been there. even looked for hidden entrances to my room. feeling a little silly and melo- dramatic about it. but thinking still that there might be some such thing in that old place. built in the days when secret doors were the most matter-of-fact of arrange. ments.
 But there was nothing; indeed, there was no place for anything ex- cept behind the enormous ward robe. and if l moved that 1 should reuse the whole hotel in the proc ess. for it was very heavy and large
 However, l did drift into uneasy dreams again, and by morning the odor of tobacco smoke-a silly and trivial thing at It's clearest-had merged into those dreams and no longer seemed important. although told Lorn about 1t when saw him.
 That was when we met in the lounge after breakfast.
 MARIANNE. red-eyed and dark IVA and somehow sullen. had brought in the breakfast tray and bounced out again. All her giggles were gone. poor child. wondered what little Marcel had been to her.
 Lorn listened politely. but with out much interest, to my story of the tobacco smoke-which did, in fact. sound extremely trivial and fanciful by the light of day-said in 8 listless way that it was probably policeman somewhere, but that he would try to make sure; asked how my shoulder was and said he was oil to try to discover what the po- lice were doing.
 The matter of Father Robart's alibi would, thought, await more Important Investigations. though felt that the sooner we came to a conclusion about the information little Marcel had given me the bet. ter.
 followed Lorn through the small lobby and into the court. No one was in the lobby. but Father Robart was sitting outside in the court: he was smoking and hastily put up q newspaper as he saw me and began to read assiduously.
 Pucci was sitting disconsolatcl, on chair back near the priest. and l took another chair. It was rathe