And I have lost two skeins of my grey knitting-wool.
So annoying."
Vera moved to the tea-table.
There was a cheerful rattle and clink of china.
Normality returned.
Tea!
Blessed ordinary everyday afternoon tea!
Philip Lombard made a cheery remark.
Blore responded.
Dr. Armstrong told a humorous story.
Mr. Justice Wargrave, who ordinarily hated tea, sipped approvingly.
Into this relaxed atmosphere came Rogers.
And Rogers was upset.
He said nervously and at random: "Excuse me, sir, but does any one know what's become of the bathroom curtain?"
Lombard's head went up with a jerk.
"The bathroom curtain?
What the devil do you mean, Rogers?"
"It's gone, sir, clean vanished.
I was going round drawing all the curtains and the one in the lav - bathroom wasn't there any longer."
Mr. Justice Wargrave asked: "Was it there this morning?"
"Oh, yes, sir."
Blore said: "What kind of a curtain was it?"
"Scarlet oilsilk, sir.
It went with the scarlet tiles."
Lombard said: "And it's gone?"
"Gone, sir." They stared at each other.
Blore said heavily: "Well - after all - what of it?
It's mad - but so's everything else. Anyway, it doesn't matter.
You can't kill anybody with an oilsilk curtain. Forget about it." Rogers said:
"Yes, sir, thank you, sir." He went out, shutting the door behind him.
Inside the room, the pall of fear had fallen anew.
Again, surreptitiously, they watched each other.
VI Dinner came, was eaten, and cleared away.
A simple meal, mostly out of tins.
Afterwards, in the living-room, the strain was almost too great to be borne.
At nine o'clock, Emily Brent rose to her feet.
She said: "I'm going to bed."
Vera said: "I'll go to bed too."
The two women went up the stairs and Lombard and Blore went with them.
Standing at the top of the stairs, the two men watched the women go into their respective rooms and shut the doors.
They heard the sound of two bolts being shot and the turning of two keys.
Blore said with a grin: "No need to tell 'em to lock their doors!"
Lombard said:
"Well, they're all right for the night, at any rate!"
He went down again and the other followed him.
VII The four men went to bed an hour later.
They went up together.
Rogers, from the dining-room where he was setting the table for breakfast, saw them go up.
He heard them pause on the landing above.
Then the judge's voice spoke: