Sprague, and Flora said, in a surprised voice, 'No! I wonder where he is
all this time,' and Polly said that probably he'd gone to the lavatory,
which opens into the main hall and is next to the library.... Well,
pretty soon Judge Marshall and Karen came back--"

"Pretty soon?--Just how long was Judge Marshall gone?" Dundee pressed
her, his pencil, which had been flying to take down her every word,
poised over the notebook he had snatched from her desk.

"I can't say exactly!" Penny protested thornily. "I was playing again at
the other table. I suppose it was about ten minutes, for Ralph and I had
made another rubber, I remember.... Anyway, Karen was smiling like a
baby that has had a lot of petting, but she said Hugo had promised her
she wouldn't have to play bridge any more that evening, so Flora
remained at that table, playing opposite Hugo, while Tracey played with
Polly. As soon as Tracey became dummy, Flora suggested he go look for
Sprague."

"And how long was _he_ gone from the porch?" Dundee asked.

"Less than no time," Penny assured him. "He was back before Polly had
finished playing the hand. He said he'd gone to the hall closet, where
Whitson, the butler, would have put Sprague's hat and stick, and that he
had found they were gone.... Well--and you needn't put down 'well' every
time I say it!" Penny interrupted herself tartly. "Tracey said he
supposed Sprague had ordered his taxi and had decided to walk down the
hill to meet it, and he added that that was exactly the kind of courtesy
you could expect from a cad and a bounder like Sprague--walking in
uninvited, making Karen cry, then walking out, without a word, leaving
the game while he was dummy. Flora spoke up then and said it was no
wonder Dexter had left without saying good-by, considering how he'd been
treated. Then Tracey said something ugly and sarcastic about Flora's
being disappointed because Sprague had decided not to spend the whole
evening--"

"A first-class row, eh?" Dundee interrupted, with keen interest.

"Rather! Flora almost cried, said Tracey knew good and well that she had
only been playing-up to Sprague before Nita's death, in the hope of
getting the lead in the Hamilton movie, if Sprague got the job of
directing it, and Tracey said, 'So you call it playing-up, do you? It
looked like high-powered flirting to me--or maybe it was more than a
flirtation!...' Then Flora told him he hadn't acted jealous at the
time, and that he _knew_ he'