“Yes,” said Bundle.
“Good. So do I. Well, it seems to me that there we do stand some faint chance. After all, if Gerry didn’t take the chloral himself, someone must have got into his room and put it there—dissolved it in the glass of water, so that when he woke up he drank it off. And of course left the empty box or bottle or whatever it was. You agree with that?”
“Ye-es,” said Bundle slowly. “But—”
“Wait. And that someone must have been in the house at the time. It couldn’t very well have been someone from outside.”
“No,” agreed Bundle, more readily this time.
“Very well. Now, that narrows down things considerably. To begin with, I suppose a good many of the servants are family ones—they’re your lot, I mean.”
“Yes,” said Bundle. “Practically all the staff stayed when we let it. All the principal ones are there still—of course there have been changes among the under servants.”
“Exactly—that’s what I am getting at. You— ” he addressed Bundle—“must go into all that. Find out when new servants were engaged—what about footmen, for instance?”
“One of the footmen is new. John, his name is.”
“Well, make inquiries about John. And about any others who have only come recently.”
“I suppose,” said Bundle slowly, “it must have been a servant. It couldn’t have been one of the guests?”
“I don’t see how that’s possible.”