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the time until 11 p.m.?”
    I looked at her in complete astonishment. “I didn’t actually see you, but I presume that you were there all the time. Weren’t you?”
    She made a pretence of arranging the flowers in the low bowl on the window ledge. Her head was turned away from us. Clark was very quiet. I glanced at him uneasily and then at Mac’s straight, slim back.
    â€œWhat is all this nonsense?” I asked impatiently. “Did you go out of the room or didn’t you? What story have you told the police?”
    Clark got up leisurely and strolled over to her.
    â€œYou are making yourself appear very mysterious, Gerda,” he said lightly. “There is a very simple explanation, which in no way impairs the alibi that Maggie has supplied so blithely.” He turned to me. “I let Gerda shut up the sortagraph at ten to ten, so that she could have a few minutes’relief before taking over the country boards.”
    â€œIs that all?” I asked, relaxing in my chair. “Why have you been acting so strangely, Mac?”
    â€œI saw Sarah,” she said in a low voice.
    â€œYou mean when she was dead?” I asked, feeling a trifle sick. “Before we found her?”
    She turned quickly. “No! Oh no, Maggie. You don’t think that I was pretending up there in the cloakroom?”
    â€œHardly,” I lied, for the thought had occurred to me. “What do you mean, you saw Compton? When and where?”
    â€œEntering the lift just as I came out on relief.”
    â€œThat must have been about eight minutes to ten,” said Clark swiftly. “Did she say anything to you? What floor was she going to?”
    Mac twisted her hands together, and swung around to face us. “I don’t know. She just glared at me. But she must have gone past the fourth floor because I remember glancing at the indicator before I went up the stairs.”
    â€œI wonder where she was off to?” Clark said thoughtfully. “There is only apparatus below the fourth floor.”
    â€œObservation,” I cried, inspired. They looked at me blankly for a minute. Then Clark slapped his knee with his hand.
    â€œMaggie, you’re a marvel!”
    â€œBut observation closes at 9.45 p.m.,” argued Mac.
    â€œWhat was to prevent her from wanting to observe herself,” I retorted. “Not her job, certainly, but quite in her line.”
    â€œBut the room is always locked when the observation officers go off duty,” Mac still protested.
    â€œAnother damned locked door!” I said, determined not to be put off from my brilliant idea. “She’d find a key from somewhere. In fact, I’m even beginning to think that she was responsible for the restroom door.”
    Clark interposed. “The point is, my dears, whom or what did she want to observe?”
    â€œAnyone,” I declared airily. “I said that it was in her line.”
    Mac was looking thoughtful. “She had a docket in her hand. I do remember that.”
    â€œThere you are!” I said in triumph. “She was going to follow it up, and try to catch someone doing something they shouldn’t, I’ll bet.”
    Taking no notice of my solution, Clark asked Mac if she saw Compton at any later time.
    â€œNot alive,” she replied, and a shudder passed through her small figure.
    â€œWhy didn’t you tell the Inspector all this, Gerda?” asked Clark gently. She gave that small laugh again.
    â€œIt sounds very silly, but I forgot all about it.”
    I was sure that she lied. Mac was too honest and straightforward to be able to deceive anyone. It was not in her nature to be subtle that way. Why lie about seeing Sarah Compton alive at 10 p.m., or rather at eight minutes to ten, I couldn’t understand.
    â€œMac is playing a dangerous game,” I thought with anxiety, resolving to find out what it was. A silence had fallen. Mac was staring at her entwined