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The unpleasant happenings of the morning had driven the day’s programme out of her head, but she had made a list of the few things that she still had to buy, and she took it out of her bag and studied it.
    Beach hat, sunsuit, something for air sickness? Ticket for matinee of ‘Sun in Your Eye’. Book for journey? That should not take long.
    It was only when she was replacing the list that she noticed that something was missing from the bag. Surely there ought to be more in it? Money, cheque book, powder compact, lipstick, a crumpled face tissue, a pocket comb, a bunch of keys, a leather pocket-book containing tickets, reservations, permits and certificates, and ____
    With a sudden sickening sense of shock she realized that her passport was no longer there! The brand new passport that Aunt Harriet had impressed upon her that she must on no account let out of her keeping, and which she had carried about in the new lizard-skin bag for the last three days.
    She hunted through the bag with desperate, shaking fingers, and finally emptied the entire contents on to the dressing-table. But there was no passport.
    It must be there. It must be! thought Dany frantically. I couldn’t have lost it. It’s never been out of my sight, and it was there last thing last night — I saw it when I was checking the plane tickets. The tickets! Had those gone too?
    She tore open the pocket-book with hands that were so unsteady that she could barely control them. But the tickets were still there. Everything else was there. And none of it was any use without a passport!
    Dany dropped the pocket-book and began a frenzied search through the dressing-table drawers. But the action was purely a panic-stricken one, for she knew quite well that it had been in her bag when she had checked over all her various forms and tickets before turning out the light last night. She had taken the bag down with her to the dining-room at breakfast time, and it had never once been out of her sight except ____
    Dany straightened up suddenly and stood gripping the edge of the dressing-table. She had been locked out of her room for nearly three-quarters of an hour this morning, and during that time Lash Holden had entered it and turned all her things upside down for a practical joke. Had he taken her passport too, as part of it?
    She gathered up the scattered contents of her bag in feverish haste, crammed them back into it, and ran out of the room and across the passage.
    Mr Holden’s door was shut and she hammered on it, terrified that he might already have left and that she might have to wait the best part of the day before catching him again. But Mr Holden was still at home.
    The door opened and he regarded her with a trace of annoyance. ‘What, again? Not another lethal weapon, I trust? I’ve only just finished packing up the first one. Here it is.’
    Dany said breathlessly: ‘Did you take my passport this morning? When you were ragging my room?’
    â€˜Rag ____ ? Sorry; I no speaka-da English.’
    â€˜Turning it upside down. Did you? Because if you did I don’t think it’s in the least funny, and I want it back at once. How could you?’
    Mr Holden stared, scowled, and then reaching out a hand and grasping her by one arm he jerked her into his room and shut the door behind her.
    â€˜Say, what goes on here? I don’t get it. No, I have not taken your passport. And just when am I supposed to have roughed up your room?’
    â€˜This morning. While I was waiting in here. It must have been you. It couldn’t have been anyone else! You had the key and ____ ’
    Dany stopped: suddenly realizing that someone had got into her room without a key, and hidden a gun there. The balcony ____ ? the fire-escape ____ ?
    Lash said: ‘Now relax. Just sit right down and have another slug of rye. Looks like you could use one. No? Well I certainly could. You’ve got me all confused. Chicago was never like