The room was empty.
«But they were just here! I saw them come in, and now-gone!» cried the manager. «The windows are covered with iron grating. They couldn't get out that way!»
In the late afternoon the priest was summoned and they opened the room again and aired it out, and had him sprinkle holy water through each comer and give it his blessing.
«What shall we do with these?» asked the charwoman.
She pointed to the closet, where there were 67 bottles of chartreuse, cognac, creme de cacao absinthe, vermouth, tequila, 106 cartons of Turkish cigarettes, and 198 yellow boxes of fifty-cent pure Havana-filler cigars….