The travellers were still occupied in the rooms at the eastern end of the corridor.
In the brief interval that had passed, the manager had sufficiently recovered himself to be able to think once more of the first and foremost interests of his life--the interests of the hotel.

He approached Henry anxiously.
'If this frightful discovery becomes known,' he said, 'the closing of the hotel and the ruin of the Company will be the inevitable results.
I feel sure that I can trust your discretion, sir, so far ?' 'You can certainly trust me,' Henry answered.

'But surely discretion has its limits,' he added, 'after such a discovery as we have made ?' The manager understood that the duty which they owed to the community, as honest and law-abiding men, was the duty to which Henry now referred.

'I will at once find the means,' he said, 'of conveying the remains privately out of the house, and I will myself place them in the care of the police authorities.

Will you leave the room with me?
or do you not object to keep watch here, and help me when I return ?' While he was speaking, the voices of the travellers made themselves heard again at the end of the corridor.