Chapter Sixteen
I t was the wardrobe that worried Canon Pennyfather. It worried him before he was quite awake. Then he forgot it andhe fell asleep again. But when his eyes opened once more, there the wardrobe still was in the wrong place. He waslying on his left side facing the window and the wardrobe ought to have been there between him and the window onthe left wall. But it wasn’t. It was on the right. It worried him. It worried him so much that it made him feel tired. Hewas conscious of his head aching badly, and on top of that, to have the wardrobe in the wrong place. At this point oncemore his eyes closed.
There was rather more light in the room the next time he woke. It was not daylight yet. Only the faint light ofdawn. “Dear me,” said Canon Pennyfather to himself, suddenly solving the problem of the wardrobe. “How stupid Iam! Of course, I’m not at home.”
He moved gingerly. No, this wasn’t his own bed. He was away from home. He was—where was he? Oh, of course.
He’d gone to London, hadn’t he? He was in Bertram’s Hotel and—but no, he wasn’t in Bertram’s Hotel. In Bertram’sHotel his bed was facing the window. So that was wrong, too.
“Dear me, where can I be?” said Canon Pennyfather.
Then he remembered that he was going to Lucerne. “Of course,” he said to himself, “I’m in Lucerne.” He beganthinking about the paper he was going to read. He didn’t think about it long. Thinking about his paper seemed to makehis head ache so he went to sleep again.
The next time he woke his head was a great deal clearer. Also there was a good deal more light in the room. Hewas not at home, he was not at Bertram’s Hotel and he was fairly sure that he was not in Lucerne. This wasn’t a hotelbedroom at all. He studied it fairly closely. It was an entirely¹ strange room with very little furniture in it. A kind ofcupboard (what he’d taken for the wardrobe) and a window with flowered curtains through which the light came. Achair and a table and a chest of drawers. Really, that was about all.
“Dear me,” said Canon Pennyfather, “this is most odd. Where am I?”
He was thinking of getting up to investigate but when he sat up in bed his headache began again so he lay down.
“I must have been ill,” decided² Canon Pennyfather. “Yes, definitely I must have been ill.” He thought a minute ortwo and then said to himself, “As a matter of fact, I think perhaps I’m still ill.

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