After listening for a long time, that was the only sound echoing through the air. Schiller set down the Alarm Clock, but the fifth chime never came.
At 12:15, the fifth chime finally came from somewhere far away. Schiller judged that it should have been the first chime from the left corridor, followed quickly by the second.
After the second knock, there was no more movement. Schiller waited another fifteen minutes, but the sound never rang out again.
The right corridor had chimed four times, while the left corridor had chimed twice. That was clearly unbalanced.
Judging from where the earlier sounds had come from, the elevator chimed once, and then the sounds began drawing closer and closer. Room 1903 chimed once, Room 1905 chimed once, so the chime after the elevator had possibly come from Room 1901.
In other words, 1, 3, and 5 had each chimed once, meaning the pattern was that odd-numbered rooms chimed. But there had been four knocks in the right corridor, and there was no fourth odd-numbered room there. Where had that fourth knock come from?
Schiller thought of Room 1900. Its number plaque had been switched, so if Room 1900 had originally been an odd-numbered room, that would explain it.
The left corridor happened to be missing one chime, which proved that an odd-numbered room from the left corridor had been switched over.
Why switch the room numbers between the left and right corridors? Just to make the other side knock once less on the left? But the meaning of those sounds was still unclear. So far, no Supernatural Phenomenon had appeared.
Seeing that nothing else was happening, Schiller did not intend to sleep. He took the screws and the Alarm Clock to the desk and began studying them.
There was no doubt