ching at
the other end, several questions, and then the girl asked: "Is this Miss
Margaret Cameron? Miss Cameron--" and so on as per Larry's instructions.

The operator turned to Larry: "She says she's alone."

"Tell her to hold the wire till you get better connections--the storm
has messed up connections terribly--and keep your own wire open and make
her hold her end."

As Larry went out he heard his instructions being executed while an
adept hand safely banked the bill inside her shirt-waist. Within two
minutes his taxi set him down at the Grantham; and knowing that whatever
risks he ran would be lessened by his acting swiftly and without any
suspicious hesitation, he walked straight in and to the elevators, in
the manner of one having business there, his collar again pulled up,
his cap pulled down, and his face just then covered with a handkerchief
which was caring for a sniffling nose in a highly natural manner.

With his heart pounding he got without mishap to the doors numbered
1141, 1142, and 1143. Instinctively he knew in a general way what the
apartment was like: a set of rooms of various character which the hotel
could rent singly or throw together and rent en suite. But which of the
three was the main entrance? He dared not hesitate, for the slightest
queer action might get the attention of the floor clerk down
the corridor. So Larry chose the happy medium and pressed the
mother-of-pearl button of 1142.

The door opened, and before Larry stood a large, elderly, imposing woman
in a rigidly formal evening gown--a gown which, by the way, had been
part of Miss Grierson's equipment for many a year for helping raw young
things master the art of being ladies. Larry surmised at once that this
was the "hired companion" his grandmother had spoken of. In other days
Larry had had experience with this type and before Miss Grierson could
bar him out or ask a question, Larry was in the room and the door closed
behind him--and he had entered with the easiest, most natural, most
polite manner imaginable.

"You were expecting me?" inquired Larry with his disarming and wholly
engaging smile.

Neither Miss Grierson's mind nor body was geared for rapid action. She
was taken aback, and yet not offended. So being at a loss, she resorted
to the chief item in her stock in trade, her ever dependable dignity.

"I cannot say that I was. In fact, sir, I do not know who you are."

"Miss Cameron knows--and she is expecting me," L