g concerning that note, at the end
of two weeks, I'll leave two pounds for you with James, at the Embassy."

The man, who believed Ford to be an agent of the police, was only too
happy to escape on such easy terms. After Ford had given him a pound on
account, they parted.

From Wimpole Street the amateur detective went to the nearest public
telephone and called up Gerridge's Hotel. He considered his first step
should be to discover if Mr. Pearsall was at that hotel, or had ever
stopped there. When the 'phone was answered, he requested that a message
be delivered to Mr. Pearsall.

"Please tell him," he asked, "that the clothes he ordered are ready to
try on."

He was informed that no one by that name was at the hotel. In a voice of
concern Ford begged to know when Mr. Pearsall had gone away, and had he
left any address.

"He was with you three weeks ago," Ford insisted. "He's an American
gentleman, and there was a lady with him. She ordered a riding-habit of
us: the same time he was measured for his clothes."

After a short delay, the voice from the hotel replied that no one of the
name of Pearsall had been at the hotel that winter.

In apparent great disgust Ford rang off, and took a taxicab to his rooms
in Jermyn Street. There he packed a suit-case and drove to Gerridge's.
It was a quiet, respectable, "old-established" house in Craven Street,
a thoroughfare almost entirely given over to small family hotels much
frequented by Americans.

After he had registered and had left his bag in his room, Ford returned
to the office, and in an assured manner asked that a card on which he
had written "Henry W. Page, Dalesville, Kentucky," should be taken to
Mr. Pearsall.

In a tone of obvious annoyance the proprietor returned the card, saying
that there was no one of that name in the hotel, and added that no such
person had ever stopped there. Ford expressed the liveliest distress.

"He TOLD me I'd find him here," he protested., "he and his niece." With
the garrulousness of the American abroad, he confided his troubles to
the entire staff of the hotel. "We're from the same town," he explained.
"That's why I must see him. He's the only man in London I know, and I've
spent all my money. He said he'd give me some he owes me, as soon as I
reached London. If I can't get it, I'll have to go home by Wednesday's
steamer." And, complained bitterly, "I haven't seen the Tower,
nor Westminster Abbey."

In a moment, Ford's anxiety