ittle detective work on my
own account, and not only did I succeed in finding an acquaintance who
agreed to introduce us at the Vesper Club that night about nine o'clock,
but I also learned that Percival DeLong was certain to be there that
night, too. I was necessarily vague about Kennedy, for fear my friend
might have heard of some of his exploits, but fortunately he did not
prove inquisitive.

I hurried back to our apartment and was in the process of transforming
myself into a full-fledged boulevardier, when Kennedy arrived in
an extremely cheerful frame of mind. So far, his preparations had
progressed very favourably, I guessed, and I was quite elated when he
complimented me on what I had accomplished in the meantime.

"Pretty tough for the fellows who are condemned to ride around in that
van for four mortal hours, though," he said as he hurried into his
evening clothes, "but they won't be riding all the time. The driver will
make frequent stops."

I was so busy that I paid little attention to him until he had nearly
completed his toilet. I gave a gasp.

"Why, whatever are you doing?" I exclaimed as I glanced into his room.

There stood Kennedy arrayed in all the glory of a sharp-pointed
moustache and a goatee. He had put on evening clothes of decidedly
Parisian cut, clothes which he had used abroad and had brought back with
him, but which I had never known him to wear since he came back. On
a chair reposed a chimney-pot hat that would have been pronounced
faultless on the "continong," but was unknown, except among impresarios,
on Broadway.

Kennedy shrugged his shoulders--he even had the shrug.

"Figure to yourself, monsieur," he said. "Ze great Kennedy, ze detectif
Americain--to put it tersely in our own vernacular, wouldn't it be a
fool thing for me to appear at the Vesper Club where I should surely be
recognised by someone if I went in my ordinary clothes and features? Un
faux pas, at the start? Jamais!"

There was nothing to do but agree, and I was glad that I had been
discreetly reticent about my companion in talking with the friend who
was to gain us entrance to the Avernus beyond the steel door.

We met my friend at the Riviera and dined sumptuously. Fortunately he
seemed decidedly impressed with my friend Monsieur Kay--I could do no
better on the spur of the moment than take Kennedy's initial, which
seemed to serve. We progressed amicably from oysters and soup down to
coffee, cigars, and liqueurs,