Her husband called her on the telephone a few minutes later:
"Fifty-three, Six-twenty-six speaking! Who is this?"
"V-sixty-nine," replied his young wife happily. "Are you all right?"
"Yes. Is M. H. 2479 there?"
"He is here."
"Very well. An hour ago I saw Togrul Khan in a limousine and chased him in a taxi. His car got away in the fog but it was possible to make out the number. An empty Cadillac limousine bearing that number is now waiting outside the 44th Street entrance to the Hotel Astor. The doorman will hold it until I finish telephoning. Tell M. H. 2479 to send men to cover this matter----"
"Victor!"
"Be careful! Yes, what is it?"
"I beg you not to stir in this affair until I can join you----"
"Hurry then. It"s just across the street from Westover Court----" His voice ceased; she heard another voice, faintly, and an exclamation from her husband; then his hurried voice over the wire: "The doorman just sent word to hurry. The car number is N. Y. _015 F 0379_! I"ve got to run! Good-b----"
He left the booth at the end of Peac.o.c.k Alley, ran down the marble steps to the left and out to the snowy sidewalk, pa.s.sing on his way a young girl swathed to the eyes in chinchilla who was hurrying into the hotel.
As he came to where the limousine was standing, he saw that it was still empty although the door stood open and the engine was running. Around the chauffeur stood the gold laced doorman, the gorgeously uniformed carriage porter and a mounted policeman.
"Hey!" said the latter when he saw Cleves,--"what"s the matter here?
What are you holding up this car for?"
Cleves beckoned him, whispered, then turned to the doorman.
"Why did you send for me? Was the chauffeur trying to pull out?"
"Yes, sir. A lady come hurrying out an" she jumps in, and the shawfur he starts her humming----"
"A lady! Where did she go?"
"It was that young lady in chinchilla fur. The one you just met when you run out. Yessir! Why, as soon as I held up the car and called this here cop, she opens the door and out she jumps and beats it into the hotel again----"
"Hold that car, Officer!" interrupted Cleves. "Keep it standing here and arrest anybody who gets into it! I"ll be back again----"
He turned and hurried into the hotel, traversed Peac.o.c.k Alley scanning every woman he pa.s.sed, searching for a slim shape swathed in chinchilla.
There were no chinchilla wraps in Peac.o.c.k Alley; none in the dining-room where people already were beginning to gather and the orchestra was now playing; no young girl in chinchilla in the waiting room, or in the north dining-room.
Then, suddenly, far across the crowded lobby, he saw a slender, bare-headed girl in a chinchilla cloak turn hurriedly away from the room-clerk"s desk, holding a key in her white gloved hand.
Before he could take two steps in her direction she had disappeared in the crowd.
He made his way through the packed lobby as best he could amid throngs of people dressed for dinner, theatre, or other gaiety awaiting them somewhere out there in the light-smeared winter fog; but when he arrived at the room clerk"s desk he looked for a chinchilla wrap in vain.
Then he leaned over the desk and said to the clerk in a low voice: "I am a Federal agent from the Department of Justice. Here are my credentials.
Now, who was that young woman in chinchilla furs to whom you gave her door key a moment ago?"
The clerk leaned over his counter and, dropping his voice, answered that the lady in question had arrived only that morning from San Francisco; had registered as Madame Aoula Baroula.s.s; and had been given a suite on the fourth floor numbered from 408 to 414.
"Do you mean to arrest her?" added the clerk in a weird whisper.
"I don"t know. Possibly. Have you the master-key?"
The clerk handed it to him without a word; and Cleves hurried to the elevator.
On the fourth floor the matron on duty halted him, but when he murmured an explanation she nodded and laid a finger on her lips.
"Madame has gone to her apartment," she whispered.
"Has she a servant? Or friends with her?"
"No, sir.... I did see her speak to two foreign looking gentlemen in the elevator when she arrived this morning."
Cleves nodded; the matron pointed out the direction in silence, and he went rapidly down the carpeted corridor, until he came to a door numbered 408.
For a second only he hesitated, then swiftly fitted the master-key and opened the door.
The room--a bedroom--was brightly lighted; but there was n.o.body there.
The other rooms--dressing closet, bath-room and parlour, all were brilliantly lighted by ceiling fixtures and wall brackets; but there was not a person to be seen in any of the rooms--nor, save for the illumination, was there any visible sign that anybody inhabited the apartment.
Swiftly he searched the apartment from end to end. There was no baggage to be seen, no garments, no toilet articles, no flowers in the vases, no magazines or books, not one article of feminine apparel or of personal bric-a-brac visible in the entire place.
Nor had the bed even been turned down--nor any preparation for the night"s comfort been attempted. And, except for the blazing lights, it was as though the apartment had not been entered by anybody for a month.
All the windows were closed, all shades lowered and curtains drawn. The air, though apparently pure enough, had that vague flatness which one a.s.sociates with an unused guest-chamber when opened for an airing.
Now, deliberately, Cleves began a more thorough search of the apartment, looking behind curtains, under beds, into clothes presses, behind sofas.
Then he searched the bureau drawers, dressers, desks for any sign or clew of the girl in the chinchillas. There was no dust anywhere,--the hotel management evidently was particular--but there was not even a pin to be found.
Presently he went out into the corridor and looked again at the number on the door. He had made no mistake.
Then he turned and sped down the long corridor to where the matron was standing beside her desk preparing to go off duty as soon as the other matron arrived to relieve her.
To his impatient question she replied positively that she had seen the girl in chinchillas unlock 408 and enter the apartment less than five minutes before he had arrived in pursuit.
"And I saw her lights go on as soon as she went in," added the matron, pointing to the distant illuminated transom.
"Then she went out through into the next apartment," insisted Cleves.
"The fire-tower is on one side of her; the scullery closet on the other," said the matron. "She could not have left that apartment without coming out into the corridor. And if she had come out I should have seen her."
"I tell you she isn"t in those rooms!" protested Cleves.