This address, when the cab had traversed several streets, proved to be a hotel once luxurious, now fallen to second or third rate. Hereford instructed the driver to wait and, without stopping at the hotel desk, went directly to the carpeted third-floor hall. Here he noiselessly listened at the fourth door on the left and then knocked.
Receiving no response after knocking several times, he stopped and listened again, then peered through the keyhole. Still he heard nothing and his observation through the keyhole merely told him that the occupant evidently had risen, for the room was light and the shades were up, though the bed was not yet made.
Hereford impatiently withdrew down the hall and waited another few moments; but, no one appearing from the room, he made
