He left the cable carefully open upon the dressing-table, and, picking up the small leather case, left the room.  He reached the lift, happily escaping the observation of the young lady seated at her desk, and descended into the hall.  Once amongst the crowd of people who thronged the corridors, he found it perfectly simple to leave the hotel by one of the side entrances.  He walked to the corner of the street and drew a little breath.  Then he lit a cigarette and strolled along Broadway, curiously light-hearted, his spirits rising at every step.  He was free for ever from that other hateful personality.  Mr. Douglas Romilly, of the Douglas Romilly Shoe Company, had paid his brief visit to America and passed on.

BOOK II

CHAPTER I

After a fortnight of his new life, Philip took stock of himself and his belongings.  In the first place, then, he owned a new name, taken bodily from certain documents which he had brought with him from England.  Further, as Mr. Merton Ware, he was the monthly tenant of a small but not uncomfortable suite of rooms on the top story of a residential hotel in the purlieus of Broadway.  He had also, apparently, been a collector of newspapers of certain dates, all of which contained some such paragraph as this: 

  Douglas Romilly, Wealthy English boot
  manufacturer, disappears from the Waldorf Astoria
  hotel.  Walks out of his room within an hour of
  Landing and has not been heard of since.  Down town
  haunts searched. Foul play feared.

  Superintendent Shipman declares himself baffled.

Early on Monday morning, the police of the city were invited to investigate a case of curious disappearance.  Mr. Douglas Romilly, an English shoe manufacturer, who travelled out from England on board the Elletania, arrived at the Waldorf Hotel at four o’clock on Saturday afternoon and was shown to the reservation made for him.  Within an hour he was enquired for by several callers, who were shown to his room without result.  The apartment was found to be empty and nothing has since been seen or heard of Mr. Romilly.  The room assigned to him, which could only have been occupied for a few minutes, has been locked up and the keys handed to the police.  A considerable amount of luggage is in their possession, and certain documents of a somewhat curious character.  From cables received early this afternoon, it would appear that the Douglas Romilly Shoe Company, one of the oldest established firms in England, is in financial difficulties.

Then there was a paragraph in a paper of later date: