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:
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:
Copyrights
The Cinema Murder from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
