The night-porter led the way into the hotel, and towards the office.
"Mr. Marshall Allerdyke?" he asked of the new arrival, "The gentleman left a card for you; I was asked to give it to you as soon as you came.
Allerdyke took the visiting-card which the man produced from a letter rack, and read the lines hastily scribbled on the back—
If you land here during the night, come straight up to my room—263—and rouse me out. Want to see you at once.—J. A.
Allerdyke slipped the card into his pocket and turned to the night-porter.
"My cousin wants me to go up to his room at once, he said. "Just show me the way. Do you happen to know what time he got in last night?" he continued, as they went upstairs. "Was it late?"
"Passengers from the Perisco, sir?" answered the night-porter. "There were several of 'em came in last night—she got into the river about eight-thirty. It 'ud be a bit after nine o'clock when your friend came in."
Allerdyke's mind went back to the meeting at Howden.
"Did you have a lady set off from here in the middle of the night?" he asked, out of sheer curiosity. "A lady in a motor-car?"
"Oh! that lady," exclaimed the night-porter, with a grim laugh. "Ah! nice lot of bother she gave me, too. She was one of those Perisco passengers—she got in here with the rest, and booked a room, and went to it all right, and then at half-past twelve down she came and said she wanted to get on, and as there weren't no trains she'd have a motor-car and drive to catch an express at Selby, or Doncaster, or somewhere. Nice job I had to get her a car
