“Go to the Claridge first.” Five minutes later the taxi was in Forty-Fourth Street and Larry was stepping out. Fortune favored him in one fact--or perhaps his subconscious mind had based his plan upon this fact: the time was half-past ten, the theaters still held their crowds, the streets were empty, the restaurants were practically unoccupied. He was incurring the minimum of risk. “Wait for me,” he ordered the driver. “I'll be out in five minutes.” In less than the half of the first of these minutes Larry had attained his first objective: the secluded telephone-room down behind the grill. It was unoccupied except for the telephone girl who was gazing raptly at the sorrowful, romantic, and very soiled pages of “St. Elmo.” The next moment she was gazing at something else--a five-dollar bill which Larry had slipped into the open book. “That's to pay for a telephone call; just keep the change,” he said rapidly. “You're to do all the talking, and say just what I tell you.” “I got you, general,” said the girl, emerging with alacrity from romance to reality. “Shoot.” “Call up the Hotel Grantham--say you're a florist with an order to deliver some flowers direct to Miss Margaret Cameron--and ask for the number of her suite--and keep the wire open.” The girl obeyed promptly. In less than a minute she was reporting to Larry: “They say 1141-1142-1143.” “Ask if she's in. If she is, get her on the 'phone, tell her long distance is calling, but doesn't want to speak to her unless she is alone. You get it?” “Sure, brother. This ain't the first time I helped a party out.” There was more jabbing with the switch-board plug, evident switching at the other end, several questions, and then the girl asked: “Is this Miss Margaret Cameron? Miss Cameron--” and so on as per Larry's instructions. The operator turned to Larry: “She says she's alone.” “Tell her to hold the wire till you get better connections--the storm has messed up connections terribly--and keep your own wire open and make her hold her end.” As Larry went out he heard his instructions being executed while an adept hand safely banked the bill inside her shirt-waist. Within two minutes his taxi set him down at the Grantham; and knowing that whatever risks he ran would be lessened by his acting swiftly and without any suspicious hesitation, he walked straight in and to the elevators, in the manner of one having business there, his collar again pulled up, his cap pulled down, and his face just then covered with a handkerchief which was caring for a sniffling nose in a highly natural manner.