Alfred was waiting for them at the hotel (the one at which they stopped before), having, as he had on the former visit, come over by a night train. A heavy mail awaited the firm at the office, with several telegrams from various places and two or three large envelopes registered, all of which had been attended to by Miss Dugas, their office stenographer, who had notified the “correspondents” (as you might call them) in various cities to send letters and telegrams to Boston as per instructions; and because you know the letters and telegrams so sent were bogus, the trick being one among many items in Pentecost’s establishment of their “open work” presence in town, it needn’t lead you to imagine that a single envelope of the lot contained only blank paper. Each one had in it an apparently important business communication relating to one of the three or four legitimate promotions that the firm operated as decoys; and if traced to its source a man or woman would be found who was trying to buy stock in one of their straight companies, or wanting an agency, or with an invention to sell, or that sort of thing. Pentecost left two or three of the best of these letters lying about the room for the chambermaid to turn in at the hotel office when he left. Also, he went to the hotel telegraph desk and asked for a repeat on one of his wires. After breakfast in the restaurant the three men retired to their room and went into a low-voiced conference for perhaps half an hour. Then Pentecost went down to the hotel desk, there making inquiry as to a reliable trucking concern that could handle a heavy piece of machinery he wanted hauled from West Roxbury to one of the freight stations for Jersey City. Proceeding by taxi to one that the information clerk looked up for him, he arranged for one of their heavy trucks and a moving apparatus and plenty of men to call for the machine on the following day, giving them an order on Haworth and full shipping instructions. Having done this, he rejoined the Harkers. And about twenty minutes before eleven the three came out of the hotel and, entering a large car which had been waiting for them, were driven away. No slipping out on the quiet. All open and aboveboard. Harker rang the bell at the mansion, and James Dreek opened the door. He was an ideal servant in both appearance and behavior. When Harker inquired if Mr. Haworth was at home, Dreek asked what names he should give, and upon being told—with the further information that they’d come by appointment—he begged pardon and showed them in at once, saying Mr. Haworth was expecting them.