“Oh, he probably didn’t even try to phone M’sieur Taureau,” he replied, with a laugh. “And if he did, we’ll just say it was a joke, that’s all.... Of course, you’ll have to tell him your sister’s in town ... tell him she just arrived in Paris from Spain.” “But he’ll want to see us together as sure as I’m standing here,” I objected. He didn’t have any suggestions to make in this regard, until after he had thought it all over again. Then he said, “Well, you’ll have to tell him that your sister is leaving town to-night. Then he won’t wonder why he doesn’t see the two of you together, because you can’t be together if she isn’t here.” He reached for his cap and blouse. “Just the thing! And I’ll run over to the hotel now, before you go home. I’ll tell him we’ve been waiting hours for you to show up and say good-by to your sister before she leaves ... that you had to go because you’re with a party of friends.... And for him to give you holy hell for not keeping your appointment with her.... How’s that for a foolproof story?” “Sounds all right,” I admitted. “But what reason have I for not keeping the appointment?” “Just say you couldn’t get here and couldn’t get us on the phone.... You can blame anything on the Paris telephone service, you know.” So his plan was carried out. He found Ben at home and told him his story before Ben had a chance to ask about the joke. Then when he returned to the rooms, I left and went home to receive a verbal trouncing from my roommate. He had finished two bottles of wine and was feeling rather cocky, so told me in great detail about meeting my sister with the Captain and about the Captain coming to find me “because your sister had to go on without sayin’ good-by to ya!... Ain’t you a fine specimen of Amer’can manhood, with a nice li’l sister like that, an’ you oft somewhere gettin’ cockeyed? Ya oughta be ashamed o’ yourself!” I told him I was and tried to act and sound very sorry because I had missed my sister. But as soon as I had him calmed down on that score, he changed to the subject of the telephone address the Captain gave him. “What the hell’s that guy think I am anyway?” he wanted to know. “I ask him where you was an’ he wrote down this address an’ told me to call ya up there. So I went out an’ found a telephone an’ asked a frog to get the number for me, an’ he wouldn’t do it: just stood there and laffed at me.” “What for?” I asked innocently. “That’s what I wanted to know, an’ he says, ‘You cannot have those number.’... I says, ‘How do you know this Monsoor Taureau ain’t got no phone?’... He says ‘Your friend have play joke with you. M’sieur Taureau is M’sieur le Bull, comprenez-vous?’... ‘Whatayamean Bull?’ says I.... ‘Eet is—what you say? a place where peegs is killed? what you call him?’... ‘Slaughterhouse?’ I says.... ‘Oui—that ees it, M’sieur.... Your frien’s ’ave tole you to call M’sieur le Bull at the slaughterhouse on the Left Bank ... a joke, non?’... An’ I says it’s a hell of a joke!”