A taxi was waiting there, and he gave the driver the address of the police headquarters downtown, but re-directed him when they were safe from pursuit, and the three, so oddly assorted as companions, arrived at the Plaza within a minute of the two young men.
Steingall went straight to the telephone room, and Curtis ascended to his suite of apartments.

He knocked at Hermione's door, and her "Yes, who is there ?" came with disconcerting speed.

Evidently, she was far from being asleep yet.
"It is I--dear," said Curtis, in whom the mere sense of being near his "wife" induced a species of vertigo.

Indeed, he was horribly nervous, since he could not form the slightest notion as to the manner in which she would receive the latest news of de Courtois.
The door was opened without delay, and Hermione appeared, dressed exactly as she was when he bade her farewell.
"I am sorry to disturb you," he said, "but it cannot be helped.

Things have been happening since I left you." Her face blanched, but she tried to smile, though the corners of her mouth drooped piteously.
"They are not here already ?" she cried, and he had no occasion to ask who "they" were.
"No," he said, with a cheerfulness he was far from feeling.