CHAPTER IX.
On the last Saturday in April, the New York "Times" published an account of the strike complications which were delaying Alexander's New Jersey bridge, and stated that the engineer himself was in town and at his office on West Tenth Street.
On Sunday, the day after this notice appeared, Alexander worked all day at his Tenth Street rooms.

His business often called him to New York, and he had kept an apartment there for years, subletting it when he went abroad for any length of time.

Besides his sleeping-room and bath, there was a large room, formerly a painter's studio, which he used as a study and office.

It was furnished with the cast-off possessions of his bachelor days and with odd things which he sheltered for friends of his who followed itinerant and more or less artistic callings.

Over the fireplace there was a large old-fashioned gilt mirror.