I crossed back over Broadway, at last, and turned down Twenty-third Street in the direction of the Marathon, when, just at the corner, I came face to face with three men as they swung around the corner in the same direction, and, with a little start, I recognised Grady and Simmonds, with M. Pigot between them.  Evidently Grady had felt it incumbent upon himself to make good his promise in the most liberal manner, and to display the wonders of the Great White Way from end to end—­the ceremony no doubt involving the introduction of the stranger to a number of typical American drinks—­and the result of all this was that Grady’s legs wobbled perceptibly.  As a matter of racial comparison, I glanced at M. Pigot’s, but they seemed in every way normal.

“Hello, Lester,” said Simmonds, in a voice which showed that he had not wholly escaped the influences of the evening’s celebration; and even Grady condescended to nod, from which I inferred that he was feeling very unusually happy.

“Hello, Simmonds,” I answered, and, as I turned westward with them, he dropped back and; fell into step beside me.

“Piggott is certainly a wonder,” he said.  “A regular sport—­wanted to see everything and taste everything.  He says Paris ain’t in the same class with this town.”

“Where are you going now?” I asked.

“We’re going round to the station.  Piggott says he’s got a sensation up his sleeve for us—­it’s got something to do with that cabinet.”

“With the cabinet?”

“Yes—­that shiny thing Godfrey got me to lock up in a cell.”

“Simmonds,” I said, seriously, “does Godfrey know about this?”

“No,” said Simmonds, looking a little uncomfortable.  “I told Grady we ought to ’phone him to come up, but the chief got mad and told me to mind my own business.  Godfrey’s been after him, you know, for a long time.”

“Suppose I ’phone him,” I suggested.  “There’d be no objection to that, would there?”

“I won’t object,” said Simmonds, “and I don’t know who else will, since nobody else will know about it.”

“All right.  And drag out the preliminaries as long as you can, to give him a chance to get up here.”

Simmonds nodded.

“I’ll do what I can,” he agreed, “but I don’t see what good it will do.  The chief won’t let him in, even if he does come up.”

“We’ll have to leave that to Godfrey.  But he ought to be told.  He’s responsible for the cabinet being where it is.”

“I know he is, and Piggott says it was a mighty wise thing to put it there, though I’m blessed if I know why.  Hurry Godfrey along as much as you can.  Good-night,” and he followed his companions into the station.

There was a drugstore at the corner with a public telephone station, and two minutes later, I was asking to be connected with the city-room at the Record office.

No, said a supercilious voice, Mr. Godfrey was not there; he had left some time before; no, the speaker did not know where he was going, nor when he would be back.