"We did not!" he answered. "If it wasn't true that her uncle was at
that hotel, it was probably equally untrue that she had friends in
America."

"But," retorted his friend, "you didn't forget to cable the State
Department that you all went in your evening clothes to bow to the
new King? You didn't neglect to cable that, did you?"

"The State Department," returned the Secretary, with withering
reproof, "does not expect us to crawl over the roofs of houses and
spy down chimneys to see if by any chance an American citizen is
being murdered."

"Well," exclaimed Ford, leaping to his feet and placing his notes
in his pocket, "fortunately, my paper expects me to do just that,
and if it didn't, I'd do it anyway. And that is exactly what I am
going to do now! Don't tell the others in the Embassy, and, for
Heaven's sake, don't tell the police. Jimmy, get me a taxi. And
you," he commanded, pointing at the one who had brought the note,
are coming with me to Sowell Street, to show me where you picked up
that paper."

On the way to Sowell Street Ford stopped at a newspaper agency, and
paid for the insertion that afternoon of the same advertisement in
three newspapers. It read: "If hansom-cab driver who last week
carried note, found in street, to American Embassy will mail his
address to X. X. X., care of GLOBE, he will be rewarded."

From the nearest post-office he sent to his paper the following
cable: "Query our local correspondent, Dalesville, Kentucky,