and potentially the chief witness against Abraham H. Hummel, on a
charge of conspiracy. He was told briefly and to the point that,
in spite of the official reports from the police headquarters of
both New York City and New Orleans to the contrary, there was
reason to believe that Dodge was living, although not registered,
as a guest at the St. Charles Hotel in the latter city. A partial
and inaccurate description of Dodge was given him and he was warned
to use extreme caution to prevent any knowledge of his mission from
being made known. Once Dodge had been discovered, he was to keep
him under surveillance and wire New York immediately.

Accordingly, Jesse left the city upon the same day at 4.45 P. M.
and arrived two days later, at 9.15 on Monday morning, at New
Orleans, where he went directly to the St. Charles Hotel,
registered, and was assigned to room Number 547 on the fifth floor.
Somewhere in the hotel Dodge was secreted. The question was how to
find him. For an hour Jesse sat in the hotel foyer and
meditatively watched the visitors come and go, but saw no sign of
his quarry. Then he arose, put on his hat, and hunted out a
stationery store where for two cents he bought a bright-red
envelope. He then visited a ticket-scalper's office, secured the
owner's business card, and wrote a note on its back to Dodge,
offering him cheap transportation to any point that he might
desire. Armed with this he returned to the hotel, walked to the
desk, glanced casually over a number of telegrams exposed in a rack
and, when the clerk turned his back, placed the note, addressed to
Charles F. Dodge, unobserved, upon the counter. The office was a
busy one, guests were constantly depositing their keys and
receiving their mail, and, even as Jesse stood there watching
developments, the clerk turned round, found the note, and promptly