See what there is in it."

I picked up my hat and coat, and left the office at a speed which must
have given my superior the highest conception of my journalistic zeal.
At a telephone station on the next corner I called up Mrs.
Apperthwaite's house and asked for Dowden.

"What are you doing?" I demanded, when his voice had responded.

"Playing bridge," he answered.

"Are you going out anywhere?"

"No. What's the trouble?"

"I'll tell you later. I may want to see you before I go back to the
office."

"All right. I'll be here all evening."

I hung up the receiver and made off on my errand.

Down-town the streets were crowded with the package-laden people,
bending heads and shoulders to the bitter wind, which swept a blinding,
sleet-like snow horizontally against them. At corners it struck so
tumultuous a blow upon the chest of the pedestrians that for a moment it
would halt them, and you could hear them gasping half-smothered "AHS"
like bathers in a heavy surf. Yet there was a gayety in this eager gale;
the crowds pressed anxiously, yet happily, up and down the street in
their generous search for things to give away. It was not the rich who