A few days later he telephoned me.
I'm really going to Bermuda, was his message. I've had bookings on every boat sailing for Europe the past week and cancelled them all. My first idea was the right one. Bermuda is a change, it's near at hand, and I can get back quickly if I don't like it. Come to Bermuda with me, Carl!
When are you sailing? I asked. I'll come down to see you off.
On the day set, I went to the wharf, and to my great surprise, found Peter there, just as he had promised he would be, an hour before sailing time. If he kept an engagement at all, he always kept it on time. He had made preparations, buying new summer clothes, he explained, and a new innovation trunk. As he never knew how long he would stay in one place or where he would go from there, he always carried a great deal of apparently unnecessary baggage. This time he had five trunks with him and several bags, including two for the cats. As we stood on the wharf together, we saw these trunks being hoisted aboard. Then we walked up the gang-plank and went to seek out his cabin. He did not like it, of course, and he hunted up the purser and asked to be transferred to another part of the boat. The ship was crowded and no other cabin was vacant, but the purser, spurred to extra effort by the tip which Peter handed him, promised to try to get him one of the officers' rooms. A little later this transfer was effected and, before I left the boat, Peter was installed in his new quarters. As I bade him farewell, I thought he looked a little wistful. I watched the boat pull out into the river.
Five hours later, as I was working in the tower of the New York Times, I was called to the telephone.
I said, Hello, and almost dropped the receiver, for I had heard Peter's voice from the other end of the wire.
I'm back on East Broadway, he groaned. Do come down.
When I arrived, I found him propped up in bed, drinking tea, which he shared with me.
I just couldn't go! It wouldn't have been right to go feeling the way I did about it. Something dreadful would have happened.
But I saw the boat cast off her moorings.