“Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street?”
“Yes, in the crowd. He had supplied me with clothes just like his own, and given me full instructions.”
“What were the instructions?” Prescott demanded.
“I was to meet him there, at about six, and I was to assume his identity for a time. I was to come here, come up to his rooms, here, dress for dinner, take a taxi and go away at exactly twenty-five past seven. While here I was to telephone once or twice, also to call a bellhop and see him.”
“What a plot!” exclaimed Prescott, “oh, what a plot!”
“I did all this, and then, later, when I went into the Astor for the theater tickets, Manning met me there, and in the crowd, we changed identities again, he got into the cab I had got out of, and he went on to the dinner and I went home.”
“You knew what his object in all this was?”
“I did not! Before God I never would have consented if I had. He told me it was to play a joke on some of his friends, and the price he offered was so great I consented.”
“And you telephoned to the cleaner’s and all that?”
“Yes; and called the bellboy to take the letter—which Manning had prepared. Then afterward, when I read the papers I felt sure that Manning had killed Robert Gleason. I never taxed him with it, for it was none of my business and if it was true I didn’t want to know it.”