“All right,” said Lawrence, and he proceeded to tell O’Brien his evening’s adventure. When he produced the cigarette O’Brien took it with careful fingers.
“Whew!” he said as he examined the paper, smelled the tobacco, and tried to make out the interwoven letters of the intricate monogram.
“It looks like r’yalty,” he said finally. “Those same cost, me boy, they cost! I only wish you had had a look at the gentleman. Well, I should say you had a narrow escape. I don’t like it all the same, although we know more than we did. Mr. Ridgeway is a bit close, too. We didn’t know it was jools like that that we were handlin’, did we?”
“We haven’t handled them yet,” said Lawrence. “But I reckon they are just where Mr. Smith said they are, and it looks as though we were going to have to cart them somewhere or other. I don’t see why we take the dirigible,” said Lawrence, “when the planes are faster.”
“There is some good reason,” said O’Brien. “For instance, that dirigible will carry a crew large enough to give a pretty good fight if it was necessary. That’s one thing. Another is that Mr. Ridgeway doesn’t know that they know anything about the freight he is to carry. Gee, there is a leak somewhere! That’s one thing. Now to bed with you, me wild adventurer, and get some sleep what’s left of the night. We will have to see Mr. Ridgeway the morn, so he can talk to us. I called there tonight and found him much better. Get you to bed, and don’t talk. I want to think. Somewhere or other I have seen a mate to this cigarette.”
He carefully wrapped it in a bit of paper and put it in his cigar case. “That’s a good souvenir,” he remarked, nodding his head.
Lawrence tumbled into bed. He was too tired to realize the narrow escape he had had, and wanted nothing more than a good sleep. He did not realize his fatigue either, and when he awoke in the morning he found that what he had thought was the dimness of early dawn was the darkness of closely drawn blinds. O’Brien had tricked him. There was a note on the dresser, and Lawrence read:
“Dear Lawrence:
“There’s no place so safe for a lad of your tendencies as the same cot you are snoring on at this second. I leave you to your dreams and hope they are sweet. As for me, I am pulling down the blinds and disconnecting the telephone, and then I am makin’ off: for I have a pretty idea all of my own. I will see you later. By the way, you took my gloves last night, and I can find but one. If you have lost that glove it costs you a pretty penny, gloves being in a high altitude since the late war. Good-bye. Go see what is happening to the dirigible, go see Mr. Ridgeway, go to a movie, go have a good time however you like but don’t you dare follow any clues today. Against orders, and meet me here; HERE, mind you, at seven tonight. I may have news.
“O’Brien.”