"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 291 - Teardrops of Buddha" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

Remember how I laughed when you said I'd find you at the Hotel Argonne - and I
said when, about five years from now?"
It was Grenshaw's turn to smile.
"Well, here I am," continued Ted, "all inside a couple of months. But
there's something else" - Ted's face went serious, but with a dash of pretence
- "and that's the promise you made. You said if there was anything I really
needed, I could always call on you."
Holding the letter in one hand, Grenshaw reached for his wallet with the
other. Ted smiled and shook his head.
 "I have money," Ted said. "I want something it won't buy. I want a hotel
room, if your influence can get one for me."
A strangely calculating expression crept over Grenshaw's face. He began
to
chuckle in that rich, but easy style which had made Ted like him when they
first
met. Drawing Ted aside, Grenshaw gave another quick look around. Then:
"They won't let you transfer rooms," confided Grenshaw. "Not with all the
reservations they've taken. It happens, though, that I've been called out of
town. This letter" - he gestured the envelope - "is to a friend of mine,
explaining it. Now if you'd like my room -"
"Would I!"
"Only you'll have to keep it in my name," continued Grenshaw, riding over
Ted's interruption. "Don't let the hotel know the difference. Now here's the
key -"
Producing the key, Grenshaw started toward the elevator with Ted; then he
apparently decided that the subterfuge might be detected if he and his
substitute appeared too openly together. Again, those furtive glances that Ted
didn't quite understand. Then Grenshaw looked eagerly at the mail-chute which
was too conspicuously near the elevator.
Like a man making a momentous decision, Grenshaw thrust the letter into
Ted's hand with the room key, and put urgency into his tone:
"Be sure to mail this letter immediately when you get off at the fourth
floor. You'll find the mail-chute right by the elevator. It's highly
important,
so don't neglect it. By the way, I'm leaving most of my luggage in 408 but
don't
worry; I'll let you know where to send it."
With that, Grenshaw was on his way out through the lobby, dodging the
stacked suitcases as he hurried toward the door. Puzzling over Grenshaw's
haste, Ted entered a waiting elevator and rode up to the fourth floor. There
he
remembered to mail the letter and in looking to see if Grenshaw had applied a
stamp Ted saw that the envelope was addressed to one Niles Naseby, Valdemar
Apartments, New York City.
Who Naseby was, Ted neither knew or cared. He was more interested in the
rare gift he had received, a hotel room in visitor-packed Manhattan. When he
put the key in the lock it wouldn't turn the proper direction.
It was unlocked.
So quickly did Ted open the door that he caught the girl flat-footed on
the threshold. Evidently she'd intended to hurry from the room; then hearing a