A Town like Alice

to see me again, Jean Paget would be very cross with me, and rightly so. Between clients I put in a telephone call to the Kingsway Palace Hotel and asked to speak to Mr Joseph Harman. The answer was that Mr Harman had gone out after breakfast, and had left no message at the desk. I left one for him, asking him to ring me as soon as he came in.
    He did not ring that day.
    At half past ten that night I rang the hotel again, but I was told that Mr Harman was not in.
    At eight o'clock next morning I rang again. They told me that Mr Harman had not checked out and his luggage was still in his room, but that he had not slept in the room that night.
    As soon as I got into the office I sent for Derek Harris. "Harris," I said. "I want you to try and find that man Harman. He's an Australian." I told him briefly what had happened. "I should try the hotel again, and if you draw a blank, ring round the various police courts. I think I may have given him some rather unwelcome news, and it's quite possible he's been out on a blind."
    He came back in a quarter of an hour. "You must have second sight, sir," he said. "He's coming up at Bow Street this morning, drunk and disorderly. They had him in the cooler for the night."
    "He's a friend of Miss Paget's," I said. "Get along down to Bow Street, Harris, and make yourself known to him. Which court is he coming up in?"
    "Mr Horler's."
    I glanced at my watch. "Get along down there right away. Stay with Harman and pay the fine if he hasn't got any money. Then give me a ring, and if it's all in order take him in a taxi to my flat. I'll meet you there."
    There was nothing on my desk that day that could not be postponed or handled by Lester. I got back to my flat in time to catch my charwoman at work and tell her to make up the spare room bed. I told her I should want food in the flat for three or four meals, and I gave her money and sent her out to buy whatever food she could get off the ration.
    Harris arrived with Harman half an hour later, and the Australian looked a little bit the worse for wear. He was cheerful and sober after his night in the cells, but he had lost one shoe and he had lost his collar stud and his hat. I met him in the hall. "Morning, Mr Harman," I said. "I thought perhaps you'd rather come round here and clean up. You'd better not go back to the hotel looking like that."
    He looked me in the eyes. "I've been on the grog," he said.
    "So I see. The water's hot for a bath if you want one, and there's a razor in the bathroom." I took him and showed him the geography of the house. "You can use this room." I looked him up and down, smiling. "I'll get you a clean shirt and collar. You can try a pair of my shoes; if they're too small I'll send out for a pair."
    He wagged his head. "I dunno why you want to do this for me. I'll be all right."
    "You'll be righter when you've had a bath and a shave," I said. "Miss Paget would never forgive me if I let a friend of hers go wandering about the streets like that."
    He looked at me curiously, but I left him and went back to the sitting-room. Harris was waiting for me there. "Thanks, Derek," I said. "There was a fine, I suppose?"
    "Forty shillings," he said. "I paid it."
    I gave him the money. "He was cleaned out?"
    "He's got four and fourpence halfpenny," he replied. "He thinks he had about seventy pounds, but he's not sure."
    "It doesn't seem to worry him," I said.
    He laughed. "I don't think it does. He seems quite cheerful over it."
    I sent Harris back to the office and settled down to write a few letters while Harman was in the bath. He came into the sitting-room presently looking a bit sheepish, and again I noticed the curious, stiff gait with which he walked. "I dunno what to say," he said in his slow way. "Those jokers I was with got all the money I had on me so Mr Harris had to pay the fine. But I got some more. I got a thing called a letter of credit that the bank in Brisbane gave me. I can get some money on that and pay him back."
    "That's all right," I said. "Have you had any breakfast?"
    "No."
    "Want any?"
    "Well, I dunno. Maybe I'll get something round at the hotel."
    "You don't have to do that," I said. "My woman's here still; she'll get you some breakfast." I went out and organized this, and then I came back and found him standing by the window. "You didn't come back with that letter," I observed.
    "I changed my mind," he said. "I'm going to give it away."
    "Give it away?"
    "That's right," he said. "I won't be writing