'Hullo,' said Billy, 'here's that man coming back again.'
The stranger came up to their table, wearing a light overcoat over his dress clothes. From the pocket of this he produced a gold watch.
'Force of habit,' he said apologetically, handing it to Psmith. 'You'll pardon me. Good night, gentlemen, again.'
CHAPTER XII
A RED TAXIMETER
The Astor Hotel faces on to Times Square. A few paces to the right of the main entrance the Times Building towers to the sky; and at the foot of this the stream of traffic breaks, forming two channels. To the right of the building is Seventh Avenue, quiet, dark, and dull. To the left is Broadway, the Great White Way, the longest, straightest, brightest, wickedest street in the world.
Psmith and Billy, having left the Astor, started to walk down Broadway to Billy's lodgings in Fourteenth Street. The usual crowd was drifting slowly up and down in the glare of the white lights.
They had reached Herald Square, when a voice behind them exclaimed, 'Why, it's Mr. Windsor!'
They wheeled round. A flashily dressed man was standing with outstetched hand.
'I saw you come out of the Astor,' he said cheerily. 'I said to myself, 'I know that man.' Darned if I could put a name to you, though. So I just followed you along, and right here it came to me.'
'It did, did it?' said Billy politely.
'It did, sir. I've never set eyes on you before, but I've seen so many photographs of you that I reckon we're old friends. I know your father very well, Mr. Windsor. He showed me the photographs. You may have heard him speak of me--Jack Lake? How is the old man? Seen him lately?'
'Not for some time. He was well when he last wrote.'
'Good for him. He would be. Tough as a plank, old Joe Windsor. We always called him Joe.'
'You'd have known him down in Missouri, of course?' said Billy.
'That's right. In Missouri. We were side-partners for years. Now, see here, Mr. Windsor, it's early yet. Won't you and your friend come along with me and have a smoke and a chat? I live right here in Thirty-Third Street. I'd be right glad for you to come.'
'I don't doubt it,' said Billy, 'but I'm afraid you'll have to excuse us.'
'In a hurry, are you?'
'Not in the least.'
'Then come right along.'
'No, thanks.'
'Say, why not? It's only a step.'
'Because we don't want to. Good night.'
He turned, and started to walk away. The other stood for a moment, staring; then crossed the road.
Psmith broke the silence.
'Correct me if I am wrong, Comrade Windsor,' he said tentatively, 'but were you not a trifle--shall we say abrupt?--with the old family friend?'
Billy Windsor laughed.
'If my father's name was Joseph,' he said, 'instead of being William, the same as mine, and if he'd ever been in Missouri in his life, which he hasn't, and if I'd been photographed since I was a kid, which I haven't been, I might have gone along. As it was, I thought it better not to.'
'These are deep waters, Comrade Windsor. Do you mean to intimate--?'
'If they can't do any better than that, we shan't have much to worry us. What do they take us for, I wonder? Farmers? Playing off a comic-supplement bluff like that on us!'
There was honest indignation in Billy's voice.
'You think, then, that if we had accepted Comrade Lake's invitation, and gone along for a smoke and a chat, the chat would not have been of the pleasantest nature?'
'We should have been put out of business.'
'I have heard so much,' said Psmith, thoughtfully, 'of the lavish hospitality of the American.'
'Taxi, sir?'
A red taximeter cab was crawling down the road at their side. Billy shook his head.
'Not that a taxi would be an unsound scheme,' said Psmith.
'Not that particular one, if you don't mind.'
'Something about it that offends your aesthetic taste?' queried Psmith sympathetically.
'Something about it makes my aesthetic taste kick like a mule,' said Billy.
'Ah, we highly strung literary men do have these curious prejudices. We cannot help it. We are the slaves of our temperaments. Let us walk, then. After all, the night is fine, and we are young and strong.'
