noon
Each was obviously excited , each stared accusingly . Jimmie fell into a panic . He felt that if already his identity was questioned , than hiding in his room and growing a beard nothing could be more suspicious . At noon , for West Indian ports , a German boat was listed to sail from the Twenty-fourth Street wharf . Jimmie decided at once to sail with her and , until his beard was grown , not to return . It was necessary first to escape the suspicious landlord , and to that end he noiselessly packed his trunk and suit-case . In front of the house , in an unending procession , taxi-cabs returning empty from the Twenty-third Street ferry passed the door , and from the street Jimmie hailed one .