nearly midday
My trailers followed me about next day as usual , but I chuckled whenever I saw them . For we were doing a little sleuthing ourselves . I borrowed Jimmie from the firm and the little gamin kept tab on Bothwell . The captain did not leave his room until nearly midday , but as soon as he had turned the corner next to his hotel , the Argonaut , on the way to his breakfast-lunch , Jimmie dodged in at the side entrance , slipped up the stairs and along a corridor , up a second and a third flight by the back way , down another passage , and stopped at a room numbered 417 . With him he had a great bunch of keys similar to those used in that hotel . One after another he tried these , stopping whenever he heard approaching footsteps to hide the keys under his coat . Several persons passed , but found nothing unusual in the sight of a boy knocking innocently on a door .