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’None that I really cared about,’ he replied

’Enough of theot you,’ he said untruthfully, leaning over to kiss her, convinced it was the only way to stop the conversation

When Abel arrived in New York, the first thing he did was to look up George, whoarret on East Third Street He had forgotten what those houses could be like when shared by twenty families

The smell of stale food in every room, toilets that didn’t flush and beds that were slept in by three different people every twenty - four hours The bakery, it seee’s uncle had had to find ee mill on the outskirts of New York which could not take on George as well George leaped at the chance to join Abel and the Richmond Group - in any capacity

Abel recruited three new employees: a pastry chef, a coe travelled back to Chicago to set up base in the Richmond annex Abel was pleased with the outcome of his trip

Most hotels on the East coast had cut their staff to a bare nidnimurn which had made it easy to pick up expenenew people, one of thee set out for a tour of the reroup Abel asked Zaphia to join the her the chance to work in any of the hotels she chose, but she would not budge froo, the only American territory familiar to her As a compromise she went to live in Abel’s roorns at the Rich - Mond annex while he ay

George, who had acquiredwith his Aed the advantages of matrimony on Abel, who, lonely in one impersonal hotel room after another, was a ready listener

It came as no surprise to Abel to find that the other hotels were still being badly, and in soh national uneed most of die staff to welcoroup’s fortunes Abel did not find it necessary to fire staff in the grand o

Most of those who knew of his reputation and feared his methods had already left Some heads had to fall and they inevitably were attached to the necks of those people who had worked with the Riche their unorthodox ways merely because Davis Leroy was dead In several cases, Abel found a endered a new attitude By the end of his first year as chair with only half the staff they had employed in the past and showed a net loss of only a little over one hundred thousand dollars Tle turnover a the senior staff was very low; Abel’s confidence in the future of die group was infectious

Abel set hi even in 1932 He felt the only way he could achieve such a rapid iroup take the responsibility for his own hotel with a share in the profits, much in the way that Davis Leroy had treated hio Rich up, and never staying in one particular place for more than three weeks at a tie, his surrogate eyes and ears in Chicago, to knohich hotel heroutine only to visit Zaphia or Curds Fenton

After a full assessroup’s financial position Abel had to make some more unpleasant decisions The most drastic was to close temporarily the two hotels, in Mobile and Charleston, which were losing so much money that he felt they would becoroup’s finances The staff at the other hotels watched the axe fall and worked even harder Every time he arrived back at his little office - in the Richo there would be a clutch ofimmediate attention - burst pipes in washroo rooms, and the inevitable dissatisfied custo a law suit

Henry Osborne re - entered Abel’s life with a welcome offer of a settlement of 750,000 from Great Western Casualty, who could find no evidence to io Richmond

Lieutenant O’Malley’s evidence had proved very helpful on that point

Abel realised he owed him more than a milk shake Abel was happy to settle at what he considered was a fair price but Osborne suggested to hiive his had never included speculation, regarded him somearily after that: if Osborne could so readily be disloyal to his own c9mpany, there was little doubt that he would have no qual Abel when it suited him