Part 14 (2/2)
”Yes,” nodded Jack. ”And we can't start too soon.”
It may have occurred to Lieutenant Ridder that he wasn't exactly being consulted. However, he saw that these submarine boys were used to acting swiftly, and he began to believe that they would work better if left to their own devices. So he merely nodded, adding:
”I'll wait here. I'll hope to have a report before long.”
Eph led his two comrades back unerringly to the cheap hotel. They went straight to the hotel desk, Jack asking, bluntly, whether any very tall woman, in gray, and carrying a dress suit ease, had registered there.
”No,” replied the clerk, very positively.
Then they interviewed the porter. He remembered the ”woman” having stepped inside the hotel. She readjusted her veil in the lobby near the doorway.
”Then she went outside, spoke to a driver, got into his cab, and went away,” continued the porter.
”She spoke to the driver, did she?” Eph asked.
”Of course, sir,” retorted the porter. ”You didn't think she made signs, did you?”
From their talk the submarine boys were satisfied that it was the same ”woman” whom Eph had so gallantly a.s.sisted. They were equally sure that this veiled ”woman” in gray was none other than Millard.
”Do you remember which driver it was whose cab she engaged?” Jack asked, turning to hand the porter a dollar.
”Jack Medway's cab, sir,” was the quick answer. ”And here it comes, now.”
The submarine boys hurried out, transferring their attention to Medway.
”I'm just back from taking the lady,” replied the driver, after Jack Benson had slipped him, also, a dollar bill. ”But say--was it a lady, or a joke?”
”Why?” queried Jack Benson.
”Well,” replied the driver, ”the voice was pitched high, but there was something peculiar about it. I wondered, at the time, if it was a man rigged and togged out like a woman.”
”Where did she tell you to take her,” Jack Benson wanted to know.
”To Furnam Square!”
”Did you take her to any address there?”
”No; just to the square. Then I waited to fill my pipe, and I saw the woman, if woman it was, walk across the square and get into another cab.”
”If you haven't anything else to do,” hinted Jack, ”suppose you take us to Furnam Square now.”
Within a very few minutes the three friends were gazing out of a cab window upon the square. It looked like a very quiet residence section.
”There was another cab here, you say, that took your last 'fare' from this square?” asked Jack.
”Yes; there is a fellow who has a regular stand here. It's his cab,”
replied Medway.
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