Part 18 (1/2)
Having walked several blocks, Hal retraced his steps, and then took up a position in a sheltering door-way.
He had hardly done so before a well-known form pa.s.sed by.
”d.i.c.k Ferris!” cried Hal to himself. ”What can he be doing here?”
There could be but one answer to that question. Ferris must have come to see Hardwick.
He kept his eye on the tall boy, and as soon as Ferris was a short distance ahead Hal left the door-way and followed him.
Ferris walked along for the s.p.a.ce of two blocks. Then he came to an elegant brown-stone front mansion, the parlor of which was brilliantly illuminated.
Ascending the steps, he rang the bell, and the door was opened almost immediately.
Hal, who stood near the area-way below, heard him ask for Hardwick.
”Yes, sir, he just came in.”
”May I see him?”
”Yes, sir. Please step into the parlor.”
Ferris stepped inside, and the door was immediately closed.
Hal drew a deep breath. If only he could find out Ferris' mission. He felt certain the meeting between the book-keeper and the former office-boy was to be an important one.
He looked at the windows. Every one of them were tightly closed.
”Too bad it isn't summer time,” muttered Hal to himself.
On either side of the mansion were others, so there was no way to get to the rear, excepting through the door below, and this was tightly barred.
”I would like to know what a detective would do in a case of this kind,”
thought Hal. ”I suppose he would find some way to effect an entrance.”
He was just about to give up trying to form some plan, when the door opened and Hardwick and Ferris came out. Hal crouched near the foot of the steps, and the pair pa.s.sed within three feet of him.
”It isn't safe to talk over private matters in a house like that,”
remarked Hardwick. ”I know a place where we will be far more at liberty to discuss the thing I have in mind.”
”Where is it?” asked Ferris.
”A private club-room just up the avenue.”
”That will just suit me,” replied Ferris.
The two pa.s.sed on. Hal raised himself from his cramped position, and made after them.
Once around the corner of Sixth Avenue, Hardwick led the way into an open hall-way, lit up with a single gas-jet. The pair commenced to ascend the stairs, which had several sharp turns. Hal was not far behind.