Part 2 (1/2)
”Oh, together, by all means,” said Phil so earnestly that she laughed again. ”And since we'd better wait for darkness, let's have something to eat somewhere. I didn't finish my dinner.”
Phil found Ione Bloomsbury in person to be even more wonderful than her photograph suggested. Obviously she had brains; it was apparent, too that she had breeding. Her cheerful view of the world was like a tonic for tired nerves; and withal, she had a gentle sort of courtesy in her manner that may have been old-fas.h.i.+oned, but it was almost too much for Phil. Before the dinner was over, he would have laid his heart at her feet. It gave him a thrill that went to his head, to have her by his side, slipping along through the darkness toward Tony's building.
This building was a one-story brick affair with a vast amount of window s.p.a.ce. From the sidewalk they could see faint lights glowing within, but could make out no further details. They therefore selected the darkest side of the building, and made their way hurriedly across the lawn. Here, they found, they could see the crowding apparatus within the one long room fairly well. They looked into one window after another, making a circuit around the building, until Phil suddenly clutched the girl's arm.
”Look!” he whispered. ”Straight ahead and a little to the left!”
At the place he indicated stood a tall safe. Across the top of its door were painted in gold letters, the words: ”The Epicure.”
”That's the safe that went to-night,” whispered Phil. ”That's all we need to know. Now, quick to a telephone!”
”Oh,” said a gentle, ironic voice behind them, ”not so quick!”
They whirled around and found themselves looking into two automatic pistols, and behind them in the light of the street lamps, the sardonic smile of Tony Costello.
”Charmed at your kind interest in my playthings, I'm sure,” he purred.
”Only it leaves me in an embarra.s.sing position. I'm not exactly sure what to do about it. Kindly step inside while I think.”
Phil made a move sidewise along the wall.
”Stop!” barked Costello sharply. ”Of course,” his voice was quiet again, ”that might be the simplest way out. I think I am within my legal rights if I shoot people who are trying to break into my property. Yet, that would be messy--not neat. Better step in. The window swings outward.”
At the point of his pistols they clambered through the window, and he came in after them. He kept on talking, as though to himself, but loud enough for them to hear.
”Yes, we want some way out that is neater than that. Hm! Violence distresses me. Never liked Ed's rough methods. Yet, this is embarra.s.sing.”
He turned to them.
”What did you really want here? I see that you are the _Examiner's_ reporter, and that you are the lady of the photograph. What did you come here for? Ah, yes, the safe. Well, go over and look at it.”
As they hesitated, he stamped his foot and shrilled crankily:
”I mean it! Go, look at the safe! Is there anything else you want to know?”
”Yes,” said Phil coolly, his self-control returning, ”where are the other safes?”
”Oh. Anything to oblige. Last requests are a sort of point of honor, aren't they. Ought to grant them. Stand close to that safe!”
He backed away, his guns levelled at them. He laid down the right one, keeping the left one aimed, and moved some k.n.o.bs on a dial and threw over a big switch. A m.u.f.fled rumbling and whirring began somewhere; and then, slowly, a block of tables and apparatus ten feet square rose upward toward the ceiling. A section of the floor on which they stood came up, supported by columns, and now formed the roof of a room that had risen out of the floor. In it were four safes.
”Poor old Ed!” sighed Tony. ”There was a time when he had a lot of good stuff put away down there. I've got six rooms like that. Well, the good old times are over.”
He threw out the switch and the whole ma.s.s sank slowly and silently downward till the floor was level and there was no further sign of it.
Then he backed away to another table, across the room from them, keeping his gun levelled.