Drew glanced back as the butler pressed in the curtains and started closing the hardwood door. The Magnate still stood erect under the rich glow from the overhead cone. His eyes were slit-lidded and defiant. He glared about the room like an aged lion in a jungle-glade. He started around the table.
The door closed. Drew waited in the hallway. He heard the lock snap. The bolt shot home. Stockbridge was alone in a sealed room.
"Watch this door!" ordered Drew clutching the butler's purple sleeve. "Watch it like a cat. Stay right near it under any and all circumstances. Don't go away from it. It may mean life or death to your master."
"See that you do," cautioned the Detective. "See that you do."
Delaney found the hats and coats in the foyer. These they donned, opened the outer door, and stepped into the night with jaws squared and hands thrust deep in their pockets.
They crossed the snow-mantled Avenue upon a long diagonal which brought them to the up-town corner and the waiting taxi, whose engine was softly purring beneath its hooded bonnet.
The driver was asleep. He woke as Drew laid a hand on his arm.
"Nothin', boss, but snow. Nothin' at all," he yawned.
Delaney glanced about. He opened the taxi door on the street side and lunged inward with a sigh of relief. Drew followed and pulled the door shut.
"Where's the bunch?" he asked. "Just how did you post them?"
"Flood's with the fixed-post cop on the Avenue. He's down a block. Flynn and Cassady are in the alley--in the yard, I mean. They're watching the junction-box and the wires. Joe and O'Toole went east. Harrigan is planted across the street. That's him between the two buildings. See him?"
Drew rubbed the rear glass of the taxi. He pressed his nose against this. A blurred form, almost obliterated by falling snow, showed where the operative was guarding the mansion.
Delaney, who was watching out through another window, suddenly clutched Drew by the arm. "Look!" he exclaimed. "Look, Chief! Over toward the big house!"
The Detective drew back from his study of Harrigan. He turned on the seat and followed Delaney's pointing finger. He clamped his jaw shut with a click of strong teeth.
"Somebody's coming out of Stockbridge's," said the operative.