Kennedy mounted a chair and applied his eye to the detectascope. Just then Mary and Elaine entered the next room, Mary opening the door with a regular key.
"Won't you step in?" she asked.
Elaine did so and Mary hesitated in the hall. Long Sin had slipped out on noiseless feet and taken refuge behind some curtains. As he saw her alone, he beckoned to Mary.
"There's a stranger in the next room," he whispered. "I don't like him. Take the money and as quickly as possible get out and go to my apartment."
At the news that there was a suspicious stranger about, Mary showed great alarm. Everything was so rapid, now, that the slightest hesitation meant disaster. Perhaps, by quickness, even a suspicious stranger could be fooled, she reasoned. At any rate, Long Sin was resourceful. She had better trust him.
Mary followed Elaine into the room, where she had seated herself already, and locked the door.
"Have you the money there?" she asked.
"Yes," nodded Elaine, taking out the package of bills which she had got from the bank during the half hour delay.
All this we could see by gazing alternately through the detectascope.
Elaine handed Mary the money. Mary counted it slowly. At last she looked up.