“Maybe so,” Grace said. “But what’s the good of producing this stuff if we can’t distribute it?”
Ken was finally on his knees, his hands on either side of the hole. He brought his eye into line with the opening just as Grace asked his question.
The three men were seated around a table in the room below. Their faces were in shadow but a light bulb dangling from a cord illuminated the table’s surface.
Ken stifled a gasp. All over the table, like a scattered pack of large cards, lay crisp fresh ten-dollar bills.
Counterfeiters! The word sounded so loud in his mind that for an instant Ken was afraid he had shouted it. Swiftly he tugged Sandy down to join him.
“This is good stuff,” Grace was saying. “And I’m not going to let anything jeopardize our chances to make a real killing with it. Believe me, it would take an expert to tell them from the real thing.” He brought one of the bills close to his eye to study it.
Sandy, upright on his knees again, pulled his tiny new camera out of his pocket. He held it in the column of light for Ken to see, and Ken nodded vehemently.
A photograph of the men around that money-laden table ought to be enough to send every Treasury agent in the country to Chatham Square.
Then Ken saw that Sandy was rising carefully to his feet. For a moment he was puzzled. Dimly he saw Sandy gesture toward the outer room, and finally Ken understood him. Sandy had to adjust his camera before it would be ready for use, and realized they didn’t dare use Ken’s flashlight so close to the hole. Some slight reflection might be caught downstairs.
They made their way back as far as the doorway with the same caution they had used crossing the room earlier. Ken’s hands were shaking a little by the time he was holding his light for Sandy, and the redhead seemed to be having some slight difficulty making the delicate adjustments on his small camera. They could no longer hear what the men below were saying. It was impossible to know what evidence they were missing. But if Sandy could get his picture that would furnish all the evidence they needed.