CHAPTER VI
Three men got out of the car and stood there in the dusk, at the south side of the Diamond.
They wore windbreakers and slacks. One of them was short and pudgy, the other two were average-looking men. All of them carried Venn guns.
They talked, briefly. One of the average men seemed to be the leader, Wales thought, from the way he gesticulated and spoke.
"What are they going to do?" whispered Martha.
"Look for me," Wales said. "A hundred to one they've left a man at the Observatory, and at your home—in case I come there. And these three are going to search downtown for me."
The three separated. One walked east along Washington Street. The other one got back into the car and drove off on North Jefferson. The remaining man—the dark-haired pudgy one, started going around the Diamond, keeping close to the fronts of the stores, ready to dart into cover at any moment.
An idea came to Wales, and he acted upon it at once. He crept to the front door of the hardware store, unlocked it, and silently opened it a few inches.
He came back, rummaged frantically in the dimness of the shelves till he found a spool of wire. Then he told Martha,
"Come on, now—get down behind this counter. And stay there."