“Then he crossed the street, started walking very fast. I stretched my legs, trying to keep up with him. He kept going until he caught a signal just as it was changing. Then he scooted across the street. I tried to follow him. The cop pushed me back, gave me a bawling out. A streetcar came along, and my man was gone.”
Bertha Cool said, “You should have gone after the street-car and—”
“Wait a minute,” Elsie Brand interrupted. “A taxi-cab was standing halfway down the block. I made frantic signals, and the driver came up. I climbed aboard and had the cab driver pass the streetcar three times. Every time we went past, I studied the passengers. I couldn’t see our man on the streetcar, so then I had the cab driver take me ahead of the street-car for two blocks and stop. I paid him off and caught the streetcar as it came along. Our man wasn’t aboard.”
Bertha said, with deep feeling. “Fry me for an oyster.”
Chapter VI
It was exactly nine minutes before five o’clock when Elsie Brand opened the door of. Bertha Cool’s private office. She was quite evidently trying to keep excitement from her demeanour until after the door had been closed behind her. Then she said breathlessly, “He’s back.”
“Who’s back?”
“That witness who saw the accident.”
Bertha Cool gave that thoughtful consideration for several seconds before she said, “He wants to give in. He’s a dirty, damn blackmailer. I shouldn’t even give him the satisfaction of seeing him.”
Elsie Brand waited, saying nothing.