Lawrence felt a small chill travel down his spine. He held his breath for the answer, while all his muscles tautened for a quick retreat.
“Not tonight,” answered the oldest man. “The machines both need tuning up. I have worked on that dirigible so constantly that I have neglected all else. But there is no haste. No haste whatever, with their broken dirigible and what happened last night.” He commenced to laugh, and in response the man who had lost at cards began to swear again.
“Yes; what happened last night?” he said. “A knock-out staged by a pair of fools!”
“It was an accident,” said another man sulkily. “Fifteen minutes before I saw him at the Army and Navy Club. Then I opened the door, after seeing that every servant in the place was sleeping sweetly, and there he sat and he saw me. There was nothing else to do. The Chief had forbidden a fight. I gave him a good knock. Wonder if I killed him!”
“I don’t think so,” said the oldest man. “I stepped on his leg as I was going around the table, after we had looked over his papers, and there was a live feel to the flesh. You should have struck to kill. Then there would have been a hue and cry and we could have worked so much better. He is the master mind.”
“We have nothing to do with him, of course, but it galls me to think any man can be so close. Not a soul knows what he will do next, that Ridgeway; no one knows where he will turn. I cannot understand why he was so careless with that dirigible, leaving it there in that hangar for all the world to see. And advertising it for traffic! Now as soon as it is in shape again, I must deface our dirigible with just the same marks and mends. It must be so similar that not even the driver of the Ridgeway machine, after we kidnap him, will feel the least hesitation about taking our dirigible where he has been ordered to go.”
“When will we see the Chief?” asked the loser at cards.
“I have been expecting him since yesterday,” said the oldest man, “but he won’t take the chance of coming out in daylight now.”
They sat smoking, and Lawrence, whose chances seemed to be getting slimmer every moment, wondered how he could escape before the men made a move. He was not sure that his feet were not sticking out at the other side of the plane, and although the hangar was pitch dark except where the dim light above the group of men made it possible for them to see, Lawrence did not like to feel that they might at any moment make a move toward the small door back of him, and trip over him. But there was not a chance of moving while they sat silently smoking. If they would only commence to talk!
As they sat engrossed in their pipes a current of air fanned Lawrence and he knew that the big door of the hangar had silently swung open. He heard the four men spring to their feet as a soft voice said, “Good evening!”