The stable was built atop a transverse; what Phil saw was the passing light of a car down in the deep underpass. Other lights sped by in the same fashion, indicating that traffic was as usual down there, despite the mystery of the ghostly phenomena above.
Except that it wasn’t ghostly any more.
To Phil, the explanation was quite palpable. The missing cab, with Ames in it, must have rolled right into the old stable. After that, somebody had barricaded the door. But when Phil peered through the small-paned windows of the old stable door, he didn’t see a cab inside.
That meant it would be a good idea to look around. The way to look was to the left, where the lights were slithering through the transverse, which Phil didn’t know as yet was just a roadway. Phil thought that those lights indicated some strange subterranean manifestations. He could have soon corrected that impression, but he didn’t.
Something else intervened.
Just as Phil was about to start around the left side of the building, he heard the music. Considering that Phil’s head was still ringing from his brief but jolty encounter with The Shadow, he began to think that his ears deceived him.
But the music persisted, though muted, and it came from the right of the building, not the left. So Phil started in that direction.
Just around the corner of the building, something slithered across Phil’s path and tripped him. The thing had the swift, crawly touch of a snake, which by its size must have been something resembling a boa constrictor. So when Phil sprawled, he rolled over twice, to get away from the reptilian hazard and his roll carried him into a cluster of shrubs.
Rising gingerly on hands and knees, Phil disentangled himself from the bushes. He could still hear that muffled music, somewhere to the right, while from behind him came the slicking sound that he classified as a passing snake. Central Park was quite a place in Phil’s present opinion, which only proved that he had no idea of what the future might hold in store.
The crawly sound dwindled off in the direction of the music, which suddenly ceased. Then, from the right side of the building came the clatter of an opening door. Dropping behind the bushes, Phil saw some huddled figures emerge from the building; the door that they used was smaller than the one in front, too small in fact to accommodate the missing taxicab.