“About five minutes. Good timing mechanism, too. Tested. Ought to click pretty close to the dot.”
He continued to talk in an undertone to the leader of the dock wallopers. The gunmen were conversing among themselves.
Big Ben’s huskies were in one end of the room, waiting silently for their leader’s instructions. No one other than Ernie and Ben knew exactly what was due to happen — even Ben was in ignorance of some of the details.
“Listen, Ernie,” the big dock walloper said, “how about the dough, now? I’ve got the gang here.”
“Wait until the job is finished,” replied Ernie shrewdly.
“Nix. Something may happen.”
“Not a chance of it, Ben. You know the agreement. When your gang has done the work, you get the dough.”
“We’re going to do the work!”
Ernie nodded. He glanced at his watch. He showed the timepiece to the dock walloper.
“Lookit, Ben,” he said. “The blowoff is due in two minutes. We ain’t got time now. I don’t want to flash a roll in front of this mob. Afterward I’ll—”