“Carter be hanged!” Goulard interrupted bluntly. “Why hasn’t he showed up this morning? If he——”
“Give him time,” put in another voice, which Patsy recognized to be that of Frank Mantell. “You know, Goulard, what he stated last evening.”
“Stated!” snapped Goulard. “He didn’t state anything. He said only that he would look into the matter. Why isn’t he doing it? Close that door, Lombard. We may be heard in the salesroom.”
Patsy heard the door closed, and the voices of the men within no longer reached his ears. It was obvious to him, however, that they were discussing a robbery committed that morning, evidently from a package of imported merchandise that had been opened in the receiving room.
Bent only upon watching Goulard, as Nick had directed, Patsy waited briefly within view of the office door, toward which he presently sauntered, noting that the corridor ran toward the rear of the building and to a narrow, diverging corridor and stairway leading down to a court making in from the side street.
“I’ll wait and see where he goes after leaving Mantell’s office,” he said to himself, not venturing to play the eavesdropper at the closed door. “He probably will return to the salesroom, or some other part of the store. Ah, this must be his private office.”
It was the last in the corridor, and a plate on the door bore Goulard’s name. The door was partly open, and Patsy glanced in, pausing for a moment. He saw a handsomely equipped office with a large roll-top desk, then open and covered with accumulated letters, bills, and invoices.
Turning into the diverging back corridor, which afforded him a corner for concealment, Patsy then observed that another door led from Goulard’s office into the rear corridor, a fact which did not then impress him seriously.[{23}]
He scarce had turned the corner, however, when he heard the steps of the two men in the other corridor. They were coming in his direction, and discretion at first impelled him to dart toward the back stairway, as he could not plausibly explain his presence in this rear corridor, which was but little used and only by persons employed in the store.
Lingering for a moment, nevertheless, Patsy heard the men suddenly stop at the door of Goulard’s office. They remained in whispered conversation for several minutes, inaudible to Patsy, though he then heard one of them walk quickly away through the main corridor, while the other entered Goulard’s private office.