The veiled woman in the corner of the taxicab had not stirred.
The chauffeur remained as motionless on his seat as a figure of bronze.
Patsy, more deeply puzzled, fell to watching the woman, or the small part of her figure which he could see through the taxicab window. She continued motionless, as absolutely motionless as if the hand of death had been laid upon her. The veil that covered her mouth and nostrils, even, did not indicate by the slightest movement that she was breathing.
"Great guns!" thought Patsy, quite nonplused. "She[Pg 24] must be in a trance, or sleeping like a log. I’ll be hanged if I don’t have a closer look at her."
Turning to Steel, in the rear of the store, he cried quietly:
"I’ll be back here in a couple of minutes."
Steel merely nodded in reply.
Patsy left the store and sauntered across the avenue, then walked more briskly toward the waiting taxicab, apparently having no interest in it, and whistling a popular song while he passed.
He took a furtive look at the chauffeur, nevertheless, who was a muscular, red-featured man of about thirty, and who appeared too stiff and staid to bestow even a glance at him.
Through the closed door of the taxicab, Patsy then shot a sharper look at the motionless woman. It did not prove more profitable than his more distant scrutiny. He could not see the face beneath the veil. He saw only that she was well dressed and appeared to be young, but he could not detect the slightest movement of her lax, apparently slumbering figure.