Patsy heard him distinctly, though some distance away. He stopped short, crouching back of some bushes, and continued to watch the scene.
"By Jove, it’s a rendezvous," he said to himself. "That’s why the taxicab has been waiting here. But what business has old Mr. Mantell with these fellows? Is he playing some underhanded game, as well as Goulard?"
Patsy had not long to wait to learn of what their immediate designs consisted.
Mullen, so called, turned the wagon from the driveway and came to a stop at one side of the motionless taxicab, directly between it and the watching detective.
Then followed a brief conference in the woodland road, unheard by Patsy, who did not think it wise to venture nearer.
Mullen’s hangdog companion then ran up the road as far as the bend, where he turned and waved his hand, plainly signifying that no observer was in sight.
Patsy then saw the other three men hasten to the door of the taxicab. He could see only their legs for a few moments, by gazing under the intervening wagon, but presently they appeared at the rear end of it, bearing between them—the lax form of the veiled woman.
"Thundering guns!" thought Patsy, when their designs became obvious. "They have come out here to get rid of that woman, or to transfer her to some place. She’s not dead, or her form would be rigid by this time. She must be drugged. But who is she, and what motive can old Mantell have for such conduct? Gee! it’s up to me to find out where they take her and what they intend doing."
Mullen had hurriedly raised the back flap of the leather top, and the woman was quickly placed on the floor of the wagon. The flap then was dropped and buckled, and Mullen hastened to mount to his seat, where his returning companion quickly joined him.
The taxicab sped away in the meantime, containing only the chauffeur and the solitary passenger, and within half[Pg 27] a minute it had vanished around a corner of the woodland road.