It seemed to Chick hardly any time before he was out of the taxicab, within a block of the laundry of Sun Jin, which was so enshrouded in darkness that only the gleam of a distant street arc light enabled him to make it out at all.
“Stay here, Mike,” he directed, in a low tone. “When I want you, I’ll give you a signal of some kind.”
“All roight, Chick! Faith, yez’ll foind me wid me cab,” returned Mike Donovan, as Chick slipped away.
Chick did not answer, for, at that moment, two men came out of the laundry and hurried in the other direction, finally disappearing around a corner.
“Come along, Mike! Follow those fellows. They’ve probably got a car, or something, around there,” said Chick, as he ran back and jumped into the taxi. “Don’t lose sight of that tall man, in the big slouch hat and long coat. You saw him, didn’t you?”
“Oi did thot,” replied Mike, as he threw on the power. “He looked loike a praste or a preacher of some koind. He wuz a quare koind o’ mon to be comin’ out av a laundry, so he wuz.”
At the corner of the street Chick saw that he had guessed aright as to there being a vehicle in waiting. A taxi was two blocks ahead, going fast.
“Sure, it’s wan o’ thim nighthawks,” proclaimed Mike Donovan. “Oi know ’em whin Oi see thim. Thot cab[Pg 26] don’t belong to no company. It’s just a private wan, d’yez moind? But av he t’inks he can git away from me—well, he’s got anither guess comin’.”
It need not be told in detail how Mike kept on the track of the other cab. Suffice it that when it turned into Fifth Avenue and kept on downtown, Chick was in time to see the two men go into the house next door to Anderton’s, and that he recognized one of them as Professor Tolo, while the other wore the blue blouse and wide trousers of a Chinese laundryman.
“You can go now, Mike,” he whispered to Donovan. “If you stayed around, they might see you and be suspicious. Besides, I can handle this case myself now.”