“You ought to have seen it before.”
“What do you say, chief?”
Nick laughed and knocked the ashes from the cigar he was smoking.
“Chick’s argument is all right, Patsy, as far as it goes,” he replied. “We know that the couple were only a short time in the office of the loan company, and that their visit could not have been anticipated. We are not pinned down to five minutes, however.”
“What do you mean?” questioned Chick.
“What Lord Waldmere really said was this—that, after talking with one of the clerks, who very likely was the assistant manager, the latter went into Garland’s private office, where he remained about five minutes before either of them came out to resume the discussion.”
“Gee! that’s right, too,” nodded Patsy.
“And it is quite significant,” Nick added. “It certainly would not have taken Hart five minutes to state merely what the couple wanted.”
“Surely not.”
“Garland could have come out and joined them in half a minute, as far as that goes. Why, then, did he not do so? What were the two men doing that occupied five full minutes? It looks very much to me as if they were framing a job.”