Patsy knew that minutes might be priceless things just then, and he felt sure that Nick would sanction the moves made.
As soon as he hung up the receiver he sought the basement, where he found the driver of the taxi surrounded by a knot of excited servants.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE LOOTED CRANIUM.
The man seemed reliable, and he told a perfectly straight story.
He informed Patsy that he drove for a garage on Boston Road, in the Bronx, and that he had never been called to Doctor Grantley’s house before that morning. The manager had received the order and sent him out.
Patsy did not see fit to tell the chauffeur that he had seen the arrival of the machine at Grantley’s. He allowed the man to tell his story in his own way, and found it accurate, so far as his own observation went.
The driver declared that three men had entered the cab. He described them with sufficient accuracy, and reported that the elder of the two men who had subsequently left the cab had given him Mr. Baldwin’s address.
When the machine reached the corner of Lenox Avenue and One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, however, the same man—Grantley, in short—had ordered him to stop. The two had alighted without explanation and told him to take the third man to the address given.
The chauffeur had thought it rather strange, but they gave him no time to ask any questions. Instead, they had walked rapidly away to the eastward, along One Hundred and Twenty-fifth.
After noting that and glancing in toward his remaining fare—who seemed sunk in a sort of stupor—the driver had continued on his way without incident until he had arrived at Baldwin’s house.