When Nick had left Chick and Patsy at the hotel, where he had taken off the disguise of Mr. Cary, the two young detectives discussed their own details for the night.
“We’re to keep a watch over Mountain,” said Chick.
“He seems able to watch over himself,” replied Patsy.
“Oh, he’s able enough,” said Chick. “It isn’t that. The chief wants to know the moment he gets the word from the Brown Robin. He believes that the Brown Robin will show up to-night.”
“Then we must be on,” said Patsy. “It’s up to us to decorate the lobby of the Empire with our beauty. Say, Chick, it’s the old story. We’ve swung about the Tenderloin so much lately that too many know us.”
“And we’ll have to look different. Well, Patsy, let’s swing out as swell Willie boys.”
Patsy laughed heartily, pounding the pillar against which he had been leaning.
“A sweet Willie boy you’ll make Chick,” he said, after a while, “with those broad shoulders of yours. No, no, Chick. Do your own act. Swing out as a regular swell.”
Chick looked at his watch, and said:
“It is nearly time to rig, then. But come with me first. I want to look over that Seventeenth Street house again. Though the people in the neighborhood say the folks who were in it for three days have left it, I’ve a notion it’s still in the game.”