Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/121

 there. Then get Lambert down to the Forty-seventh Street police station as quick as you can. The Lieutenant there is fixed; he'll hold him, on a Sullivan Law charge until he's needed."

"Then where will you be?"

"I'll be back investigating that Fifty-first Street house, gathering in the girl, and getting hold of all the plates and paper I can find there."

"How about Sadie Wimpel?"

"Sadie still believes in clairvoyants and is to have a reading at nine to-night with a Madame Musetta, who, oddly enough, also gives sucker-tips for Inky Davis and his gang. At nine-thirty a federal agent will interrupt that reading and tell Sadie something more definite about her future. In the meantime, you've got to get back to that Lambert house with your taxi. You're waiting for a fare there. But lie low, and keep tab on anybody who enters the house. If I don't appear in thirty minutes' time, get inside as soon as you can. But give me at least thirty minutes."

Wilsnach crossed the room and then confronted Kestner again.

"But isn't all this taking chances?" he protested. "Why couldn't we sail up to the Fifty-first Street house with a few plain clothes men, break down the door, and gather up our people?"

"In the first place, we wouldn't be doing the gathering. That would fall to the City police. And I'm not aching to hand over a case I've already travelled five thousand miles for. To be candid, this case has grown into rather a personal matter with me."

"But while we're landing Lambert why couldn't the