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“Did Ted tell you anything that helps?”
Bell answered carefully, “He believes that he did. Tell me, how did Ted happen to find out about Farley Kent?”
“A letter from a busybody signed ‘A friend.’ Why are you smiling, Isaac?”
“The spy is getting desperate,” was all Bell would say, but he had a powerful feeling that O’Shay had tricked Ted Whitmark into passing him false information. The spy wanted Bell to believe that he would attack from the land when in fact he intended to attack, somehow, from the water.
Dorothy kissed his cheek and hurried down the grand stairway.
“Mr. Bell,” said the front-desk man, “Knickerbocker house dick calling for you.”
51
GOT SOME UNSAVORY TYPES AT THE FRONT DOOR,” THE Hotel Knickerbocker’s house detective reported. “Claim they want to talk to you, Mr. Bell.”
“What are their names?”
“There’s a hairy oldster says he doesn’t have a name, and I’m inclined to believe him. The young ones call themselves Jimmy Richards and Marv Gordon.”
“Send ’em up.”
“They don’t look right for the lobby, if you know what I mean.”
“Understood. But they’re little Eddie Tobin’s cousins, so they’re coming in the front door. Tell the manager I authorized it. You walk with them so they don’t frighten the ladies.”
“O.K., Mr. Bell,” the house dick answered dubiously.
The Staten Island scowmen Richards and Gordon intr
oduced their older companion, who had lanky gray hair and the squint lines from a lifetime on the water, as “Uncle Donny Darbee, who sailed us over.”
“What’s up, boys?”
“You still looking for torpedoes?”
“Where did you hear that?”
“The Navy and the Coast Guard and the Harbor Squad are swarming like mosquitoes,” said Richards.
“Searching every pier in the port,” said Gordon.
“Making it hard to do business,” muttered Uncle Donny.
“Have you seen the torpedoes?” Bell asked.
“Nope.”
“What do you know about them?”
“Nothing,” said Richards.
“Except you’re looking for them,” said Gordon.
“Nothing at all? Then what did you come to see me about?”
“We was wondering if you was interested in the Holland.”
“What Holland?”
