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“This is all well and good until it snows.”
He found a harried Jim Higgins directing the operation from under a tent’s open canvas fly. Mary’s brother said he had not seen her since the night they took her barges. He had no idea where she was. He admitted that he was worried, and he asked Bell to pass on the message, if he found her, that he could use her help desperately.
As Bell was leaving to head back downtown, he looked up and suddenly had to smile. A painter with a sense of humor was changing one word of the Amalgamated Coal Terminal sign on top of the tipple to read
AMALGAMATED COAL MINERS
* * *
The downtown union hall was deserted but for an elderly functionary left in charge. He had not seen Mary Higgins nor had he heard anything about her.
Bell found Mike and Terry in the back, sitting around a cookstove, drinking coffee.
“I’ll give you a choice, boys. Now that Jim Higgins is holed up in Amalgamated, you can go back to Chicago as Protective Services, agents or you can work for my squad.”
“Is it O.K. with Mr. Hancock and Mr. Van Dorn?”
“I’ll clear it with them,” said Bell. He would pay them out of his own pocket if he had to. He could use the manpower.
“What do you want us to do?”
“Find out where that big black boat went. I have a feeling you should start looking at McKeesport. But wherever it went, I want to know who they are and where they are going next because I do not believe that thing arrived here by coincidence.”
Bell waited for them to put down their coffee cups and stand up. But they just sat there. “Is something the matter, gents?”
“Not really, Isaac.”
“Then get going.”
“Sure.” They exchanged heavy looks and portentous headshakes. “There’s just one thing.”
“What?”
“We heard you asking about Miss Mary.”
“Have you seen her?”
“Yes. That is, well…”
“When? Where?”
“Saloons. By the river.”
“Who was she with?”
“Talking with a whole bunch of fellows.”
“If you see her again, follow her. Meantime, find that black boat. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Where you headed?”
“Cincinnati. If you need me for any emergency, wire me care of R. Kenneth Bloom, Jr., Reading Railroad. His train has a grasshopper key.”
“How do you happen to know a fellow with his own train, Isaac?”
“We ran away to the circus together.”
* * *
