"
"They seem to be waiting for someone," said Vincenzo. "I heard
somebody say: 'He will be here in a few minutes. Now get out.'"
The babel of voices seemed to calm down as men withdrew from the
room. Only one or two were left.
"One of them says the child is all right. She has been left in
the back yard," translated Luigi.
"What yard? Did he say?" asked Kennedy.
"No; they just speak of it as the 'yard,'" replied Luigi.
"Jameson, go outside in the store to the telephone booth and call
up headquarters. Ask them if the automobile is ready, with the
men in it."
I rang up, and after a moment the police central answered that
everything was right.
"Then tell central to hold the line clear--we mustn't lose a
moment. Jameson, you stay in the booth. Vincenzo, you pretend to
be working around your window, but not in such a way as to
attract attention, for they have men watching the street very
carefully. What is it, Luigi?"
"Gennaro is coming. I just heard one of them say, 'Here he
comes.'"
Even from the booth I could hear the dictograph repeating the
conversation in the dingy, little back room of Albano's, down the
street.
"He's ordering a bottle of red wine," murmured Luigi, dancing up
and down with excitement.
Vincenzo was so nervous that he knocked a bottle down in the
window, and I believe that my heartbeats were almost audible over
the telephone which I was holding, for the police operator called
me down for asking so many times if all was ready.
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