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the big man must know that cowboy boots was not armed. But what will he do come after me or what?

Thinking about these possibilities Harry picked up the purse and keys, keeping a constant vigil on the escalator at all times. He left Harriet's wig where it had fallen. There was no point in waiting for the big man to make the first move he decided. To keep the initiative he would go and stalk the remaining toe. Pursuing that idea it seemed that the best plan was to go down again to the fourth floor and look for the big man. Perhaps there would be a way to trap him in the fur de- partment. Perhaps the big man had not heard the shot after all. He decided not to use the escalator. It was too chancy at this point. The big man might still come looking for cowboy boots and the last place he wanted to run into that giant was on a narrow escalator. He hurried to the back stairway. It opened on the fourth floor across from and slightly to the left of the fur department. The window on the exit door at the fourth floor stairwell would provide a vantage point from which he could see the entrance to the fur department without being seen. When he reached his destination there was nothing to be seen however across the way at the entrance to the fur department. It was difficult to see the doors clearly in the darkness but they appeared to be closed and no one was in sight. After some hesitation Harry opened the exit door cautiously and stepped quietly onto the fourth floor. He must be very careful now, There was no telling where the big man might be at the moment. Half crouching and with the pistol drawn in readiness Harry moved noiselessly in his stocking feet across the fourth floor toward the fur department. When he had moved less than twenty feet Harry's eye caught a flash of light to his left. He turned and stared at the main bank of elevators. Had he seen one of the tiny floor indicators go on? He had indeed seen a light on the side of one of the elevators. As he stared the white numerical one lit up, shown brightly for a second, flickered and went out. The big man must have boarded the elevator just prior to Harry's arrival on the fourth floor. Suddenly it struck Harry that the remaining burglar must be abandoning his friends as well as their project and was now trying to find the quickest way out of the building to make his escape. Perhaps he had gone to the first floor in the hope of letting himself out at the ground level. It would be easy to just let him go but Harry knew that the big man would not find a way out on the first floor because all of the exit doors locked from the inside and you could not unlock them without keys. If the burglar went to the basement he might find his way to the maintenance and security office and get out through the outside exit door to the office. The door there could be unlocked from the inside without a key. But the big man was not likely to find that office or the door unless he knew exactly where to look.

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