第31章

"Dear Philanthropic Crook," it began--and then followed two closely written pages.Jimmie Dale read them, his lips growing gradually tighter, a smouldering light creeping into his dark eyes, and once he emitted a short, low whistle of consternation--that was at the end, as he read the post-script that was heavily underscored: "Work quickly.They will raid to-night.Be careful.Look out for Kline, he is the sharpest man in the United States secret service."For a brief instant longer, Jimmie Dale stood under the street lamp, his mind in a lightning-quick way cataloguing every point in her letter, viewing every point from a myriad angles, constructing, devising, mapping out a plan to dove-tail into them--and then Jimmie Dale swung on a downtown bus.There was neither time nor occasion to go home now--that marvellous little kit of burglar's tools that peeped from their tiny pockets in that curious leather undervest, and that reposed now in the safe in his den, would be useless to him to-night; besides, in the breast pocket of his coat, neatly folded, was a black silk mask, and, relics of his role of Larry the Bat, an automatic revolver, an electric flashlight, a steel jimmy, and a bunch of skeleton keys, were distributed among the other pockets of his smart tweed suit.

Jimmie Dale changed from the bus to the subway, leaving behind him, strewn over many blocks, the tiny and minute fragments into which he had torn her letter; at Astor Place he left the subway, walked to Broadway, turned uptown for a block to Eighth Street, then along Eighth Street almost to Sixth Avenue--and stopped.

A rather shabby shop, a pitiful sort of a place, displaying in its window a heterogeneous conglomeration of cheap odds and ends, ink bottles, candy, pencils, cigarettes, pens, toys, writing pads, marbles, and a multitude of other small wares, confronted him.

Within, a little, old, sweet-faced, gray-haired woman stood behind the counter, pottering over the rearrangement of some articles on the shelves.

"My word!" said Jimmie Dale softly to himself."You wouldn't believe it, would you! And I've always wondered how these little stores managed to make both ends meet.Think of that old soul making fifteen or twenty thousand dollars from a layout like this--even if it has taken her a lifetime!"

Jimmie Dale had halted nonchalantly and unconcernedly by the curb, not too near the window, busied apparently in an effort to light a refractory cigarette; and then, about to enter the store, he gazed aimlessly across the street for a moment instead.A man came briskly around the corner from Sixth Avenue, opened the store door, and went in.

Jimmie Dale drew back a little, and turned his head again as the door closed--and a sudden, quick, alert, and startled look spread over his face.

The man who had entered bent over the counter and spoke to the old lady.She seemed to listen with a dawning terror creeping over her features, and then her hands went piteously to the thin hair behind her ears.The man motioned toward a door at the rear of the store.

She hesitated, then came out from behind the counter, and swayed a little as though her limbs would not support her weight.

Jimmie Dale's lips thinned.

"I'm afraid," he muttered slowly, "I'm afraid that I'm too late even now." And then, as she came to the door and turned the key on the inside: "Pray Heaven she doesn't turn the light out--or somebody might think I was trying to break in!"But in that respect Jimmie Dale's fears were groundless.She did not turn out either of the gas jets that lighted the little shop;instead, in a faltering, reluctant sort of manner, she led the way directly through the door in the rear, and the man followed her.

The shop was empty--and Jimmie Dale was standing against the door on the outside.His position was perfectly natural--a hundred passers-by would have noted nothing but a most commonplace occurrence--a man in the act of entering a store.And, if he appeared to fumble and have trouble with the latch, what of it! Jimmie Dale, however, was not fumbling--hidden by his back that was turned to the street, those wonderful fingers of his, in whose tips seemed embodied and concentrated every one of the human senses, were working quickly, surely, accurately, without so much as the wasted movement of a single muscle.

A faint tinkle--and the key within fell from the lock to the floor.

A faint click--and the bolt of the lock slipped back.Jimmie Dale restored the skeleton keys and a little steel instrument that accompanied them to his pocket--and quietly opened the door.He stepped inside, picked up the key from the floor, inserted it in the lock, closed the door behind him, and locked it again.

"To guard against interruption," observed Jimmie Dale, a little quizzically.

He was, perhaps, thirty seconds behind the others.He crossed the shop noiselessly, cautiously, and passed through the door at the rear.It opened into a short passage that, after a few feet, gave on a sort of corridor at right angles--and down this latter, facing him, at the end, the door of a lighted room was open, and he could see the figure of the man who had entered the shop, back turned, standing on the threshold.Voices, indistinct, came to him.

The corridor itself was dark; and Jimmie Dale, satisfied that he was fairly safe from observation, stole softly forward.He passed two doors on his left--and the curious arrangement of the building that had puzzled him for a moment became clear.The store made the front of an old tenement building, with apartments above, and the rear of the store was a sort of apartment, too--the old lady's living quarters.

Step by step, testing each one against a possible creaking of the floor, Jimmie Dale moved forward, keeping close up against one wall.