Arising, he walked to the desk, and settled for what he had had. Then he pretended to be interested in a number of pictures hanging on the walls.
Gradually he drifted back toward the side room, and, watching his chance to see that he was not observed, he slipped into the apartment, and swiftly but silently made his way to the hall.
Here only a smoky lamp, hanging from the ceiling, lit up the place, leaving all in semi-darkness.
No one appeared to be in the hall, and, listening intently so as not to be caught napping, Bob ascended the stairs.
“I suppose if they found me here, and knew what I was after, it would go hard with me,” he thought. “Well, I am in this game to win, and I’ll prove to them yet that I am not a nobody.”
Arriving at the upper hall, Bob paused and peered around. All was dark save for a thin ray of light that shone from under the door to one of the middle rooms.
Approaching this door Bob listened for several minutes. At first he could hear nothing, but gradually there came to his ears the voices of four men in earnest conversation.
The four men appeared to be in a room beyond the one opening upon the hall. Should Bob enter the first room?
“I’ll go the length of the string,” he said, bravely. “It is the only way to capture them. I wonder if that Walter Anderson is still on guard?”
He tried the door, and, finding it unlocked, pushed it open.