Turning, Flash darted back to the entrance of the alley. The street was deserted both of cars and people. There was no sign of either a police officer or a watchman.
“If I take time to go for help those fellows may get away!” he reasoned. “This job is up to me!”
He returned to the rear of the warehouse. Quietly opening the door, he listened a moment and then stepped into the dark interior.
CHAPTER XVI
THE BASEMENT ROOM
From the direction of the basement, Flash could hear a scraping noise as if a large box were being dragged across the cement floor. A low murmur of voices likewise reached him, but he was too far away to distinguish what was being said.
Daringly, he tiptoed along the dark corridor until he came to a stairway. He groped his way cautiously down. A board creaked beneath his weight.
Flash paused, listening anxiously. In the stillness of the empty warehouse the sound had seemed to his over-sensitive ears as loud as an explosion. But when the low murmur of voices continued without interruption, he breathed freely again.
He reached the bottom of the steps. A dim light which cast weird shadows on the cement walls, led him toward the furnace room. Flash could hear the voices plainly now, and understand most of what was being said.
“How about the watchman, Al? Any danger he’ll walk in on us?”
The other man laughed carelessly.