But it was not necessary for him to follow within sight of them. He had a pretty good idea where they were heading for. He waited for them to round the corner and immediately he ran after them. He peeked around the corner and saw them stop in front of a house at about the middle of the street. They stopped and looked all around them. The next moment they were gone.
Paul flushed with excitement. He had discovered their secret means of approach to the house. Now all he had to do was to thread together all the details of the mystery, put together the puzzle into a single whole, and choose a time when they would most probably be in the cellar for the police to descend upon them. Paul already foresaw the moment when the gang would be captured and locked away where they belonged.
He decided to walk down the street, get a glimpse of the house and then join his friends. What he saw put him in a jovial mood, as he walked back to the corner with every intention of joining Jack and Ken. But he did not have quite enough foresight. He had seen the group of four break up into two pairs; he should have taken into consideration the missing pair. Might it not be possible that these two had headed for the same destination by a longer route. At any rate, his not considering that angle proved disastrous for him.
Very innocently he rounded the corner and suddenly found himself facing the protruding, round stomach of the man he had seen as one of the trio. Looking up into the man’s brutal face, Paul felt himself becoming confused. In the meanwhile, he noticed the second man take his place directly behind him. “What are you doing around here?” the fat man demanded in a gruff, husky voice. “Don’t you know it is dangerous to be roaming around at this time of night?”
Paul hesitated, trying hard to keep his voice from shaking. He said, “I just took a walk, that’s all. I live only a couple of blocks from here.”
“So you were just taking a walk, eh? Well, then what were you spying around for, huh?”
Paul felt himself become tense. He wondered if they would attack him. He answered, “I wasn’t spying, Mister. I was just walking.”
“Then why did you look goggle eyed at every house as you passed down the street?”
“Just looking as I was walking.”
The man squared his jaw and gritted his teeth. “Some day,” he hissed, “you’ll go blind for seeing things you ain’t supposed to. Who are you?”