The clerk went to the show case behind the counter to obtain the cigarettes required. When he turned around, he was surprised to see that the man had left. There was no one else in the store at the time.
The clerk decided that his customer had walked out. So he forgot all about the matter.
Had the clerk been watching the customer, he would have been surprised by the man’s actions. For the stranger had not left the store.
The moment that the clerk had turned, he had moved noiselessly to the back of the store and had slipped through the door to the stairway.
Once behind the door, the man strode rapidly up the stairs. Yet he moved with catlike stealth. He paused outside the half-opened door of the room where Georgie Sommers and Steve Cronin were conversing. The cigar-store owner was giving instructions to the gangster.
“Walk across the hall, Steve,” he was saying, “and go down the back stairs. You’ll find a door leading out on the alley. Come in the same way. It has a trick lock. Pull out the knob before you turn it.”
“All right, Georgie,” replied Cronin.
“You’ll find me here when you get back,” added Sommers. “Don’t lose any time. The sooner you’re here, the better.”
The gangster did not reply. He apparently decided that the sooner he started the better it would be. He opened the door of the room, and as he did so, the man in the hallway merged suddenly with the shadowy wall.
The door opened outward. There was a small space in back of it, and the man was lost in that narrow hiding place.