Crack!
A sharp report sounded from one end of the alley. It was Dip Riker’s signal. Immediately, another bark came from the opposite end. Flash Donegan had sent his warning.
Then the alley was bathed in tremendous light. From the cars in the streets, huge searchlights were trained upon the scene. A dozen men piled into the alleyway — six from each end. The police were making a mass attack.
They were firing low and along the walls, aiming for the center of the alley.
Had Flash Donegan trusted to a few henchmen armed with automatics, the odds would have been with the police. But actually, the crafty racketeer had laid a death trap for the forces of the law. Staring straight downward, Cliff saw it all.
Two rows of sanded bags had been stretched across the middle of the alley. Between those lines of defense were Lance Bolero and his men — with two machine guns, one trained in each direction!
It was to be a wipe-out, Flash had said. Lance Bolero was at one machine gun; Tony Caprona at the other. Gringo Butz was in reserve, with the ammunition. The police had seen the barricades, but they were charging onward, not knowing the menace that lay behind.
Lance and Gringo were coolly waiting, holding their fire until there could be no retreat for the minions of the law!
Cliff Marsland acted on the instant. Leaning from his window, he opened fire with both automatics — not on the police, as Flash Donegan had instructed him — but on those safely sheltered fiends of crime!
CLIFF aimed for the hands that were on the machine guns. A shout had just come from Lance Bolero — a brutal, snarling shout — that expressed the joy of the killer. But before Tony Caprona could respond — before Lance, himself, could start action with his machine gun — Cliff’s attack had been delivered.