“Yes,” Harry declared, “I’ll be here… At seven o’clock? Sure… Yes, I can wait until half past… Eat with you here?… All right, Bill… I want to get away shortly after eight o’clock… No, I can’t take in a show tonight… Sorry… I’m going out, I say… Out… Not before eight o’clock… All right… Between seven and seven thirty…”
Harry complained to the clerk about the bad connection; then asked for the key to his room. His parting admonition was that he would be in his room until some one called; after that, he could be found in the hotel dining room. Then Harry strode toward the elevators.
Dip Riker slipped from the lobby. His mind was settled now. No use to be seen around the Metrolite until eight o’clock. That gave him time for a run up to Frankie Gull’s place.
It was damp tonight. Dip decided that a swallow of bootleg liquor would be good for his constitution.
THREADING his way up Broadway, Dip employed his customary plan of baffling all followers. He stopped at a crossing, as though about to go to the other side of Broadway. But his eyes were secretly watching the cross street. He was getting ready to throw an obstacle in the way of any follower.
Just as the signal was given for traffic to cross Broadway, Dip darted over the side street. A surging mass of automobiles shot forward. Dip, hurrying up Broadway, was free from pursuit, for the hurtling traffic barred all followers.
Thirty yards on, Dip utilized another trick. He doubled into an arcade, and swung back to the very side street which he had crossed. He arrived there just as traffic ceased, and slipped back to the other side. Then he timed his course and crossed Broadway exactly as he had originally planned.
Up past the arcade which Dip Riker had entered, a husky, heavy-set man growled to himself. He had been following Dip Riker. He had been baffled by the foxy gangster.
Although he had lost the trail, this pursuer was evidently informed on Dip’s habits, for he lost no time in wending his way toward Frankie Gull’s.
When the husky chap entered the place, he found that his hunch was correct. Although he had lost the trail a short distance from the Metrolite, he had picked it up here.