“Put them on,” ordered Harry.
In a few minutes, the two men were garbed as typical roughnecks. The clothes completely changed their appearance. It would have been difficult to identify them.
Harry placed their discarded garments in the suitcase. He pocketed one envelope and gave the other to Clyde Burke.
“A couple of tough guys from Chicago,” declared Harry, with a broad grin. “Artie Feldmann and Harry Boutonne. We’re looking for Gunner Macklin and his gang of gorillas. These letters”—Harry tapped his envelope—”are introductions from a big shot in Chicago.”
CHAPTER X. PALERMO PLANS
THAT night, Doctor Palermo received a visitor in his apartment. The two men sat in the living room on the fortieth floor. The guest was a tall, powerful fellow. His face, from a short distance, seemed handsome. Closer view showed that it bore expressions of both brutality and cunning.
“So you missed your man again,” Doctor Palermo was saying. There was a subtle sarcasm in his voice.
“Yeah, we missed him,” replied the visitor. “Bugs Lakey went out to get him. Had a bead on him from an office across the way. But the guy wouldn’t open the window, and he couldn’t chance it through the glass, on account of the noise it would make.
“So Bugs laid for him in his office. He woulda got him there, but some other guy waded in and knocked Bugs cold.”
“Very unfortunate,” commented Palermo. His voice carried a tone of sarcasm and disgust.