Slowly, stealthily, he crept down the dim alley, virtually invisible in the darkness. He stopped suddenly, thirty feet before he reached the doorway. He saw it now, across the alley — a huge, black blot on the sidewalk — a blot that seemed to sway.
Spotter remained motionless. His eyes sought the wall above the strange quivering shadow. Everything was dark along the wall; he would have sworn that there was no one in that spot.
No one moved along the alley. The place seemed absolutely deserted. Spotter, crouched behind a pile of boxes, did not betray his presence. He waited expectantly, afraid to move despite the fact that his sharp eyes had seen nothing.
Suddenly a human form seemed to emerge from the dark wall. The appearance was instantaneous, as though a curtain had been swept aside to reveal a living being. A man walked openly beneath the light — a man attired in rough clothing, who appeared to be a typical denizen of the underworld.
Spotter could see the man's face; it was a sullen, grimy face. He knew every one in gangland; yet he could not identify this person. The man who had appeared with such amazing suddenness entered the doorway where the Mexican had gone.
Spotter waited, again undecided. Then he rose slowly, and stood still. For a moment he began to turn, as though to leave the alley. Then, with an effort, he approached the doorway. It was the entrance to the basement den known as the Black Ship — a place with which Spotter was quite familiar.
"De bunch will know me," mumbled Spotter as he hesitated before the door. "Dey will all know me. An' if dat's De Shadow — well, he will know me, too."
He thrust his hands in his pockets. Some coins jingled. They were the change left from money he had spent — money which had been paid him in advance for the work he was expected to do to-night.
"I tipped de bunch off already," observed Spotter, as though reasoning with himself. "If I don't show up, maybe dey'll blow de works demselves. I ain't got nothin' to do but go ahead wid it. It means more dough comin' to me if it works."
He shrugged his shoulders.