“You’re right. He helped me look through the alley. But he was over in this part while I was hunting in the other direction.”
Suddenly the two men stopped, attentive to a sound that they heard.
“What’s that?”
* * *
Both men listened. They had heard the sound before. It seemed as though a faint laugh had reached their ears; but they could not tell the direction from which it came.
They hunted through the spaces by the alley, their flashlights searching every cranny. Time and again they uncovered black spots which turned out to be unoccupied shadows.
Then they gave up the search, and went to the street, fuming with chagrin. The policeman accompanied them, still feeling his aching jaw.
“He can’t be here,” said one of the agents.
“It seemed like we heard him,” replied the other. “But he must be gone. Got to give him credit for a clever getaway. Wonder who he was?”
They walked down the street. It never occurred to them to search on the other side, among a group of boxes and ash cans.