"I was looking that way and I didn't see anything," murmured Billy
Waldon rather incredulously.
"I'd bank on Frank," returned Bart. "He has the best eyes of any of us. They're regular telescopes."
"There goes another!" exclaimed Frank tensely. "There's something doing there, sure as guns!"
"I know that alley," said Tom Bradford. "I've often looked into it when I passed it on my beat. But it's a blind alley and doesn't lead to any thing. It ends at a brick wall."
"All the better chance to bag them," replied Frank. "We'll wait just a minute longer to see If any one else goes in, and then we'll go down and nip the whole bunch. It's against regulations for them to be on the streets at this hour, and you can bet they're up to no good."
"I only hope the fellow's among them that fired that shot," murmured Tom vengefully.
They waited a moment or two longer, but Frank Sheldon's eyes detected no other skulking figure and he gave the word to move.
"Have your clubs and pistols ready, but don't use the guns unless you have to," he ordered, for when the Army Boys were together the leadership by common consent devolved on Frank. "I guess the clubs will do the business if it comes to any resistance on their part."
"Fists would be enough," muttered Tom, as with the others he prepared to follow their leader.
Like so many ghosts they drifted out of the hallway, and, moving in the shadow of the houses, though in the rain and darkness that seemed almost unnecessary, they stealthily approached the entrance to the alley.