He darted on with the last, quickly reaching the spot where he last had seen her.
The woman had vanished as if the earth had swallowed her.
Chick gazed sharply around and discovered the black entrance of an alley between two gloomy buildings.
“Hang it, she could not have gone in there,” he said to himself, irritated by the threatening mishap. “She did not go as far as that, as well as I could tell. It may be all off, by thunder, unless I can trace her. I wish, now, that I had arrested both her and that yellow-haired girl. It now looks bad, for fair.”
Chick was looking in vain all the while for the vanished woman.
It did not appear that she could have entered either of the buildings near which he last had seen her. Both were shrouded in darkness.
The only refuge to which she could have resorted appeared to be the alley mentioned, and Chick felt reasonably sure that she had not gone as far as that.
He now turned in that direction, nevertheless, and crept into the gloomy hole. It was so dark he scarce could see his hand before his face. He reached into his pocket to get his searchlight.
As he did so, he stumbled against something lying on the ground.
He stooped and felt of it with his hand, suppressing a cry of surprise.