“Don’t be so fast, Reddy,” said one of the other crooks. “Wait till the others get here. The Doc himself is coming.”
“Don’t you believe it,” said Miller. “The Doc is going to lay mighty low for a while. Things are pretty warm for him.”
“Shut up, Reddy,” said the third crook, and they all relapsed into silence.
The bell rang again. Nick had learned to distinguish the alley bell from the other. This time he was summoned to the front of the house.
The person whom he ushered in was Chick.
“I’ve had a fearful time getting in,” said Chick. “Sixth Avenue seems to be plastered with Benton’s lookouts.
“I tried to get by the sentry, but he wanted a password. I said ‘Helstone,’ at a venture, and it didn’t go.
“My game was to pretend that I was too drunk to remember the password. Finally I went around to the alley where I met Patsy, who had learned the password from a crook whom he had let in.
“Of course I might have gone in that way, but I thought it best to pass the other sentry, convince him that I was all right, and thus quiet any suspicion which I might have aroused.”
In reply Nick rapidly sketched his own adventures.