“Due here! Will he sneak in this way, or enter from the front street? If he comes while I’m up here——”
Patsy caught his breath, scenting speedy trouble.
A key had been thrust into the lock, and almost instantly the gate was opened and hurriedly closed. A slender, black-clad figure had entered the alley, a thin-featured, keen-eyed man of about thirty, who quickly jerked the key from the lock.
Patsy had as quickly decided what he would do. He knew he could not leap down from his unsteady perch undetected and retreat farther into the alley. He took, therefore, his only chance to escape observation, knowing that he could not hold up the intruder without alarming his confederates. Firmly grasping the stone sill of the window, he drew up his legs and raised his feet from the top of the door, hoping the man would pass under him and enter without seeing him.
The ruse came near proving successful. Tim Hurst strode quickly to the storm door and flung it open, then fished out a key to the inner one. He had heard nothing alarming nor seen the crimped figure hanging close to the dark wall directly above him.
Just then, however, a bit of cement broke from the stone under Patsy’s rigid grasp, and it fell straight down upon Hurst’s head. He drew back as if electrified, looking up, and as quick as a flash he guessed the truth. On the instant, too, while he uttered a short, sharp whistle, he leaped up and seized Patsy’s legs, snarling fiercely:
“Come down here! Let go, blast you, or——”
Hurst was not given time to say more.
Patsy heard Graff and Shannon spring up and rush down a back stairway in response to the whistle, and he realized that only quick work could save him. He let go of the sill and dropped straight down upon Hurst’s head and shoulders, worming quickly around as he pitched over him, and trying to grapple him around his arms and waist.
The lithe and wiry rascal was alert, however, and as quick of motion as a cat. He also twisted around when Patsy fell, spreading his feet to steady himself, and then, with a lightninglike lurch toward the building, he brought Patsy’s head against the stone wall, a blow that nearly cracked his skull and dazed him so that he hardly knew what immediately followed.