“No, I suppose you can’t,” said the young man, scratching his head doubtfully. “Suppose you’ll have to dump them in here until morning. You’ll have to come round then and check up on them.”
“That’s jake with me.”
The apprentice began clearing a space at the back of the shop. The carters tumbled off bags and boxes, to pile them in the cleared space. After this had been done the steel night doors were closed and the truck drove away.
“They drive as if the devil were after them,” thought Johnny.
Without quite knowing why, he lingered for a time back there in the deepening shadows and as he lingered he caught an unusual sound from one of the rooms above.
“That’s odd, sounds like something heavy being rolled over the floor; a piano, or—or maybe a safe. Wonder why anyone would be doing that this time of the day?”
As it had grown quite dark by this time, he moved around to the front.
From the moment the matter had been called to his attention, this building with its strange assortment of occupants had held a profound interest for Johnny. He suspected Knobs of holding an interest in the Novelty Company, in truth suspected that floor of being his hangout. He was more than interested in the diamond merchant’s place, too. Indeed, he felt that somehow there must be a connection between Knobs and the diamonds.
“Perhaps he means to steal them?” he told himself now as he lingered in the shadow of the building. “But then, there are the burglar alarms. How is he to get around them? Well, we’ll see.”
An eddy of air sweeping up the street showered him with dust and paper scraps.