Then, turning, he crept noiselessly down the stairs.
At the first landing he paused to rub his hands and mutter aloud:
“Five grand! Five thousand dollars. And so easy. So easy!”
As if the thing pleased him immensely, he paused at each landing to repeat this little ceremony, which in the darkness resembled an obeisance to some ancient god of evil.
The “Spy” belonged to the underworld. He was by nature a spy. Never in his whole life had he committed a crime, as we think of crimes. He had never snatched a purse, robbed a safe, nor held a man up on the street. Yet he had assisted in many such events, and always for pay. The “Spy” had but one god. That was money. He had but one talent; that was for spying. He never sold his services to the city or the State. All his life he had worked for evil doers. When a bank was to be robbed, the “Spy” looked into all such matters as burglar alarms, late working clerks and watchmen. It was the same with a payroll holdup. He smoothed the way. And always, as I have said, for pay.
The creatures of the underworld did not love him. They hated and despised him; yet, because of his art of spying, they used him. The officers of the law feared and hated him. Gladly would they have flung him into jail. But until now they had found no charge against him.
Now, as it would seem, he was embarked upon an enterprise of no inconsiderable importance. His fee was to be five thousand dollars. A tidy sum. A year’s pay for a bright and capable man. Yet, by the mere climbing of seven flights of stairs he considered it earned.
There are times when that which seems earned is not really earned at all. By labor and pain man earns his bread. In this case, as we shall see, the pain outweighed the labor.
CHAPTER XXVIII
TWO ANKLES AND A SCREAM
Joyce Mills waited long in her uncomfortable place beneath the long davenport in the secret chamber of Brother Krosky. Some very open-mouthed and big-eyed students from a near-by university were eager to hear a certain brother direct from Russia tell his philosophy of life, and he was quite as eager to talk. So the slim, muscular, nervous girl beneath the davenport eased her cramped muscles and steadied her jumpy nerves as best she could and patiently awaited events.