“Watch out!” the other counseled savagely. “Think where you are!”
On the instant the look in those steely eyes changed. The man became a smiling wolf.
“Hey there, boy!” he called to Jeanne.
But Jeanne, in her immaculate suit of black, gave but one frightened backward look, and then sped for the elevator.
Her heart was doing double time as she saw the elevator door silently close.
“Who could that man be?” she questioned herself breathlessly. “He can’t have been a detective. They do not stand on ceremony. He would be here by my side, with a hand on my arm. But if not a detective, what then?” She could form no answer.
In the meantime, the dark, slim man was saying to the stocky one:
“Can you beat it? You can’t! Thought he’d cut for good! My luck. But no! Here he is, going back.”
“What do you care?” the other grumbled. “They’ll take him, and that’s the end of it. Come on outside.” His eyes strayed to the corner. A deep-chested man whose coat bulged in a strange way was loitering there. “Air’s bad in here.”
They passed out into the night. And there we leave them. But not for long. Men such as these are found in curious places and at unheard-of hours.