But before the truck came into sight, the headlights were switched off, and the driver came in under the soft glow of the parking lamps. The truck was an ordinary-looking, box-body affair, a little shabby, dented, and in need of both a washing and a paint job. Faded, once-gold letters high up on its side read “O & O TRUCKING Co.” The forlorn appearance of the truck was belied by the soft, powerful sound of its well-tuned engine as it turned into the alley and was expertly backed up to the loading platform.
Two men silently leaped out of the cab and carefully closed the doors. Moving on rubber-soled shoes, they climbed onto the platform, unlocked the rear doors of the truck and swung them back. A third man, holding a rifle in his hand, stepped out of the truck.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “You get the stuff out, and I’ll keep watch.”
He jumped lightly down and stationed himself at the corner by the alley, his rifle held ready, while the other men unlocked the elevator doors and opened them.
They worked swiftly and quietly in the darkness, which was relieved only by a very dim work light mounted in the truck body. By its pale glow, Peggy and Amy saw only an anonymous series of boxes being transferred from the truck to the elevator. There was no way to tell what they held but, Peggy thought, it couldn’t have been anything legal—not if it had to be loaded secretly at night and under an armed guard.
Thinking of the armed guard, she suddenly shivered with fright as a new thought came to her. The boys! Randy and Mal! What if they should choose this moment to make their appearance? The man with the rifle stood motionless and poised for action. Peggy was sure he would not hesitate to shoot anyone who walked into that alley. Biting her lip and holding tightly to the steel support of the stair, she prayed that Randy’s engine would give him more trouble, or that they would run into heavy traffic or want to stop for dinner or ... or anything! Anything to keep them from coming here until the truckmen had finished their business and gone.
At least she was not kept long in suspense. The men were quick and efficient, and their cargo was not a very large one. In a very few minutes, the elevator was loaded and, with a smooth whir not at all like the Academy elevators, it ascended to the theater. It returned not long after, emptied of its crates, and the workmen shut off the mechanism, swung the doors closed, and clicked the lock on them.
The watchman with the rifle nodded his approval, climbed back into the rear of the truck and once more allowed himself to be locked in. Without a word, the truckmen took their places in the cab, soundlessly shut the doors, and the battered truck swung smoothly into the courtyard, backed up, and turned down the alley.
It seemed like the first time in ten minutes that Peggy had breathed.
“I was frightened to death that the boys would come!” she said.