The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-04-06
(Continued from Yesterday

thoughts, smiling & little seriously- surely she could disclose herself as the White Mon there again tonight if the actual necessity arose, for surely crooks. pokegetters. shillabers and Iags trough they were, and though the place teemed with the dregs of the und derworld, no one of them, even for the reward that might be offered, would inform against her to the po- Heel And yet-again the mental pen dulum swung the other way-she was not so confident of that as she would like to be. In a general way there could be no question but that she could count on the loyalty of those who lived there; but there were always those upon whom one could never count, those who were dead to all sense of loyalty, and alive only to selfish gain and interest-a hu- man trait that. all too unfortunately, was not confined tS those alone who lived in that shadowland outside the law. Her face. beneath the thick veil, relaxed a little. Well, she cer- tain1y did not intend to make 6 test case Of 1t and disclose herself as the White Mo1l if she could help it! She would enter the tenement unnoticed if she could. and make her way to Nicky Viner's two miserable rooms on the second floor as secretively as she could. And, knowing the place as she did, she was quite satisfied that, if she were careful enough and cautious enough, she could both enter and leave without being seen by any one except, Of course, Nicky Viner.
 She walked on quickly. Five min- utes, ten minutes passed; and now, in a narrow street. lighted mostly by the dull, yellow glow that seeped up from the sidewalk through basement entrances, queer and forbiddtng DOT tals to sinister interiors, or filtered through the dirty windows of unin- viting little shops that ran the gamut from Chinese laundries to oyster dens, ows of g. doorway, and studed a she halted. drawn back in the shadows of 8 doorway, and studied a tenement building that was just ahead of her. That was where old Nicky Viner lived. A smile of grim wh1m- sicality touched her lips. Not light showed in the place from top to bot tom. From its exterior 1t might have been uninhahited, even long deserted. But Go one who knew, it was quite the normal condition, quite what one would expect. Those who lived there confined their activities mostly to the night; and their exodus to their la'bors began when the labors Of the world at large ended-w1th the fall of dark ness.
 For a little while she watched the place, and kept giancing up and down the street: and then. seizing her op- Dortundty when for half a block or more the street was free of pedes- trians, she stole forward and reached the tenement door. It was half open, and she slipped inside into the hall.
 She stood here for a moment mo- tionless, listening, striving to accom- rnodate her eyes to the darkness, and 4nsttncttveIy her hand went to her pocket for the reassuring touch of her revolver. It was black back there in the hallway of Gypsy Nan's lodging; she had not thought that any greater degree of blaokness could exist; but St was olaoker here. Only the sense of touch promised to be of any avail. If one could have moved as noisely as c shadow moves, one could have passed another with in arm's-length unseen. And so she listened. listened tntentiy. And there was very little sound. Once she de- tected 6 footstep from the interior of some room as it moved across bare floor; once she heard a door creak somewhere upstatrs; and once, from some indeterminata direction. she thought she heard voices whis- per5ng together for a moment
 She moved suddenly then, abrupt ly. almost impulsively. but careful not to make the slightest noise. She dared not remain another instant in- active. It was what she had expect ed what she had counted upon as an ally, this darkness, but she was not one who laughed, even in daylight, a its psychology. It was beginning to attack her now; her imagination to magnify even the actual dangers that she knew to be around her. And she must fight 1t off before 1t got & hold upon here, and before panic voices out of the blackness be- gan to shriek and clamor in her ears, as she knew they would do with pitt fully little provocation. urging her to turn and flee incontlnently.
 The staircase, she remembered, was at her right; and feeling out before with her hands, she reached the stairs, and began to mount them. She went slowly, very slowly They were bare the stairs and unless one were extremely careful they would creak out through the silence with a noice that could be heard from top to bot tom of the tenement. But she was not making any noice; she dared not make any noise.
 Halfway up she halted and pressed her body close against the wall Was that som ebody coming? She held her breath in expectation. There wasn't sound now. but she could have
 
 The hallway above. or one the upper >-airs.
 She bit her lips in vexation. Panic noises. That's what they were, That. and the humping of her heart. Why was it that alarms and exaggerat- ed fancfes came and tried to unnerve her? What. after all, was there really to be afraid of? She had al- most clear two hours before she need even anticipate any actual dan ger here, and. if Nicky Niner were in, she would be away from the tene- ment again in another fiften minutes at the latest
 Rhoda Gray went on again, and gaining the landing halted once more And here she smiled at herself with the tolerant chiding she would ac- corded a child that was frightened