The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-04-12
FRANK l.. PACKARD

pointment. She had counted a great deal on this Shluker here, and Shlu- ker was not proving the fount of in formation, far from 1t, that she had hoped he would.
 She tried again-even more per emptorily than before.
 '.Aw, open up!' she snapped. ''Wot's de use of bein' a cIamI Youse heard me. didn't youse? Where is he?"
 Shluker leaned abruptly forward. and looked at her in a suddenly per- turbed way.
 els there anything wrong?" he ask ed in a tense. lowered voice. What makes you so anxious to know"
 Rhoda Gray laughed shortly
 ''Nothin'." she answered coolly. '1 told youse once, didn't I? I got a scare readip' dem papers-an' l ain't over it yet. Oats wot I want to know for. an youse seem afraid to open up!"
 ShIuker sank back again in his chair with a nair of relief. "Oh!" he calculated. Well. that's all right, then. You were beginning to give me a scare, too. I ain't play in the clam, and I dunno where he is; but I can tell you there's nothing to worry you any more about the rest of it. He was after the White Mou last night, and it didn't come or. They pulled one on him instead, and fastened him to the fire escape the way the papers said. Skeeny and the Cricket. who were in on the play with him, didn't have time to get him loose before the bulls got there. So Danglar told them to beat it, and he handed the cops the story that was in the papers. He got away with it, all right, and they let go him today; but he phoned Q little while ago that they were still stickin' around kind of close to him, and that I was to pass the word that the lid was to go 1 down tight for the next few days and-'
 Shluker stopped abruptly as the I telephone rang, and reached for the instrument.
 Rhoda Gray fumbled unnecessarily 1 with her shawl, as the other answered l the call. Failure! A curious bitter | ness came to her. Her plan then, for | tonight at least, was a failure. Shlu- ker did not know where Danglar was. | She was quite convinced Of that. | Shluker was- She glanced sudden | ly at the wizened little old man. From | risen sharply in protest about some- l thing. She listened now: l "... No, no; it does not matter | what it is! ...,. What? .... No! l tell you, no! Nothing! Not tonight! | Those are the orders.. No, ] | don't know! Nan is here now. Err. You'll pay for it, if you doi' Shluker was snarling threateningly now. ''What?.... We'll, then, wait! hn& won't be long! You wait! Under stand ?"
 He banged the receiver on the hook. and got up from his chair hur- 1 riedly.
 1 'sFools!" he muttered savagely
 "No, I won't be long gettin' there!' 1 He grabbed Rhoda Gray's arm. ''Y es and you come, too! You will helr me put a little sense into their heads if 1t is possible-eh? The fools!"
 The man was evidently excited. He half pulled Rhoda Gray down the
 length of the shop to the front door
 Puzzled, bewildered. a little uneasy she watched him lock the door, and
 then followed him across the court yard. while he continued to mutteI
 constantly to himself.
 'ewot's de matter" ?" she asked h1m
 twice.
 But it was not until they had
 reached the street. and Shluker wa:
 hurrying along as fast as he could
 walk. that he answered her.
 "Its the Pug and Pinkie Bonn"
 he jerked out angrily. '"They're ir
 the Plugs room. Pinkie went back
 there after telephonin'. They've
 noseJ out something they want to put
 through. The foolsi And after las
 night nearly havin' finished every
 thing! I told 'en-you heard me
 that everybody's to keep under cover
 now. But they think they've got 2
 soft thing, and they say they're goin
 to it. I've got to put crimp in 1t and you've go to help me. Y'under-
 stand Nan?"
 | "Yes," she said mechanically. Her mind was working swirtly. The
 night, after all, perhaps. was not tC be so much of a failure. To get into l intimate touch with all the member. of the clique was equally one of hel
 objects, and, falling Danglar himsel1
 tonight, here was an "open sesame to the retreat of two of the others
 She would never have a better
 chance, or one in which risk ant
 danger, under the chaperonage, as i were, of Shluker here, were. if not en tirely eliminated, at least reduced t. an apparently negligible minimum
 Yes; she would go. To refuse wa: to turn her back on her own proposed
 line of action. and on the decision
 which she had made herself ,I XII
 CROOKS VS. CROOKS It was not far. Shluker, hastenini 5 along, still Inuttering to himself, turn
 ed into 2 cross street some two block |