Evening star., 1936-04-26
THIS WEEK
The Spiders S Touch
Continued from poge six
THIS WEEK
Continued from pose six


tered windows giving on the street.
The air was dank and evil-smelling:
out of the inky blackness beyond the
range of their flashlights. the squeak
and scamper of rats came to their ears.
There's nothing here. said Dallas.
Keep your ears open - I'm going
upstairs
The narrow flight ledstralght up to
a bedroom under the caves, so tiny
that Dallas's flashlight revealed the
details in single sweep - camp
bed with table beside it, wash
bowl stand, a row OF empty hooks
against the wall The bed had not
been slept in, but there was a de-
preston on the pillow as though scme
one had rested there.
He was poking about the room when
his ear caught sound from below, a
single, dull crash. followed by silence.
Two stealthy strides brought him to
the staircase. Wolf was lanky
shadow at the foot, facing the closed
door leading to the cafe. Dallas tip
toed carefully down the steps to join
Wolf For a moment all was still,
then a rim of light showed under the
door and in the deathly hush both
men heard the rhythmic tap of
stick, the clump of limping foot.
Dallas breathed single word.
"Clubfoot! Silently pointing back
ward. he began to tiptoe along the
passage to the dance-room. There they
crept into one of the curtalned
recesses and waited.
The door gaped. In the cafe. out of
their range of vision, steady light
now burned; in its dispersed glow,
Dallas and his companion saw that a
man of huge proportions stood there.
He was enveloped in some dark. volu-
minous ulster and carried his hat: the
massive head, set on the bull neck
and shorn to the scalp, showed a tri-
angle of bristles, iron-gray and wiry,
that glistened in the dim radiance.
For breathless moment the figure
fingered. shaven poll cooked at a
watchful angle; then it slowly veered
about and, with tapping stick, hobbled
laboriously back into the cafe. The
misshapen boot encasing the right
foot was plainly visible; its hollow
thump echoed through the silence
after he was out OF sight.
The thump ceased and deep and
cultural voice, speaking German,
rolled along the passage.
err, how the cold strikes home!
You haven't brought me here on a
FOOLS errand, have you, you dog?"
In servile tone another voice re-
piled. Il obeyed the Herr Doktor to
the letter. was over at the dance-hall
within little quarter of an hour of
Irma's calling you, and | never lost
sight of him all the way back to the
Astoria.
Dallas groped for VOLTS hand and
gripped it tensely II was close be-
hind him." the voice went on, I'm the
shadow of the newspaper kiosk when
he joined his friend at the corner of
the Jungfernstieg and l heard him
asking the taxi-driver if he knew the
Lotsen-kai. | came across to you at
the Wein-Stube at once.
And let their cab get away,
sdpristi!'
1--WE weren't five minutes behind
them. We're here first, that's allv'
How did he get on to the Cafe
Helga in the first placer"
A nervous laugh. Il don't have to
tell the Herr Doktor - the American
secret service is very efficient"
Back in the stuffy darkness of their
recess, Wolf was aware that the figure
at his side had gone suddenly rigid.
How do you know they're not here
already?" the harsh voice doomed.
'As the Herr DoktO1 saw, the door
was locked; the windows are fast
too.
'There's back door, isn't there,