Then, returning
to the upper end of the shop close to the connecting door, which he
closed until it was just ajar, Jimmie Dale slipped a black silk mask
over his face, seated himself on a box of some sort that he found at
hand, and, save that his fingers mechanically tested the automatic in
his hand, remained motionless, his eyes fixed on the rear door across
the lighted room in which old Melinoff lay.
It was dark here and silent, except that from out across the courtyard
came faintly now and then the voices of the children at play in the
gutters, and except that a faint glow stole timidly out from the
slightly opened door only to merge almost immediately with the
surrounding blackness. The tight lips had curved downward at the
corners of his mouth into a grim, merciless droop; and into the dark,
steady eyes there had come a smouldering fire. It was a brutal,
cowardly thing that had been done there in that room, and the Pippin
had finished his work and gone--but it was not at all unlikely that the
Pippin would be back!
The sharp lines at the corners of Jimmie Dale's mouth grew a little more
pronounced. Nor should the Pippin be long in returning! A man could not
very well lose a cuff link and be unaware of that fact for any extended
length of time.
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