"Suds!" said Jimmie Dale laconically.
Again Jimmie Dale's eyes made a circuit of the place, failed to identify
the person of one Kid Greer, and, giving up the attempt, rested
speculatively instead on Klanner's back. Yes, he could quite fully
understand why the Tocsin could not have warned Klanner to beware, for
instance, of Kid Greer. Such a warning, apart from keeping Hunchback Joe
from planting the evidence, would even have defeated its own end--for,
even to save Klanner, the game had to be played out as Hunchback Joe had
planned it. They meant to "get" Klanner, and if not here at Baldy
Jack's, then somewhere else. She _knew_ what they meant to do here--she
_might not_ know when, or how, or where they would make the attempt if
they had been forced to change their plans.
Jimmie Dale tossed a coin on the table, as the waiter set down a glass
of beer in front of him--and then, over the top of the glass, Jimmie
Dale resumed his scrutiny of the hall. Directly behind him was a back
entrance that opened on a lane at the rear of the building; and between
himself and the entrance was only one table, which was unoccupied.
Jimmie Dale, playing with his match box, as he lighted another
cigarette, dropped the box, stooped to pick it up--and drew his chair
unostentatiously nearer to Klanner.
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