He crawled down the fire escape to the fifth floor, but there. too, the tenants were still awake. Damn it. he thought, he hadn't waited long enough. He peered through the window. A bridge game was in progress "One spade," the lady in green, who was the dealer, said. Under the table Pete could see that she was tapping out some message on her partner's shoe. The information conveyed was apparently of great value, for when it came her partner's turn to bid he announced, s without a moment's hesitation.
"Tsk! tsk!" Pete clucked as he slid ioward the fourth floor; but before he had reached the landing a high-pitched feminine voice warned him that no success awaited him on that floor either.
"My dear!" the voice was shrilling, "I had a simply marvelous trip; simply marvelous! Paris! The Riviera! The Italian Alps! And in Antwerp I met the nicest man; and—guess what!—he asked me to bring some diamonds in for him—you know, smuggle them through the Customs. It was thrilling! I carried them in a little bag inside my dress, and 1 was simply scared stiff. And—you'd never guess in a million years!—when I delivered them io his office he gave me a check that Wy paid for the whole trip.
Of course I don't want to breathe it to a soul!"
"Naturally, my dear!" the second woman said. "I won't say ord.
And—er—would you give me the man's address? Perhaps he'd like me to bring something in for him on my next trip abroad."
"Can you imagine!" Pete said to himself as he slid farther down the fire escape to the third-floor landing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.