"And--" Jimmie Dale crouched suddenly low down, close against the wall.

The crunch of a footstep sounded from the end of the lane.

Some one had turned in from the cross street, some fifty yards away, and was heading evidently for the back entrance to Bristol Bob's.

Jimmie Dale edged noiselessly, cautiously back past the doorway, kept on, pressed close against the wall, and finally paused.

He had not been seen.