were found by the gangsters alone and unprotected in this region of warehouses, lumber yards, dark shadows and even darker-charactered human beings. It was a district in which even policemen patrolled in pairs, when one could find a policeman.
At length he was within fifty yards of the Callahan rendezvous itself. The place looked peaceful and deserted in the early morning sunlight. He approached cautiously, sliding along very near the high fence surrounding the lumber yard that was the Callahan crew's next-door neighbor. Arrived at the end of the fence's protecting shadow, he gave a swift look around and then scurried across the open space and, bending low, edged along the side of the Callahan shack. His objective was the small window toward the rear of the weather-beaten building that, he judged, looked out from the private "conference room" noticed by Speedy on his one previous visit to the "club house."
Reaching this vantage point in safety, Speedy cautiously lifted his head and gazed in one corner of the window. At first he could see nothing. The glass of the window was smeared with dirt. But as he continued to look, he soon made out the figures of two men seated inside. They were sprawled out on chairs on either side of a small, bare table. One was a sinister-looking thug who had boarded the car with Callahan preliminary to the tussle of the previous day, and the other was Puggy Callahan himself.
The two were smoking black cigars and talking. But, strain his ears as he might, Speedy could not
