ht? Well, that
means only one thing to me."

They left Joey Loo's together and walked along the street. At almost any
corner Bat expected the burglar to leave him, but to his surprise this
did not happen; the man went with him back to the hotel. In the little
office with the sanded floor, Big Slim said:

"Well, see you to-morrow, maybe, bo."

Bat waved a hand and the cracksman disappeared through a door upon which
was painted the word "Private." Through his inspection of the hotel,
inside and out, during the day, Scanlon had gotten a fair idea of its
plan.

"That door," he told himself, "will take him to the rooms where I saw
him with Bohlmier and Nora last night. It might be just as well----"

At once he was at the desk and demanded his key of a thick-necked young
man who wore a narrow stand-up collar; in the course of a few minutes he
was in his room and had taken a station at one of the windows.

The flare of light came from below--from a single window this time--and
there sat Bohlmier in a round-backed chair, with Big Slim resting
against the table edge and swinging one leg. The burglar was explaining
something very carefully, and the old Swiss was listening, his face
upturned and the gas light gleaming on his heavily rimmed spectacles.

"Whatever it is," said Bat, "the old party agrees without a qualm." He
watched the two for a space and shook his head. "A badly joined team, as
far as looks go," he mused, "but if the feeling they give me counts for
anything, their work would be as smooth as the devil's own."

Old Bohlmier arose finally and went to an old chest that stood in one
corner. Throwing back the lid of this he took out, one by one, a number
of tools and laid them side by side on the table.

"A cracksman's outfit!" murmured Bat, a feeling of disappointment
running through him. "It's only Big Slim going out on a 'job,' after
all."

The lank burglar examined the appliances upon the table and nodded his
approval of them, after which he stowed them away in a small cloth bag.
Then he and Bohlmier prepared to go.

"Hello!" said the big athlete. "The Swiss is going, too!" His face lit
up with renewed interest. "It must be more than just a plain job of
burglary, after all."

Quietly he slipped from the room and locked the door; and then with a
careless air he left the hotel. Reaching the shadow of a building across
the way he stood and waited; in a few moments Big Slim and Bohlmier
emerged at the side