at him. Then, with a sudden
slithering motion, he slipped through the door.

He collided heavily with a small figure.

"I'm sorry," he stammered. "I'm in a bit of a hurry."

He turned and started away, but he had barely taken three strides when
he jerked to a stop. An expression of dazed amazement stole over his
face and his sleepy eyes opened wide.

Wheeling suddenly he stared back at the small figure he had collided
with. The man was still standing in the corridor that led from the bar,
regarding Reggie with a fixed, thoughtful expression.

And he was the same dark little man Reggie had left _inside_ the bar
room seconds before!

Reggie gulped audibly. His adam's apple bobbed in his throat like a
mouse in a sock.

_How had the dark little man gotten out of the bar ahead of him?_

Reggie didn't know and he had no inclination to wait and ask questions.
With one last incredulous look over his shoulder he wheeled and loped
across the lobby, down the marble steps, through the club's revolving
doors and into the street.

He walked swiftly, mopping his forehead with his handkerchief.

The experience had been an unnerving one. When he reached the end of the
block he hailed a cab and gave the driver the address of another bar.

As the cab rolled across the Loop Reggie settled back and gnawed
nervously at his finger nails. Thoughtful meditation and analysis were
not his strongest suits; in fact any thinking at all was an annoying
chore to him, but he felt now that he had better bend his brain to the
problem of the dark little man whom he'd seen at the club.

The chap was obviously interested in him, but why? There was no
reasonable answer to that question, and there was no explanation to the
way the little fellow had popped up _outside_ the bar, when Reggie had
seen him, a split-second before, _inside_ the bar.

* * * * *

Reggie was still stewing over these matters when the cab came to a stop
before a swanky glitter joint which catered to afternoon revellers and
jitterbugs of both sexes.

Inside the smoky, dimly lighted den of din and discord Reggie forgot his
troubles long enough to order a drink, his fifth of the afternoon. He
was conscious of a vague buzzing between his ears and there was a
pleasant mellow glow in the region of his solar plexus.

Had it not been for his disturbing experience at the Midland club, he
would have been feeling very, very fine.

When his drink