Page:The Whisper on the Stair by Lyon Mearson (1924).djvu/258

 utterly ruining the lock. They opened it on the bed, pouring out the books thereon. They crowded close, bending over the books.

“Here it is,” announced Eddie triumphantly, producing the Bible, a small, compact book bound in the conventional black.

“Now I wonder⸺” he scratched his head contemplatively, laying his hat on the bed in order that the scratching process might be efficient. “I wonder what⸺”

The door of the adjoining room opened quietly, but not so quietly that they did not hear it. Both whirled on the instant, taken utterly by surprise. It had not occurred to either of them that Teck might have both rooms. It was so simple that they had just not thought of it.

Framed in the doorway were Horseface and Rat, automatic in hand, looking just as brutally dangerous, as efficient, as when Val had seen them last, in Teck’s rooms on the East Side of New York.

“If yuh’ll kindly stick up them dere fins a’ yourn,” suggested Horseface, “we won’t have ter perforate yuh. An’ be dam’ quick. Git me!”

The hands of Val and Eddie went up slowly. It was a trap, and a simple one—one that they had absolutely overlooked. Val knew that these men were to meet Teck down here, in Virginia, but he had, somehow, forgotten the fact. Evidently they had followed on the next train.

“Dishere looks like boiglary ter me,” suggested Rat, leering. “Breakin’ open er sootcase an’⸺”

“I’ll excuse you from the definition of burglary, Rat,” broke in Val. “Both you and Horseface, I’ll take it for granted, are well acquainted with exactly