Page:The purple pennant (IA purplepennant00barb).pdf/87

Rh "I wouldn't want him to think we were snooping on him, Fudge."

"He won't know. We'll just track him to his lair but we won't let on we're after him. It's a good idea to know where to find him in case we want him. And we'd ought to find out whether there's more than one way for him to get in and out."

"I know there is. There's a front door and a back. The back door lets out into that little alley next to Cosgrove's store on Common Street."

"Cosgrove's? Ha!" Fudge stopped abruptly and tried to look as much like his favorite hero, "Young Sleuth," as possible. "That's it, then!"

"What's it?" asked Perry impatiently.

"It's Cosgrove's he's after. Don't you see?" Cosgrove's was the principal jewelry store in Clearfield. "That's why he rented a room in that block, Perry. All he's got to do is to go out the back way to the alley and there he is!"

"You're crazy," laughed Perry. "You don't know that the man's a—a criminal, do you?"

"Well, it looks mighty like it," asserted Fudge, shaking his head in a very satisfied way. "Everything points to it. We'll have a look at the alley first, I guess."

The entrance was only a half-block distant and Perry followed his enthusiastic friend up its nar-