the whispering resumed. He caught fragments, such as: "Get him down
there." "Gaffney's." "I'll fix him, all right."

"Who, me?" said Bat, to himself, shifting uneasily from one foot to the
other. "Do they really know I'm the party who put them on the hospital
list? And are they framing it, right under my nose, to get even?"

He had heard of such things before--the fate of a victim planned in his
hearing and he never the wiser for it. But he hunched his great
shoulders and nodded his head. There were victims and victims. And if
they tried to lead him into anything he resolved to do his best to prove
to them that it was not a sheep they were handling.

"I'll make the proceedings much more interesting than last night's," he
promised himself. "There was no 'follow up' then. This time there'll be
plenty of it."

In a few moments more the burglar turned to Bat.

"Bohlmier wants us to go down and see a friend of ours," said he.
"After we get some feed, you know."

"Sure," said Bat, readily. "Anything to be sociable."

They nodded to the Swiss, who sat following them with inflamed eyes as
they left the room. Their journey through the dirty streets to Joey
Loo's was a silent one; and as they entered the high-smelling,
underground place and seated themselves, the silence was unbroken. One
of the detached fragments which Scanlon had caught, a few minutes
before, kept recurring to him.

"Gaffney's!" flashed and reflashed through his mind. He paid no
attention to it at first; but the mere repetition of the name finally
claimed his attention.

"Gaffney's!" He considered it thoughtfully as Big Slim talked to the
Chinaman who came to serve them. "Why, yes; didn't I hear that name
somewhere before? And not so long ago, unless I'm much mistaken."

He pondered; but where he had heard it refused to come back, and so he
dismissed it from his mind. He gave his order to the stolid,
greasy-looking Oriental; and then, looking about the place, said to his
companion:

"Funny looking crowd, eh?"

Big Slim allowed his eyes to flit about from one pale, hollow face to
another.

"There's enough to start a 'snow' party right here, if you had the
stuff," said he. "I could pick you out twenty customers without making a
mistake."

"It beats booze, that stuff," said Bat. "I've seen some tough examples
of how it worked."

"Great business," said Big Slim, a covetous glint in his eyes. "Big
money in it. I'd like to raise a nice stake and