oking again, and was just in time to see a
curious sight. The druggist was bending over the counter, pouring some
liquid into a glass vessel. His face was directly under a hanging
bulb, and Aubrey was amazed at the transformation. The apparently
genial apothecary of cigar stand and soda fountain was gone. He saw
instead a heavy, cruel, jowlish face, with eyelids hooded down over the
eyes, and a square thrusting chin buttressed on a mass of jaw and
suetty cheek that glistened with an oily shimmer. The jaw quivered a
little as though with some intense suppressed emotion. The man was
completely absorbed in his task. The thick lower lip lapped upward
over the mouth. On the cheekbone was a deep red scar. Aubrey felt a
pang of fascinated amazement at the gross energy and power of that
abominable relentless mask.

"So this is the harmless old thing!" he thought.

Just then the bamboo curtain parted, and the woman whom he had seen
upstairs appeared. Forgetting his own situation, Aubrey still stared.
She wore a faded dressing gown and her hair was braided as though for
the night. She looked frightened, and must have spoken, for Aubrey saw
her lips move. The man remained bent over his counter until the last
drops of liquid had run out. His jaw tightened, he straightened
suddenly and took one step toward her, with outstretched hand
imperiously pointed. Aubrey could see his face plainly: it had a
savagery more than bestial. The woman's face, which had borne a timid,
pleading expression, appealed in vain against that fierce gesture. She
turned and vanished. Aubrey saw the druggist's pointing finger
tremble. Again he ducked out of sight. "That man's face would be
lonely in a crowd," he said to himself. "And I used to think the
movies exaggerated things. Say, he ought to play opposite Theda Bara."

He lay at full length in the paved alley and thought that a little
acquaintance with Weintraub would go a long way. Then the light in the
window above him went out, and he gathered himself together for quick
motion if necessary. Perhaps the man would come out to close the
cellar door----

The thought was in his mind when a light flashed on farther down the
passage, between him and the kitchen. It came from a small barred
window on the ground level. Evidently the druggist had gone down into
the cellar. Aubrey crawled silently along toward the yard. Reaching
the lit pane he lay against the wall and looked in.