Cinder Path Tales

208 CINDER-PATH TALES Dinny listenedat first with suspicion, after­ ward with a flash in his blue eyes as Paddy described his victory over Johnson, and finally with a slow smile, expanding into a grin, as the adventure in the lobby was described. When Paddy finished, the " arm-of-the- law " turnedwithout a word, letting Harry and Paddy go free again, tapped on the little window, through whose brown curtain enough lighthad streamed to make recogni­ tion possible, and waited in silence until there came a sound of moving bolts. He then pushed a door open,led us through a dark entry, and into a little back room, where was a long table,plenty ofchairs, and a kettle singing on the stove in the corner. I have a suspicion that itwas from this very same snug retreat that Dinnyemerged when the sound of the rattling nightclub disturbed him. I learned that the little room was the sanctum sanctorum of the widow Rafferty, whose bar-room in front was too public to suit the refined taste of Mr. Dennis Sullivan, and was also perhaps more exposed to the gaze of an inquisitive inspector. Dinny went to a corner cupboard, with the air of a man who knew the way, took from it a brown jug, and placed it carefully on the table witha half-dozen tumblers. He