“Cholly,” she began, “there’s queer things going on.”
“Velly queer, Sadie,” agreed Cholly with a smile.
“Queerer things than you know, Cholly,” continued Sadie. “Something’s got to be done about it.”
In a few brief words she told him of her break with her brother and Shanty, and of their suspicions. Cholly listened attentively to all she had to say, but offered no word in reply. Mentally he was analyzing her words: silently he was analyzing the girl before him. China Cholly put his keen subtle perceptions to work on the problem of whether Sadie’s visit was on the level or merely one angle of some cunning plot to trap him.
Sadie went on, unaware of Cholly’s thoughts and suspicions. But the more she talked the more she convinced the Chinaman of her sincerity.
“And what you want from me, Sadie?” he asked at last.
“Listen, Cholly,” she replied. “Listen well. This is what I’ve figured out and I want you to help me. For your life and all your mob is at stake as well as Little Hymie’s and Shanty Hogan’s life.”
“Go on. I listen. I am all ears,” Cholly assured her.
“I figure it out that there are three rats,” said Sadie. “One in each mob. Get me? One in your mob, one in Hymie’s and one in Shanty’s. They’re playing a crooked game together. Why, I don’t know. But their game is to make trouble, see? Trouble between the three outfits. One spills the dirt on the other. Maybe what they’re trying to do is to have you and Shanty and Little Hymie kill each other off and then take over the works. I don’t know. Maybe. But it’s clear as hell they’re working against the gangs.”
A slow spreading smile of comprehension spread across Cholly’s face. He nodded approval.
“Now, I can’t get Hymie or Shanty to play with me,” continued Sadie, “so I’ve come to you. Just give me the tip-off, a name, that’s all I ask. You say nothing, Cholly. You know nothing and I know nothing. Okay?”
“Hokay,” smiled China Cholly. “You velly smart girl, Sadie. Maybe you better watch Solly Gold. He velly funny man.”
Sadie had gotten the office! So Solly Gold would be worth watching, eh? She was so impatient to be on the job that she utterly ignored all of Cholly’s courtesies and rose abruptly. With a light hand on her arm the Chinaman escorted her to the door.
“You let me know what you find out, eh, Sadie?” he said. “I work with you on this.”
“Okay, Cholly, thanks.”
“Hokay,” he sing-songed back to her.
Sadie wasn’t slow to follow the tip given her by China Cholly. For two days she literally lived on the trail of Solly Gold. He led her a merry chase from bar to speakeasy to gambling dump but not one suspicious thing did she see. She even pondered the revolting project of playing up to Solly Gold. A girl of Sadie’s calibre had lots of ways of making a sucker out of a guy. She vetoed the proposition, temporarily, however, deciding to save that line of attack for a last desperate endeavor.
By the end of the third day she was at her wits’ end. She even began to doubt China Cholly’s word. The situation, as far as she was concerned, demanded immediate action.
It was then she thought of Silent Joe’s place. Mentally she cursed herself fluently for not having thought of it before. She killed the early evening until eleven o’clock over a greasy pack of cards, dealing out endless games of solitaire. When at last she “beat the Chink” she took it as a good omen, slipped into a silk-lined leather jacket, jammed a white beret over one saucy ear and sallied forth.
She hailed a passing cab and gave the driver the Christopher Street address. Twenty minutes later she called him to a halt a block away from Silent Joe’s dump. She jammed her slim form close against the dark shadows that masked the dreary buildings that lined the shabby street and slowly began her approach on the dive.
Suddenly she flattened herself in a dark doorway as a car raced down the street and pulled up with screaming brakes before Joe’s place. Sadie was all alert. Her nerves tensed and her sharp eyes pierced the gloom ahead.
A man jumped out of the machine and sped speedily across the sidewalk to the basement entrance of Silent Joe’s. As the door opened for him she caught a fleeting glimpse of his silhouette in the doorway. She was not positive, but the man greatly resembled the squat, ugly Solly Gold.
Sadie was about to venture forth again when a second car pulled up to the curb ahead of her. She lost herself in the shadows again. This time she was sure the new arrival was a Chink.
Well, that accounted for two of the members of the conspiracy she had mentally pictured. She decided to wait to see if a third rat arrived, and she was not disappointed. Five minutes later a third car pulled up to Silent Joe’s dump and a third man stealthily entered the place.
Sadie considered her position. What was she to do? Follow the traitors in or pass on the word to Little Hymie and Shanty?
“To hell with those mugs,” she muttered to herself, “I’ll run this thing to the ground myself. Anyway, I don’t know anything definite yet.”
With her hands in her pockets she boldly swaggered on down the street past the hangout. A few feet beyond was a dark, narrow alley. On a hunch, Sadie dodged down it and carefully felt her way along by the wall of the house. A thin beam of light at the rear, shining out into the murky night, caught her attention. Swiftly she approached it and with a beating heart saw that it came from a window that gave onto Silent Joe’s dump.
Dropping on one knee she pressed her eye to one corner of the dirty glass and peered in. Directly opposite her at a corner table, sat three men. Her spirits soared and she could have sung for joy for her judgment had been vindicated. One of the three men was Solly Gold, another a Chink whom she recognized as a member of China Cholly’s mob. And the third was Lefty Dugan, a tin-horn rod belonging to Shanty’s outfit.
Sadie’s elation suddenly changed to bitter fury. These were the three gorillas responsible for all the trouble and bad blood among the three gangs!
These were the three mugs responsible for her break with Little Hymie and Shanty. Her fingers itched and constricted around the butt of the .32 automatic in her pocket.
First she had to hear what they were saying. She waited a moment until a boisterous gust of wind rattled the window, then she gently pried it up an inch. To the opening she pressed her ear. Voices came to her, faint and indistinct but she caught a word here and there and her inflamed imagination filled in the gaps. She had been right. Shanty had to listen in on that conversation!
She slipped out of the dark alley again and sped down the street. On the corner was a dingy, greasy all-night Coffee Pot. Sadie darted inside and locked herself in the telephone booth. Not having a nickel in her purse, she dropped a quarter into the slot and breathed a number into the mouth piece. A breathless pause and then a brusque voice answered at the other end.
“Hello. What you want?”
“Listen, guy,” said Sadie. “This is Sadie Zeiss. Put Shanty on.”
“He ain’t here!” came back the voice.
“Listen, bozo,” snarled Sadie. “Don’t hand me that line of manure. I know he’s there. Tell him it’s Sadie and I got to speak to him.”
“All right. Wait a minute. I’ll see if I can get him.”
A moment later Shanty’s irritated voice growled over the wire. Sadie cut his sarcastic profanity short with her hurried words.
“Listen, Shanty, I’m in the Coffee Pot on Christopher Street a block away from Silent Joe’s. There’s a little session going on down there that you got to listen in on. One of your men is there, one of Little Hymie’s and one of the Chink’s. If you want the low down on the double crossing business, now’s the time to get it.”