“What’s the address of the house?” Tom asked.
The old watchman thought for a moment. “I can’t rememberI think it’s Bond Street. But I can take you there. It’s on the outskirts of town to the south.”
“We’ll go there at once,” Tom decided.
When the two came out of the room, Bud and
THE WATCHMAN’S CONFESSION 161
Radnor were hidden in an alcove, but the shadowing arrangement continued as soon as they all left the hotel.
The watchman and Tom went directly to the neighborhood where the boardinghouse was located. At Bond Street they turned onto the quiet residential street.
Behind, Bud and Radnor kept a sharp lookout for signs of a trap. Bud was trailing in the shadows of trees and houses, while Radnor came up the block on the other side.
It was exceptionally dark and they had to depend on a few street lights, spaced at wide intervals, for illumination. Tom instinctively slowed down as he approached the house, which had a porch across the front. He listened carefully to judge when Bud and Rad would be in the best position to cover his entrance.
There was no sound except that of his friends’ footsteps. Then the stillness was broken by a high-pitched scream. It seemed to have come from the boardinghouse toward which they were heading!
“It sounded like a woman 1” Tom cried, then called, “Bud, you and Rad stay under cover till I signal you.”
Bud and Radnor darted for concealment into some bushes across the street.
They heard the front door of the boardinghouse slam shut and saw a porch light flash on.