Gangsters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction; Mystery fiction
Rhoda Gray's movements were a little unsteady as she stepped out on
the sidewalk. Gypsy Nan's accepted inebriety was not without its
compensation. It enabled her, as she swayed for a moment, to scrutinize
the street in all directions. Were any of Rough Rorke's men watching the
house? She did not know; she only knew that as far as she had been
able to discover, she had not been followed when she had gone out that
afternoon. Up the street, to her right, there were a few pedestrians; to
her left, as far as the corner, the block was clear. She turned in the
latter direction. She had noticed that afternoon that there was a lane
between Gypsy Nan's house and the corner; she gained this and slipped
into it unobserved.
And now, in the comparative darkness, she hurried her steps. Somewhere
here in the lane she would make the transformation from Gypsy Nan to the
White Moll complete; it required only some place in which she could with
safety leave the garments that she discarded, and--Yes, this would do! A
tumble-down old shed, its battered door half open, ample proof that the
place was in disuse, intersected the line of high board fence on her
right.
She stole inside. It was utterly dark, but she had no need for light.
It was a matter of perhaps three minutes; and then, the revolver
transferred to the pocket of her jacket, the stains removed from her
face by the aid of the damp cloth, her hands neatly gloved in black
kid, the skirt, boots, stockings, shawl, spectacles and wig of Gypsy Nan
carefully piled together and hidden in a hole under the rotting boards
of the floor, behind the door, she emerged as the White Moll, and went
on again.
But at the end of the lane, where it met a cross street, and the street
lamp flung out an ominous challenge, and, dim though it was, seemed to
glare with the brightness of daylight, she faltered for a moment and
drew back. She knew where Shluker's place was, because she knew, as few
knew it, every nook and cranny in the East Side, and it was a long way
to that old junk shop, almost over to the East River, and--and there
would be lights like this one here that barred her exit from the lane,
thousands of them, lights all the way, and--and out there they were
searching everywhere, pitilessly, for the White Moll.
And then, with her lips tightened, the straight little shoulders thrown
resolutely back, she slipped from the lane to the sidewalk, and, hugging
the shadows of the buildings, started forward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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