Bill, mystified that such places still existed in the Great Metropolis, dogged Tom's footsteps, always careful to keep well out of sight.
He saw Tom pass through these iron gates. A moment later Bill had followed Tom through, though now he had to be far more careful, for every flagstone seemed to give up a hollow bellow.
Tom walked up an iron staircase clinging to a decaying bulk of a dirt-gray stone ramshackle building. He climbed one flight and then disappeared from view.
Bill, very carefully--every nerve alert--followed. A moment later he stepped into a long, dim, lofty corridor, walled with marble of a greenish tint, and smelling faintly of dry-rot.
Picking his steps with the greatest caution, Bill felt his way forward. Somewhere in front of him he saw the shadowy form of Tom.
Bill saw Tom pause before a door, which he opened very slowly. A faint light came from within. A moment later Tom had disappeared from view.
"I wish Jack were here," said Bill to himself.
Jack, it was, who had won the approval of Jacob Jukes, head of the great shipping combine, and father of Tom, for his masterly handling of many difficult situations.
Under the circumstances, Bill did not flinch in his determination to learn _what was going on behind that door_!
Bill put his ear to the door--and at once heard a faint _tick-tick_, as well as a muffled voice. Slowly Bill felt the door for the knob and to his surprise he found there was none!
"Entrance by signal only!" instantly decided Bill.
His eyes were now more accustomed to the gloom. He looked about him, hoping to find a window or some outlet that might lead to the barred room.
Farther down the corridor, to his right, he saw a stairway--or what appeared to be a stairway. He walked toward it, always bearing in mind to be extremely careful.
He climbed up one flight without mishap. On this floor, the feeling of desertion and forlorn desolation grew deeper. Bill could barely suppress a shiver.
Suddenly a rat scampered across the floor.
"Phew!" ejaculated Bill, "this is _some_ place!"
He noticed a thin ray of daylight a short distance from him. Bill at once decided to discover its origin. A moment later he saw that the light flowed from the cracks of a door.