It was not much--just enough to cause his other foot, poised tentatively in air, to come heavily down, and a loud and complaining creak echoed from the floor.
Jimmie Dale's jaws snapped like a steel trap.

From down the corridor came a sudden, excited exclamation in the little old lady's voice, and then her steps sounded running toward the store.

In the fraction of a second Jimmie Dale was at the front door.
"Clumsy, blundering fool!" he whispered fiercely to himself as he turned the key, opened the door noiselessly until it was just ajar, and turned the key in the lock again, leaving the bolt protruding out.

One step backward, and he was rapping on the counter with his knuckles.

"Isn't anybody here ?" he called out loudly.