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[284] <h2>CHAPTER XXIV. WHAT NICK OVERHEARD.</h2> As the detectives started up the stairs, which were not lighted, a woman’s voice came from above. “Who is there?” she asked. Chick crowded past his chief before he replied: “Waiter.” “What is going on down there?” was the next question. “There’s a gang of toughs making for the wine rooms.” There was a short silence, during which the detectives crept noiselessly up the stairs. In a moment Nick could feel the woman’s skirt by reaching over Chick’s shoulders. The gang was not yet in the hall connecting with the private stairs. “Send Jim up to my room,” said the woman presently. “All right.” The woman was heard moving away, and the detectives followed her. [285] She passed down a narrow hall running toward an annex in the rear of the building. Presently she opened a door, and the passage was flooded with light. The electrics in the annex had not been switched off. The woman uttered a cry of alarm when she saw two men were following her, one in the uniform of a waiter and the other a stranger. “What are you doing here?” she demanded. “Go back and send Jim up. Who is that with you?” “Friend,” replied Chick. “Business man, and I brought him up so he wouldn’t get pinched. Put him away somewhere.” Chick made a sly motion toward his pocket. The woman understood. Many a man had been robbed in that place. “I see,” replied the woman. “Bring him in here.” She stepped into the room and motioned for the detectives to follow. Nick now appeared to be very much intoxicated, and Chick helped him along. The woman pointed to a small room at the side. [286] “Take him in there,” she said, “then go and call Jim.” Nick was thinking fast. His first impulse was to secure the woman against outcry and make for the front of the building. As Nick mused, studying out the problem, another woman’s voice was heard in the room he had first entered. The door between the two rooms was open, and he heard the newcomer saying: “This will end the business for the whole crowd. Idle police are out there with guns and night sticks. I guess the whole place will be pinched. They can’t get in here, however. Everything safe?” There was no reply that Nick could hear, but the woman was evidently warned that a stranger was in the next room, for she began speaking in whispers. Nick began to snore loudly. “Asleep,” whispered the woman. “Drunk,” said the other, “and he has a roll as big as a stovepipe.” Nick leaned back in his chair with his eyes shut, but he knew that the women were standing in the doorway looking him over. [287] “I wonder why Jim doesn’t come?” asked the woman who had admitted Nick to the room. “I sent a waiter after him.” “I presume he is busy,” was the reply. “There is a big fight on out there.” “What is it all about?” “Why, the gang believes that Hughart squealed to Carter, and caused the arrest of the big chief. They want him.” “But he didn’t.” “That’s true enough, but you can’t make the gang believe it.” Nick began to wait with impatience for the return of Chick. There was now no shooting in front, but a good deal of running around was heard, and doors were slamming, as if a general search or chase was on. Fretting over his enforced inactivity, Nick decided to try a new plan. With a loud snort he fell from his chair, and lay like a log on the floor. One of the women came to the doorway. “The drunken brute!” she cried. “We must throw him into the back room.” [288] Acting on this suggestion, the women seized Nick and dragged him over a doorsill, and left him. Then he heard a door close. Opening his eyes cautiously, he found himself in utter darkness. The room was undoubtedly an inside one, for no windows were in sight. He arose to his feet in order to get his bearings, if possible. As he did so, the room was flooded with light from electric globes far up on the wall, and a voice said: “You awoke suddenly.” It was the voice of one of the women who had been talking while he sat in the next room. Nick looked about. There was no one in sight. “Sit down in that chair in the middle of the room,” commanded the voice. “You will be shot if you try any of your games.” To say that Nick was disgusted with himself but feebly expresses his feelings. At the critical moment he had permitted a woman to outwit him! “I am not in the killing business myself,” said the woman, “but there will soon be a person here who has no scruples in getting rid of spies and murderers.” [289] Nick took the chair without a word. His hope was now in Chick. “You’re after Hughart, are you?” she asked. “You know what we want,” replied Nick. “Why not make it an even thing for both sides?” “Oh, you want to compromise, do you?” sneered the woman. “That bum waiter you sneaked in here got his a moment ago. And the rest of your crowd has just been taken away by the police.” The detective did not believe this. There was still too much excitement at the front of the building. Presently the noise grew louder, seeming to come from the room in which Chick had left him. Then the lights were shut off, and again he was in darkness. He heard the sounds of a struggle, but had no means of knowing whether it was the police or the syndicate gang. Then came a shout: “Kick in the doors, boys. He is here somewhere.” This was followed by heavy blows, and a door[290] fell with a crash. Then another, and in a second the door to the room where he sat was attacked. He sprang to a corner of the room and waited, his revolver ready at his hand. When the door fell, three men bounded into the room. They were not policemen, but members of the syndicate. One of the men advanced toward Nick. “Here he is,” he shouted. “Now, hurry up. It’s a fight to get out, I suppose.” <hr class="chap" /></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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