"Are you sure of what you are doing?" asked the clerk.
"Yes, I am sure of it. I can prove beyond any doubt whatever that this fellow is a confidence man and a swindler. He swindled me out of a hundred dollars in New York, and he swindled several others out of the same amount. Just help me to lock him up and I'll get all the witnesses necessary."
"That's straight talk," came from a commercial traveler standing nearby. "If the boy can prove what he says this man ought to be arrested by all means."
"He can't prove a thing," answered Nick Smithers, but he began to grow hot and cold, for he realized that Nat meant business and was not to be overawed as easily as he had imagined.
"I'll call a cop!" piped in a newsboy who had drifted into the room. "I see one on de corner a minit ago," and away he ran to execute his errand.
"The police will have to settle this," said the hotel clerk. "If you are making a mistake it will cost you dear," he added, to Nat.
"I am making no mistake," answered our hero, firmly.
This reply set Nick Smithers to thinking. To try to bluff Nat was one thing; to prove his innocence at the police station might be quite another.
"I can't bother to go to the station—I've got to get a train for Boston!" he cried, and ran from the room with all of his speed.
"Stop him!" yelled Nat, and, began to give chase. "Stop him!"