At the foot of the staircase a man was working replacing a loosened tile in the passage; a huge man, clad in a smock and with a bushy black beard tucked in his neck out of the way. Nikky nodded to him, and went out. Like a cat Black Humbert was on his feet, and peering after him from the street door. It was he, then, the blond devil who, had fallen on them that night, and had fought as one who fights for the love of it! The concierge went back to the door of his room.
Herman Spier sat inside. He had fortified his position by that trip to the mountains, and now spent his days in Black Humbert’s dirty kitchen, or in errand-running. He was broiling a sausage on the end of a fork.
“Quick!” cried Black Humbert. “Along the street, with a black dog at his heels, goes one you will recognize. Follow him, and find out what you can.”
Herman Spier put the sausage in his pocket—he had paid for it himself, and meant to have it—and started out. It was late when he returned.
He gave Nikky’s name and position, where his lodgings were, or had been until now. He was about to remove to the Palace, having been made aide-de-camp to the Crown Prince.
“So!” said Black Humbert.
“It is also,” observed Herman Spier, eating his sausage, “this same one who led the police to Niburg’s room. I have the word of the woman who keeps the house.”
The concierge rose, and struck the table with his fist. “And now he comes here!” he said. “The boy upstairs was a blind. He has followed us.” He struck the sausage furiously out of Herman’s hand. “Tonight the police will come. And what then?”
“If you had taken my advice,” said the clerk, “you would have got rid of that fellow upstairs long ago.” He picked up the sausage and dusted it with his hand. “But I do not believe the police will come. The child was bitten. I saw them enter.”
Nevertheless, that night, while Herman Spier kept watch at the street door, the concierge labored in the little yard behind the house. He moved a rabbit hutch and, wedging his huge body behind it, loosened a board or two in the high wooden fence.