“He doesn’t make correct replies,” was the answer.
“I do, too! He’s a fool!”
“Bring him up here and keep a strong hold on him,” commanded the chief of the diamond thieves.
“I’ll go up there, all right,” was the reply, “but if he touches me, I’ll knock his head off. I ought to know all about this den, if I have fuddled my head a bit with drink, and I have been with you longer than he has.”
Nick saw the chief step back to his desk and grasp a revolver.
“That is a counterfeit,” he said, looking toward Nick with a smile. “It is probably one of your men trying to break into the game. We’ll let him up and see what he looks like; then we’ll settle him for good.”
As the chief stepped back to the door, Nick gave a sharp call of warning, which he knew that Chick would understand. The chief turned angrily in his direction for just an instant. In that instant there was a quick, heavy blow below, and a fall. Then a cool breath of air from the street swept through the hall and up the stairs to the room where Nick lay.
The chief of the diamond thieves turned back into the room. There was a look of brutal rage on his face.
“You were right,” he said. “I presumed too much on the competence of our guards. You know too much to be allowed to leave this place alive.”