“It might be a good idea to watch the room in the tenement,” said Chick. “There may be a reason why the woman should go back there.”
“If she does, it will be in the nighttime,” was the reply. “We will talk that over later. At this time we’ll see if we can locate this man Mantelle. No one appears to know much about the fellow.”
“He may be at the Cumberland,” said Chick.
Mantelle was not at his hotel when the detectives called there, and so they went to the Bowery café, whence Townsend had gone to his death.
“Now,” said Nick, as they approached the place, “if we find him and there are others present, you observe them while I am sizing up Mantelle. And I may accuse him of all sort of things, so be on your guard.”
The clerk informed Nick that Mantelle was at breakfast with a friend in a rear room.
“Are you certain he has company?” asked Nick. “You see, he had an appointment with me at this hour—an important appointment. It is possible that the other fellow is the man we both expected to meet here. What sort of a looking chap is he?”
“It is a woman,” said the man at the desk, “and he asked particularly that they should not be disturbed.”
“Oh, he’ll see me,” said Nick, with a swagger affected by precinct detectives.