Nick sized up the situation instantly. Some of their conversation had been overheard, and this waiter had been set on to detain them while the man and woman got away. Either that, or assault, perhaps murder, was intended. It was clear that he had made progress during his talk with Mantelle.
Without replying to the impudent question of the waiter, Nick motioned him to step aside, and advanced toward the public room, which lay at the end of a wide hall upon which the private room opened. At the rear of the hall was a wide door opening on an alley. The waiter did not move. He still obstructed the way. Julius and the woman were passing through the outer room toward the street door.
“You had no right in there,” continued the waiter, angry at the way he was ignored, “and I have a notion to throw you out into the alley.”
“Mention of the Townsend murder appears to stir things up in this house,” said the detective, looking the waiter in the eye.
For a second the fellow looked dismayed, but only for a second. Other waiters were now gathering in the hall. The clerk advanced to the scene of trouble.
“We can’t have quarreling here,” he said. “You go back to your work,” he added, addressing the waiters, “and you,” to the detectives, “make your way out as quietly as possible. I told you not to go into that room.”
“At any rate,” thought Nick, “the clerk is not in with this play, whatever it is.”
“He can’t come in here and insult my customers,” said the waiter, ignoring the protests of the clerk. “I’ll pitch him into the alley.”
“The alley is probably half full of bullies,” thought Nick, “and I have no time for a battle now. The waiter is in touch with the syndicate.”
The waiter seized Nick by the shoulder and hurried him along toward the alley door, and Nick went without resistance. He wanted to see what there was in the alley.