“And of course if the waiters can go through there other people can, from the wine rooms to the saloon. My suggestion is, if you could get a man in there as one of the waiters, and have him watch, some revelations would come that would surprise you.”
“It might be done,” said Shepard, straightening up in his chair as the idea struck him; “though jest now I don’t know how we could work it to get a man in there.”
She laughed unpleasantly, and suggested, as if she did not mean it, that some night they might rap one of the waiters on the head, and then put a man in his place.
Nomad, who was sitting near the door, now made a sudden dive at it, breaking the conversation abruptly; then flung the door open and raced along the hall. They heard the click of his revolver as he cocked it, and his bawling command to some one to stop; and heard, likewise, the pattering of feet.
The incident brought up every one in the room. Buffalo Bill and Shepard jumped to the door; the baron tumbled out of his chair, dropping his pipe; and the woman stood up nervously.
Nomad soon returned, grunting and fuming.
“Waugh!” he breathed. “Thar was a critter out thar eavesdrappin’. I heard him breathin’, by the lower aidge o’ the door, as he listened, and jumped fer him; but he was too quick fer me. I might ’a’ shot him as he skedaddled, but I didn’t hardly want ter do et; an’ when I got ter the foot o’ the stairs, he was clean gone.”
“An eavesdropper!” the woman cried, shaken with the agitation of sudden fear.
“I guess we’ll have to loaf round out in the hall while we continue this talk,” the scout said to Nomad. “It’s a thing we ought to have done before.”
“Wonder who the skunk was?” puffed the sheriff.